‘Excellent,’ he said, removing his jacket, then his tie and undoing the top button of his shirt.
‘Wow,’ she said, ‘you look like you mean business.’
‘I do! I love to dance!’
‘In which case I’d better remove my jacket too.’
Laughing, they made their way to the dancefloor where he slipped his arms around her waist and after an awkward few moments when they neither seemed to know where to put their feet or their hands, they settled into the rhythm of the song which the happy couple had chosen for their special day.
Hours later and having danced not just with Jakob but also with Hugh’s cousins, and several men she didn’t know, as well as an all-female crowd that had swarmed the dancefloor to ‘It’s Raining Men’, Nina was filled with the pleasurable sensation that she was thoroughly enjoying herself. She had forgotten how much she liked to dance. Dancing, especially with Jakob, was so freeing. Joyously freeing and exhilarating! With Abba’s ‘Dancing Queen’ now thrumming through her and everyone singing along, and Jakob twirling her round and then bringing her in close again, her body felt energised in a way it hadn’t felt in a very long time.
When ‘Dancing Queen’ came to an end there was a swift change of tempo to Ed Sheeran’s ‘Thinking Out Loud’.
‘Do you want to sit this one out?’ she asked breathlessly.
‘Do you?’
She shook her head. She didn’t want this wonderful moment to end. She didn’t want to go back to feeling how she did before, trapped in a suffocating bubble of widowhood. Here on the dancefloor, in this conjured make-believe world with its flowers, ballons and flickering lights, she was a different Nina. It was such a cliché, but God she felt so gloriously alive!
They came together and because she now felt at ease with him, she let herself sink into his embrace. Closing her eyes, she pressed her hands lightly against his shoulder blades, her head touching the side of his neck while his hands encircled her waist. She could feel the thud of his heart beating and the subtlemovement of his hands in the small of her back. It seemed that each time he moved his hands, her own mirrored the exact same thing.
She must have known instinctively what would happen next because she wasn’t at all shocked when it did. Nor did she try to stop Jakob. Or more importantly, stop herself. Instead, as he placed a hand to her neck, she tipped her head back so he could kiss her. And so that she could kiss him.
Chapter Nineteen
What followed next shocked not just Nina to her core, but to everyone who saw the drama unfold. Or what they thought they saw because, and to coin a phrase,recollections may vary.But however the story was destined to be pieced together, it would become the stuff of wedding lore, a tale that would be embellished with every retelling of it.
By the time an ambulance had arrived, the incident had already found its way onto social media and had racked up hundreds of likes which had rapidly multiplied into thousands and then hundreds of thousands. Who knew what number it had since reached.
Now, and back at Hope Hall with dawn not far off, and her Chanel suit exchanged for a pair of pyjamas, Nina was in bed with a thumping headache. There was a dressing applied to the back of her head beneath which, so she’d been informed, were four stitches, along with a small shaved area of her scalp. The hair would grow back but Nina wasn’t so sure about her pride and self-esteem.
And what about my mother’s pride and self-esteem?asked a quiet voice from inside her thumping head. It was Hugh.Imagine how she must feel. Imagine how ashamed she must be feeling.
I don’t care about her, thought Nina, turning to look at the framed photograph in the lamplight on the bedside table. It wasof her and Hugh on their honeymoon in the Maldives, the two of them looking golden and carefree and with not a clue of what lay ahead for them.
I’m sorry, Hugh,murmured Nina,I’m beyond caring what your mother thinks or feels. I don’t owe her anything, certainly not my forgiveness. What’s more, I did nothing wrong. I really didn’t. I’m allowed to be happy.
She moved the photograph so she couldn’t see Hugh smiling at her and swallowing down the threat of tears, she squeezed her eyes shut. But it was the wrong thing to do because now she was back inside the wedding marquee and hearing a very different voice. It was Hilary’s, and it wasn’t her usual measured tone undercut with a steeliness that brooked no argument, this was more of a demonic screech with Hilary grappling to wrench Nina out of Jakob’s arms.
‘How could you?’ Hilary shrieked above the music, her hate-filled face just inches from Nina’s. ‘How could you make such a spectacle of yourself? What would poor Hugh think of your disgusting behaviour, and in front of his entire family?’
Stunned at the virulence coming at her from Hilary, and not wanting to escalate things, especially as guests around them had now stopped dancing and were watching, Nina turned to Jakob to suggest they discreetly get off the dancefloor.
‘Don’t you dare turn away from me when I’m talking to you!’ Hilary screamed.
Nina inhaled sharply. ‘You’re not talking to me,’ she said, ‘you’re screaming at me like a mad woman and embarrassing yourself into the bargain.’
‘It’s you who’s embarrassing yourself, coming here and deliberately flaunting your boyfriend. A boyfriend who looks young enough to have still been at school when you married my darling Hugh! Do you have any idea how ridiculous you look with him?’
‘Not half as ridiculous as you’re making yourself look right now,’ Nina said, squaring up to her mother-in-law. ‘Now leave me alone. What I do is none of your business. My life is my own and I’ll do whatever I want to do, and that includes being with somebody new. You have no rights over me. None whatsoever!’
‘Then all I can say,’ Hilary hissed savagely at Nina, ‘is that you were never worthy to be the mother of my grandchild.’
‘Good, because why would I want any child of mine to have a grandmother as rude and viciously spiteful as you?’
Whether or not Hilary had run out of ammunition at that point, she fell quiet, and in that moment, Nina noticed that an array of mobile phones had magically appeared all around them and were being held aloft to record the exchange in all its hideous awfulness.
That was when Jakob intervened and with calm authority, he put a hand to Nina’s elbow to guide her away. But his gesture seemed to reignite Hilary and with a swiftness that took Nina completely unawares, the woman came at her and pushed Nina so hard in the chest, her feet went from beneath her and she felt herself flying backwards until her head hit the floor with an excruciating thump.
