Mother of the Bride (7 page)

‘There is a small church near the castle grounds,' Hugo told them. ‘Guests often get married in it. Also some of our guests have fireworks at midnight to celebrate their nuptials,' he added. ‘We don't disturb anyone, as the castle grounds are quite extensive. Our lands cover about eighty acres of countryside.'

‘Fireworks!' Amy definitely wanted fireworks!

‘Would you two like some coffee?' asked Hugo. ‘I was about to have one myself. I'll get Noeleen to bring us up something.'

Ten minutes later they were sitting in the large front drawing room, helping themselves to sliced home-made gingerbread as they drank fresh-roasted coffee and perused a brochure on the castle and the range of facilities it offered. Another showed the menu options provided by the recommended caterers that the castle normally used. Hugo explained the price breakdown to them.

Amy tried not to blink when he told them it cost ten thousand euros to rent the castle for a wedding, but this included the use of its twenty bedrooms for two nights, providing accommodation for forty people. It was so expensive! Catering and the bar costs were extra; and even tables, chairs, glasses, crockery and linens had to be hired. However, even at a quick glance the prices that the castle's caterers charged seemed far more competitive than those of any of the hotels they had been considering. As Amy looked at the menus she tried to do a quick mental calculation to see if any savings could be made there.

‘When were you hoping to have your wedding?' Hugo asked, stirring his coffee.

‘We were hoping for some time in the summer,' said Amy, holding her breath.

‘I suspect our calendar is very full,' he apologized. ‘My wife usually organizes these things, but if you want I'll go to the office and check. I'm not sure if we have any dates left for next summer. Let me have a look in my own diary.'

Amy held her breath as he pulled a small leather diary from inside his jacket pocket and looked through the date planner.

‘The only date we seem to have left is a Friday, the twenty-third of October. Then we close after Halloween and don't reopen until Easter.'

Amy loved the place but really didn't want to get married in late October.

‘Hold on, I've something crossed out here for the sixth of June. We were holding it for a local opera company's open-air performance
but I have a feeling there is a problem with it. I need to check in the office with Tamsin, but I have a feeling that Saturday the sixth of June might actually be available.'

Amy couldn't believe it. A Saturday in June available! She was almost bouncing up and down in the chair with excitement. Renting the castle was exorbitant, but it was so perfect.

‘Listen, I'll go and check with my daughter,' excused Hugo. ‘You two have a wander around the place and come back to the office afterwards.'

‘Dan, I love it!' Amy declared, excited, as they strolled around the garden. ‘Please say you love it too. It's perfect. You know it is!'

‘It's a great place but it's so expensive to hire,' he said reluctantly. ‘And you don't get as much as a chair or a serviette for that!'

‘When we went to Sarah's wedding in the marquee in her parents' garden they had to hire everything, too, even three Portaloos!'

‘I doubt the marquee cost as much as this place! Listen, Amy, we need to get a calculator and crunch some numbers. Do a few comparisons on price.'

‘But, Dan, this is where I want us to have our wedding,' she pleaded. ‘It's so perfect.'

‘I know it's perfect.' He grinned. ‘But what about your parents? I know your dad wants to pay for the wedding, but it's going to cost a fortune, and then there are all the other extra costs you have to take into account. I think we should pay some of those, Amy, it's only fair . . .'

Amy totally agreed with him. Her mum and dad were so good and generous, but they had probably no idea how much a big wedding could cost! She and Dan both had good jobs and savings accounts, and sharing some of the wedding expenses would make it easier on everyone.

‘This is exactly what we are looking for,' she insisted. ‘We've looked everywhere and this is by far the best that we have seen. It's
absolutely gorgeous. My mum and dad and your mum and dad will love it. I know they will. Just wait till they see it.'

‘Are you sure, Amy?'

‘Of course,' she said, trying to dispel any qualms she had about the price of the castle rental.

‘It seems crazy spending so much on a wedding,' he reasoned. ‘I think we should talk to Paddy and Helen about it, see what they think before we decide. I know it's by far the best we've seen, but I just don't know if we can afford it.'

