PROLOGUE
“Has anyone seen the peacocks?”
I look up from examining a selection of napkins. “Excuse me?”
“Have you seen the peacocks?” my brother repeats.
“What peacocks?”
“The peacocks I hired. I’ve lost them.”
“Adrian, what are you talking about?”
“I hired some peacocks to roam about the lawn. It was meant to be a surprise for the wedding tomorrow. It’s your wedding gift from me.” He grins proudly. “Guessing you didn’t put that on your gift list. Talk about an original idea.”
I narrow my eyes at him. “You hired peacocks to roam the lawn at my wedding—”
“Cool, right?”
“—as a surprise present.”
“You are welcome.”
“And they’ve gone… missing.”
“I wouldn’t say missing exactly, more like they’ve roamed a bit further than expected.”
I purse my lips. My best friend, Ruby, standing next to me, clears her throat and tries to look busy with the napkins.
“So,” Adrian prompts, “have you seen them?”
“No, we haven’t seen any peacocks here in the marquee,” I hiss through gritted teeth. “Adrian, are youkidding me?”
He looks confused. “About the peacocks? No. They’re genuinely around here somewhere. Also, get this. Did you know that they’re actually called peafowl? The guy I hired them from told me this. Peacocks are the male ones, and the females are called peahens.Peahens!Who knew?!” His face suddenly lights up. “Hey, do you think they might be in the house? People have been leaving that door open all day.”
Ruby glances at my expression and quickly jumps in. “Good idea, best to check inside the house. And… uh… maybe while you’re in there, you might want to check that all the bedroom doors are closed, so that if the peacocks do somehow get in, they don’t go near Freya’s dress or anything like that.”
I think my eyes must be bulging unnaturally out of my head as I try not to explode at my idiot younger brother, because Ruby takes another look at me and suddenly adds, “Gonow,Adrian,” in a very urgent tone.
Adrian swans out of the marquee toward the house, swiping one of the favor bags from the wicker basket by the exit on his way out. Ruby immediately turns to face me, putting her hands on my shoulders and looking me in the eye.
“Breathe with me,” she instructs, inhaling and exhaling deeply.
“The day before my wedding, he setspeacocksloose in the house?”
“Technically he set them loose in the garden,” Ruby corrects, trying her best to make it seem less of a big deal. “They won’t get in anybody’s way. And I’m sure he’ll find them before tomorrow. You have to give it to him, it is an original gift.”
I shake my head in disbelief.
“I think we should put the peacocks out of your mind andfocus on what’s really important,” Ruby declares. “Like which napkin you’re going to use. Whiteoralmost-whiteorcream.”
I sigh and turn my attention back to the napkins. “It has to be… the almost-white napkin.”
“If you’d chosen the white, we wouldn’t have been able to stay friends.” She grins at me and gestures around the marquee. “Look at this, Freya. Everything is perfect. Surely we can go relax with a glass of champagne now?”
I turn to admire the setup as dozens of people busily put the finishing touches to it all. It’s mad to think how my dad’s garden has been transformed in just a few hours ready for tomorrow. I’ve always thought that the lawn here was the perfect open space for a marquee, and since we’re in the middle of the tranquil Berkshire countryside, it’s an idyllic setting for a country garden wedding. When Matthew proposed, we didn’t even bother considering any other venues. And looking round at everything now, I’m confident we made the right decision. It’s really starting to come together. All the effort and time I’ve put into this wedding, all those tiny, teeny, ridiculous details—who knew how many different types of paper stock an invitation could be printed on?—have all been worth it.
The marquee is beautiful, the fairy-light canopy overhead is magical, and even though the flowers won’t be arriving until first thing tomorrow, I already know they’re going to be spectacular because the florist, Lucy, is a genius and I completely trust her. She insisted on being here today with her colleagues to map everything out and make sure her vision was going to come to life as she’d planned it. (A woman after my own heart.)
