‘I’m so happy for both of you, sweetheart. He’s wonderful.’
‘I know, Mum. And this is going to be the best day ever.’
‘Oh, don’t … Now I’m going to jump in the shower before I cry.’ And Rose, sniffing happily, left the bedroom.
Erin sipped the Buck’s Fizz, finished the toast and coffee and slid out of bed and padded to the window.
Glorious. The sun shone from a cloudless flax-flower sky, and there was no breeze at all. Nook Green, preparing for the Big Day, shimmered in the early morning heat. It was lovely, Erin thought, leaning her hands on the sill, to think that in nearly all those cottages and houses people were getting ready for her wedding.
Her marriage to Jay.
She gazed at Jay’s pretty cottage across the green and longed to hear his voice. But they’d agreed not to ring or text one another this morning. It was all going to be done the old-fashioned way.
Was he awake now and feeling as unruffled and serene and ecstatically happy as she was? She thought he probably was. He’d have Kam to calm him down, if not.
He’d insisted that Kam and only Kam was necessary for his wedding preparations. Deena and Tavish were advised, gently, that they’d be staying put in their suite at the Swan until the wedding party arrived. And Nalisha had moved out and joined her own parents at the Swan too.
And after today, after their honeymoon, Erin thought, that beautiful cottage would be her home. Her home with Jay …
Could life ever get any better?
‘Well, wow then!’ Bella said, looking at them all crammed into Uncle Doug’s living room. ‘How stunning are we?’
‘Pretty damn stunning,’ Sophie agreed. ‘Not quite as stunning as Erin, of course, but pretty hot nonetheless.’
Erin, feeling every inch a fairy-tale princess, walked tentatively on the wedding shoes, loving the feeling of the petticoats, layers and layers of net and lace, swishing against her legs.
‘Very elegant.’ Bella smiled at Erin. ‘You’re so very beautiful.’
‘We all are,’ Erin said, her voice wobbling slightly. ‘And Deena’s Top Girls have done a great job.’
They had. Everyone – including Rose – now had glorious glossy wedding hair and supermodel make-up.
‘I look like I’ve been
airbrushed,’ Bella giggled. ‘Aiden won’t be able to keep his hands off me.’
‘Oh, wow, Mrs B.!’ Sophie gasped as Rose, in the wedding
lehenga
and bangles and little sparkly sandals, drifted in. ‘You look a million dollars.’
‘Thank you, sweetheart. So do you. Those bridesmaids’ frocks are incredible. How funny this is – you’ve talked about this day since you were all little girls together, and now it’s here.’
Bella, Sophie and Erin looked at one another. A dream come true.
Rose kissed
Erin. ‘I’ve got to go now, darling. You look sensational. So very, very beautiful. Oh Lord, don’t let me cry … and our car’s outside. Are we all ready, girls?’
There was a last-minute flurry of grabbing overnight cases, as everyone was staying at the Swan, and fluffing at hair, and adjusting hems and topping up lip gloss, and then Erin made sure that they all had their bouquets and, with squeals of good wishes and everyone kissing everyone else, and general giddy giggling, Rose and the bridesmaids trooped out of the cottage.
It was suddenly very quiet.
‘So –’ Pete Boswell looked at her ‘– it’s just you and me now, love. I’m so proud of you.’
Erin hugged her dad as much as the voluminous skirts would allow. ‘You look great, Dad. Really smart. And Mum looks beautiful. And you walking me down the aisle is going to be another dream come true for me.’
‘And for me, love. I’ll be the proudest man on the planet. Oh, what on earth is that?’
A raucous blast of bhangra music echoed across the green.
Erin, slightly hampered by her dress and the furniture, eventually made it to the window, and laughed out loud.
‘It’s Kam and Jay leaving! Oh, don’t let him see me – it’s bad luck – but, Dad, look at them!’
Kam’s car, with Jay in the passenger seat, snaking slowly away from the cottage and around the green, was completely covered in Indian trappings. Flags and drapes and tapestries, all in very over-sequinned gold and red, hung and fluttered from every surface. Massive exotically hued paper flowers nodded and danced. Red and gold balloons waved from both bumpers, entwined with matching sparkling ribbons. And from the stereo, through the car’s open windows, bhangra pulsed at top volume.
‘It looks like something out of a Bollywood film,’ Erin laughed. ‘Mad – but somehow perfect.’
‘It’ll make our departure and arrival seem very staid by comparison.’ Pete grinned. ‘But it’s a great touch. Wonderful. Happy and colourful – just the wedding day you deserve, darling.’
