‘I know, and she still might be able to. We’ve got a whole twenty-four hours for her to perk up and feel better. It’s like that with these things that fly around school; one minute they’re at death’s door, the next they’re driving you mad with their energy and demands for Pop Tarts.’
‘Oh God! I don’t want everyone getting ill. That would be the icing on the bloody cake!’ The reality of what that might mean struck her then: poorly guests, empty seats, the beef carpaccio going to waste. ‘We can’t let anyone else get it!’
‘Well, gee, thanks, Ash, for making me and my kids feel so welcome. You think Iwantto spend the night in a strange room with the kids throwing up? It’s a nightmare!’
Ashleigh winced. The idea of spending time in any room with kids throwing up was abhorrent. Remy was a natural at parenting, and Ashleigh loved her nieces, she really did, but having seen Remy struggle up close, she wasn’t entirely sure motherhood was for her. In fact, given the idea of so much disruption to the lovely life she and Archie shared, at thirty-three she was almost certain it wasn’t for her. She and Archie had always been relaxed, leaving the idea of parenthood up to fate, almost. It had taken all of her courage to tell him that if they didn’t get to hear the pitter-patter of tiny feet, she was more than okay with that. He had kissed her on the mouth and told her she would feel differently if it happened. Maybe he was right.
‘Well, gee, thankyouso much for coming and for allyoursupport!’ she sniped.
‘Jesus, Ash!’
‘Jesus, yourself!’ she fired back. Her sister just didn’t get it! So much planning had gone into this wedding – for it all to fall at the last hurdle would be the final bloody straw. It was enough that Guy had said what he had. Now this!
‘Tony would probably bang our heads together if he was here.’
‘Oh, Rem! I wish he was.’ And just like that they were back to being friends; it was how it was with sisters, with twins. The flare of discord and the instant forgiveness.
‘He said he was going to send a filthy telegram just so it had to be read out at your reception by one of Archie’s Old Cliftonian pals. I told him not to, although it would have been funny.’ Remy made out to unfurl a piece of paper and put on an affected voice. ‘Darling Ashleigh, we were so glad to hear that you finally got the all-clear from the STD clinic and that the new in-laws never found out about the time you tied up their son and spanked—’
‘Ashleigh?’
‘Oh!’ She was aware that she’d shouted, as if the volume might erase any lingering echoes of her sister’s inappropriate joke. ‘Elaine! Everything okay?’
‘Yes, thank you.’ The woman, holding her generous gin and tonic aloft, her thin lips set, eyed her twin with suspicion. ‘Just wondered if you knew where Archie was?’
‘No! I really don’t!’ She smiled and spoke as sweetly as she was able. ‘But if I had to guess, maybe playing golf, or in the pub, out with the dogs or catching up with old friends?’
‘Are you quite all right, Ashleigh?’ her mother-in-law-to-be asked without a hint of jest.
‘I think maybe I’m a little tired and there’s probably a bit of pre-wedding jitters setting in.’
‘Right.’ Elaine nodded and downed her gin. ‘Well, I’ll say to you what my mother said to me the night before my wedding.’ Ashleigh waited with bated breath for the advice. ‘Buckle up!’
She watched the woman turn on her heel and make her way back into the house.
‘I’m scared of Elaine,’ Remy whispered.
This too made her laugh out loud.
‘We’re all scared of Elaine,’ she admitted. ‘No one more so than Dickie!’
‘I’d come over there and give you a big old hug if there wasn’t the slightest chance that I might infect you.’ Remy smiled at her.
‘I’d like that,’ she confessed. ‘The hug, not the infection.’
‘Can I ask you a question?’
‘Course you can.’ She sat back against the sun lounger and took a deep breath.
‘Why now, after you’ve been together forhowlong?’
‘Thirteen years, nearly fourteen.’
‘That’s what I’m saying, why after all this time? I thought you were happy with the vast engagement ring and the idea of marriage. You even named the business Fitch!’
Ashleigh looked at the huge diamond that she barely noticed anymore. ‘It made sense. I knew I’d be a Fitch one day. The truthful answer is, I’m happy as we are, not that getting married won’t be wonderful, it will! But I’ve been, I don’t know, bit scared, I suppose.’
‘Scared of what, Mrs Fitch?’
