Married By Christmas (30 page)

‘Thank you!’ Anna called over her shoulder into the wind-whipped snow to the tractor driver who had climbed out of the lopsided vehicle and was standing in the road staring after them, dumbstruck. ‘I’ll send you my insurance details! And tell Aunt Nancy I’m very sorry!’

As they ploughed on through the snow, with Anna’s soaking hair clinging to her freezing face and shoulders, it seemed that more and more people were there along the way waiting for them, cheering them on. Little girls jumping up and down in their wellies, little boys hanging out of bedroom windows, whooping. What Anna didn’t know was that as she’d left the church, a flurry of texts, phone calls and tweets followed her, until the news of her journey overtook her, unfurling before the curious little party, and lining the roads with unexpected supporters who were there to cheer them on, take in the spectacle, or just be part of something that so oddly summed up the optimism and magic of Christmas: a woman in a wedding dress, careering through the snow on a reindeer-drawn sleigh, hoping to make a wisp of a wish come true.

‘What’s going on?’ Anna shouted to a group of cheering teenage girls, tinsel hanging round their necks, standing atop a flat-roofed garage, filming her on their phones as they whizzed by.

‘You’re trending on Twitter!’ one called after her. ‘#runawaybride! You’re awesome!’

‘Oh no,’ Anna thought, realising that her determination to never be noticed had been well and truly blown and then feeling rather wonderful about it. If there was ever a way to start a new life then this was it.

It was only when they came to the first main road, running through Dunstable, that the reindeer man had to pull them to a slow trot and eventually into a lay-by.

‘Oh no, what’s going on?’Anna asked him, clambering out of the sleigh with some difficulty, her sodden skirts feeling like they weighed a ton. ‘We’re nowhere near yet!’

‘I’m sorry,’ he apologised. ‘If we go any further, the animals will get scared. They don’t normally do this sort of thing. They normally pootle round the zoo with a few kids onboard. There’s lorries and all sorts on this road, if I take you any further it would be unfair on them.’

‘That’s OK.’ Anna stroked the lead deer on the nose and kissed him between his eyes. ‘Thank you, you have all been amazing,’ Anna told the driver breathlessly before turning back to the road. ‘And I’ve got fifteen minutes left so …’

Anna must have been quite a sight star-jumping in her muddy wedding gown at the side of the road, desperately trying to flag down a car, but clearly not the whole world was connected to their social networks that day, as several went by without stopping. It was the fifth or sixth one – incredibly a canary yellow Ferrari – that finally pulled over and, as soon as he did, Anna could see why. If anyone was going to be up for picking up a bedraggled Christmas bride, it would be these two. The driver was a very good-looking man, dressed as Santa, which might have given her cause to wonder if he was a Christmas-themed pervert, except that there was a young woman sitting next to him, dressed as an elf, and she was wearing a wedding ring. They had to be off to a fancy dress party or something.

‘Hello.’ The woman opened the door. ‘You look like you are very much in need of a Christmas miracle.’

‘I don’t suppose you can get me to Departures at Luton in ten minutes?’ Anna asked the couple. ‘I’d be awfully grateful.’

‘No problem,’ Santa said. ‘Amy will hop in the back, and you can slide in the passenger seat then you can make a quick exit.’

‘Although I’d quite like to point out that if I slide anywhere in these trousers I will build quite a considerable charge of static electricity.’ His wife – Amy – grinned at Anna as she crammed herself into the tiny back seat. ‘You’d think they use quality material at the North Pole, wouldn’t you, but no apparently there’s a recession on there too.’

Anna laughed as she bundled herself and several metres of soaking muddy tulle into the car.

‘I’m really sorry about your upholstery,’ she apologised.

‘Oh, it’s fine, I’ll get the elves to detail it later.’

‘I think you’ll find car washing is not in our job description,’ Amy called cheerfully from the back. ‘Do it yourself.’

The husband was really far too handsome to make a convincing Santa, but they seemed like a nice enough couple and really, she would have considered getting into a car with an axe-wielding maniac if he’d agreed to get her to the airport in time to catch Miles.

‘Thank you ever so much,’ Anna told Santa as he pulled away. ‘You don’t know how much this means to me.’

Santa nodded as the reindeer began to trot off in the opposite direction. He saluted their keeper as he passed, as if they might know each other. ‘It’s not a problem, and those chaps are all very well and good.’ He smiled at Anna. ‘But sometimes you need a little bit of horsepower and a V8 engine to get the job done.’

