A Vintage Wedding (33 page)

Once inside the door she checked her phone. There was a text.
I’m away on an architectural emergency rescue mission. Be back ASAP. Meant to mention it before. Please don’t feel abandoned. A x
.

After a few moments speculating on the other meaning for the word ‘abandoned’, Lindy decided she was fine about this. If he was away she didn’t have to see him. She could enjoy the quiz perfectly well without him – of course she could.

Her family must never find out about her and Angus sleeping together, Lindy realised. They would be so worried that it might be a rerun of her relationship with Edward; or, worse, they’d see Angus as the solution to all Lindy’s problems: tiny house, tiny income, fatherless sons. Whereas Lindy still felt exactly the same as she had done before about having a step-parent for her sons. Angus was lovely, he really was, but she wouldn’t risk turning her life upside down for any man.

When the three girls arrived at the hall on Saturday night, it was buzzing with people forming up teams and buying raffle tickets. They followed Lindy to her parents’ table and, rather to Lindy’s indignation, discovered they were happily teamed up with another couple.

‘Don’t worry, Lindy,’ said Rachel. ‘We can form our own team. You said we can have up to six and maybe we can find someone who knows about sport before it starts.’

‘So, how can we tell what one of them looks like?’ asked Beth, knowing she was being facetious. ‘Muscly legs? Dart-thrower’s arms? Or just any sort of football shirt?’

‘Football shirt,’ said Rachel. ‘Now where shall we sit?’

‘I don’t mind quizzes,’ said Beth when they had found a vacant table. ‘But I hate it if I feel I have to win. I never know anything.’

‘Oh, we won’t win,’ said Lindy with confidence. ‘There are a couple of local families who are wildly competitive – they always win.’

‘Cool!’ said Beth. ‘I’ll enjoy my night off and get mildly plastered.’

‘You seem to have perked up a bit recently, Beth,’ said Lindy. ‘Any particular reason?’

‘No, not really. Well, yes and no,’ said Beth. ‘A very nice man came into the pub the other day. Finn Something? He was in a boy band called the McCools?’

Rachel considered. ‘I think I do vaguely remember them. They were good!’

‘Well, he had planned to do a gig at the pub, but not for a while because Sukey’s got some comedy festival coming up. But he checked out this place and thinks it’s better. Can you imagine? A band, here!’

‘That would be great!’ said Rachel. ‘Another opportunity to admire our wonderful paint job.’ She looked up and suddenly frowned. ‘That bit needs doing again.’

‘Oh, don’t worry about it,’ said Lindy. ‘It’s fine.’

‘You seem in the mood to enjoy yourself, Lindy,’ said Beth.

‘I am! I expect it’s because my children are tucked up with my grandmother who’s got her Scandi crime to watch and I’m out with my mates.’ She shrugged. ‘I don’t get out much.’

Rachel raised her eyebrows. ‘You don’t. Now let’s see what the raffle prizes are.’ She looked at the list that had been left on every table. ‘Oh, I see there’s another tea set. It must be Belinda again.’

‘Nice,’ said Beth. ‘It really must be your turn to have it, Rachel. And you’ll notice I’m offering a computer lesson, though I don’t suppose anyone will want it, given most people know I’ll do it for nothing anyway.’

‘Oh no,’ said Lindy. ‘People from outside the village come – a few anyway – they might want it. It’s good advertising anyway.’

‘That’s what I thought. It won’t be long before Rachel is offering a night in her B and B as a prize.’

‘Good idea,’ said Rachel. ‘Now, we need to look out for stray people who might know about sport. I’m afraid I am a teeny bit competitive and would rather we didn’t come last.’

‘There’s the family that always win,’ said Lindy, indicating a group of people who had just arrived. ‘And they’ve got their son over from the Forest of Dean. He’s their ringer. He knows about pop music and sport – their only weak subjects. Damn!’

‘I thought we didn’t mind about not winning?’ said Beth. ‘I’ll go home now if it matters.’

‘It doesn’t matter,’ said Lindy. ‘It’s just a bit boring if the same people win every time.’

‘Well, I was glued to the Olympics,’ said Rachel. ‘But I don’t know a thing about football or anything like that. I’d better get some wine.’

‘That’ll help,’ said Beth.

