‘Ask Uncle Doug,’ Erin said shortly. ‘Although possibly it’s best not to know the exact details.’
‘They’re not stolen,’ Doug said quickly. ‘They were left over after a refurb, apparently.’
Erin, deciding it was honestly better not to delve too deeply into the statues’ origins, looked at Nalisha. ‘Do you recognise all of them, then? I mean, I know some of them because Jay has
tiny
gods in the cottage, doesn’t he?’
‘Ganga, Annapurna, Balarama, Ganesh …’ Nalisha ignored her and continued to drift delightedly round the gods and goddesses, reverently touching a crown here, a flowing robe there. ‘Oh, so many, and they’re perfect in every detail. Perfect. They’re wonderful – you’re
so
lucky to have them.’ She looked at Doug. ‘Clever old you.’
Doug preened and looked hopelessly
infatuated.
Erin shook her head.
Nalisha smiled at him. ‘Are they for sale?’
‘Too right.’ Erin snorted. ‘Why? Would you like to buy them?’
‘Oh, I’d love them, but they’d take up so much room and, at the moment, I have nowhere to keep them.’ Nalisha made it sound as if she was reluctantly turning down a litter of pedigree puppies.
You could always go and buy a mansion in London and move out of my fiancé’s cottage, Erin thought, managing to smile sweetly.
Nalisha beamed at Doug. ‘But I do have an idea about where they can go.’
‘Share it, please,’ Erin said. ‘Because Uncle Doug wants them to go into the shop, which is ridiculous, and – Oooh, no!’ She glared at Nalisha. ‘You haven’t got some crazy idea about them being involved in the
non-existent
mehendi or tilak, have you?’
Nalisha had somehow managed to shimmy her way very close to Doug. She touched his arm. ‘Erin is so funny about this wedding, isn’t she?’
‘Hilarious.’ Doug nodded, still looking besotted. ‘Almost as funny as Sarah Millican.’
‘Actually,’ Nalisha said, narrowing her eyes at Erin, ‘it’s nothing to do with your wedding, although now you come to mention it, maybe that’s not a bad idea.’
‘It’s a terrible idea.’
Nalisha smiled and wriggled her dupatta over her shoulders. Doug looked on admiringly.
‘Just teasing,’ Nalisha said with no humour in her voice. ‘Actually, I’ve been thinking about a little project. Something to bring a bit of life into the village. I love it here, of course, but there’s so little to do. I need something to get my teeth into while I’m here.’
As long as it’s not Jay,
Erin thought, you can get your perfectly veneered molars into anything you damn well like.
Nalisha looked at Doug. ‘So please, please promise me you won’t sell the gods and goddesses until I’ve thought about it a bit more.’
‘You’ve got first refusal.’ Doug beamed.
‘Thank you.’ Nalisha beamed back at him. Then she looked at Erin. ‘Oh, I almost forgot why I came over in the first place. I was taking the early morning phone calls at the surgery before Sophie got in, and Jay’s last appointment has cancelled, so he says as long as things go OK, and unless he gets another emergency, he’ll be ready earlier than you’d thought and he wondered if you could get away by midday instead of two o’clock.’
‘Yes, of course. But why couldn’t Jay tell me himself? We do have mobiles.’
‘He’s in surgery. Operating. He had a call-out really early this morning. He took the pick-up.’
Erin exhaled. She wasn’t even annoyed that Nalisha knew all this before she did. She knew only too well that taking the pick-up, the convertible vehicle that Jay used as an animal ambulance, meant that something serious had happened.
Loving animals, she always tried really hard not to be squeamish about aspects of Jay’s work, knowing that as a vet’s wife she was going to have to distance herself from the occasional heartbreak and trauma. But it was impossible not to feel a heart-rending compassion for the animal, or to put herself in the place of the animal’s owner, and share the pain and suffering.
‘Oh God, is it –?’
Nalisha, clearly nowhere near as emotionally involved as Erin, shook her head. ‘I’ve no idea. Jay said it was going to be a very tricky operation. Kam’s assisting. Renata and Bella are in there, too. I just popped my head round the theatre door.’
‘And was it …? I mean … going OK?’
‘Honestly, I don’t know. I’m not really involved, am I? It’s a dog. A big dog. A road accident.’
Erin groaned. She couldn’t bear it. Poor dog, poor owner. But if anyone could work miracles it would be Jay.
The shop’s doormat jingle-jangled again in the distance.
