Fiona is about my age, with soft features and a maternal glow. I try to remember what Edward told me about her and Oliver. Fiona is a stay-at-home mum; her and Oliver have three sons, and a Portuguese water dog. Oliver took over Edward’s responsibilities in the family business alongside Matilda when Edward decided not to take them up.
Fiona rises and offers me an outstretched hand across the huge coffee table and I shake it thankfully. She gives me an encouraging look; she’s clearly run the gauntlet of meeting this family for the first time herself. She feels my pain.
‘Marty and Nancy are old family friends,’ Eleanor continues, pointing over to a cheerful-looking older couple seated near the window, a black dog asleep at their feet.
Nancy gives me a wry smile and raises her glass with Marty quickly following suit.
‘We’re not married,’ Nancy quips with a wink. ‘Just old. And the dog’s his.’
‘Then there’s Stuart there,’ Eleanor says, directing my gaze to the other side of the room, ‘my youngest son and his partner Lila.’ My gaze follows Eleanor’s and I flat-out stare. Beside Stuart – who appears to be a shorter, thinner and more irascible version of Edward – sits an incredibly familiar face. I recognize Stuart’s girlfriend from glossy magazine adverts, gossip columns, paparazzi pictures and a notable role in a new action franchise. Stuart’s girlfriend is Scandinavian model turned actress Lila Erikson.
She looks up from her phone at the mention of her name, her perfect mouth pulling into a friendly albeit slightly tight smile. ‘Hey-hey, Harry. So nice to meet you,’ she says with a Nordic accent heavier and deeper than expected. In her lap her phone screen begins flashing up a call. She groans. ‘I’m so sorry, everyone, it’s them again. I really have to take this. So embarrassing.’ She sighs in apology, shaking her loose blonde hair. ‘Sorry, Harry, it’s very rude. It’s so great to meet you. I just need to sort out this total fucking shit-show of a double booking. My asshole agent.’
‘Li, it’s fine, just –’ Stuart interjects, jumping on her expletives, ‘– take the call,’ he tells her. I watch as his nervous eyes flit quickly back between his girlfriend and his mother and then he catches me staring, surprised to have pulled my focus. He studies me quickly as Lila slips from the room then turns back to chug from his glass bottle of coke as her voice wafts back to us in Swedish from the hallway.
Mrs Holbeck gives me a contained smile. ‘Poor Lila, such long hours. What with work and little Milo and her charities, it’s a wonder she’s still standing.’ It’s unclear if this is a compliment or a sugar-coated criticism. ‘Well, it’s just nice to have the whole family together for once,’ she continues. ‘We all have such busy lives these days.’
As if on cue, another member of the Holbeck family ambles in through the dining room doorway, the family resemblance unmistakable. I’d put him in his mid-forties, so I’m momentarily thrown as to who he could be. Too old for a younger brother, too young for a father. Edward is meant to be the eldest at only thirty-eight. The new arrival is a bear of a man, bigger, and stockier, than Edward, with an imposing footballer’s physique.
‘There he is. Oliver,’ Mrs Holbeck coos. ‘Oliver, this is Edward’s Harriet.’
Edward’s Harriet. The words are loaded but again it’s hard to tell with what exactly.
Oliver raises an eyebrow in mild surprise as his eyes find mine. I’m not what he expected, clearly, but then neither is he. Oliver Holbeck is the third child; he’s supposed to be four years younger than Edward but he looks half a decade older. Grey peppers his stubble and temples. And then, as if in answer to my unspoken question, I hear the crescendoing shrieks of children as Oliver and Fiona’s three young boys hurtle into the room, drawing up short at the sight of me. Three little sets of eyes join those already on me.
Having three young sons certainly might explain the age differential between Oliver and the rest of the Holbeck siblings, although looking back at Fiona, the same can’t really be said of her. Perhaps it’s the Holbeck family business that has taken its toll.