Page 17

Chapter 17

April 1911

‘I have decided,’ announced Ursula at breakfast on Saturday, the day before Ann’s birthday, ‘that I am not going to eat meat any more. It disagrees with me.’

‘No more bacon for Sunday breakfast?’ said Finlay immediately.

‘Or sausages?’

Ursula shook her head.

‘Not for me, but you can still have these things.’

‘Or haggis,’ he persisted, ‘or duck at Christmas?’ He was just warming up.

‘Or roast pork and apple—’

‘Finlay, stop ,’ demanded John.

‘There is no need for you to be concerned if your own food is unaffected.’

Ursula was surprised.

John had initially thought that changing what she was eating would be a short-term matter, and he hadn’t made a fuss about it, but recently he had said he wanted her to see a doctor.

Clearly her refusal to seek medical advice had now been accepted.

He continued. ‘Ursula has researched this, and has, indeed, acquired a new book on the subject. We have discussed it thoroughly and I agree that it is the best way forward.’

Ursula frowned.

‘You’ve seen the book?

’

‘Naturally. I am aware of everything that goes on in this house.’

This was absolutely not the case, and they both knew it.

Finlay sighed. ‘Vegetables and more vegetables.’

‘Enough!’ John was displeased.

‘What about birthday food?’ said Ann, in a small voice.

‘What about tomorrow?’

Ursula smiled.

‘There will of course be your favourite afternoon tea. Are you looking forward to being thirteen?’

‘I am. A bit, anyway.’

‘That doesn’t sound very excited to me.

’

‘My friends have all been given special gifts on their birthdays, but Finlay has been telling me for months that I will be getting a set of encyclopaedias.’

‘Has he really?’ Ursula stared hard at Finlay and then looked back at Ann.

‘Well, let me tell you, my dear, your brother doesn’t know very much about your birthday so I wouldn’t trust anything he says.

’ She took a piece of toast from the rack and put it on her plate.

‘Now, pass the marmalade please, I am hungry this morning.’

*

After the breakfast things were cleared, when Finlay was out with his friend Daniel, and Ann was curled up on her bed reading, Ursula and Isobel met in the kitchen to plan the meals for the week with the assistance of Dr Allinson’s yellow book.

Separately, they had studied it, and come to quite different conclusions.

Ursula turned the pages and peered at the small text.

‘He says sago should be added to every meal.’

‘I saw that. But I’m not sure how you add sago to a cake,’ said Isobel carefully.

‘Maybe we could start with the easy changes like vegetable pie fillings, and I could try making these lentil sausages as well. We can worry about the sago later.’

‘I confess I was dismayed to read that it should be in every single meal,’ admitted Ursula.

‘It’s not my favourite food at all.

’

Isobel picked up the book.

‘If you look at the menu for a week written by Mrs Allinson, I think you’ll find Dr Allinson and his wife don’t think the same thing.

’ She turned the pages.

‘See?’ She stopped her finger on the paper.

‘It’s here on page ninety-one.

’

‘Really? I don’t think I read that far,’ confessed Ursula.

‘I read that chapter before anything else. It appears to have been written by,’ she peered at the page, ‘Anna P. Allinson. And it gives her address too, look. 4 Spanish Place, Manchester Square, London.’

‘I suppose I could write to her, since she has kindly provided us with her details.’

‘I don’t know that you’ll have to do that.

She gives a week of meals but it’s really a week of three-course dinners.

’ Isobel looked up at Ursula triumphantly.

‘I’ve read every one of the twenty-one suggestions, and there’s only one that has any sago in it.

’

‘ One? ’

‘Just one.’ Isobel smiled.

‘It makes me wonder if the person who was giving the instructions was not the person carrying them out, if you see my meaning.’

‘Perhaps I can put the pound of sago I bought last month to the back of the pantry,’ said Ursula.

‘I’ve never liked the stuff.

’

Isobel sat down at the table without asking permission.

‘What would you like to eat next week, I mean after tomorrow’s birthday food?

