When she walked back out five minutes later, Victoria had left Jean to fight the carpet on their own, and was poking experimentally at a Bluetooth speaker. She wasn’t the most technically-minded of people, but she seemed to be giving it a fair shot. Kivi helped her set it up, and played the first track that came up on shuffle as a test, meaning that the garden was drowned with MC Hammer’s ‘U Can’t Touch This’. Victoria scrabbled to turn it off, but in her haste ended up pressing the volume-up button. Eva and Anastasia leapt to their feet and started dancing wildly to the upbeat music, and the laughter that their impromptu jive caused brought some much-needed lightness to Kivi’s stomach. This was by no means the biggest or most elaborate wedding she’d ever put together, but it was the first one in seven years and the brides were also her friends. Nothing like high stakes.
But, by some miracle, by ten to twelve everything was set up. The carpet had been wrestled into submission, and thirty choir singers were standing in three neat rows, warmed up and ready to go. The celebrant, a kindly woman named Joanne who had really taken the time to get to know Cass and Felicia over the last couple of months, was in position. The brides were dressed and ready to walk down the aisle together, having decided against having bridesmaids due to the small nature of the wedding. Alltwenty guests were in situ, all except Mabel and – well, Kivi, who had a chair at the end of the back row so she could escape quickly. All that was left to do was for Cass and Felicia to have their ‘first look’ – caught on camera by Sharmaine, a local photographer – in the foyer of the guest house, and then get themselves up the aisle.
And that they did. With the voice of Cass’s mum Eulalia Gray, singing her tranquil hitPiece Of Paradise, in the background, the two brides walked arm-in-arm up the aisle. Their outfits were a mixture of traditional and quirky: Cass had rainbow roses in her bouquet, while Felicia had a small train that shimmered in shades of white, pink and orange. Kivi knew that they’d both consulted Saskia privately via text for this advice. Their rings were not gold, but platinum – an increasingly popular choice these days – and as they slipped them onto each other’s fingers, the smile that spread across both their faces brought tears to Kivi’s eyes. The two were already legally married, having gone down to the registry office with a couple of witnesses the day before, but now they really looked the part. Wife and wife. Kivi only realised then how much she’d longed for the same for herself, with Saskia.
But there wasn’t time to dwell. The choir treated them to a moving performance ofAlways All My Love,again by Eulalia Gray, and then the ceremony was over and Kivi was dashing back into the kitchen to get the tea urn boiling. The guests would mingle in the garden for a while before proceeding inside for their afternoon tea. Eva tried to help, but Kivi sent her back outside. There was a curious rage boiling up inside her, and she felt that one accidental wrong move from her sister would send it shooting out, like a cork popping out of a champagne bottle.
Like clockwork, the afternoon rolled on. The piles of food disappeared as the hungry guests attacked them. Sharmaineflitted around, taking photographs from every possible angle. Kivi’s watch told her that she’d hit her ten-thousand step target somewhere on her many journeys between the kitchen and the dining room, but it was worth it to see the joy on Cass and Heather’s faces. All of Felicia’s alters had made an appearance over the course of the afternoon – with even the normally distressed Autumn seeming relatively happy as Cass explained to her what was going on – but it was Heather who came to visit her in the kitchen, thanking her profusely for everything she’d done.
“Cass is just chatting with Sharmaine,” she said, leaning on the doorjamb. She looked tired, but radiant. “That girl is a marvel. And so are you, Kivi Chadwick. It’s like you reached into our heads and knitted our visions into reality. ‘Thank you’ could never be enough.”
Then Cass appeared beside her, slipping an arm around her wife’s waist. Kivi’s stomach twisted, remembering that she’d neverquitehad that easy affection with Saskia. They hadn’t gotten to that stage. She pushed it down, trying to focus on what Cass was saying.
“Most people are taking their leave now,” she said. “Are you sure you don’t want us to stay and help clean up, Kivi?”
