I managed to follow along and even asked some questions that seemed to go down okay.
“Can you come to Erin’s meal? I know I gave you all the details, but I can’t remember if you said yes.” Harriet slipped off the stool.
“I can come. I’m not on shift. How’s Rose been, by the way?” I’d already had an update from Fallon, but her take on things could sometimes be a bit different from others', depending what else she’d had going on in her life at the time. Harriet lived with Rose and knew her in a different way.
“Mainly busy with work and bad dates.” She smiled, not meeting my eye. “She’s been helping her cousin out with a few things too, and you know how manic her family can be.”
I nodded, remembering. “Doesn’t she want a break from it all and to move to Stratford-Upon-Avon too?”
Harriet shook her head. “I doubt it. Not now you’re back.”
Laurie phoned me at midnight, which was only seven in the evening where she was. She was flustered and irritated, partly with me, although she was trying not to let it show.
“I’ve booked the hotel rooms for my family. June tenth for five nights. How am I going to cope with them for five nights?” This was one of her biggest worries.
“You won’t see them every night. They’ll want to explore London, and after the wedding, they’ll hopefully think we want left alone. Honeymoon period and all that.” I was hoping this was the case. Laurie’s family were a nightmare, a tangled web of politics and jealousy.
I’d known her three years, meeting when she’d brought her grandfather into the emergency room, where I’d been one of the surgeons who treated him when he’d had appendicitis that was turning septic. He’d been a cantankerous old git then and the last three years hadn’t cheered him up any. He was loaded and knew it, using his money as power over his family with all the joy of your usual malignant narcissist. Laurie was all kinds of screwed up, the eldest child of parents who really only wanted boys, so she’d been brought up mainly by her father’s sister, Marielle, who’d had a girlfriend for seventeen years that most of her family still didn’t know about, apart from Laurie. Marielle was the only one who knew about our agreement and had encouraged it from the start.
“Urgh. Sorry Carter. This is going to be painful for you.”
“I’ll cope.” I’d been working out coping strategies since September, the last time Rose and I had spoken before I’d avoided responding to her calls.
“How’s Rose?”
“Her usual self.” I felt strange talking to Laurie about Rose now, but I’d said enough before the weirdness began that she had enough background.
“You’re avoiding her.”
“No.”
“Liar. Tell me more about this Harriet anyway. Do you think she’ll pretend to be your sister? And have you sorted out abest man? I know your parents can’t be there but there may be suspicions if there’s no one associated with you.” Laurie sounded like she was opening a box.
“Harriet will probably agree – she can be bribed with books. I probably need to tell them sooner rather than later.” It was hanging over me like the Sword of Damocles. A version with a sharp but rusty blade, with a spot of MRSA on the tip.
“You can tell them the truth. They’re not going to let it slip to my family, are they?” More box opening. “Or do you think it’s best not saying anything until after my family have gone back home?”
“Probably. If your grandad has any sort of suspicion, it won’t end well. Is there any chance of him meeting his creator before June?” I shouldn’t say that given I was a doctor.
“No. He’s fighting fit thanks to the triple heart bypass and four weeks in South Africa. He video called me every day – you’d think he’d have something better to do, but you know his usual explanation.” She sounded very fucked off.
“Not long to go. I had a solicitor I know check the documents.” I hadn’t told her I was doing this.
“What did they say?”
“It doesn’t matter how long you’re married for, it’s the getting married. Your trust transfers to you the day you marry as your dowry, the only clause is that you are the responsibility of your husband, or you have to look after yourself if you divorce. There will be no further family handouts.”
“I don’t want any more fucking family handouts; I just want them all to fuck off – apart from Mari. I’m so sorry I dragged you into this Carter. I was hoping for a different story.” Another box. This one sounded like she was mangling it in anger.
“One where you fall in love with your fake husband and live happily ever after?”
I at least got a laugh.
“Pretty much. You’re not going to tell Rose, are you?”
“No.” I’d already made my mind up about that. “I’d rather no one knew, to be honest.”
“But you need some people there. I know we told my family it’d be small, but it can’t just be all my family. Grandad’s happy you signed the pre-nup, and he knows you’re not after my money anyway because you have your own, but he’ll be sniffing for a rat.” The panic in her voice was there again.