’

‘I’m not sure. I think you’ve read this book more thoroughly than I have.

What would you suggest?

’

Isobel was ready for the question.

‘What we’ve been doing for the last few weeks was taken from the menu from the Café, but I think I can do better than that now.

’ She pulled a piece of paper from her pocket and read from it.

‘Lentil Rissoles, page twenty- four. You can have those instead of meatballs.’

Ursula turned the pages of the little book.

‘Right. What else?’

‘Onion Tart, page twenty-six. I can make two, and just put bacon in one of them.’

Ursula turned the page and nodded agreement.

‘Macaroni Cheese, page thirty-one.’ Isobel was just warming up.

‘Everyone will eat that. I might even be able to make a macaroni cheese pie; I’ve seen them in the bakers, although they don’t appear in this particular book.

But there are other pies, and I can make almost anything into a pie if I think hard enough about it.

’

Ursula smiled. ‘Mr Black does like his pies.’

‘I’ll make a different pie for another day, and I’ll make two, like the tarts, so one has meat in it and the other doesn’t.

Oh yes, and on the bottom of the page before the macaroni, there is a nut roast, just like the one you told me about.

I’ve never made such a thing, but I could do a small one for you to try, and if you like it then you could have that instead of whatever roast meat everyone else is having on a Sunday.

At least you won’t only be having potatoes and veg and Yorkshire pudding.

’

‘True. Trying to hide the fact that I haven’t eaten the meat on my plate, just to stop Finlay asking questions, has been rather tiresome.

’

Ursula counted up on her fingers.

‘That’s five things, if we include the nut roast.’

‘I found a curry too, it’s back on page twenty-four beside the rissoles.

’

‘A curry.’ Ursula leaned back a little in the kitchen chair.

‘Have the family ever had curry before?’

‘Not in my time. But it would be easy enough to make one for the family from the leftover roast, and you could have whatever vegetables you liked in yours. Carrots are nice and sweet, and perhaps some sultanas. And what about ham in a tomato sauce with rice, for them, just seasoned a little bit, and you could have a risotto instead?’

Ursula nodded and held out her hands with fingers outstretched.

‘Seven.’

‘Page twenty-one. Butter Beans with Parsley Sauce. That would work just as well with a couple of pieces of haddock for everyone else. And Miss Ann isn’t that keen on fish anyway so she might join you.

’

‘That’s eight meals now.

’ Ursula closed the book.

‘Goodness but this is difficult.’

‘I don’t think it is, not really.

And especially when you think how over-and-over again the meals have been for the last two years, and before that as well.

’

‘You think something new might be welcomed?’

‘It might be, as long as people aren’t set against it from the start.

’

‘You mean Finlay.’

Isobel smiled.

‘As long as Master Finlay has a nice pudding, he’ll be happy.

That’s the way to his heart.

’

‘I do hope so, because he’s not making life very easy for me at the moment.

’ Ursula realised that her private thoughts on the matter had slipped out into the room.

She hastened to change the subject.

‘Now, we need to make some preparations for the birthday girl’s big day tomorrow.

Ann has asked for drop scones in the morning, with syrup, which seems simple enough.

I’ve ordered a cake from the baker on Morningside Road and it will be delivered this afternoon to the scullery door so Miss Curious doesn’t see it arriving.

I know you’ll be out, so I’ll sit here in the kitchen and wait for it.

I assume there is enough space for me to hide it in the larder?

’

‘I could have made a cake.’

‘I know you could, but you would have spent your afternoon off doing it and that would not be fair.’ Ursula was determined that Isobel’s Saturday afternoon off should remain sacrosanct.

‘What about the food for tomorrow afternoon?’

‘I’ll do that in the morning.

I think you said there are three girls coming?

There will be the cake, of course, and I’ll make a big plate of cheddar cheese sandwiches with plenty of Marmite.

That’s her favourite.

She would lick the knife I use for the spreading if she got half a chance. ’