Page 234 - Bridget Jones's Diary - by Helen FIELDING

Buffet). Next we were ushered down a dramatic curved pale wood stairway lit

by red heart-shaped candles on each step. Downstairs was one vast room, with a
dark wood floor and a conservatory giving onto the garden. The whole room was
lit by candles. Dad and I just stood and stared, completely speechless.

Instead of the cocktail fancies you would expect at a parent-generational do -

compartmentalized cut-glass dishes full of gherkins; plates sporting savory
doilies and half grapefruits bespined with cheese-and-pineapple-chunk-
ladened.toothpicks - there were large silver trays containing prawn wontons,
tomato and mozzarella tartlets and chicken sate. The guests looked as though
they couldn't believe their luck, throwing their heads back and roaring with

laughter. Una Alconbury looked as though she had just eaten a lemon.

'Oh dear,' said Dad, following my gaze, as Una bore down on us. 'I'm not sure
this is going to be Mummy and Una's cup of tea.'

'Bit showy, isn't it?' said Una the second she was within earshot, pulling her
stole huffily around her shoulders. 'I think if you take these things too far it gets
a bit common.'

'Oh, don't be absurd, Una. It's a sensational party,' said my father, helping
himself to his nineteenth canapé.

'Mmm. I agree,' I said through a mouthful of tartlet, as my champagne glass
was filled as if from nowhere, ''s bloody fantastic.' After psyching myself up for
so long for Jaeger two-piece hell, I was euphoric. No one had even asked me

why I wasn't married yet.

'Humph,' said Una.

Mum too was now bearing down on us.

'Bridget,' she yelled. 'Have you said hello to Mark?'

I suddenly realized, cringing, that both Una and Mum must be coming up to