Izzy was shaking her head. ‘You have to understand that Catherine has had it in for us since the day she let us down and we had the gall to mind about it. So much for her apologising to us.’
There was a long silence as Ed stared at her.
‘I’m sorry,’ she said, embarrassed by her outburst. ‘It’s not your fault. I shouldn’t be screaming at you about this. You’ve been nothing but helpful to us.’
‘It’s OK,’ he said quietly, resting his hand on her shoulder. ‘We’ll do our best to fix this. We still have, what, five hours? We can achieve a lot in that time.’
‘One of us needs to phone Lacey and break the news to her that we can’t host her reception after all,’ Jess said, sniffing loudly.
Ed folded his arms across his chest and stared at the shambles. ‘Not necessarily,’ he said.
Jess narrowed her eyes. ‘Are you nuts?’ She waved her arms around taking in the area. ‘You think we stand any chance at all of making this chaos vanish?’
‘Yes, we can do this,’ he said, puffing out his cheeks. ‘The first thing we need to do is clean up this mess. I’m going fetch the gardeners and a couple of wheelbarrows and start picking up the broken shards of crockery. We don’t want guests standing on anything sharp and cutting themselves when they’re dancing, do we?’
‘Guests,’ snorted Jess. ‘Not much chance of them dancing here today.’
Izzy agreed with her, but seeing Ed hurry out of the marquee with so much determination she turned to Jess. ‘Listen, he’s right. We have to give this our best shot. It’s the only chance we have of not letting Lacey down.’ She hesitated. ‘Or ourselves.’
Jess sighed, wiping away her tears with the backs of her hands. ‘Fine, but what do you suggest we do?’
Izzy tried to straighten out her thoughts and make some sort of plan. ‘Firstly, the place needs to be tidied up, which the gardeners will do. Thankfully, the floral arch can be sorted out easily with some more flowers.’
‘That’s something, I suppose. Go on.’
‘The most important thing we need to do is assess how much of the crockery we have left. Don’t forget we have a couple of extra boxes in the butler’s pantry in case of breakages. Hopefully they haven’t been damaged.’
‘And we didn’t lay out the linens or glasses, so they might well be OK,’ Jess said, the colour seeping back into her face slightly.
‘We have to find a way to hide that,’ she said, pointing to the huge tears in the silky marquee lining. ‘It looks horrendous. I’m phoning the marquee hire company. One sec.’ She dialled their number on her mobile and spoke to a flustered woman who said that nothing could be done for several hours as everyone was out working.
Izzy relayed the conversation to Jess. ‘We have to think of some way to cover this ourselves. Then we need to beg, borrow, or magic up more crockery from somewhere,’ Izzy said, wracking her brains to come up with people who might own vintage crockery that would suit this occasion. ‘My mum will have some more, but not too much, unfortunately,’ she pulled a face.
‘We have a couple more boxes at home,’ Jess pointed out. ‘They’re not the best stuff, but we can’t afford to be picky today.’
She was right. Izzy hated the thought of using less-than-perfect china for the event, but it couldn’t be helped. ‘I don’t think there’ll be nearly enough though,’ she said. She heard voices coming from outside the marquee.
‘I’ve asked Catherine to find Marie and come up with as much suitable crockery from the manor and cottages as she can,’ Ed said, leading the gardeners inside and directing them towards the mess, then heading out again, muttering something about fetching another wheelbarrow.
Jess glowered after him. ‘He wants us to let her back in here? What, to see what other damage she can do wreck this wedding?’
Izzy didn’t care who helped, as long as they managed to secure enough stock to get through today successfully.
‘Let’s worry about her tomorrow, shall we? Ed will be here and I doubt she’d try anything with him around. Remember, the best way to get back at whoever did this will be to make a brilliant success of today.’
‘If you say so,’ Jess said sulkily. ‘Though personally a hard smack in the face is my favoured form of getting revenge.’
Izzy wasn’t certain, she remembered Lacey’s concerns about Jack’s ex-girlfriend and her threats about their wedding.
‘Maybe Ed’s right and it wasn’t Catherine,’ she said.
Jess gasped. ‘Are you for real?’
