Tamsin’s wedding dress was a romantic, dreamy affair, floaty and gently sparkling with crystal butterflies embroidered all over it. It so suited her personality that Penny gasped when she saw her in it. ‘Why, it suits you beautifully. It’s absolutely you.’
Her bouquet of flowers was neat and strikingly suited to Tamsin, being sweet and countrified, not designed with high fashion in mind. ‘Well, sister dear, there couldn’t be a lovelier bride. You look wonderful.’
‘So do you. Look, I haven’t got a bridesmaid. Would you be my bridesmaid?’
‘Me? A bridesmaid! Well, if you think my outfit is suitable. I didn’t intend it to be a bridesmaid’s dress.’
‘I know you didn’t, but it could be. We’ll get a rose out of my garden and you could carry that, how about it? Your dress is coppery coloured and I have a rose in the garden that’s kind of apricot and coppery coloured round the edges, it would look just right.’
‘OK then. We will. Don’t you come out in that dress, I’ll go and get it.’
Penny chose the loveliest rose on the bush with a long stem and just perfectly opened, not too much, not too little, and she snipped off the thorns so she could hold it easily.
The two of them stood in the hall and smiled in triumph at each other. ‘What an auspicious day. I always thought it would be me who’d marry and not you, but here you are, looking fabulous!’
‘Thank you. You’ll love Paddy’s mother, she’s called Bridget and she’s wonderfully kind and full of laughter. Is that the car?’
‘Tamsin, you’ve got your slippers on!’
‘Oh, good grief. I brought my shoes down and forgot to put them on. Could you open the door and tell the driver I won’t be a minute?’
The groom, meanwhile, had been ready for the last half an hour, sitting in Greta’s lounge, almost trembling with trepidation. His mother was insisting he had something to eat before he left, so he had one of Greta’s aprons draped over his suit and he was eating, very reluctantly, a toasted teacake. ‘That’s what you want, comfort food. Your mother knows best, and I know nothing better than a toasted teacake for giving comfort. Now, give me the plate, and you have a drink of tea.’
‘You haven’t put whisky in, have you? I don’t want to smell of drink.’
‘Shut up, Paddy, and drink it else you’re going to be late.’
Bridget looked down at him and remembered the love she had for him when he was born. She was so proud of him, prouder still of his future wife. What a pair they made. She leaned over and kissed his cheek. ‘Love you, Paddy. You’ve got a great future ahead of you.’
Paddy thought to himself, a future I’m going to have to turn down, but there you are. It’s one of the sacrifices I shall make in the cause of happiness. Kew comes second to Tamsin. ‘Time we left.’
Paddy turned to watch his bride come down the aisle. She glided towards him, smiling as though he was the only other person in the whole wide world, just as she was for him. As for Vince, he looked ready to faint due to the enormity of giving away the bride, but he held on and solemnly placed her hand in Paddy’s when they reached the altar.
Peter smiled at them both, waited while the music ended and began, ‘Dearly beloved, we are gathered here …’.
Copyright
AN ORION BOOKS EBOOK
First published in Great Britain in 2011 by Orion Books
This ebook first published in 2011 by Orion Books
Copyright © Rebecca Shaw 2011
The moral right of Rebecca Shaw to be identified as the author of this work has been asserted in accordance with the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988.
All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system or transmitted in any form or by any means, without the prior permission in writing of the publisher, nor to be otherwise circulated in any form of binding or cover other than that in which it is published without a similar condition, including this condition, being imposed on the subsequent purchaser.
A CIP catalogue record for this book
is available from the British Library.
ISBN: 978 1 4091 0803 0
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A Village Deception (Turnham Malpas 15) Page 26
