Wedding Tiers

by Trisha Ashley

  He seemed to like the look of him, though—and so did I. I liked my men hot, ruffled and pared down to a close-fitting T-shirt…

  ‘Josie’s doing too much,’ Harry said, watching the way Noah swung the axe with approval. ‘She shouldn’t have to chop all this wood and she takes barrowloads of it across for the Grace sisters. It’s not right. I can’t do it any more, nor the heavy digging.’

  ‘I’m no frail flower,’ I protested. ‘I like digging, and I expect chopping wood is doing me good.’

  Noah looked up. ‘I think Harry’s right, you are doing too much. I noticed you were getting thin and you know what they say.’

  He paused and, despite myself, I asked, ‘No, what?’

  ‘Never trust a thin cook.’

  Harry chortled. ‘He’s got you there, lass.’

  ‘Libby told me about the projected TV series too, and you don’t want to look like a rack of ribs for that, or it will put the viewers right off the good life.’

  ‘Oh, I don’t think the TV series will come to anything. It was just a young TV producer—or whatever she was—getting carried away with an idea.’

  ‘You never know,’ Noah said. ‘But this is one chore I can take off your hands while I’m staying here. I’ll come round and chop firewood for you every day.’

  ‘No, really, you don’t need to,’ I protested. ‘Anyway, you can’t chop wood on Christmas Day, and didn’t Libby say you were going back after Boxing Day?’

  ‘Yes, but I can at least leave you with a good pile to keep you going.’

  ‘Never look a gift horse in the mouth,’ Harry told me, and went off to shut Aggie back into the run.

  When Noah finally went back to Blessings for lunch I dug out the slip of paper that Libby had written her sister’s phone number on and rang it, hoping I’d get her mother instead. I wasn’t quite sure what I would do if Daisy answered…engage in inane chat, probably.

  But my luck was in, if you can call it that, because Gloria picked up after a long wait, just as I was about to replace the receiver. She didn’t sound entirely sober, but seemed pleased to hear from me.

  ‘Daisy’s had to go to the dentist and I didn’t feel like going with her,’ she said. ‘I said I’d stay at home and rest.’

  ‘That’s all right. I wanted a little chat with you anyway. It was lovely to see you at the wedding. You looked terribly smart!’

  ‘Daisy got our outfits off that eBay. They were a snip.’

  ‘Yes, it’s amazing what you can find on there,’ I agreed, thinking of Harry’s medal. ‘Libby’s was a lovely wedding and reception, wasn’t it?’

  ‘Yes, our Libby looked like an angel, but Daisy would insist on dragging me off to that place we were staying at hours before I was ready to leave!’

  ‘She’d driven a long way to get there, so I expect she was tired,’ I said tactfully, wondering how to lead in to what I wanted to ask.

  ‘We were having such an interesting chat just before you had to go too,’ I lied inventively. ‘I’d just said that opposites usually attract, yet there were Libby and Tim, both fair and blue-eyed. And you said yes, they had more in common than they knew…?’ I prompted. ‘You used to know Tim’s father quite well, I think.’

  Gloria giggled. ‘Very well! Robert—Tim’s father—put some money in the bank for me when I told him, provided I didn’t make a fuss, which I wouldn’t have anyway,’ she said good-naturedly. ‘And afterwards, he was always generous if there was a gas bill to pay or something like that.’

  ‘Told him what? That you…’ I gulped hard, ‘that you were having his baby?’

  ‘Yes, but I never asked him for maintenance, because that would have made trouble, and I knew he’d see me right, like a proper gentleman. Then he married that harpy and when she found out about our bit of fun, the money dried up.’

  Oh God, this was worse and worse!

  ‘But, Mrs Martin, shouldn’t you have told Libby before she married Tim?’ I gasped, appalled.

  ‘No—why spoil a happy marriage for a little slip in the past?’ she said, and giggled again. There was a glassy clinking noise and the sound of pouring. ‘Must go, our Daisy’ll be back soon. Cheery-bye!’