‘Don’t make me cry.’ Erin hugged her dad. ‘I’ve done so well so far. Oooh, here’s our limousine just appearing round the green. Oh, look at the traditional white ribbons, and the red and white roses. Not quite so much Bollywood glamour for me.’
‘A nice contrast.’ Pete nodded. ‘And perfect for a fusion wedding.’
Erin swallowed as the car pulled up outside the cottage. ‘Oops, now I do feel a little bit shaky.’
‘You’ll be fine, I promise you.’ Pete reached for her hand. ‘Remember when you were a little girl and used to wake up from a bad dream and I’d tuck you back in and smooth your hair and tell you you’d be fine?’
Erin, swallowing
the lump in her throat, nodded.
‘And you were, weren’t you?’
Erin nodded again.
‘And you will be again now. You’re the most beautiful girl in the world. And I love you.’
‘I love you, too.’ Erin hugged her dad
tightly. ‘Thanks, Dad. OK – you’re right. I’ll be fine. Just let me find my bouquet and say goodbye to Florence, oh, and remember to lock the cottage door and then we’ll be off.’
The Swan looked magnificent in the sun. The river glinted, the tiny streams criss-crossing the sloping lawns glittered. The rose arches were a mass of blooms and the air was sweet-scented.
‘Like a film set,’ Pete exhaled, as the limousine purred majestically to a halt on the gravel. ‘OK now, love?’
Erin nodded. ‘Yes, thank you. I’m fine again – as you knew I would be. I just can’t wait now.’
‘Well –’ Pete slid out of the car and smiled slightly awkwardly at the uniformed chauffeur who was holding the door open and touching his cap ‘– you’ll just have to wait there a little bit longer, and I’ll make sure everyone is in the marriage room and in place. OK?’
Erin sank back into the warm leather. The fabulous dress billowed round her and the perfume rising from her flowers was richly tropical. She felt like a queen.
The car park was crammed with cars. Including
Kam’s with its amazing Bollywood bling. Jay was here …
And in just a very few minutes, she’d be gliding – hopefully if all the wedding-shoe practice sessions had worked – down the aisle in the beautiful cream and oak-panelled marriage room and Jay would be waiting for her.
At last.
Pete came back and leaned into the car. ‘OK. They’re all ready for you, love. Do you want more time?’
‘No, absolutely not. I’m really calm and happy now. Let’s go, Dad.’
With a lot of help from the grinning chauffeur, Erin managed to get out of the car with her frock intact. And then, on Pete’s arm, she walked into the Swan.
Sophie and Bella were waiting outside the marriage room door.
‘Wow, wow, wow!’ Bella grinned.
‘Fabulously perfectly stunning!’ Sophie nodded.
‘Thanks, you too.’ Erin smiled shakily. ‘And thank you both for this today, and for everything.’
‘Shut up!’ Bella groaned. ‘I haven’t cried – yet.’
Through the open doorway, Pete nodded to the registrar standing at the head of the marriage room, and the beautiful strains of Handel’s ‘Arrival of the Queen of Sheba’ gently filled the air.
Then, with her hand resting on her dad’s arm, Erin stepped slowly into the sun-dappled, flower-filled room, followed by Sophie and Bella.
As she passed each row and the guests
saw her in her wedding dress for the first time, there were gasps of delight and a mass intake of breath. Erin smiled, still only vaguely aware of her surroundings.
She knew everyone was there: Jay’s right-hand side of the room was like a dazzling, glittering sea of colour with so many women of all ages in their saris and
lehengas
, and the men in their kurtas. And on her side, she briefly glimpsed everyone she knew and loved, the whole village, all dressed up to the nines, some in Indian clothes, too. Gina was looking so very beautiful in a fabulous pink and lilac sari. Oh, and there was Colin and her lovely nanna – yes, looking exactly like the Queen Mum in a duck-egg blue duster coat and a massive matching hat riotous with feathers – and Doug looking very 1970s in his rumpled cream linen suit and his thin tie. On Jay’s side, Deena looked completely stunning in her richly embroidered red and gold ceremonial sari, jewels in her hair, round her throat and wrists, and a lovely ruby bhindi trailing down her forehead.
Nalisha, sitting on an aisle-side chair, with her parents, glanced up at Erin as she passed and smiled. Erin, praying that Nalisha wasn’t going to leap up at the last moment and belt out Yvonne Fair’s ‘It Should Have Been Me’, smiled back at her.
