Christmas at Tiffany's (63 page)

‘He didn’t have them today. They weren’t on the delivery.’

‘You’ve got to be joking!’ Cassie cried.

‘It’s all in hand, don’t worry!’ Suzy soothed. ‘He said they are definitely arriving in the morning, and he’s sending them up on the ten twenty-six from Paddington. He won’t let me down. To be honest, I think he did it deliberately so that the flowers are extra fresh and perky. I think he’s trying to impress Mummy.’

‘It’s the bride I’m more concerned with impressing,’ Cassie said huffily before catching the look of concern on Suzy’s face. They both knew her uncharacteristic stressiness wasn’t due to flowers.

She tried changing the subject. ‘I just can’t believe the wedding’s come round so quickly. I mean, this time last year they didn’t even know each other. And now—’

‘Now they can’t live without each other.’

‘I guess there really is such a thing as love at first sight,’ Cassie sighed, remembering the night they’d first met Brett in the club. It had been just moments before Henry and Lacey had arrived. She stared down at her hands. ‘I suppose, when you know you’ve found The One, why wait?’

‘Oh, I can think of plenty of reasons why you should wait,’ Suzy retorted quickly.

‘What do you mean?’

‘Sometimes the stars have to line up first.’

Cassie looked at her in panic. ‘Are you saying you think they’re rushing things? Because if you think it’s too soon, we should be honest with Kelly.’

‘No. I think
they’re
fine. I wasn’t thinking about them.’

‘Who were you thinking about then?’ Cassie asked, puzzled.

Suzy stared at her for a moment, deliberating. ‘Well, it’s funny, but I always kind of had it in the back of my head that you and Henry would, you know . . . get it together.’

‘Me and Henry! What on earth made you think that?’ Cassie felt her customary blush light up the room. Had he said something? Had she seen them kissing after all?

Suzy shrugged. ‘I dunno. There’s just something about the two of you when you’re together.’

‘You’re hallucinating,’ Cassie said, shutting the conversation down. ‘You’ve obviously been getting high on E numbers.
He’s
engaged, in case you’d forgotten, and
I
am categorically not looking for love.’

‘Sometimes love comes looking for you,’ Suzy countered.

‘Would you listen to yourself?’

‘Think about it! It’s such a massive coincidence, you mugging him in the park that day.’

‘I did not mug him!’ Cassie protested.

‘But then Mummy said to me – and I think she’s right in this –’ She put on a dramatic voice, eyes wide – ‘
Was
it a coincidence?’

‘Huh?’

‘Was it coincidence? Or was it, like I said, the stars lining up?’

Cassie rolled her eyes. ‘You should move into telephone horoscopes.’

Suzy grinned, undeterred. ‘Well I’ve
always
thought that of the two men you kissed the night you met Gil – total slut, by the way! – you married the wrong one.’ She pushed herself further back into her pillows, bracing herself for Cassie’s response, which was, as expected, open-mouthed, flaming cheeked and stammering.

‘Wha—? . . . Y-y-you do
not
think that.’

‘That you’re a slut? No.’

Cassie gave her a sarcastic look.

‘Oh, you mean . . . well, yes I do, actually. Have done for years. Couldn’t say it once you were married, of course . . .’

Cassie sighed and looked away. Why was Suzy saying all this? Henry was engaged to someone else. A very beautiful, enigmatic, willowy, stylish someone else. What did Suzy expect her to do? Hijack the engagement, all because they’d shared a few moments of desire that he’d walked away from every time? Besides, Suzy hadn’t seen how he was reacting towards her now, after that measly, staggeringly incredible little kiss. It was as if he thought she was some devil-woman who’d stolen his soul.

‘It was just a kiss, Suze. One kiss, a very long time ago,’ Cassie said quietly. ‘It was nothing.’

‘Mmm. You see, you say that. But then I see the two of you together and I can’t help asking myself: what if it wasn’t nothing?’

Suzy took Cupcake out of her arms and lay her down in the cot. She looked up at her friend, concern in her eyes.

‘What if it was everything?’