  She left me so stunned I was shaking. I knew Gloria’s moral standards to be a little different from mine, but still…this was going too far! What on earth was I going to do? How could I possibly tell all this to Tim and Libby, and tear them apart? But then, how could I not? What if I didn’t say anything and they had children and they—

  Oh, it didn’t bear thinking of!

  But of course, I did keep thinking about it, until it occurred to me that maybe it was all a figment of Gloria’s permanently sozzled imagination. Then I felt slightly—but not much—better.

  I should have waited to speak to Daisy instead. Gloria was bound to have said much the same to her when she was well and truly plastered and had no control over what came out of her lips. Not that she seemed to have a lot of control when she was sober, either.

  So I waited until I thought she would be safely home, and then rang the number again. My fingers were trembling slightly: this had to be the most difficult call I’d ever made.

  ‘Daisy Martin,’ she said, in the sort of voice you get when your lip is still numb from the dentist’s anaesthetic.

  ‘This is Josie.’

  ‘What, Libby’s friend, Josie?’ She sounded slightly surprised.

  ‘Yes,’ I said, and managed a few disjointed enquiries about the dentist and how she was before plunging into the subject most on my mind.

  ‘Daisy, your mother said something at Libby’s reception that made me think…well, that she and Tim’s father had been having an affair at one time.’

  ‘Yes, I know all about that, of course,’ she said. ‘I’m not sure you could call it an affair. You know Mum—she got about a bit—but he was always generous and gave us a lot of financial support when I was growing up. He played hard, did Robert Rowland-Knowles, but he was prepared to pay for his fun.’

  ‘But what about Libby?’ I exclaimed.

  ‘Oh, Libby doesn’t know anything about it, and Tim doesn’t seem to either. I told Mum not to mention it, but she got tanked up at the reception and blabbed.’

  ‘Only to me, and I haven’t told anyone, of course. But, Daisy, shouldn’t you have—I mean, don’t you think you should have told Libby and Tim before they married?’

  ‘No, that sort of thing doesn’t really matter in this day and age, does it? But I thought it was better to leave it a secret. No harm done.’

  No harm?.

  ‘But…what if they have children, Daisy?’

  ‘I think that’s unlikely, don’t you? Pia was an accident and Libby’s getting a bit long in the tooth. But if so, we’ll all be related, won’t we—one big happy family!’

  Clearly Daisy’s moral code was as weirdly offbeat as her mother’s was, or she couldn’t possibly think any of this was OK!

  But now she seemed to feel that we had exhausted the subject, for she started to tell me about the holiday she was going to take in the new year to Morocco with some girlfriends, when Libby had promised that Gloria would be stowed safely away to dry out yet again.

  I presume I made all the right noises, because she said it had been nice having a little chat.

  I desperately wanted to talk all this over with someone, but the only person I could do that with was the person most involved!

  And unfortunately, when Libby came round later with a lot of very chic little Christmas parcels to put under my tree, her mind seemed to be running on the idea of babies, though luckily not in the very near future.

  ‘Tim and I are really enjoying being just the two of us at the moment,’ she said.

  ‘If you can call it being alone, when Gina’s around all the time, Pia is to and fro, and Dorrie pops up at the most unexpected moments,’ I pointed out, getting a grip on myself and trying to sound normal. ‘But no, I really think you should give yourselves a couple of years first
.’

  That should safely take her into the realms of diminishing fertility!

  ‘A year, perhaps,’ she agreed. ‘I ought to get Old Barn Receptions off the ground first. But I can’t afford to wait too long, because your chances lessen with every year past thirty.’

  ‘Well, just give it a bit longer,’ I suggested, and I suppose my manner must have been jumpy and odd, because she gave me a very suspicious look, as if she knew I was hiding something, and asked me if I was feeling OK.

  ‘Fine—just a bit tired. Have you heard about my love triangle? Ben, Russell and Noah, with me as piggy-in-the-middle?’

  Mary phoned me again, but this time to shame-facedly apologise for her earlier accusations, now that Russell had arrived home and explained everything.

  He was obviously sharper-witted than I’d ever given him credit for!

  ‘He called me from his friend’s house in Liverpool, right after I’d spoken to you, so he was where he said he would be! And before I could ask him, he told me that he’d called in to see you on his way up, but only stopped briefly because it was getting so late.’