‘Let's go talk to Hugo,' urged Amy, giving him a big hug.

Hugo's office was in the west wing of the castle, with a huge window overlooking the grounds. A computer and screen were on the massive mahogany desk, and the shelves around the small room were packed with books and maps and photographs.

‘I talked to Tamsin and she checked our calendar of bookings,' he said, tapping quickly on the keyboard. ‘The summer, as I said, is already totally booked, but you're in luck as that opera date on Saturday the sixth of June is definitely now available. There was meant to be a wonderful open-air production of
Carmen
coming in, but due to the current economic climate the company has decided not to go ahead with staging it this year. It's most unfortunate, and very disappointing for local opera-lovers, but that Saturday in June is available if you are interested. Otherwise we go into October, like I mentioned.'

‘You have a Saturday in June, just the day we are looking for,' said Amy, unable to contain her excitement. ‘Please can you book us in for the sixth?'

‘The procedure is that I will put you in our books and up on the computer so this date will become yours,' smiled the castle owner. ‘I will need a small deposit of three hundred euros to hold the booking, and the rest of the deposit will be due in eight weeks, with the full payment due six weeks before your wedding.'

‘I want my parents to see it, if that's all right,' explained Amy. Her
mum and dad had been looking at a few venues, too. ‘Maybe they could come to see it next weekend if they are free?'

‘They will be most welcome,' Hugo agreed as he took Dan's credit card details and printed them out a receipt.

Walking back towards the car half an hour later, Amy was elated. It was the most perfect place ever. She and Dan had actually found somewhere they both agreed on. They had their wedding date set and they had Castle Gregory. Amy couldn't believe it!

About half a mile down the road they found the small grey-stone church which Hugo had mentioned. It was locked, but from the outside it looked perfect. It was surrounded by oak and beech trees and there was a little graveyard and a path that led back up towards the castle.

‘It's so beautiful,' she whispered.

Dan took her hands in his.

‘I love you, Amy,' he said, touching her face. ‘If there was a priest here I'd marry you right now and forget all the palaver and fuss. It would be just the two of us here in this little church under the trees.'

‘I love you, too,' she said. ‘And it will always be the two of us for ever and ever. But having our wedding here with all the people we love around us will be wonderful, Dan. I know it will.'

‘OK.' He sighed, kissing her. ‘On the sixth of June, in this little church, we will become husband and wife, if that's what you want.'

‘I do,' she said, kissing him back. ‘I do.'

Helen and Paddy were just getting ready to sit down to eat when Dan and Amy arrived. Amy had phoned them, all excited, the night before, saying they had found the perfect wedding venue and that they would call around to talk to them about it.

‘Come for Sunday dinner, then,' Helen had insisted. ‘You can tell us all about it then.'

She'd a leg of lamb roasting in the oven, alongside a vegetable roast she had copied from a recipe book for Ciara.

Amy's eyes were shining, and she was almost jumping around the living room with excitement as she told them about Castle Gregory.

‘Mum, wait till you see the place,' she enthused. ‘It's just stunning. Imagine getting married in a castle! It's so gorgeous and romantic, and we can have fireworks if we want!'

‘All the footballers and pop stars get married in castles,' nodded Sheila, who came to Helen and Paddy's almost every Sunday. ‘I see the photos in
Hello
and
VIP
magazine when I'm in the hair-dresser's.'

‘Exactly,' murmured Paddy under his breath, ‘because it's so bloody expensive.'

‘Gran, it's not that type of wedding or that type of castle,' Amy tried to explain patiently. ‘It's a much smaller castle, but it has such spectacular views, and it's the most perfect place for a wedding ever!'

‘What do you think, Dan?' asked Paddy, leaning forward to look at the brochure and price list.

‘The castle isn't as big as Dromoland or Ashford, but it's still amazing, Paddy, and something a bit different from a run-of-the-mill hotel, I guess,' said Dan enthusiastically. ‘We can hire the place for the night, and have it all to ourselves, which would be great. There's a church only a few minutes away, which if we get permission to use would make everything so easy.'