‘Ah, customers,’ Doug said happily, walking quickly across the yard, clearly delighted to escape further censure. ‘Callum isn’t great on haggling. I’ll have to go and explain why we’ve got so much space in the shop. I might even have to start moving the stuff back if Krishna and co are staying out here.’ He grinned at Erin over his shoulder. ‘Have to go, love. So much to do. So little time.’
‘I’ll come with you.’ Nalisha smiled slinkily. ‘We can have a little chat about the statues.’
Doug beamed and stood back gallantly to allow Nalisha to pass, then he winked at Erin.
Erin watched them disappear through the Old Curiosity Shop’s storeroom doorway then looked thoughtfully at the gods and goddesses.
‘Right, are you lot listening? If you’ve
got any influence at all, please, please, please, manage to remove bloody Nalisha from my life as soon as possible. Oh, I don’t mean violently or tragically or anything – just let her have to dash off to her new job early or something. OK?’
‘Who are you talking to, Erin?’
Erin jumped, then laughed guilty at Callum. ‘God! Don’t do that!’
Callum, all Converse trainers and designer pants showing above his jeans, gawped at the statues. ‘Christ! They’re random! Were you praying to them?’
‘No, just thinking aloud.’
‘My mum does that too. Old people seem to do it a lot,’ he said kindly. ‘I only came out here for a fag. Is that OK?’
‘Fine. I’m just going.’
Callum lit a cigarette and stared at the statues again. ‘Doug does get hold of some crap sometimes, doesn’t he?’
Erin nodded. ‘Oh, yes.’
‘Mind,’ Callum said, blowing a plume of smoke into the still air, ‘that hot Indian woman is gonna buy them, I reckon. I sorta listened in. She wants ’em for the village hall.’
‘
What?
’
‘Ah.’ Callum grinned. ‘She’s going to have a dance thing. Like the old line-dancing stuff what my Nan goes to, only Indian. She says she could use the statues for it.’
Erin laughed. ‘Oh. My. God. An Indian dance class? Is that what she’s planning? Bollywood comes to Nook Green … magic.’
Callum looked doubtful. ‘You reckon?’
‘Oh, yeah.’ Erin grinned, delighted
that the Old Curiosity Shop would no longer be crowded out by Ganesh and co, and wickedly thrilled that Nalisha was going to make a complete idiot of herself. ‘I reckon. Thanks, Callum, you’ve just made my day.’
‘… so, we’ve been through everything, checked and crosschecked. All OK so far?’ Abbie, the Swan’s wedding planner and organiser, leaned across her very tidy desk, pushed her laptop away and tapped her folders. Her office was painted in creams and pale blues and had icy air conditioning. It was calm, and cool, and gorgeous. Much as she was. ‘Good. So, we’re all happy, are we?’
Erin nodded and squeezed Jay’s hand. Well, she
was. With the wedding arrangements at least. ‘It all seems to be perfect, thank you so much. We don’t want to make any changes at all. We just thought it was a good idea to check, and also to let you know that the flowers have all been ordered now and the table displays will be delivered here on the morning of the wedding.’
Abbie checked a white clipboard. ‘Lovely. I know you wanted to use your own florist. And the rest of the decorations? You’re still happy to go ahead with what we’ve arranged? In the marriage room and the dining room? No changes there?’
‘None at all,’ Jay said, sounding very relieved. ‘And everything else we’ve ordered has arrived, has it?’
‘It has.’ Abbie nodded. ‘And it’s all totally gorgeous.’
‘And you have the plans we drew up with the restaurant manager? For where everything has to go?’
‘Absolutely,’ Abbie confirmed. ‘No need to worry about any of that. And we can’t wait to get going on it, to be honest. It’s so exciting to be doing a fusion wedding. So much more interesting than a few pink helium balloons and roses and a swirl of glitter on the table. And only three weeks to go now. You must be so excited?’
‘We are.’ Erin grinned happily. ‘I’ve regressed to childhood and I’m counting off the sleeps.’
Jay chuckled, leaned across and kissed her cheek. ‘Me too.’
‘Ah, bless,’ Abbie cooed. ‘It’s going to be an amazing day.’
Jay and Erin, now leaning together, looked at one another and beamed with a sort of contented almost-married smugness. Erin sighed happily. Yessss! No one could interfere now. It was all going to be absolutely perfect.
Almost …
‘Oooh, yes.’ Erin sat up quickly, ‘There is one other thing. The seating plan – we need to make some changes.’
Jay frowned. ‘Why?’
Erin leaned forwards. ‘We’ve got twenty
circular tables for ten guests on each, haven’t we?’
Abbie nodded.
‘And we’ve now got a possible one, and definitely another two, guests to fit in somewhere.’