  ‘That’s true,’ I agreed.

  ‘Then I asked him about all those late night phone calls to you and of course they were just because he was feeling sorry for you.’

  ‘Of course,’ I echoed.

  ‘He wanted to be sure you were all right, but he thought I would be upset if I knew he was calling you.’

  ‘Yes, I expect he did think that.’

  ‘And then,’ she added, her voice seeming to wobble suddenly on the verge of hysteria, ‘he said when he called in he found Noah Sephton with you, being very friendly and—you won’t believe this bit, Josie—’

  ‘Try me,’ I said morosely.

  ‘Well, it’s just that he seems to have the insane idea you two are having an affair!’ She giggled. ‘I mean—you and Noah Sephton!’

  ‘Yes, it’s unbelievable, isn’t it? I barely even know him. He’s just a friend of Libby’s, that’s all.’ I summoned up a hollow laugh. ‘Unfortunately, Russell seems to have shared this mad idea with Ben.’

  ‘Oh, I’ll put him straight, next time I see him, don’t worry. They’re both as daft as each other, if they believe something that stupid. Anyway, according to the current copy of Simply Secrets magazine, he’s been having a sizzling affair with this absolutely gorgeous model for ages and—’

  ‘Anji. Yes, I know about her,’ I broke in.

  ‘—and it quoted some of her friends as saying a wedding was on the cards.’

  ‘Oh? But that might have been a bit of wishful thinking,’ I said doubtfully. ‘He’s a widower, but I don’t think he’s ever found anyone to measure up to his late wife and he didn’t sound serious about this Anji.’

  ‘Maybe not, but he’s hardly likely to look at you when his taste runs to the blonde, leggy and beautiful, is he?’

  ‘You never know. I had a date with a soap star the other day—Rob Rafferty.’

  She giggled again. ‘In your dreams!’

  After she’d gone, I went and looked in the mirror: no makeup, sulky mouth, tangled hair, sallow skin, blue-grey eyes. Yes, same old Josie, the one a man like Noah Sephton couldn’t possibly fancy. It must have been entirely the power of the peapod. Though that doesn’t account for Rob, of course…But come to think of it, Libby did say he wasn’t at all discriminating, so being female and youngish is probably all the criteria he looks for.

  The conversation with Mary hadn’t done a lot for my self-confidence, but the good thing was that Mary and I were now tenuously on speaking terms again and it had provided a distraction, however temporary, from my other worries.

  Chapter Twenty-four

  Handsome Cavaliers

  It always amazes me the things people buy at Christmas that they could easily make themselves. Take bread sauce, for instance. This takes a matter of minutes to prepare, about the same time as opening a packet and mixing it with water, but it will taste a hundred times nicer. And good, thick Lancashire-style gravy, easily made with the juices from the roasting tin and a little cornflour, is ambrosia compared to the granulated abomination sold in supermarkets.

  ‘Cakes and Ale’

  Now that I had Libby’s ghastly secret to worry about as well as my own problems, even exhaustion couldn’t make me fall asleep that night. I spent most of it making and icing about a million gingerbread biscuits in the shape of stars and threading them on very thin green string.

  My tree and Harry’s were now groaning under the weight of them and I gave what was left as festive gifts to the Graces and Dorrie, and to Gina for her very own little tree in the flat. I didn’t think Libby would want me ruining the colour scheme on her tree, which was a silver one with purple-shaded baubles.

  I’d taken Mac with me while I was out delivering the biscuits, but he wasn’t terribly impressed by the notion of this as a walk, so then I had to go right up the lane and back by the footpath, which made it a scramble getting ready in time for Noah to pick me up for Freddie and her colonel’s wedding.

  Luckily I’d already decided what to wear—another of Stella’s almost circular, velvet, wraparound skirts, this time in a plum colour, with my favourite burgundy and gold patterned Indian cotton top. I haven’t got a smart winter coat, so borrowed Libby’s velvet jacket again.

  Harry, who saw us off, said approvingly, ‘You look pretty as a picture, our Josie!’

  ‘Yes she does,’ Noah agreed, ‘in her own unique way!’

