Mostly she was looking forward to seeing William. He had rung her while she was in bed and it had been lovely talking to him. Sadly one of the things he had said was that he wouldn’t be able to get to the house until just before the party, but that was OK as she was used to dealing with these things on her own.
As she went round, snipping and stripping off excess leaves, she fought the cold little bit of her heart that reminded her Martin was unhappy. But she wouldn’t have behaved differently, she realised, she was just as entitled to happiness as he was. He would get over it. He was an adult and he would eventually realise she was allowed to be happy with another man.
She left the flowers in her favourite dark shed to soak up as much water as they could (she was aware she should have picked them the previous evening) and then went up to have a shower. She would getready after Helena had come and helped her arrange the flowers.
A shower using her favourite honey-scented soap cheered her and she pulled on some old and comfortable clothes which were also soothing. The outfit she and Helena had chosen the previous day was hanging outside the wardrobe. She didn’t dare look at it too closely in case she changed her mind and had to go through the whole process again.
She remembered Helena’s surprise that she hadn’t wanted to buy anything new. This made her laugh – Helena was notoriously reluctant to buy new clothes herself.
She had finished doing her make-up when Helena arrived.
‘Are you up there! I’m here to do the flowers!’ She ran up the stairs. ‘Oh! Jeans and an old linen shirt – I thought we’d sorted out your outfit yesterday? Your hair’s looking good though.’
‘Thanks! But I’m not going to do the flowers in my glad rags. Let’s have a cup of coffee and get these flowers done. Time is moving on!’
When there were flowers on every table and the large arrangements had been tweaked (not everything looked as perky as it should have done) Helena and Gilly looked around them.
‘Oh, this is exactly what I’d love for my wedding!’ said Helena.
‘Yes, but it’d only work if you just want something very small,’ Gilly reminded her patiently.
A split second later Helena said, ‘I think something a bit bigger would be lovely as long as it can be here, like this. But we’ll squash it into the garden somehow.’
When Gilly went up to dress she realised that Helena wasn’t particularly bothered about having a big wedding but that she wanted her mother to have what she wanted for her daughter. She was touched and knew she was very lucky that they got on so well. They were bound together by adversity, she decided, and that was why she and Martin weren’t as bonded.
As Gilly was tweaking her hair and worrying about her earrings she was aware of feeling anxious – stage fright probably – and then she heard the front door creak.
She went to the top of the stairs and listened. It could be the one bed and breakfast guest she hadn’t managed to cancel, or one of Franco’s staff members. It was unlikely to be a burglar but she thought she should go down and check.
She was halfway down the stairs when she saw a man with his back to her looking at the visitors’ book. On the bottom step she realised it wasn’t a burglar, it was worse.
It was Leo.
He turned as he heard her and she realised when she saw him properly that he was very drunk. She took a breath. She would have to play this very carefully.
‘I heard you were having a party,’ he said.
‘Yes. But I didn’t invite you, Leo.’
‘No! You didn’t! That’s because you’re having it with your new fancy man!’
‘His name is William,’ she said calmly, lowering her voice, hoping it would encourage him to lower his.
‘I know what his name is! He’s your accountant. And does he know that you must have been keeping us both on a string at the same time?’
‘It wasn’t like that, Leo, and now could you please leave?’
‘No. You may think you can have everything you want but you can’t.’
‘I can have who I like in my house and I don’t want you in it, so please leave.’
‘Is it your house though? Or is it your children’s heritage?’
‘You’re drunk, Leo. You’re not making sense.’ He was giving her information about how he got to know about the party though. Martin must have told him for some reason. Possibly spite.
‘Oh, I am making sense! I’m just not quite as clever about life as you are, am I? You saw the main chance and you took it. You decided shacking upwith your boring accountant was a better bet than I was. Women don’t reject me, sweetheart, I reject them!’ He started to walk towards her.
Gilly was beginning to feel really frightened now. It was early, no one who was likely to come into the house was due yet and William said he might not be able to arrive until just before the guests were due. Leo was so menacing, angry, resentful. The thought that he might try to rape her crossed her mind. She didn’t let it linger. She was a relatively fit woman and she could either fight him off or escape. She backed away, edging towards the sitting-room door. The French windows were open; if she got into the sitting room she could get outside.
