“You’ve brought me lists of names for my new research project. I talked to some of my research assistants about the project yesterday and two of them are quite interested in taking it forward. I’ll give them your lists and let them get started today, I think.”
“Excellent,” Bessie said, getting to her feet. “I’ll bring the paper with me the next time I’m coming into Douglas and I’ll give that class in September some serious thought.”
“Here, take the information about the class,” Marjorie told her, handing her a glossy brochure. “There’s a full list of all the classes we’re doing this autumn in there. Maybe you’ll find something else you’d like to do as well.”
Bessie slid the paper into her handbag and then made her way out of the office and then out of the museum. The walk back into Douglas was all downhill, which was good as the sun was starting to get hot. Bessie ducked into the first shop she came to, more to get out of the sun than for any other reason. She glanced through a few racks of clothes that didn’t interest her and then moved on.
Leaving the bookshop for last, Bessie bought herself two boxes of chocolate biscuits and a large bag of chocolate truffles. She was considering whether she wanted to treat herself to lunch in town or just get a quick cuppa before finishing her shopping when she heard someone calling her name.
“Bessie? Oh, Bessie, I’m so happy to see you,” a voice shouted.
Bessie turned around and smiled at her friend Helen Baxter. “How are you?” she asked as she hugged the pretty blonde nurse.
“I’m a mess,” Helen replied. She took a step backwards and ran a hand through her hair. Bessie frowned. The woman looked upset and anxious.
“What’s wrong?” she asked.
“Oh, Bessie, I’m getting married, that’s what’s wrong,” Helen exclaimed and then burst into tears.
Bessie pulled her into another hug and then rubbed her back and murmured softly in her ear. After a minute or two Helen took a few shaky breaths and then a much longer one. She straightened and then stepped back from Bessie, wiping her eyes.
“I’m so sorry,” Helen said, her face bright red with embarrassment.
“Don’t be sorry,” Bessie told her soothingly. “Are you okay?”
Helen shrugged. “I don’t know.”
“Do you want to marry Pete?” Bessie asked.
Helen looked up at her, clearly startled by the question. “Of course I want to marry Pete,” she said quickly. “I’m crazy about him and I want to spend the rest of my life with him. It’s the wedding that’s making me insane.”
Bessie sighed with relief. She liked Helen, but she also liked her fiancé, Inspector Pete Corkill of the Douglas branch of the island’s CID. He and Bessie had met in the middle of a murder investigation, and initial dislike had turned to mutual respect as the case continued. Bessie had been involved in other investigations with the man since then and she’d come to consider him a friend. When Helen had burst into tears, Bessie had been worried that the woman was planning to end things with Pete.
“In that case, what can I do to help?” Bessie asked.
Helen sighed. “I don’t suppose you want to plan my wedding for me?” she asked.
“I’m not sure I’m qualified to do that,” Bessie replied. “But I’ll do whatever I can to help.”
“It’s all just overwhelming, that’s all. I was so happy when Pete asked me to marry him that I agreed that we could get married in July, without realising that that would only give me a few months to plan the wedding. And then things got busier at work and I pushed it all out of my head. Now the wedding is not much more than a month away and I haven’t planned a single thing.”
“Pete said you were going to keep it small,” Bessie said.
“Yes, well, maybe. I’m torn, really, between having a small wedding with just us and a few friends and wanting to have a big party with hundreds of guests. I’m thirty-uhm, well thirty-something, and Pete is forty-two. He’s been married before, but I haven’t. Anyway, I don’t plan to do it again, which makes me want it to be really special.”
“As you’ll be marrying Pete, it will be special, no matter what else happens,” Bessie pointed out.
“Of course it will,” Helen agreed. “But the little girl in me, the one who always imagined walking down the aisle in a huge meringue, she wants something fabulous.”
“I can understand that. And all brides should have exactly what they want for their special day.”
“Except Pete doesn’t want a huge fuss, and we don’t have a lot of money to spend, either,” Helen said glumly. “If my parents were still alive, I’m sure they’d help out, but they passed away years ago and I used my inheritance to make the deposit on my house. I suppose I could take out a second mortgage, but that seems foolish, really.”
“You probably don’t have time to do that before July anyway,” Bessie said.
“No, probably not. I could ask Pete to change the wedding date, but he’s already booked our honeymoon and I know that cost a fortune. We can’t change that and I don’t want to, anyway.” Helen sighed deeply. “I wish I’d started planning back when Pete first proposed, but I felt so overwhelmed that I tried to hide from the whole thing. Now it’s all a mess. I suppose we’ll just have to have a ceremony at the registry office and then see if we can get a private room for lunch for everyone or something.”
“I think we can do better than that,” Bessie said firmly. “What are you doing right now?”
“I’m meant to be wedding dress shopping,” Helen told her, blinking hard. “But I can’t find anything I like and, well, I couldn’t stop thinking about my mother and how much she’d love to be here with me. I had to leave the shop before I started crying.”
“Let’s go and get some lunch,” Bessie suggested. “You’ll feel better after you’ve eaten. We need to go somewhere that has chocolate cake for pudding, I think.”
