Kate's Wedding (3 page)

‘The car’s here,’ Melanie’s sister, Michelle, shouted up the stairs.

Melanie took a few deep breaths as her mother, her grandmother and two of her bridesmaids gathered up the taffeta skirt and train, and helped her down the narrow stairs towards the start of her new life as Mrs Keith Harris, with all its attendant Orville jokes.

Chapter Four

Kate had often walked past the unassuming entrance to Bride on Time while staying at her parents’ new house in a little town on the coast near Southampton. The place had always fascinated her. The red prom dress in the window display (Melanie Harris had seen an opportunity in the imported trend for high-school proms) looked unflattering, uncomfortable and highly inflammable. Who on earth was going to buy that, and who was going to be encouraged to buy a wedding dress by the monstrosities that flanked the red frock? They were perfect early-
Neighbours
-era Kylie. In fact, it was quite possible that they had been lurking around in the stockroom since the 1980s. None of the dresses benefited from being seen through a film of yellow cellophane, designed to stop the fabric from discolouring in the sun.

Kate couldn’t imagine how the business survived, stuck above a mini-mart with such an uninspiring window display. Perhaps it was a cover for a brothel, she suggested to her father, John, as they walked by together one afternoon. John said he thought his daughter might be right. He liked to imagine all sorts of goings-on in the small town where he and Kate’s mother had chosen to spend their retirement for its proximity to Kate’s sister and their grandchild. Kate’s parents had a nickname for every familiar passerby.

‘There goes Keith Richards on his way to the bottle bank,’ Kate’s mum, Elaine, commented as a man who hadn’t changed his look since 1973 shuffled by the kitchen window.

‘I see Joan Collins is being measured for some new guttering,’ said John as a van pulled up outside a house owned by a glamorous widow.

‘Do you think that’s a wig?’ Elaine asked Kate as Joan Collins opened the door to her visitors. ‘Your father thinks that’s her real hair. I keep telling him it’s a wig.’

Kate humoured her parents both. Commenting on the neighbours kept them off the subject of her own life, at least.

That said, one of the many things Kate would always be grateful to her parents for was the care they took not to interfere in their grown daughters’ private lives. Kate had many friends who claimed they had been endlessly pressured by their parents to get married and start producing grandchildren. By contrast, Kate’s own parents had never been anything but supportive of Kate’s right to live her life exactly as she chose. Married, single, straight, gay, left, right . . . they didn’t mind at all. They never once mentioned how nice it would be to have Kate settled down. Except for one incident when Kate had just turned thirty and her father came in from the garden with a toad.

‘Kiss it,’ he said. ‘It may be your last chance.’

Kate hadn’t brought a boyfriend home in seven years when she introduced Ian to her mum and dad. She would have liked for them to get to know Dan, but Dan seemed to think that agreeing to meet her parents would be tantamount to agreeing to a wedding and so he never did meet them, though he was always polite enough to ask how they were.

Ian was different. He insisted that he be allowed to meet Kate’s family surprisingly early on, perhaps only three months after they first met.

‘Are you sure?’ Kate asked.

‘Of course I’m sure. I want to know everything about you,’ he said. ‘I especially want to know where you came from.’

So Kate drove him down to the south coast for Sunday lunch. He did all the right things. He brought flowers, praised the food and offered to help wash up. He complimented Kate’s sister, Tess, on her new boots. He found common ground with Kate’s brother-in-law, Mike, on the subject of a disastrous cricket season. He was suitably enthusiastic when Kate’s five-year-old niece, Lily, insisted on demonstrating the song she would be singing in the school play. He didn’t even seem to mind that Lily started from the beginning every time she made a mistake. Which was often. He just kept on smiling through.

Later in the afternoon, the entire family went for a walk down by the seafront. Ian strode ahead with Mike and John, carrying Lily on his shoulders. Kate lagged behind with her mother and sister.

‘Lily likes him,’ Tess observed.

‘I like him,’ said Elaine. ‘He’s a very nice young man.’

‘Young?’ Kate laughed. ‘He’s forty-five.’

‘And he’s never been married, you say?’

‘Never.’

‘That’s good,’ said Elaine, before adding in a stage whisper, ‘None of that
complication
.’