Score sheets had been handed out revealing the subjects. There was also a page of pictures of celebrities, which they gave to Beth to identify. Rachel and Lindy looked through the categories.

‘Sport – well, we’ll have to hope it’s all Olympics stuff but it won’t be,’ said Rachel. ‘Music? Either of you any good at that?’

‘I can always hum along,’ Beth said, ‘but I’m not reliable on who did what.’

‘History,’ said Lindy. ‘Dad always knows everything.’

‘If it’s outside my GCSE period I’ve no chance,’ said Rachel. ‘Tudors and Stuarts. How are you on art, Lindy?’

‘I did it for GCSE and we did go to some galleries,’ said Lindy. ‘I could pick out
The Hay Wain
if I had to.’

‘So could the rest of the world, including me. Beth, how are you getting on with those celebrities?’

‘Not bad but I could do with some help.’

Lindy’s mother came round selling raffle tickets. ‘I’m thrilled we’ve got so many people here,’ she said. ‘Pound a strip. People have really gone to trouble to make up teams. Those new people – remember? Justin and Amanda? – they’ve got people down from London. They seem really up for it. Thank you, Rachel,’ she said, accepting a fiver and handing over five strips of tickets. ‘But they did donate the bottle of fizz as a raffle prize. Dad actually read the sports section of the paper last week, in preparation. Not quite sure what’s made him so competitive all of a sudden.’

‘We won’t mind not winning,’ said Lindy, ‘as long as we get a decent raffle prize.’

Beth and Lindy were poring over the pictures of celebrities just before the start of the quiz when Rachel looked up. ‘Hello! There’s Raff. And he’s got two mates with him. Is that Angus? And – hey, Beth – is that the ex-boy-band man you mentioned?’

‘Oh my God!’ said Beth and Lindy in unison. ‘I think they might be the cavalry!’

‘Only if they know about sport,’ muttered Rachel.

Raff came up to their table. ‘Sukey said you were here. Mind if we join you?’

‘I haven’t seen you for ages!’ whispered Rachel.

Raff kissed her cheek. ‘I’ve been away. I’ve come back.’

‘Mum told me you couldn’t come to the quiz,’ said Lindy to Angus, suddenly in a panic in case she said something she shouldn’t.

‘I’ve been away too,’ he said. ‘And I also came back. I didn’t want to miss the quiz.’

But the look in his eyes told Lindy it wasn’t the quiz he’d hurried home for.

‘And I’ve been in the pub all the time,’ said Finn.

As Lindy looked across at Beth, smiling happily, she realised that possibly she had stopped thinking about Charlie and had found a very nice distraction.

Beth said, ‘You guys don’t know Finn. He’s the – well, you know. We met in the pub.’ She stumbled and failed to find a way to say who he was without embarrassing him.

‘Does everyone else know each other?’ asked Rachel.

Raff nodded. ‘Angus and me go way back to when he used to live in the village and Finn, well, he’s kind of a celebrity …’

‘That you met in the pub,’ added Finn, apparently wanting to be a man in the pub rather than an ex-boy-band member.

‘As you’re a kind of celebrity you can help me with these,’ said Beth, slightly pink.

He picked up the pile of score sheets and shuffled through the subjects. ‘Music, I’m all right on.’

Raff, looking over Finn’s shoulder, said, ‘I’m OK at sport.’

Angus said, ‘No good on either of those but history and current affairs should be OK.’

Lindy glanced up at him and felt a pang of lust, possibly triggered by the word ‘affair’. How many times did you have to sleep with someone before it was an affair?

‘One last chance to buy a drink!’ called the quizmaster, looking over at their table. ‘And then we’ll get started. Can you all decide which round you’ll pick to play your jokers?’

Lindy leant in. ‘OK, guys. I know a lot of these people. My dad will definitely want their team to go for history and the family over there – with the pale kid who looks like he does too much homework? – they’ll go for music because that boy is a whizz at it and they reckon no one else will be able to do it.’

‘Come on, now!’ said Finn. ‘If I can’t do that round I’ve had nothing but a wasted life!’

‘Depends on how you’re using the word “wasted”,’ said Raff.

‘We can use our jokers for the same rounds as other people,’ said Lindy. ‘As long as we get them all right as there’s double points going.’

