“This isn’t the response I expected to get from you, Mum,” Saskia said. “Leo said that you… that your mental health has taken a beating, shall we say? With this accident? And that you were missing me.”
“Of course I was,” Lydia said. “But I was in shock. It’s only today that I’ve started feeling like myself again. Leo shouldn’t have called you home – but all the same, I’m very glad he did.”
“So am I,” Saskia admitted. It was true. She was missing Kivi like a limb, but now she could finally put her plans into action and start setting up the future. She felt a smile spread across her face at the thought of love, and stability, and-
Lydia shifted in bed, and made a faint groan. Saskia realised that she was still pretty bashed up, despite her attempts to pretend otherwise.
“Okay, as lovely as this is, I think it’s time for you to get some rest, Lyds,” Gilly said. “Saskia, are you staying the night?”
“I wasn’t going to,” Saskia said.
“Oh, do,” Lydia said. “Both of you, kiddos. All of my family in one house for the night.Thatwill make me feel better.”
“Guilt-tripper,” Saskia muttered, but with a smile. She shrugged at her brother. “You in?”
“Yaaaaay,” he droned, dead-pan. “Sharing a bed with my baby sis.”
“Baby sis,my arse,” she said, giving him a playfulthwap. “Babyby four whole minutes.”
“Still younger.”
“Am not.”
“You are!”
“Children,” Lydia interrupted, but she was chuckling. “Get your backsides into the spare room and go to sleep. And then you can share some of the finer details about Kivi with us in the morning, Saskia.”
“Like how she is in bed,” Leo said, his eyes glittering mischievously. “It’s a revelation, isn’t it? Having sex with someone of the same gender?”
“Oh, Leo.”
“No more!”
“La-la-la, not listening!”
Thwap!
Chapter Forty-Six
Two months later – September 2023
Kivi
A blue-arsed fly barely covered it when it came to describing herself on the day of the wedding.
There was so much todo.Both brides were getting ready on opposite sides of the house – Cass in the guest lounge and Felicia in Room Four – and Kivi was madly dashing between them, checking they were both okay. Cass was facing the day with her usual placidness, but Felicia – Heather – wasn’t faring so well. Which was no wonder, given that she had four other alters living in her head, two of whom (Coral and Daniella) were being very vocal in their opinions about everything. Over the course of the planning, they’d carefully orchestrated it so that there was something for all the alters (including rainbow confetti, requested by five-year-old Kylie), but Kivi left Felicia’s room two hours before the service with an earful from Daniella. Daniella had definitely gone the most ‘Bridezilla’ out of all of them, although from what Kivi had been told, Daniella’s pedantic nature was mostly borne out of anxiety about the whole shebang. She left her in the care of Mabel, who was wearing a big badgewith ‘Mother of the Bride’ emblazoned on it, and went outside into the back garden to see how the set-up was going.
Eva and Anastasia were chatting nineteen-to-the-dozen as they set up the chairs in the gazebo. It was a very small ceremony, so there were only twenty wrought-iron chairs to set out, but each one had to be painstakingly wrapped with autumnal garlands and then set in a neat two-row semi-circle with a gap down the middle. The brides themselves would stand underneath a wooden arch that was entwined with autumn leaves of all different shades. It had already fallen over once, but the wind that had blown throughout the UK the night before had just about rolled over the sea, leaving a near-perfect late-September day in its wake. It seemed relatively sturdy now that Victoria had duct-taped some weights to each end. Nobody would be able to see that said weights were two hefty bags of brown rice from Kivi’s pantry. And even if they did see, they probably wouldn’t care.
Beyond the arch, the stage was being set up. Well, Kivi called it the stage, but it was really just a roll-out carpet upon which the choir could stand and all be on one level. The singers had been surprisingly good-natured about singing at a wedding to which they were not actually invited. There was afternoon tea being held afterwards, but it was in Kivi’s dining room, with only enough room for the twenty actual guests. But that was a testament to how loved and respected Cass and Felicia were. And probably also to the persuasive powers of Jean and Petra.
Jean was presently battling with the carpet, which didn’t want to stay down in one corner (that would probably warrant another bag of rice to hold it down), while Petra was running an extension lead from Kivi’s annex to the keyboard. Victoria was standing behind Jean offering advice – probably not able to get down there because of her back.Thatwas a testament tohow Anastasia’s love had softened the headmistress – eighteen months ago, she wouldn’t have been seen dead at an event like this, much less helping with the set-up.
Satisfied that everything outside was going as well as it could, Kivi returned inside and went into the kitchen. They were doing an afternoon tea because Cass and Felicia were catching a late-night plane to Singapore for the first leg of their honeymoon (ultimately ending up in New Zealand, where Cass’s mother was born). The caterers that they had so painstakingly picked had dropped out at the last minute – somethingalwayswent wrong, she remembered telling Saskia that. Luckily, John from the bakery (Felicia’s boss) had stepped in to collaborate with Kivi, and between them they had produced all the fixings of afternoon tea for twenty. John had supplied cakes and bread, and Kivi had been up at the arse-crack of dawn making sandwiches and bridge rolls. The scones – plain and cherry – were defrosting, and looking at them made her smile, remembering with fondness the day she had chargrilled a batch while lost in crush-filled thoughts about Saskia.
The madness of the day had actually stopped her from thinking about Saskia. But now she had a moment to pause, and the sadness kicked in. Their relationship had undergone a lot of strain over the last couple of months. Saskia’s mum, soon-to-be-stepmum and brother had been loveliness itself about their relationship, but for some reason, Saskia had also told her homophobic father. That had gone about as well as expected, and it had thrown Saskia for a loop, to the extent that Kivi had almost taken the train up to Derbyshire in the hope that seeing her in-person would remind Saskia that their relationship was worth it. Luckily, Saskia’s mum had given her head a wobble and persuaded hernotto end things, but Kivi’s trust and confidence in her had been shaken. Things were improving, slowly, butSaskia had opted out of coming to the wedding. She said it was due to an urgent work meeting, but how many work meetings happened on a Saturday? And how many work meetings were so urgent that they were unable to be moved? Kivi hadn’t pushed, but it had cemented the feeling that their relationship was on a downward trajectory.
But that was a problem for another day. Today was about Cass and Felicia, andtheirrelationship, which despite all its own trials and tribulations was on anupwardtrajectory.
