She sure as hell didn’t want to marry him.
A tear leaked from the corner of her eye, and she bowed her head. Ben pulled a small packet of tissues from his pocket and handed them to her. Warmth flared inside her chest. She looked at him gratefully, then she wiped her eyes and blew her nose.
‘Are you okay?’
He asked her that a lot, didn’t he? Which hinted she was becoming a responsibility to him, one he shouldn’t have. Other things should be his priority right now, like an adorable little girl who desperately needed a father figure. And helping her get to the wedding rehearsal was taking him away from that.
‘I’m okay. Just feeling a bit weird. As if none of this can be real.’
Ben nodded sympathetically. ‘I wasn’t sure if I should say anything, but I had an idea of a way – possibly – to get more information.’
‘You do?’ Her heart did a little leap. Maybe they could find something that would prove she was wrong?
‘If we assume these “flashes” can be trusted, that they’re real memories, it tells us a few things. Leaving aside whether you’re the bride or not, if you were at a dress fitting, you’re not just a plus-one that somebody’s cousin is bringing along. What if we phoned the venue again? Not to ask for information about the wedding itself, but about the rehearsal. We know things that only someone with an invite would know. We might be about to find out something useful. What do you think?’
‘I’m willing to give it a shot.’ Anything to disprove her theory and make it all nonsense.
‘It’s probably after hours, but if they do evening events, we might get hold of someone. If not, we’ll just try again in the morning.’ He pulled his phone from his jacket pocket, found the number on his list of recent calls, then put the phone on speaker, the volume on low.
The receptionist who picked up didn’t sound as chirpy and well-scripted as Alice expected her to. She sounded like somebody’s grandma – someone’sScottishgrandma.
Ben introduced himself and said he was checking on the exact location of the rehearsal tomorrow night. The invite had been lost, and he wanted to make sure he was going to the right place.
The woman’s tone brightened considerably when she heard him. ‘Och, don’t worry about that,’ she said, and Alice could hear the clacking of fingernails on a keyboard. ‘I’ll soon find that out … Yup, it’s six-thirty p.m. at the Tithe Barn. Use Car Park C because that’s the closest, and just follow the signs.Turn left after the maze. And don’t forget to bring the confirmation email because you won’t get in without it – the castle grounds close to the public at six.’
‘That’s great. Thank you so much.’
The woman sighed. ‘But keep an eye on your inbox … You know, in case they actuallydocancel.’
Alice looked at Ben, eyes wide. He didn’t break eye contact as he replied to the woman on the phone. ‘Of course. It’s … It’s definitely keeping us all guessing.’
The woman laughed. ‘So it would. The phones have been ringing off the hook about it all week. It’s not every day someone from the bridal party goes AWOL.’
Alice’s stomach dropped. She felt as if a trap door had opened up underneath her, that she’d fallen through the belly of the bus and hit the motorway tarmac with a splat. Oh, God … Where was fresh air when you needed it? She reached up and fiddled with the array of knobs and buttons above her head, trying to find a blast of cold air, but only succeeded in turning on the reading light.
Ben frowned but carried on. ‘I know … It’s all been very shocking. Can you tell me how likely it is the wedding’s going ahead?’
‘Hm, I shouldn’t, really. It would only be speculation …’
Ben’s accent thickened a little. ‘I know,’ he said smoothly, ‘but I’m just trying to work out if I should return my gift or no.’ With all those rolling ‘r’s and lilting words, he might as well have been purring into the phone.
‘Well now …’ Her voice lowered in the same way it might have done if she’d been having a good old gossip with a friend. ‘I don’t think it’s likely. Management have been pretty hush-hush about it,but I did overhear someone saying they’re not holding their breath that the missing woman will turn up. We’re all pretty sure it’s the bride.’
Alice’s lungs stopped working. She couldn’t take any more … She pulled the phone out of Ben’s hand and jabbed her finger on the screen to end the call and then shoved it back at him and stared at the seatback in front of her, heart hammering.
Since the train had broken down the night before, she’d been scared she wouldn’t get to the wedding rehearsal on time. But, at that present moment, she was terrified she would.
Chapter Forty-Six
Two weeks before the wedding.
‘MORE COCKTAILS!’ LO yelled at a passing waiter. No one defied my sister when she was in one of her strident moods, so he obediently arrived with another round of mojitos a few minutes later. She handed me one. ‘Bottoms up!’ she said, grinning, before taking a large slurp. If there was one thing to say about my sister, it was that she knew how to throw a party.
And this party was for me, my hen night. Lo had originally wanted to do a weekend in Dublin, as my cousin had done, but Justin hadn’t liked the idea of multiple nights away, lots of girls behaving badly and getting drunk. It wasn’t classy, he said. Why not do something more low-key?
However, I’m not sure my maid of honour had understood the assignment. Or maybe she had, and just decided to book a noisy, colourful South American restaurant in Soho, full of partying groups, because she knew it wasexactlywhat my fiancé would object to.
Whatever the reason, she was doing her best to work her way through the cocktail menu. Maybe she was a bit nervous? I certainly was. Although things had been better between us recently, they still weren’t back to normal.
