The bath in the downstairs bathroom would be filled with ice, and then with bottles of Veuve du Vernay. All this was paid for on their father’s entertainment account at the import–export company where he was managing director, and a lot of the guests would have to be dull Anglia World people to make this all right. But the Anglia World people didn’t stay that long, and when they’d gone the party atmosphere changed, it was taken over by their parents’ real friends, the ones they still had from university, or the ones their mother, Peggy, had met as a teacher and a painter. When they were little Tom and Kristen were allowed to stay up late and run around, although it wasn’t the sort of party where anyone else’s children were invited. The au pair was meant to put them to bed but often the au pair – Annegret then Sylvie then Bengta – would be partying too: Annegret drooping her head shyly, tipping the drink from side to side in her wine glass, being chatted up by some teacher from Mum’s school, Bengta dancing barefoot by herself, to Blondie or David Bowie or the Eurythmics.