They skidded to a halt right outside the departure lounge, and Amy leaned over the back seat and helped push Anna, hoops and all, out onto the pavement.

‘I hope your Christmas wish comes true,’ she said by way of goodbye.

‘Good luck, Anna!’ Santa added through the open window just before he and Amy sped off into the snow. Anna gave them a hurried wave, wondering exactly when in their short journey she had mentioned her name …

There was no time to lose though, as Anna realised that she was seconds away from Miles going through to catch his flight and possibly never seeing him again. Searching the board vainly, she realised she had no idea where he was going, because there were no direct flights to Texas from Luton, no flights to the USA at all, which meant he had to be changing somewhere, somewhere he could catch an international flight … then she remembered he’d told her his first flight was to Paris. Anna picked up her skirts and ran as best as she could, considering that due to her corset her lung capacity was now at about ten per cent and her dress felt like it weighed fifteen stone all by itself. It was, however, an unforeseen benefit of careering around an airport in a wedding dress that people tended to get out of her way.

‘Final call for flight zero seven six zero to Charles de Gaulle, Paris,’ a pleasant female voice came over the tannoy. ‘Final call, check-in is about to close.’

And then she saw him, or the back of his head at least, about to go through security.

‘Miles!’Anna meant to shout his name, but nothing came out. She’d used up all of her puff, running in wellingtons. Taking a second to pause, she knew she had one last chance and, mustering up every last ounce of breath she had, she shouted his name: ‘Miles!’

Anna watched, disbelieving, as he disappeared through the security gate and vanished from sight.

Sinking down onto the muddy and damp airport floor, Anna deflated into the billows of her skirt and wept for the first time. It didn’t matter to her that she’d ended her relationship with Tom – or rather he with her – that her dream wedding had disintegrated around her, or that she’d more or less ruined her perfect dress beyond repair, or that even now, somewhere her best friend and sister and former fiancé were working things out between them for their future. All of that seemed right, it seemed fitting. What Anna could not accept was that she had let Miles go, that despite her best efforts – and those of assorted reindeer and Santa himself – she had not made it to the airport in time to tell him that she loved him too.

‘Why are you crying?’

‘Because you left before I could … Oh!’ Anna looked up to find Miles standing over her. ‘You haven’t left? Did you hear me calling for you?’

‘No,’ Miles said, holding out a hand to Anna and pulling her to her feet. ‘I heard the people behind me talking about a crazy chick running about in a wedding dress, and I hoped there wasn’t a spate of runaway brides. But it is you as it turns out. You came.’

‘You missed your flight!’ Anna said, apologetically.

‘It’s OK, I’ll get another one, maybe … although it is Christmas Eve and probably all the flights are booked up, but anyway … You are here.’

‘Tom jilted me,’ Anna said.

‘Tom jilted you!’ Miles looked dumbstruck. ‘So is that why you’re here, I’m plan B?’

‘No, oh God no. I was going to marry him because he was nice, and kind and I like him about as much as I’ve ever liked anyone, and Liv wouldn’t tell me not to and I thought he seemed keen and I’ve never been in love before, so I wasn’t sure that it was really for me, all the chaos and uncertainty and the up and downs, I like to know where I stand and what’s going to happen next, or at least I thought I did.’

Miles frowned. ‘Sorry, not sure I followed all that. Am I plan B or not? Because if I run I might just …’

‘You’re something I didn’t plan at all,’ Anna reassured him, taking his hand. ‘Something wonderful. It turns out that actually I am a little bit like my mum. But not the one who left me and never looked back, not that poor sad woman, she’s part of me, she made me, but she’s not my mum. My real mum came to see me today and she said that all I had to do was let myself be happy, let myself feel what it’s like to be really and truly happy and then I will know what to do. Miles, when I’m with you, I feel that way. I feel light-hearted and happy. I got a sleigh, pulled by reindeer, to get here to tell you that …Well, me too.’

Miles smiled. ‘I went there, you have to as well.’

‘I love you too,’ Anna said, simply, a huge smile spreading across her face. ‘Now are we going to do any kissing or are you only any good at talking about it?’

Miles dropped his backpack to the floor, then traced the tips of his fingers along Anna’s jawline. He cinched her waist in the firm grip of his hand and, as their lips met, a spark of electricity vibrated through them both. Winding her fingers in his hair, Anna kissed Miles back, and somewhere, far away, a brass band began to play ‘Rudolph the Red-nosed Reindeer’.

‘Are you going to come and run away with me?’ Miles asked her, grinning from ear to ear, as their lips finally parted.