‘I think it looks fabulous!' Helen enthused, equally excited at the thought of having a big summer wedding in a castle. ‘It's really lovely.'

‘But wouldn't hiring a place like that be outrageously expensive?' said Paddy, frowning as he began to study the price list.

‘It is expensive,' admitted Dan, ‘but the total cost also includes the use of twenty bedrooms, which if you factor it in is quite a lot. Also their menu comes in at quite a few euros less than most of the big places that we have looked at.'

‘Well, I'm glad to hear that,' said Paddy, somewhat sarcastically, reading the figures. ‘This bloody castle costs a small fortune to rent.'

‘Amy and I want to pay some of the costs, Paddy,' offered Dan. ‘We couldn't possibly expect you and Helen to take it all on.'

Paddy reddened and buried himself in the brochures.

‘Please, Dad, will you and Mammy just go and look at it?' begged Amy, refusing to listen to her father's negative comments. ‘We could all go down again next Saturday, and maybe we could see if the little church was open so we could have a look at it, too.'

‘That sounds grand, pet,' smiled Helen, wishing that Paddy wouldn't always be such a wet blanket. He was the one who had said
he would always pay for his daughter's wedding, and already he was beginning to gripe about it. Honestly,
men
!

Slipping away into the kitchen, she could see the roast was ready, and called everyone to the table. Ronan, with his usual good timing where mealtimes were concerned, had arrived unexpectedly with Krista, the two of them sitting down to eat at the kitchen table, too.

‘There's enough for everyone.' Helen laughed as Paddy carved.

Ciara's dish was a mush of brown vegetables, and Helen hoped that it tasted better than it looked. She heaped an extra roast potato on to Ciara's plate.

‘Delicious!' praised Paddy. ‘That's a fine piece of lamb.'

Helen watched as her mother and Ronan, Paddy, Dan, Krista and Amy all tucked into the meat with gusto. Poor Ciara squished her vegetables around the plate.

‘Is it all right, Ciara?'

‘It'll do,' Ciara said grimly, reaching for a helping of carrots and some more golden roast potatoes.

‘Your mother has enough to be doing cooking a big meal for everyone, without having to do a separate one for you,' remarked Paddy, looking at her.

‘Eating lamb is barbaric,' insisted Ciara.

‘We are not discussing it at the table,' insisted Helen. ‘Anyway, I don't mind trying out some vegetarian dishes. I just need to find a better cookbook.'

Paddy, a confirmed meat-eater, harrumphed, but nobody else said anything.

‘Why don't you two tell us more about this castle,' Helen encouraged. She and Paddy had promised to go and see it the following weekend.

Ciara O'Connor watched from behind the counter of Danger Dan's, the vintage comic shop in Temple Bar where she worked part-time, for Jay to appear. She finished work in half an hour and he had said he'd meet her here.

‘Have you got a
Vampire Brides of Transylvania
?' a nerdy guy with silver glasses asked. He was a regular, and Ciara pointed him towards the case over on the right, and the bottom shelf where the rare 1960s editions could be found.

Business had been good, and she'd been on her feet all day. She'd restocked some of the shelves with the latest X-Men issues and had taken incessant orders for customers.

‘Do you have issue number six of
The Generation
?' asked Alan Swan, another regular. He worked as an editor round the corner in Film Base and Ciara knew that he was writing his own horror film script with the hope of getting the Film Board interested in funding it. A good percentage of their customers were either writing scripts, writing books or trying to develop games based on obscure comic-book heroes. They were dreamers! But, hey, some dreams do come true!

That was how Ciara had met Jay McEnroe. He was eight years
older than she, with a shaved head, black goatee beard and a penchant for dressing like he had stepped out of a Mad Max movie. They'd met at a gig in Curzon's, where her best friend Dara Brennan's band was playing. Jay told her he was writing a big Gothic novel and that she looked just like its main character, Lisette.

A few weeks later, as she lay on the couch in Jay's flat in Rathmines reading a few chapters, Ciara had to admit that Lisette bore more than a passing resemblance to her, and was very flattered.