Raisins and almonds - Poisoned Pen Press (UK)

Raisins and Almonds 1
‘Ember thinks that Molly is his kitten,’ said Jane.
‘Well, that’s fine,’ said Cec. ‘Cats are good mothers.’
‘But Ember is a boy cat,’ Jane pointed out. Bert said something
like ‘Not any more,’ took a gulp of beer, and caught
Simon’s shy smile. He grinned at the young man. Mr. Butler
struck the gong—a custom on which he insisted—and they
went into lunch.
In deference to the weather, there were small egg and bacon
tarts, a couple of cold chickens and a whole salmon on a bed
of torn lettuce, lovingly enveloped in a mayonnaise cloak. It sat
next to a neatly carved ham and a profusion of salads. Phryne,
who loved beetroot, observed that it was in aspic and thus she
might preserve her dress unstained. There was something about
the nature of beetroot which made it fly as for refuge to the most
expensive cloth available. Only the Chinese laundries could really
remove beetroot stains.
‘Spinach salad and boiled eggs,’ said Mr. Butler. ‘Asparagus
vinaigrette, Miss Fisher. Cucumber and onion. I hope all is to
your satisfaction, Miss? Can I help you to some salmon?’
‘Oh, you can,’ said Phryne, suddenly ravenous. Mrs. Butler’s
mayonnaise was not made with condensed milk and mustard.
It was an alchemical combination of oil and egg and, since it
was to be for the salmon, lemon juice. It was delicious. So was
the salmon, the scales and fins of which evidently had been the
magnet which had drawn Ember that morning to disembowel
the dustbin. Phryne had heard Mr. Butler grumbling about it
in the yard. Ember was a cat with expensive tastes.
The rest of the company was obviously as hungry as Phryne,
and there was a clatter of cutlery as each diner marked down
a dish as his or her own. Their tastes, luckily, were different.
Simon took cold chicken and cucumber. Bert tucked into salmon
mayonnaise as though he hadn’t been born in Fitzroy and had
only seen them in tins. Cec had ham and salade Russe. He liked
beetroot, too. Dot, who loved onions and sharp tastes, feasted
on cucumber in vinegar, spinach and bread and butter. Jane
preferred egg and bacon tart and Ruth a taste of everything on