Izzy shook her head. ‘Remember Lacey telling us about Jack’s ex? What if she’s responsible for this?’
Jess frowned. ‘Oh, I’d forgotten about her.’ She considered something then added. ‘I suppose you could be right.’
‘Look, we don’t have time for pondering about who did this,’ Izzy said. ‘We need to re-arrange this marquee and worry about it later.’
‘Saris,’ someone called from the lawn area.
‘Jess, Izzy?’ Ed hurried back into the room, closely followed by Catherine. ‘Catherine has come up with a brilliant idea to help cover the torn lining.’
Izzy eyed Jess warily as Catherine entered the marquee. ‘Go on,’ she said.
‘A friend of mine married a guy from India and we had a huge hen party for her.’
‘So?’ Jess said, glaring at her.
‘So,’ Catherine replied sarcastically, ‘I’ve given her a call and she said we can borrow the saris she bought for the occasion. They’re in vibrant colours and perfect to cover that hideous mess up there.’ She grimaced when she looked at the torn lining. ‘She’s dropping them off in about ten minutes.’
Ed raised his arms and looked up to the ceiling area. ‘The guys and I can put them up. I think they’ll look amazing and completely cover the damage.’
Izzy and Jess followed his gaze. Izzy tried to picture the scene and had to admit that the bright colours would go well with the rest of the décor.
‘They will add a dash of summer colour to the place, I suppose,’ she said. ‘I love the idea. Jess, what do you think?’
Jess gave Catherine a withering look. ‘I suppose so.’
‘Great,’ Izzy said. ‘Let’s do it.’
Catherine coughed. ‘I’ve also managed to collect quite a bit of crockery. Marie is washing it now.’
‘You work quickly,’ Jess said icily.
‘That’s great, thanks.’ Izzy linked arms with Jess, hoping this would remind her to watch what she said. If Catherine did turn out to be the person behind today’s drama, she would have no problem sorting her out, but for now, at least, they had more important priorities on which to focus.
‘We’re going to phone around our friends and family and collect as much as we can. We don’t have long, especially as we need to set up all the tables again.’
‘Not all of them, some are still as you left them last night,’ Ed said. ‘Maybe the culprit was interrupted.’
‘Probably,’ Izzy said, looking at the tables that hadn’t been touched and grateful for that at least. She counted how many place settings remained intact. ‘Sixteen out of seventy-five,’ she murmured. ‘We need to come up with fifty-nine other sets, less what Catherine’s found, and what’s hopefully left in the pantry. Oh, and we’re missing a saucer from there, that you broke.’
Izzy sighed, and realizing she’d left her mobile in her bag at Ed’s cottage, pointed at Jess’s hand to borrow hers. She called her mum, telling Cherry what had happened and what they needed from her. ‘We’ll be round in the next half an hour.’ She handed the phone back to Jess.
‘I hope we can do this,’ Jess said, sighing heavily.
‘We’ll do it,’ Izzy assured her, not feeling as positive as she sounded.
‘Right,’ Ed said. ‘I’ll get the guys to help me put up the saris. Catherine and Marie can sort out the crockery they’ve put together,’ he said. ‘I’ll go and source more roses and ivy for the garland and I’ll catch up with you two when you g
et back.’
‘We’ll need to come into the manor and count up how much we have inside for the place settings,’ Izzy said.
They left Catherine and Ed standing in the marquee and ran in to the manor house and through to the kitchen where they saw Marie washing the crockery.
‘How many sets do you think you have there?’ Jess asked.
Izzy stood near the sink and did a quick tally. ‘Twenty-six cups,’ she said to Marie. ‘Do you know if they all have matching saucers?’
‘Yes, they do, and plates.’ She pointed to a pile in the sink.
Izzy patted her shoulder. ‘Thanks, Marie, we owe you.’
Izzy followed by Jess through to the butler’s pantry. Izzy breathed a sigh of relief as she saw that everything was as they had left it. They quickly unpacked the two extra hampers they always took to each event in case of damage.
‘We never thought we’d have to cover this many breakages, did we?’ she said.
‘I’ve got twelve cups and saucers in here.’
