The Marrying Game by Kate Saunders Read Free Book Online Page A

faded velvet bed, was a Victorian brooch of thick gold, set with large, dingy jewels.
    ‘Diamonds and sapphires,’ Edward said.
    ‘It’s lovely – but I couldn’t –’ Rufa stammered.
    ‘She would have wanted you to have it, as a matter of fact. You always were her favourite.’ He chuckled softly. ‘And she would have expected you to sell it. I’m told it’s worth a few bob.’
    ‘Oh, Edward –’ Rufa’s mind had flown straight back to the Marrying Game. The brooch might be worth enough to bankroll her assault on London, without her having to sell the car. Edward needn’t know how his gift had been invested, until he got the engraved wedding invitation.
    She sidestepped her guilt by telling herself that his mother would have supported her. She had liked old Mrs Reculver – a brisk, horsy lady, who had died five years before. Edward’s mother would have considered marrying money a positive duty for a well-born but impoverished gel. She had not shared her son’s Roundhead views of class and inheritance.
    She smiled at him. ‘Thank you.’
    Edward kissed her forehead. ‘Merry Christmas.’ He tweaked her nose, as he used to do when she was a small child. ‘And don’t you dare tell the others.’

    Before he left, with Roger, to drag the pond for Berry’s keys, Edward carried in his official Christmas gift to the family – a large box of assorted bottles. Rose yodelled with joy and gave him a stifling hug. After he had gone, however , she did remark that it was like being rewarded by God for self-denial.
    ‘He set unto them a test, and they failed it not – Yea, they bought not gin, and they were pleasant in his sight.’ She poured a handsome shot of Gordon’s into the nearest glass.
    Lydia and Selena had come down to the kitchen, lured by the sound of company and the smell of onions. Lydia was radiant, because Linnet was asleep and Ran’s latest girlfriend had left him. She organized more glasses, while Selena put her book down long enough to uncork a bottle of Barolo.
    The door opened. Very slowly and cautiously, Berry crept in. He was tall, with an ample stomach. His borrowed brown corduroys did not do up at the waist, and the gaping flies were only partly covered by a billowing pink jersey. His brown hair had dried into a hearth brush, and the seam of the trousers went right up his crack.
    They all collapsed in howls and screams of laughter. As Rufa said later, it might have been sticky, if Berry had not been such a good sport. After a moment of amazement, he grinned, and hitched up the trouser-legs, to heighten the comic effect.
    Suddenly, miraculously, it felt like a real Christmas. The kitchen was crowded with laughing people, as it had not been since the death of the Man. Berry had stopped being startled by this peculiar family. Now, he remembered only that they had lost their father – in horrible circumstances – and were about to lose their home. The girls were eye-poppingly gorgeous, but there was no self-interest in Berry’s longing to comfort them. He even decided that he felt fond of Ran.
    The soup, plentifully peppered and onioned by Rufa, made the room dim with its savoury steamings. Berry helped to lay the table with bowls and bread board, and his high spirits had quite a loaves-and-fishes effect on the quantities. He discovered none of the family liked dry sherry, and poured half Reculver’s bottle of Tio Pepe into the soup.
    Warmed by the alcohol, which they were hoovering up at an incredible rate, they began to sing carols. At some point, after they had seen off all the soup and two loaves of bread, a piece of paper appeared under the door to the stairs.
    ‘Oh God, it’s Linnet,’ Rose said. ‘We’ve woken her up, and now she’s dropping leaflets.’
    The note said: ‘WAT IS THAT OPORLING RAKET?’
    Lydia, dreamily sozzled, leaning against her ex-husband, sighed. ‘Mummy, couldn’t she –?’
    ‘Go on, then.’ Rose was full of gin-flavoured indulgence. ‘Go and