Henry was tossing mushrooms in a frying pan, and Kelly was just finishing her toast – toe dividers on her feet, cotton gloves on her hands and a moisturizing mask on her face – when Cassie walked into the kitchen the next morning. After three days’ travelling up and down the country in the same clothes, she had finally showered and changed into a pair of white shorts and a khaki vest, no bra.

‘Hey, sleepy-head! I’m supposed to be the one with the jet lag and dodgy body clock,’ Kelly joked, winking at her. Her eyes were as bright as buttons. ‘Are you ready to rock ‘n’ roll?’

Glancing over at Henry, who was still using his back as a wall, Cassie managed to arch an eyebrow to convey a sarcastic ‘huh?’ before slumping down at the table and pouring herself a cup of tea from the pot. She gestured vaguely at Kelly about a refill.

‘Mornings still tough, then?’ Kelly asked, looking her up and down. She leaned in towards Cassie and said in a quiet voice: ‘What’s up? You look
awful.
I can’t have you following me down the aisle looking like that. You’ll ruin the pictures.’ She gave a little waggle of her head to show that she was joking – sort of.

‘I didn’t sleep that well. You know, with all the excitement last night . . .’ Cassie murmured, keeping her eyes down. ‘Don’t worry. I’ll be fine as soon as I’ve had this.’ She brought the tea to her lips as Henry clattered about in the cupboards looking for a clean plate.

‘Sure,’ Kelly murmured, peering at Cassie over the top of her own teacup. ‘You should have joined the rest of us for a nightcap.’

Cassie shook her head. ‘I think a pillow doused in chloroform would have been better.’

‘That bad?’

‘Mmmm.’

‘Go back to bed for an hour. Everything’s pretty much set to go.’

‘Can’t. I’m frantic,’ Cassie replied, looking anything but. Henry dropped his breakfast on the table next to them and, covering it with HP sauce, started eating it obnoxiously noisily.

Cassie shot him a wearisome look. She couldn’t believe he was keeping this up. What had happened to her funny, imaginative, exciting, worldly friend? The one who’d masterminded her recovery, putting all the fun and riddles into her explorations as she tentatively discovered the world all by herself? Had he really disappeared because of a momentary slip?

She watched him chew, cheeks full, his eyes steadfastly glued to his plate. She had to try to get him alone and talk to him before the wedding. Otherwise people were going to start asking questions.

She looked back at Kelly. ‘Where is everyone? It’s suspiciously quiet.’

‘Hattie and Arch have popped to the hospital to visit Cupcake and see whether they can be discharged,’ Kelly said, pulling off a glove and stroking the deeply moisturized skin on the back of her hand. ‘They’ll be back in about an hour. The caterers are coming at eleven, and Bas is upstairs setting up. He’s desperate to see you. It was all I could do to stop him from interrupting your beauty sleep – and from the look of you, I’m glad I did. You needed every minute.’

Cassie smiled indulgently at Kelly’s fond barb. She couldn’t wait to see Bas either. They had a
lot
to catch up on. ‘And how come you’re so calm? I was expecting Bridezilla. Suzy’s given me beta blockers to slip into your tea.’

Kelly waggled her shoulders, shut her eyes, pushed her head back and positioned her fingers into a yogic ‘om’. ‘What’s not to be calm about? Brett is on the other side of the market square, the sun is shining, Cupcake has been born, Anouk is forgiven, you’ve come back from your walkabout . . .’ She opened her eyes and looked at Cassie. ‘We need to talk about that, by the way.’

Henry paused, fork in midair, at the mention of Cassie’s disappearance before collecting himself and resuming with even noisier gusto.

‘Later,’ Cassie murmured, putting her hands on top of Kelly’s. ‘Today’s all about you.’

‘Yes, it is,’ Kelly smiled, and showed Cassie how she’d already moved her engagement ring to her right hand in readiness for receiving the wedding band on her left.

‘Is Brett wearing a ring?’ Cassie asked.

Kelly nodded. ‘Oh yes. I want the whole world to know he’s taken.’ She looked over at Henry. ‘Are you going to wear a wedding ring, Henry?’

‘What?’ He clearly couldn’t hear anything above the noise of his masticating.