‘For a while I will,’ Anna said happily. ‘Let’s just see what happens. Suddenly the future seems much more exciting and full of possibility now that I don’t have to stick to a plan.’

Twenty Months Later

Epilogue

Thank God they’d waited until August. The summer had waited almost until the end of July to make an appearance, but now it was here it was in full force. Heat sizzled outside the open French windows, the hum of bees busying themselves in and out of the lupins, the chorus of birdsong making it a perfect summer morning to get married.

‘You look wonderful,’ Anna told Liv. ‘Really, you know how to be a bride, none of this massive frock nonsense. Look at you.’ And it was true. Dressed in soft ivory chiffon, with a simple slash neckline, which made the most of her subtle curves, and fresh flowers garlanding her hair, Liv looked stunning, beautiful and best of all radiantly happy.

‘I never thought I’d see the day,’ Angela said beaming at Liv. ‘Well, I thought I might see the day, but I thought it was more likely to involve Doctor Marten boots and a rainbow flag, not that I would have minded.’

‘Mum!’ Anna and Liv said at once.

‘One thing we know for sure,’ Anna said happily, ‘is that when Tom sees you coming down the aisle, he’s not going to freak out and run away this time.’

‘Don’t joke about it!’ Liv said horrified, although she knew that too. There had never been a more certain thing in her life than her love for Tom and, now he knew what his feelings for her meant, his love for her. Which was why after a year and eight months together Liv didn’t have a single doubt that marrying him was the right thing to do.

‘Don’t worry, darling, I think if he bailed out of a second wedding in his dad’s church he’d get excommunicated or something,’ Angela said, winking at Anna. ‘Certainly disowned.’

‘I do wish you were here though,’ Liv said taking her iPad off the mantelpiece to look into Anna’s eyes, or at least as much as she could through Facetime. ‘What’s it like in Japan anyway?’

‘Crazy mad,’ Anna said. ‘But so worth it. And you and Charisma have made such a success of our business, Liv. Who knew an ex-stripper and failed actress would be so good at marketing. I should have become a silent partner much sooner. I’m much better suited to managing tour logistics anyway. I have a suitcase full of Post-it notes. A suitcase, Liv, I’m in heaven.’

‘And it means you get to see Miles a little bit more.’ Liv smiled. ‘Which is what it’s really all about.’

‘Yes,’ Anna said, grinning. ‘There is that fringe benefit to travelling constantly around the word that I never thought of. However, I’ll be coming home as soon as this tour is done, for a few months anyway, and then Miles and I are going to live in New York while the NYRDs write a new album.’

‘Coming home?’ Angela said. ‘Well, about time too. Are you going to be staying with us? I could clear out your old bedroom. Dad calls it his dungeon now, but that’s a load of stuff and nonsense, if you don’t mind the manacles. They are screwed to the wall, and I don’t want to spoil the wallpaper, it’s Laura Ashley, you know.’

‘Why are you coming back?’ Liv asked her, concerned. ‘I thought you loved life on the road.’

‘I do,’ Anna said. ‘But this one might not …’

She panned the iPad down to show the small but unmistakable swell of her pregnant belly.

‘Oh my God! You’re having a baby!’ Liv said, delighted. ‘Or you’ve given in to cake, one or the other.’

‘It’s a baby!’ Anna laughed.

‘Is Miles the father?’ Angela asked. ‘I’ve heard about these rock and roll tours.’

‘Yes, it’s Miles’s. And I was trying to wait until after the wedding to tell you, but I couldn’t keep it in any longer. You will have a niece or nephew in about six months’ time.’

‘Trying to upstage me as usual.’ Liv smiled, delighted.

‘As if I could.’ Anna smiled too, placing the tips of her fingers on the screen. ‘I miss you, Liv.’

‘I miss you too,’ Liv said.

‘Now, go and get married and start your happy-ever-after. I know mine started on the day I
didn’t
get married, but that’s just me, devil-may-care, footloose, take-life-how-it-comes, roll-with-the-punches me. We can’t all be so rebellious.’

‘Liv!’ A male voice sounded in the background and Miles’s face appeared over Anna’s shoulder, his rough cheek rubbing against hers. ‘Have a great day, babe,’ he added. ‘I wish we could be there, but this gig’s been booked for two years.’

‘It doesn’t matter as long as you are giving Anna the happy ending she’s always dreamed of,’ Liv said.

‘Ending?’ Anna laughed. ‘Oh, Liv, this is just the start of my happy beginning.’