Though Elaine refrained from saying it out loud, Kate knew she was thinking about Dan and his never-ending divorce proceedings.

‘Your father seems to like him too,’ Elaine continued.

‘I know he must be special,’ said Tess, ‘because you haven’t brought anyone home since that bloke with the BMW. What was his name? Nice car, shame about the—’

‘God, that was ages ago. Let’s not talk about him,’ said Kate. Her entire body shivered as she remembered Sebastian, the BMW driver, who had asked her to whip him while he cavorted in a pair of her stockings. Kate knew Tess already thought her private life was a bit of a joke. Tess didn’t know the half of it. There were many good reasons why Kate hadn’t brought someone home in so long.

Anyway, Ian definitely passed muster that afternoon. From that day forward Elaine always asked after him whenever she phoned for a chat. Ian was a big fan of West Ham FC, so John made an effort to know how the team was doing and asked Kate to pass on her congratulations if a match had gone well. Never before had Kate’s parents been so keen to know about a boyfriend. Tess, too, always wanted to know what Ian was up to and what was his opinion on this, that or other aspect of her sister’s life. They could not have made it more obvious that they approved of Ian Turner. That was how Kate knew her family would be pleased with their news.

It was difficult to keep quiet about the engagement until they were able to tell their parents. After the initial shock of the proposal, Kate’s feelings on the subject had quickly settled into the proper euphoria. The rest of the mini-break in Paris was just wonderful. For the first time in her life Kate found herself actually going
into
a jewellery shop with a man. Dan had always tugged her past jewellers’ windows at high speed, as though the unobtainable glitter might send her insane. Now Ian was insisting that they visit every jeweller on the Place Vendôme – Boucheron, Chaumet, Bulgari. In Boucheron, Kate tried on a yellow diamond as big as an almond. When the sales assistant announced the price, which was roughly equivalent to the cost of a brand-new Porsche, Kate kept her nerve and continued to admire the stone, while Ian told the assistant that the ring was ‘too big for anyone but a transvestite’.

Afterwards, back out on the street, Kate and Ian laughed so hard they thought their sides would burst. They tried on a considerably more modest solitaire in Tiffany at Galeries Lafayette, but ultimately decided to get a less expensive copy made in Hatton Garden when they got home.

When they weren’t shopping for a fantasy engagement ring, they stopped on street corners all over Paris to share kisses. They held hands over dinner, breakfast and lunch. They twirled round the Tuileries like a couple half their age.

On the Eurostar back to London, Kate felt a sense of calm underlying the excitement of what was to come. She looked at Ian dozing beside her. That snore of his was now hers for life, but she didn’t mind about that. Ian really wanted her, and she wanted him too. More than anything. They would look after each other. Together they would build a wonderful life. At last Kate had found her for-ever love.

Back in London, the guy in the dry-cleaner’s asked Kate if she was sure she hadn’t flown to Poland for a quick nip and tuck, rather than to Paris for a mini-break.

‘You look radiant,’ he said.

Kate’s mother agreed with the dry-cleaner’s pronouncement when she saw Kate climb out of Ian’s car the following Saturday. When the news had been shared, Elaine clapped her hands together and said, ‘I knew it! I knew it the moment I saw you get out of the car. You look transformed.’

And Kate really did feel transformed. All her adult life she had told herself that it didn’t bother her whether she got married or not, but the truth was, she had been blindsided by joy. And there was something about her parents’ reaction that gave the lie to the notion that they too had been entirely happy with her prolonged bout of spinsterhood. The only word for her parents that afternoon was ‘ecstatic’. Their unabashed happiness made Kate feel happier still.

When Tess arrived, an hour or so later, she squealed her own delight at her big sister’s announcement. Mike shook Ian’s hand and assured him, in dark tones, ‘The fun starts here.’

Lily, just turned six, seemed a little confused by all the congratulations and the kissing.

‘You’re going to have an uncle Ian,’ Tess told her.

‘I thought you said I could have a Dream Pony stable set,’ Lily responded.

After much prompting, Lily eventually wished her Auntie Kate ‘Congratulations’ and gave her new Uncle Ian a reluctant kiss on the cheek. Then she insisted on all the lights in her grandparents’ living room being turned off so that she could put on ‘a show’ in the newly engaged couple’s honour.