“At your own wedding?” Kivi’s eyes narrowed, but she hoped she sounded light-hearted. “You’re not serious. Get yourselves back home and ready for the airport. I assume you’re not going like that.”
“No,” Heather laughed. “Saskia put together a couple of outfits for us to travel in. She said it’s still our wedding day, so we should wear special clothes. We were wondering whether we could get changed upstairs again? Otherwise we’ll be walkingthrough the village in our wedding dresses, and Veronica from the pub will probably have an apoplectic fit!”
The mention of Saskia tightened Kivi’s throat, but she used all her willpower to sound normal. “Of course! Pop yourselves upstairs and get changed. And don’t even think about trying to help. I have two perfectly good hands, and I’ll use them both to my full advantage.”
“Make that four,” said a voice from the door to the annex.
Chapter Forty-Seven
Saskia
Cass and Heather registered her presence before it seemed to connect in Kivi’s brain.
“Saskia, you made it!” Cass smiled, while Heather rushed towards her for a hug. But although her arms wrapped around the woman on autopilot, and her mouth returned Cass’s greeting, her eyes and the rest of her brain were trained on Kivi. Judging by the exhaustion on her face, and the rabbit-in-headlights look in her eyes, her surprise appearance wasn’t quite the day-maker she had intended it to be.
“Whoa there,” Heather said, and Saskia ran forward to catch Kivi as she swayed. Her knees buckled, so Saskia lowered her gently to the floor. There, Kivi stared up at her as if unsure quite what she was seeing. “Can you get her some water?” she asked Heather, without taking her eyes off her girlfriend.
With the water in Kivi’s hand and Saskia kneeling down to crouch by her side, it struck her that this was a perfect reflection of that time she’d collapsed on the stairs, all those months ago. There, Kivi had come to her rescue, scooped her up and inadvertently set off the chain of events that had made heracknowledge her eating disorder. An eating disorder that was, hopefully, all but behind her now. Even the specialist she’d sought out said that it was ‘well-managed’. She couldn’t wait to tell Kivi that bit of news.
She’d have to wait a bit longer, though, because Kivi was starting to come out of her torpor. It had only been a couple of minutes, but Saskia knew from her own collapses that time seemed to bend when you were partly conscious, so she took her hands and whispered reassuringly.
“Hey. You’re okay. You’re safe. You just had a little dizzy spell, so we brought you down here. You’ll feel better in a minute.”
“Saskia,” Kivi breathed, and moved her leg restlessly. “You’re on my foot.”
“Sorry,” Saskia said, and shifted.
“What’s your perfume?”
“My- my perfume?” Saskia’s brow furrowed. What did that have to do with anything? But Kivi was looking at her expectantly, so what else could she do but oblige? “Rêve D'Infini. Lalique.”
“I’ve missed it,” Kivi said, and finally there was a flicker of her usual self in her eyes. Saskia decided to run with it.
“And me? Have you missed me?”
Right then, Cass and Heather returned. Saskia hadn’t even noticed they’d gone.
“Sorry about that,” Heather said. “John wanted to get in here for his boxes, so we had to stall him. You all right, Kivi? You look like you’ve seen a ghost.” The two women surrounded her, looking down with concerned expressions that Saskia was sure was mirrored on her own face.
“Not a ghost,” Kivi said, sounding like she was coming back a bit more. She took another sip of water. “Just someone I’ve missed very,verymuch.” Now she looked at Saskia, and gave her a crooked smile. “Help me off this floor so I can kiss you.”
Cass and Heather chuckled, and stepped back so that Saskia could loop her fingers through Kivi’s and haul her up. She was wary of Kivi falling again, so she supported her, propping her against the countertop so that their mouths could crash together in a kiss so desperate, so hungry, it was as if it was their first time all over again. When they finally broke away, the two brides were gone again, and all the noise and chatter from the guests in the dining room had ceased. It was just her and Kivi.
