Read Online The Party Girl's Invitation by Karen Elaine Campbell - Free Book Online Page B

confines of her family home. Crystal felt somewhat world-weary and jaded, when she considered alternatives. The only time they’d really got together in the past had been in the summer holidays and then Jeremy and Mark had been around too, they’d invariably managed to get Lolly into trouble, over some mis-deed or other. Still, family loyalty and all, gran had asked her to help, so she supposed she would do her best to extract Lolly from the mire. On reflection, it would make a change, her bailing Lolly out of trouble, perhaps she owed her this much. Showing remarkable restraint, she refrained from asking how the champagne thieves were doing, and focussed on the positives.
    “So, we need to get the numbers from Aunt Vera then. How about the venue? At your place, dinner on the lawn and tent in the paddock?”
    “Yes, we’ve had a lot of rain these past few weeks and the grass is really rather long, it will need cutting before we can put a marquee up. Old Farmer Brown used to lend us his tractor to mow the pasture, but he passed away last winter and his son has sold up, farm equipment and everything. I don’t know who to ask now.”
    Crystal made more notes, ‘mow field’.
    “So, to recap then,” she added, as she reviewed the rapidly lengthening list. “We don’t have a marquee, the field is overgrown, there are no glasses ordered and we have mistakenly ordered twice as many flowers as we need. The caterers have not been informed of numbers and the printers haven’t typeset the menus yet. Have we actually got anything in place? What about the band? We do have a band, don’t we?”
    “I put the usual band on stand-by this year. The youngsters were asking for a disco last year, don’t you think that bands are a bit old and boring?”
    Crystal’s eyebrows hit her hairline. With effort she retained her composure. “That depends on your audience really, Lolly. The last ball I organised here had a guest list with an average age of sixty, our regulars like the traditional big band sound. We need to tailor the music to the audience, Lolly.”
    She sketched a hangman’s noose on the side of her writing pad, while she considered the options. “If we knew who had already bought tickets it might make it easier to decide what kind of entertainment to provide. One solution would be a disco later, when some of the ‘oldies’ have gone on to bed. It will increase costs though, and we’ve enough of those already.”She made a few more scribbles. “So it comes back to how many tickets have we sold and who is buying them really then, eh?”
    “Oh, I’m so glad gran called you in to help, we got into a right mess last year. You were out in America, so you wouldn’t have heard too much about it, but there were lots of complaints afterwards, it was most unpleasant. Mummy ended up writing letters about it for weeks. In the end we made our own donation to charity and picked up the bill. Daddy can’t afford to do that this year though, farming isn’t paying as well as it used to. I might even have to get a job, though heaven knows what I might do.”
    Or a rich husband, more likely, Crystal thought with uncharacteristic bluntness. Perhaps that was what was behind the sudden and dramatic change in appearance. “So, what do you do these days then, since you finished at Uni?” she asked.
    “I do charity work, mostly. I did white water rafting last year, and raised money for Ethiopia. It’s not paid work though.”
    Crystal thought hard for a moment. “You have a good knowledge of this area don’t you? Archaeological sites and stuff? Do you have any college contacts?”
    Lolly looked confused. “Ye-es, I suppose I do, those that haven’t moved on, that is. Everyone has such different lives these days. Most are married or out at work, someplace or other. Of course, I help out on the farm too, when it gets busy, but it’s not the same. I can think of a few names, why, what do you need?”
    “I’m not going back to