‘This is such good news, Kate.’ Tess wouldn’t stop squeezing her hand all afternoon and evening. ‘Especially, you know, especially right now.’ Tess looked deep into her eyes.

At last Kate caught her meaning. In all the excitement about the engagement, Kate had forgotten that her mother had been in hospital that week, as an out-patient, for some tests following an abnormal mammogram. Nothing serious, they’d hoped, but Kate had completely forgotten to ask the outcome. She followed her mother out to the kitchen to help her make another round of tea.

‘How was the hospital visit?’ Kate asked.

‘Let’s not talk about that now,’ said Elaine. ‘It was boring. Today is about your engagement.’ Elaine cupped Kate’s face in her hands. ‘My little girl is getting married!’

‘I’m not a little girl. I’m thirty-nine.’

‘You’ll always be my little girl. I can’t tell you how much it means to me and your dad that you’ve got someone to take care of you now. It’s such a relief.’

Elaine’s eyes glittered. She didn’t need to say anything else. Kate knew that the hospital visit had confirmed that something wasn’t quite right. Though they continued to celebrate for the rest of the evening, the happy engagement bubble had already burst.

Chapter Five

Having been given much more notice than Kate Williamson’s parents, Susie Ashcroft was able to make sure that her only daughter’s engagement was celebrated in real style. Of course, Susie had keys to her daughter and future son-in-law’s house, so while they were still at Cliveden, basking in the post-engagement glow (and running up a credit-card bill that would take Ben months to clear), Susie and Nicole, Diana’s best friend since primary school, let themselves in to set up a party.

They invited forty other close friends and relations to help share the joy. Everyone mucked in, hanging brightly coloured ‘Congratulations’ banners all over Diana’s tastefully neutral decoration scheme. Nicole inflated fifty gold and silver balloons. The effort nearly killed her. Susie cut the crusts off 200 smoked-salmon sandwiches. An enormous cake was brought in from the very best local bakery. When the bride-to-be texted to say that she and Ben had just turned off the motorway, Susie ushered the engagement-party guests into hiding in the darkened living room.

‘Surprise!’ they shouted as Ben shuffled in first.

Ben, who had been looking forward to a restorative hour on his Xbox for the entire drive back to Southampton, gamely put on a show of delight. Diana, however, was genuinely delighted. A surprise party was the best thing in the world, as far as she was concerned. What was the point of bagging her man if everybody didn’t know about it? She flashed her new engagement ring and regaled the entire gathering with a description of their suite at the hotel.

‘It had a separate dressing area. That makes such a difference. I told Ben we should knock through from the box room and have a separate dressing room here.’

Then she wowed her friends with the news that one of last year’s
X Factor
contestants had been staying at Cliveden at the same time.

‘He’s much smaller in real life,’ she said, ‘and his girlfriend looked like a right old skank. But then didn’t I always say he was gay? She’s probably his PA, helping him scotch the gay rumours. They didn’t look very together in a real way.’

No one seemed to notice, or care, that Diana hadn’t described the proposal itself. Not when there was
X Factor
gossip to be had.

The clingfilm came off the sandwiches and champagne corks were popped. The champagne came courtesy of Diana’s father, who was unfortunately unable to attend that evening’s celebrations. He was still at work. He had his own business fitting kitchens and often carried on over the weekends.

‘Trust him,’ said Diana. ‘He’s always working.’

‘He’ll need to work twice as hard now,’ said Nicole, ‘to pay for your wedding. Have you thought about your venue yet?’

‘Cliveden would be amazing,’ said Diana.

It was possibly for the best that Diana’s father wasn’t there. His doctor had recently told him to avoid putting too much stress on his heart.

Diana and Ben’s engagement party was still in full swing at midnight. Ben grinned his way through it all, though he wanted nothing more than a few moments to himself. He managed just twenty minutes on his own in the master bedroom’s en suite before Diana came knocking on the door, demanding to touch up her make-up. She seemed very happy. She pressed a kiss on Ben’s cheek as they passed in the bathroom doorway. She might have been less affectionate had she known who he’d been texting in those few brief minutes of alone time.