Penny chuckled. ‘All you need is a huge hat. The hats are half the show, from what I've heard. Remember that year the Queen wore that bright yellow number? It was all over the telly.'
Cally's eyes widened. 'The Queen? Oh god, I hadn't even thought about that. What if I run into royalty?'
Penny chuckled. 'Don't you worry. Don’t they tend to keep to themselves? Unless...' she trailed off, eyeing Cally speculatively.
'Unless what?' Cally asked, panic creeping into her voice.
'Well, where exactly are you going? There are different enclosures. Some posher than others, I think. Some you can’t actually pay to get into. Invite-only.’
Cally wracked her brain, trying to remember what Logan had said. 'I think he mentioned something about the Royal Enclosure. Is that bad?'
Nancy and Penny exchanged looks of surprise. 'The Royal Enclosure?' Nancy repeated. 'Blimey, Cally. That's the crème de la crème.'
Penny nodded, looking impressed. 'Very exclusive.'
'Oh God. What have I got myself into? I don't know the first thing about horse racing or posh etiquette or anything!'
‘What are you going to wear?'
'I haven't the foggiest! My usual wardrobe isn't exactly races-ready.'
Nancy shook her head. 'I reckon just don't go too over the top. You don't want to end up looking like you've got a garden party on your head. Some of those hats, I swear, must weigh a tonne.'
‘Part of me thinks I might have to come up with an excuse. Maybe I should just tell Logan I can't go.'
'Don't you dare!' both Nancy and Penny exclaimed in unison.
‘Just be yourself, wear a gorgeous dress and a fabulous hat, and be done with it. Make the most of it’
'And if all else fails, just smile and nod a lot. Works wonders in posh company, I find.'
Cally gulped. She wasn’t sure if she wanted to find out.
7
Cally clicked the red button on the top left hand side of her new laptop’s screen, sighed, pushed back her chair, and rolled her head from left to right. She’d spent a long six-hour shift working as Alex, the chatbot responder and it had not been one of her better experiences. The day had been a big, long loop of the same old problems she’d been dealing with for years and years. Sometimes, she just wanted to put a rude response on the screen just to see how it would kick off. However, needing her wages at the end of the week always put paid to doing that. One day, though, she’d do it just for a laugh. How funny it would be to tell one of the customers that she didn’t give a hoot and couldn’t care less that their silk blouse had shrunk on a hand wash. She chuckled to herself at the thought.
Pushing her chair back, she went into the kitchen, poured a fair old helping of blackcurrant cordial into a glass mug, flicked the switch on the top of the kettle, and waited for it to boil. Once she had her cup of hot drink, she shuffled into the sitting room, moved her laptop from the desk, propped it up on a pile of books on the coffee table, and prepared to video chat with Eloise. She clicked Eloise’s number and waited for it to connect.
A few seconds later, Eloise’s face appeared on the screen. ‘Hiya. How are you? What's up?’
‘How do you know something is up?’
‘You wanted to video call. I alwaysknowthat’s serious.’ Eloise joked.
‘Sometimes I think you know me better than I know myself.’
‘Yup.’
‘So…’
‘Oh dear, oh dear. Do I need a gin for this? Intravenous vodka?’
‘I have this invite.’
‘To?’
‘The races and not just any old races.’