‘Let’s go for music,’ said Finn. ‘Between us we can do it.’

‘Don’t forget to put the name of your team on your jokers!’ called out the quizmaster.

‘What’s our team name?’ asked Lindy, pencil poised.

‘Vintage Weddings, of course!’ said Rachel instantly. ‘If you guys don’t mind?’

‘Go for it,’ said Finn.

Lindy was beginning to really enjoy herself and, judging by their expressions, Rachel and Beth were too. She could tell Finn liked Beth by the way he kept looking at her but Lindy knew it might be hard for her to trust a man again, so soon after the Charlie-and-the-Fat-Bridesmaid incident. Especially one who was so good-looking and with the glimmer of celebrity on him. And they were doing so well! Angus knew all the traditional general knowledge questions and thanks to Finn and Beth they got all the music and celebrity questions right. Sport was a high scorer too, thanks to Rachel and her knowledge of the Olympics, and Raff.

Courtesy of someone’s clever laptop there was a scoreboard so they could see how they were doing and there were three teams neck and neck. The clever family with the ringer son called ‘the Wilson Clan’, the team who mostly came from London called ‘WestEnders’ and ‘Vintage Weddings’. Lindy’s family were only just behind.

‘Oh my God, this is so exciting!’ said Lindy. ‘I didn’t know I cared.’

‘If we don’t win now I’ll die,’ said Rachel.

‘I do hope we win, then,’ said Raff. ‘My mother would blame it all on me if anything bad happened to you.’

‘She donated another lovely tea set for the raffle,’ said Rachel.

‘Popular culture!’ declared the quizmaster, who was answered by a loud groan from all the intellectuals.

‘Come on, guys,’ said Finn. ‘We can do this. We just have to focus.’

‘It might be just you and Beth,’ said Rachel. ‘I listen to the
Archers
and watch
Countryfile
.’

The questions were all fairly easy to begin with and then came the clincher. ‘Name all the members of the band Boystars and which instruments they played. And for an extra point – and it may prove to be a tie-breaker – what was unusual about them?’

There were general howls of dismay from the currently winning tables – including Vintage Weddings until Finn leant in. ‘I know this!’

‘You weren’t in Boystars, were you?’ said Raff.

‘No! But we supported them in the early days,’ said Finn. ‘The unusual thing is, the drummer was the lead singer too.’ He began scrawling names.

‘Oh God, I want to win this so badly!’ said Rachel.

‘What’s the prize, do you know?’ asked Beth.

‘It’s usually a box of sweets and a voucher for a round of drinks for the winning team,’ said Lindy. ‘Sukey donates that. Mind you, it’s usually actually held in the pub,’ she said for the benefit of Angus and Finn.

‘So not a holiday for two in the Caribbean?’ asked Finn.

‘Sorry,’ said Lindy.

‘Pass on your score sheets!’ called the quizmaster. ‘Let’s see who’s won this very tightly drawn battle!’

Lindy stole a look at Angus.

He hadn’t paid her any particular attention but every now and again she’d caught him looking at her. She couldn’t help remembering what had gone on between them and wondering if he was too. She’d promised herself that it wouldn’t happen again – she couldn’t let her carefully balanced life be disturbed by a man – but maybe if she slept with him again it would stop the other night being a one-night stand. That might be a good thing. While she’d sworn it was a one-off, she wasn’t at all sure she’d be able to stick to her resolution.

‘In third place …’ The quizmaster hesitated for an agonisingly long time.

‘Come on,’ called Lindy’s dad, ‘this isn’t one of those blasted talent contests on telly.’

‘We have a tie.’ He named two teams including Lindy’s parents’ team.

She clapped wildly.

‘In second place, also a tie, we have the WestEnders and the Wilson Clan, so our winners are … drum roll please – sorry, you’ll have to imagine that … Vintage Weddings!’

There was thunderous applause, some of it from the members of the team.

‘Go and get the prize, Rachel,’ said Lindy, nudging her friend. ‘Go on!’

Rachel went up and claimed their prize. Then the raffle was drawn. Sadly, their table didn’t win the tea set.

It was while people were gathering themselves and Lindy’s parents were beginning to clear up that the senior member of the Wilson Clan came over.