‘I’m so happy for you,’ Nalisha whispered.
Erin swallowed. ‘Thank you.’
And then – there was Jay.
Jay, standing beside Kam, waiting for her, looking incredibly handsome and divinely sexy in his cream Nehru suit.
As they reached the end of the aisle, she looked down at her mum and smiled. Rose dabbed her eyes and smiled tremulously back.
Jay just looked at her.
‘Oh … wow!’
She smiled at him, and sniffed back a
tear as her dad slid into his seat beside Rose, leaving them together.
‘You look totally incredible,’ Jay whispered. ‘I never dreamed … Erin, I love you so much.’
‘I love you too.’
The registrar beamed at them both, then at the gathered audience.
‘Ladies and gentlemen, let me welcome you to the wedding room of the Swan, where we’re all gathered together for this very happy occasion, to share in the marriage of Jaimal Keskar and Erin Boswell …’
After that it all passed in a dream.
Erin made her promises in a steady voice, as Jay did, never once taking their eyes from each other. Cameras flashed and someone – one of Jay’s uncles, Erin thought vaguely – was standing to one side with a camcorder.
Then Kam stepped forwards with the rings and, as they slid them on to their respective fingers, they repeated the words they’d practised, giggling, so many times. Only today they didn’t laugh. Today it was real. Today they meant every single word.
And then they were married.
The registrar smiled kindly. ‘And I now pronounce you man and wife. Jay, you may kiss your bride …’
He did. And Erin kissed him back and clung to him, happier than she’d ever been in her life.
Married! She and Jay were actually married!
And then they were kissing one another again and laughing and crying and everyone was clapping.
‘Just the register to sign now,’ the registrar reminded them gently. ‘This way – with your witnesses, please.’
And followed by Kam and Rose – because
Erin had known she couldn’t ask either one of Bella or Sophie and not the other to be her witness – they stepped up to the little desk, which was smothered with lilies and roses. And as Prokofiev’s
Romeo and Juliet
overture played softly, they made their togetherness legal.
And then somehow, with all their guests nosily and happily clapping and stamping their feet – as she and Jay had known they would – to Strauss’s rousing ‘Radetzky March’, they drifted out of the marriage room with everyone laughing and smiling as they passed.
‘Outside now for the photos,’ their photographer said bossily. ‘Glorious weather, fabulous grounds – I’ll do you two together and then do the set pieces. I’ll just get everyone organised.’
The photographs, it seemed to Erin, went on for ever and ever. But she didn’t mind. She and Jay just clung together, and chatted to everyone in between shots, and kept looking at one another in total wonderment.
The sun shone on and on, and they posed on the little bridges and in front of the Swan and down by the river and practically everywhere else possible.
Their guests swarmed across the Swan’s grounds, clutching glasses of champagne, chatting, the smokers snatching the opportunity for a sneaky cigarette.
‘You look so beautiful,’ Jay said for the millionth time. ‘That dress … I was just blown away when I saw you walking towards me. I’m so bloody lucky.’
Erin leaned towards him and kissed him. ‘You look wonderful, too. And I’m definitely luckier than you and we’ve done it. Do you realise we’ve actually done it?’
‘We have. And everyone was here, and
nothing went wrong … and this is without doubt the most incredible day of my life.’
‘And mine.’
‘Darlings.’ Deena sashayed towards them once the family groups had been photographed. ‘Darlings, congratulations, again … You look fabulous, Erin, darling. That’s the most amazing dress I’ve ever seen on any bride – ever. The ceremony itself was a little brief and functional, but that’s very British, I suppose, and as may be. This is all going wonderfully, darlings, and I couldn’t be happier.’
They stared after Deena as she linked arms with Rose and they were swallowed up in another crowd of laughing, glittering women from both sides.
‘Blimey.’ Erin giggled. ‘Was that an acceptance?’
‘I think so. Nothing short of a miracle. Oh, Erin – I love you.’
‘I love you, too. And isn’t this just fabulous?’
‘Mmm, and it’s not over yet …’
At last the photographs were over, and the maître d’ called them to form the greeting line-up outside the dining room because the wedding breakfast was ready to be served.
And again, after another age of kissing and congratulations and handshaking and hugging, the guests filed towards the Swan’s dining room. There was a mass intake of breath as they walked on scattered rose petals, beneath a swathed archway of red and gold silks, passing a massive, garlanded golden Ganesh.