‘We have?’ Jay frowned at her. ‘Do I know them?’
‘Kam’s plus one. He’s bound to bring someone – although I haven’t got a clue who at the moment. And then there’s Renata and her partner Julia. We can’t leave them out, can we?’
‘God, no – OK – so is there still room on one of the friends’ tables?’
Abbie flipped through the folders, found the appropriate page on her laptop, and tapped with a perfectly manicured nail. ‘You want them seated together?’
‘Please.’ Erin nodded. ‘They won’t know anyone really, so at least they’ll have each other to talk to until everyone gets nicely squiffy and all the social niceties go out of the window. Er,’ she added quickly, ‘not, of course, that our wedding is going to degenerate into a brawl or anything.’
Abbie smiled stiffly. Erin realised she’d had Botox. It was reassuring to know that all that poreless porcelain perfection wasn’t natural. ‘Of course not. But even the most strictly regimented weddings loosen up nicely towards the end, don’t they? Right – well, at the moment, we have enough room on the table with your bridesmaids’ plus ones – are they still unnamed?’
Erin chuckled. ‘Mmm. Bella and Sophie are both going out with someone at the moment – that’s a different someone, not the same one – but neither of them are looking to be long term and may well change a couple of times between now and the wedding day, so we’ve left it open. You can add Kam’s nameless plus one there too. And who else is on that table?’
‘Let’s see, as well as the nameless plus
ones, we’ve got …’ Abbie scrolled down, ‘Mrs Dora Wilberforce, Mr Ted and Mrs Mary Blundell, Mr Sid Duncan …’
‘Village friends,’ Erin said approvingly. ‘And they’re all quite old and friendly and most of them are patients at the surgery, so that should be a nice mix. Ideal for Renata and Julia.’ She looked at Jay. ‘OK with you?’
‘Fine with me.’ Jay smiled. ‘So, that’s everything, is it? No more last-minute invitees? We’re all done and dusted?’
‘Well, now we’re digging into the murky depths, there’s going to be a bit of a hitch on my side of the first family table,’ Erin sighed. ‘Because obviously Uncle Doug isn’t going to be with Gina, and we still really want Gina to come, but not to feel uncomfortable, so we don’t want her sitting with Doug.’ She looked at Abbie. ‘There may be a bit of eleventh-hour rejigging needed there. I’m so sorry to mess up the plans.’
Abbie stretched another smile. ‘Believe me, compared to most, your plans are inch-perfect. A few last minute pluses or minuses on the guest list are neither here nor there. We’ll be able to sort out the tables right up to the minute you’re making your vows. We’ve had to deal with far, far worse things than that.’
‘I can imagine.’ Jay pulled a face. ‘Anyway, I really do think that’s it for now. I can’t think of anyone else we’ve missed, can you, Erin? I think we’re all sorted at last.’
‘Wonderful.’ Abbie whizzed through her laptop. ‘Remember, we’re very flexible and you’re paying us to make your day perfect so your wish is our command, as they say. Let’s just have one last look while you’re here. Oh yes, you’re still agreed with going against the traditional set-up of splitting up the parents, and putting Jay’s together on the groom’s side and vice versa with yours, Erin?’
Erin nodded. ‘We thought they’d all
be more comfortable with that. More relaxed. They’ll have hardly met before the wedding, and there’ll be plenty of time to mingle later. And as my mum and dad live in Australia and I haven’t seen them for ages, I really wanted them both beside me.’
‘Absolutely understandable.’ Abbie flicked a bit more. ‘Right, I think that’s it. No problems at all.’
‘Wonderful, thank you.’
Erin stretched and gazed out of the window. The Swan’s glorious grounds were fleetingly visible through Abbie’s white vertical blinds. As soon as they left Abbie, she thought it would be lovely to stroll down to the river with Jay and sit on the bank, dabbling her burning feet in the cool ripples of the Maizey. The opportunities to be alone together without interruption were few and far between these days.
On the way to the Swan, they’d talked about the influx of the eighteen Indian gods and goddesses, and Nalisha’s plans for them, and Jay had laughed. They’d also talked about Jay’s lengthy and complex operation on the dog, which had, fortunately, been a resounding success, and the dog – Milo, a sort of greyhoundish-lurcher with heart-melting eyes, according to Jay – was now being intensively nursed by Bella and Renata, who were acting like proud mother hens with a new chick, and keeping his once distraught but now very relieved owner updated with hourly phone calls.
And now, all their plans were in place, and the rest of the afternoon stretched deliciously ahead in glorious freedom.
They were just shaking hands with a relieved-looking Abbie when there was a gentle knock on the door.