Lando groans. ‘She’s way past her last warning.’
I make my smile wide as I squeeze past Sav. ‘I’ll leave you two to sort your wayward puppy. Good to see you, Sav. I’ll catch you tomorrow, Lando.’
And yet again I’m out on the harbourside, asking myself what the hell just happened, and how I’m ever going to live it down.
44
Windflowers, St Aidan, Cornwall
Waves on the shore
Saturday
On a breezy morning two days later, surrounded by a small group of family and friends that might have walked out from between the pages of a Famous Five book, Athena Elizabeth Amelia Nancarrow marries Henry Clark Archibald Dunstan at Windflowers beach hut. Afterwards they spill out onto the sand sipping their non-alcoholic fizz and G&T’s and smile up at the sunshine while they stand for photos. Then Athena’s mum, sister Esme, and the other women file off to the deckchairs in their pretty cotton tea dresses where they demolish a large pile of Poppy’s pink and yellow iced fancies, while the dads take off their tweed jackets, roll up their shirt sleeves and their trousers, and join the brothers and the other men to build the kind of sandcastle that might defy the tide for weeks to come.
Athena sits on the verandah steps hand in hand with Clark, rearranges her cotton skirts and wiggles her bare toes. And while she gets used to being Mrs Dunstan rather than Ms Nancarrow she muses that if they’d come earlier and brought nets there would probably have been time to go crabbing. As it is, they might have to make do with just a paddle.
Meanwhile Lando and I sit a little way apart on the sand, with our Deliveroo double shot Sardine Club Americanos, looking decades out of place in our chinos and Weddings at Windflowers T-shirts that he had made specially for today. While he marvels at how all the men turned up in buff chinos and checked shirts when there wasn’t actually a dress code, I’m checking off the flowers in Athena’s organic bouquet which is resting on my knees.
‘Cornflowers, marigolds, love in a mist, honeysuckle, dahlias, poppies…’
Lando nods. ‘It’s very Fi to ram it into your hands rather than throwing it.’ A smile slices across his face. ‘She’s determined you’re going to be the next of the guests to get married so she couldn’t leave that to chance.’
‘If it hadn’t been her wedding day I’d have given it straight back to her.’ I give a sniff. ‘To be fair, I’m probably the only woman here without a husband in tow. Anyone else catching it would have meant a divorce on the horizon.’
He’s laughing behind his hand. ‘If you say so.’
The wonderful thing about Windflowers is that just as walks on the beach never repeat themselves, every wedding here is different too.
The beach hut is a constant, but the sky and the wind and the clouds, and the time of day means the backdrop and atmosphere changes constantly. It’s funny that the place I’ve always held so close to my heart is becoming special for so many other people too. It’s only as I sit here watching the grey clouds overtaking the white ones that it hits me.
‘This is the first time I haven’t worried about a Windflowers wedding.’
Lando gives me a nudge. ‘You’re an old hand now.’
I put him right. ‘No, it’s because my terror was completely dwarfed by what’s coming next.’ I look around at his family and at his mum’s gold waves, drop my voice, and shudder as I think of what we’re moving on to. ‘At least Nemmie will blend into the crowd at the castle. I’d hate for anyone to spot a family likeness.’
Lando pulls a face. ‘Once they hit the champagne they’ll be oblivious.’
There’s a pang in my chest. ‘It’s sad your parents don’t know.’
‘You think?’ Lando gives me a look. ‘They’re not warm like your mum. They wouldn’t value a grandchild. Not if it were mine.’
I screw up my face. ‘Is there something you haven’t told me?’
He closes his eyes for a second. ‘You don’t know the half of it. Best save that for another time.’
I watch as the women hitch up their dresses and splash into the shallows, led by Athena. The men join them before everyone eventually wanders back up the beach and start gathering their bags.
Lando springs to his feet and pulls me up too. ‘Your mum is going to tidy up here. Let’s go and change, pick up the kids, and head over to the castle.’
Being within a country mile of Lando’s home was not anything I intended or ever thought would happen, and just like that, we’re going. But the way disasters erupt around me with no input on my part, I can’t imagine how this is ever going to work out. Take it from me; I am not a natural pessimist, but with all the complications and three kids in tow, too, the chances are, this is not going to end well.
45
Nancarrow Castle, Nancarrow, Cornwall
Someone else’s shoes