Izzy quickly counted the contents of her box. ‘Twelve plates here. So we have another twelve complete sets and that’s’ she calculated the amounts in her head.
‘Not enough,’ Jess groaned. ‘Still twenty-one more sets to find.’ She slammed her palms down on the worn table and lowered her head. ‘We may as well give up now. We’re never going to do this.’
‘Don’t be like that, Jess,’ Izzy shouted. She heard a crash on the floor. ‘What the hell?’
They turned to see Marie, hands clasped over her mouth staring at the remnants of three plates scattered on the flagstone floor.
‘I’m so sorry,’ Marie cried. ‘One slipped out of my hands and caught the others lying on the drainer.
Izzy stared at the bare stone drainer and winced. ‘It’s fine,’ she fibbed, wondering how Marie could have been so careless just when they needed all the plates they could get their hands on.
Jess turned to Izzy, her mouth open in shock, but for once she didn’t say anything.
‘Look,’ Izzy said, ‘We might not make it, but we have to give it our best shot, so stop being negative. Twenty-four more sets to find.’
She grabbed Jess by one of her wrists and went outside, waving to Marie as they passed her. ‘We’ll be back as soon as possible,’ she said. ‘If we’re longer than an hour, please can you ask the guys to help you take this crockery out to the marquee, so we can start setting up the places as soon as we get back?’
‘No worries,’ Marie assured her, immediately racing back to the sink.
They raced to the van and drove as quickly as the speed limit would allow to Cherry’s home.
‘Mum, where are you?’ Izzy asked bursting in through the front door with such force that the door slammed back against the hall wall.
‘Careful!’ Cherry shouted. She wiped her hands with a small towel and spotted Jess over Izzy’s shoulder. ‘Hi, Jess, good to see you again. Right, come through here, you two. I’ve got five of my mother’s old tea sets that I was keeping for best – you can borrow them for now but please look after them.’
They followed her into her dining room where on the table she’d stacked the mismatched crockery. ‘It’s very pretty, don’t you think?’ she asked holding up a yellow and black cup. ‘I know you said preferably pink, but this is the best I could come up with.’
Izzy hugged her mother gratefully. ‘This is brilliant,’ she said. ‘So that makes, um, nineteen sets we still need to find. Do you have a box we can pack them in Mum?’
Cherry nodded. ‘In the utility room, I think.’
Izzy left the room, almost bumping into her mother’s neighbour as she came through the back door carrying two shopping bags.
‘You’ve been out and about early,’ Izzy said stepping aside so the woman could make her way into the dining room.
‘Come in here, love,’ she said. ‘I’ve got something for you gels.’
Izzy did as she was told and followed the elderly lady back into the room she’d just left.
‘I knew you’d come up with something,’ Cherry said, smiling at her friend. She looked at Jess and Izzy and smiled. ‘Margaret has brought you two more sets for your wedding. Let’s unwrap them.’
They did, and although they didn’t match the pink chintzy theme Lacey had wanted the design was fresh and sunny.
‘Thank you so much, Margaret,’ Izzy said giving the lady a kiss on her powdered cheek. ‘We really are very grateful. She had an idea. ‘Could you hold up one of the plates from each set, so I can take a picture with Jess’s phone and make sure you get the right set back?’
Margaret did as she asked and then so did Cherry. The four of them hurriedly packed up the sets.
‘How many more cups, saucers, and plates do you still need?’ Margaret asked the girls as they walked out to load their new stock into the van.
‘Seventeen, I think,’ Izzy said. ‘Not many, but we need to find them and soon if we’re going to be ready for this wedding reception.’
‘What about the food?’ Cherry asked as Izzy clipped on her seat belt.
‘The caterers are doing it, and they shouldn’t need the crockery till they’re almost ready to serve.’
‘Right. You’d better get on now girls,’ Cherry said. ‘Let me know how it all goes, won’t you?’
‘We will,’ Jess said, carrying the bags of china out to the van with Izzy.
Izzy started the ignition. ‘Thanks again Mum, Margaret.’
They drove off, waving to the two women.
‘We’re nearly there,’ Izzy said, glancing at Jess sitting thoughtfully and resting her chin on the back of her hand. ‘Where shall we try now?’