‘I said, are you going to wear a wedding ring?’

‘No I’m bloody not,’ he said, dropping his cutlery and standing up so suddenly that the chair legs scraped along the kitchen floor and made the girls wince.

They watched him as he stormed out of the kitchen, doors slamming behind him in the distance.

‘
What
is bugging
him
?’ Kelly asked, palms up. ‘It was an innocent enough question. He nearly bit my head off!’ She looked back at Cassie, who replied with a ‘who knows?’ shrug. ‘It has to be something to do with Lacey. Men only get like that over a woman,’ Kelly mused.

‘Mmm, probably,’ Cassie agreed nervously. He looked ready to explode. ‘Don’t worry about it today. He’ll be fine. They’ve probably just had a fight. They’ll patch it up.’

‘I guess. By the way, did you see Anouk when you were upstairs?’

Cassie shook her head. ‘No. Has she not been down for breakfast?’

‘Not while I’ve been in here.’

Cassie thought for a moment. Hearts didn’t heal in a day – she knew that better than anyone.

‘I think I might know where she is,’ she said, getting up and pulling on a pair of wellies that were standing by the door. ‘Get Bas started on your hair and I’ll bring her straight up to you.’

‘Would you? Because she hasn’t tried her dress on yet, and if it needs to be taken in . . .’

‘It’ll be fine. Hattie makes all her own clothes – she can help with last-minute alterations, as long as she gets back from the hospital in time. I’ll send Anouk up,’ Cassie said, shooing Kelly out of the kitchen.

She waited a moment before picking up the phone and booking a taxi to deliver the flowers from the station. She didn’t want Kelly overhearing her. The prospect of no flowers was up there with no groom in Kelly’s perfectionist world.

Five minutes later, she was wandering past the greenhouse and rose garden, up towards the small hillock that bumped up like a rucked-up rug in the far corner of the estate. There was an ancient oak tree at the top with a giant swingseat strung from one of the huge branches which had been ‘their place’ when they had escaped here for home weekends. It sat right at the boundary of the Sallyfords’ land and swung out over a sudden drop that made you feel like you were being catapulted across to the other side of the valley.

She listened to the chatter of the swooping swallows above her, trying to talk herself into a lighter mood. Henry’s coldness, Wiz’s barbed comments . . . the animosity directed at her in the past twenty-four hours had sapped her, when all she really wanted to do was enjoy this day with her friends.

Everything else was in order. It was an idyllic summer’s day, pale blue skies dotted with whipped clouds and just a hint of breeze to make the women’s skirts rustle and the feathers quiver in their hats.

As she approached, she saw Anouk’s slight figure on the swing seat. She was leaning forwards, her head in her hands, and looking just like Cassie felt.

‘Mind if I join you?’

Anouk looked up and Cassie saw instantly that she’d been crying. ‘Oh, hi,’ she said, quickly wiping her face with her sleeve. ‘Sorry, I was miles away.’

‘Yes, I could tell,’ Cassie said, sitting down on the bench. ‘Kelly’s sent me after you. She wants to check your dress still fits.’

‘Ah . . . I’ll go in a minute. I just need to . . .’ Her voice trailed off.

Cassie nodded, understanding completely. The tears hadn’t dried yet.

‘How is she this morning, anyway?’ Anouk asked, dabbing her nose lightly with a tissue.

‘Eerily calm.’

‘Scary.’

‘Yes.’

They fell into rhythm, kicking their legs in unison, and the bench swung a bit higher.

‘You will get over him, you know,’ Cassie said quietly after a while.

Anouk looked at her hopefully. ‘You think so?’

‘I know so.’

‘Are you over Gil yet?’

Cassie hesitated. ‘Not fully. It’s difficult not having answers to the questions in my head: When did it start? Did he ever love me? I only know what I’ve pieced together myself, and that’s just assumption. It leaves room for doubt.’ She looked at Anouk. ‘Which is dangerous.’

‘What do you mean?’

‘Doubt allows you to still have hope.’

‘And the only way to really get over him is to lose all hope?’

‘I think so,’ Cassie nodded.