  I gave him a look and he returned it with a bland smile, having got out to open the passenger door of his old Jaguar for me. Inside, the scent of old leather mingled with that subtle aftershave of Noah’s into an almost aphrodisiac blend. I tried to pin it down, but again, limes and a hot summer’s day by the cricket pitch on the village green, was as close as I could get. Don’t ask me where the cricket comes in.

  ‘I think I owe you an apology,’ Noah said, as he drove me with exaggerated slowness out of the village towards Sticklepond. ‘Libby told me about the scene with Ben. She said the whole village knew, because he got drunk and badmouthed you in the pub, so I might as well know too.’

  ‘I don’t see why you should apologise. It wasn’t your fault that Ben got the wrong end of the stick.’

  ‘Maybe if I hadn’t kissed you good night…’

  ‘That was nothing. Anyway, by then, Russell had already half-convinced Ben I’d plunged straight into an affair with you after he left. He was quite unreasonable.’ I shivered. ‘A bit nasty too, though he’s not really like that usually…’ I trailed off.

  ‘Jealousy does strange things to a man,’ he commented. ‘But he couldn’t know for certain about—well, about the night we had together, could he?’

  I might have remarked tartly that it had only been half a night, if that. But we had packed rather a lot into it…

  When I remained silent he said, ‘Well, could he? You didn’t tell him?’

  ‘No, but he asked me point-blank and I just couldn’t say anything at all—I froze. So then he decided he was right and that’s when he really flew off the handle.’

  ‘That doesn’t make me feel any less guilty, Josie, because if he had come to Neatslake in the first place to make it up with you, and you wanted him back, then I’ve spoiled it all. If I’d kept clear of you last night, this would never have happened.’

  ‘But I don’t want him back! And what I did or didn’t do, with you or anyone else, is no longer his concern.’

  He turned and glanced at me. ‘Was there anyone else? I wondered, when you said you’d been out with Rob Rafferty too.’

  ‘No, of course not,’ I said shortly. ‘It was always only Ben, until you came along. And afterwards.’

  ‘That’s what I thought.’

  ‘After Ben stormed off, he went straight back to London and proposed to Olivia and they’re marrying in early January.’

  ‘How do you know?’

  ‘She phoned me up and told me, highly pleased with he
rself. She knows about you and me too and I expect she’s spreading the news around. Consider your reputation shattered.’

  ‘I didn’t know I had one, though it may, of course, mean demotion from the Fifty Most Eligible Bachelors list next year,’ he said lightly.

  He glanced at me in time to catch my Gorgon glare. ‘I meant your reputation for only being seen with beautiful young models!’ I said. ‘And speaking of which, what about your girlfriend, Anji? The one you’ve been pictured with in London recently? There are lots of rumours that it’s serious.’

  He shrugged. ‘Not put about by me! But I don’t cut my old girlfriends dead in the street, you know. Most of them stay good friends.’

  Or maybe more than friends?

  I looked at him doubtfully, feeling suddenly sorry for poor Anji if she’d fallen hard for Noah and was trying desperately to hang on to him. I expect he’d been entirely open with her about just looking for no-strings-attached fun, as he had been with me, but perhaps she had assumed she could change his mind? Reforming a rake has always been an attractive proposition.

  Noah gave me a sideways smile. ‘You realise if we keep being seen together like this, it will give the gossips lots more ammunition?’

  ‘Well, since my life was so boringly blameless up until now, it’s probably time I gave them something to talk about, isn’t it?’

  ‘You won’t have to when you’re a TV personality; they’ll make things up about you, instead.’

  ‘I don’t really think that’s going to happen,’ I said doubtfully. ‘Though Claire Flowers is still bombarding me with emails and she seems pretty convinced. She’s talking about starting filming in March.’

  ‘That sounds very positive to me. She must have someone seriously interested in the idea,’ he said. ‘Here’s the village—where do I park?’

  ‘Anywhere along the lane here.’

  The church in Sticklepond, while not quite as large or as old as St Cuthbert’s in Neatslake, is very pretty, and we arrived just as the kennel maids were lining up outside with the spaniel guard of honour, all wearing large satin ribbon bows.