‘We don’t have time to start phoning and waiting for friends to find stuff,’ Jess said. ‘And we don’t have time to sit through the traffic to get to Rozel to go through the crockery we might have at home.’ She groaned. ‘Turn left at the next junction and let’s go to town and pop into some of the charity shops. Maybe we can find the remaining sets in there?’
‘Let’s hope so,’ Izzy said hopefully.
They managed to find a parking space not too far from three charity shops.
‘I can’t believe I didn’t think to bring my bag,’ Izzy moaned, angry at her thoughtlessness. ‘Do you have any money on you?’
Jess pushed her hand in her bag and pulled out her purse. ‘Twenty-six quid,’ she said. ‘And my debit card. We’ll use the card first. Then if one of the shops won’t take it, we can use the cash.’
The first shop had enough crockery to make two reasonable sets, with an odd saucer, so they paid for them and hurried to the next one a couple of doors down the back street. ‘Those are quite nice,’ Jess said pointing up onto one shelf where three mismatched sets were displayed. ‘Can we see those, please?’ she asked the assistant.
Checking the crockery quickly, and trying not to panic when Izzy noticed the shop clock telling them that they’d already been nearly an hour and a half, she paid the cashier and packed the purchases into another bag.
‘Twelve more,’ Jess moaned. ‘We’re never going to find another twelve sets, not now.’
Izzy hoped she was wrong, but doubted it.
Jess wasn’t wrong. ‘If some people cancel at the last minute then we’ll need fewer sets,’ she said hopefully.
‘Never mind that now,’ Izzy said as Jess paid. ‘We need to get back to the manor and start setting up the tables.’
Jess and Izzy thanked the shopkeeper and hurried back to their van.
‘But what will we do about the last place settings?’ Jess asked. ‘I think people will notice if they don’t have anything to eat off.’
As Izzy drove through the morning traffic, Jess made a few phone calls. They recalled one more charity shop on the way home and found four more mismatched sets there.
‘Eight more,’ Jess said tapping the black plastic dashboard. ‘We still need more.’
‘Shit,’ Izzy said, indicating to turn into the manor d
riveway through the huge stone pillars and under the granite archway towards the marquee. ‘There’s nothing we can do now,’ she said. ‘We can ask them to check the manor kitchens again, or the cottages.’
They parked the van near to the manor house and hurriedly carried their new stock in to the kitchen. Jess unpacked while Izzy washed the newly bought crockery. They dried everything and set it out on the bleached table top to see what they had to work with.
‘We’ve done all we can now,’ Izzy said, trying not to feel too deflated at their failure to come up with all the china they needed. ‘Come on, let’s get this lot into the marquee, we’re running out of time.’
Chapter Twenty-two
They rushed into the marquee, immediately taken aback by the glorious array of saris hanging from the walls. Ed and the gardeners had done a brilliant job.
‘Look Jess,’ she whispered, unable to help smiling at the difference it made.
‘What?’ Jess grumbled, carrying the heavy hamper and placing on the table closest to the door. She turned to see what Izzy was talking about. ‘Holy crap, that’s stunning.’
‘You like it?’ Ed asked, coming in behind them.
Izzy looked over to him, noticing his happy expression. ‘Very much,’ she said honestly. ‘It looks better than it did before.’
‘How will we explain away the Indian saris in an English country vintage wedding setting though?’ Jess asked.
‘In colonial times the British people in India epitomised the art of drinking tea. Just explain that the wedding setting is taking them back to the days of the Raj.’
Izzy liked it. She smiled at Jess then looked back at Ed. ‘I doubt anyone will ask. You’ve all done an amazing job here, thanks.’
He bowed his head briefly. ‘I’m glad you’re happy.’ He lifted his arm and tapped the face of his large watch. ‘You’re running out of time to set everything up in here. Tell me what you want me to do and I’ll get on with it.’
‘Me, too,’ Catherine said from the doorway.
Jess groaned. ‘Really? You want to help us?’ She glowered at her nemesis. ‘Or is it more that you want the opportunity of accidentally damaging some of this stock?’
The Jersey Scene series box set Page 87