Helen gave her a tearful smile. “That sounds like exactly what I need,” she said.
Chapter 5
One of Bessie’s favourite restaurants was only a short distance away. She led Helen down the stairs into the building’s spacious lower level.
“Table for two, please,” she told the man at the door.
“And how are you today, Bessie?” he asked.
“I’m just fine,” Bessie replied. “Mostly hungry.”
“I hope we can help with that,” he laughed as he led the pair to a small table in a corner of the room. “Shall I put in an order for garlic bread while you look at the menu?”
“Oh, yes, please,” Bessie said. The garlic bread, flat and dripping with olive oil and garlic, was one of the main reasons this was one of her favourite restaurants. The man grinned at her and then left the women alone.
“I’m starving,” Helen said. “But I’ve been trying to lose a few pounds before the wedding.”
“Why?”
“Why? Because that’s what you do, isn’t it? I mean, everyone wants to look their best on their wedding day.”
“And you think you’ll look better if you lose a few pounds?”
“I’ve been wanting to lose a few pounds for years,” Helen told Bessie. “I was hoping that having a wedding coming up would provide extra motivation for me, but it hasn’t worked that way, at least not yet.”
“Pete loves you just the way you are. As long as you’re healthy, you shouldn’t obsess over the numbers on the scale.”
“In that case, I’ll have some garlic bread,” Helen said as the waiter delivered the starter.
“Oh, dear, maybe I shouldn’t have been so persuasive,” Bessie laughed as they both helped themselves to pieces of bread.
Bessie was so intent on her bread that she didn’t notice the young woman who walked past the table and then stopped. “Hello, Bessie,” the girl said in a bright voice.
“Elizabeth, this is a surprise. I don’t see you for ages and now I’ve seen you twice in one day.”
“I’m actually in town applying
for jobs,” Elizabeth replied. “I was hoping they might be hiring here, but they aren’t.”
“Are you having lunch?” Bessie asked.
Elizabeth shrugged. “I hadn’t really thought about it, but that garlic bread smells wonderful. I suppose I’m quite hungry, really.”
“You’re welcome to join us,” Helen told the girl. “If you don’t mind listening to me talk about my wedding the whole time.”
Elizabeth pulled up a chair and Bessie introduced her to Helen. The waiter brought over another plate for Elizabeth and she helped herself to garlic bread.
“You’re getting married?” she asked Helen after she’d eaten a slice of bread. “Tell me all about it. I love weddings.”
Helen sighed. “I love other people’s weddings, but planning mine is a nightmare. We’re getting married next month and I haven’t sorted a single thing yet.”
“Where do you want to have the ceremony?” Elizabeth asked.
“I don’t know,” Helen replied. “And before you ask anything else, I’ll be giving you the same answer to anything and everything you might ask. I simply don’t know what I want to do.”
“What about your fiancé? Does he have any ideas?” was Elizabeth’s next question.
“He’s worse than I am, if that’s possible. We both have busy careers. Sometimes we go days without actually seeing one another; there’s no way we have time to plan the wedding together. What I need is someone to do all of the planning for me so that all Pete and I have to do is turn up.”
Elizabeth clapped her hands. “I’ll do it,” she said happily.
Helen stared at her for a minute. “Oh, but I didn’t, that is, I’m not sure,” she stammered until the waiter interrupted to take their order. When he was gone, Elizabeth held up a hand.
“I’m not trying to take over your wedding or anything, but I used to help friends plan their parties and I always loved it. Okay, I’ve never done a wedding before, but it can’t be that much more difficult, can it? Anyway, I’m happy to help as much or as little as you’d like. I can plan the whole thing and just tell you where to be when, or we can work together, whatever you prefer.”
“I can’t take advantage of you like that,” Helen protested.
“But I want to do it,” Elizabeth replied. “I’m not doing anything else at the moment. Bessie told you my name, but she didn’t tell you that I’m George Quayle’s daughter. I live at Thie yn Traie and do nothing but sit around and tell the staff what to do all day. I’m actually looking for a job, but that can wait a few weeks, until after the wedding.”
Helen frowned. “We don’t have a lot of money for a big wedding,” she said hesitantly. “And we aren’t planning on having many guests.”
“I can work with a budget,” Elizabeth assured her. “Maybe you could have the reception at my parents’ house. That would save you some money.”
Helen shook her head. “I’ve never been inside the Quayle mansion, but I don’t think it’s quite what Pete and I had in mind.”
“No, it’s pretty ghastly, actually,” Elizabeth laughed. “Thie yn Traie is better. Maybe you could get married at the church in Laxey and then have the reception at Thie yn Traie.”
“I have been there,” Helen said. “It was many years ago, when the Pierce family owned the place. One of the staff managed to cut his arm quite badly somehow. I went to change the dressing on a couple of occasions. I always wanted to ask for a full tour, but I never did. The one thing I remember most of all is that the views from the great room are stunning, but it’s a huge room. It will feel empty unless we invite hundreds of people.”
“Not if it’s decorated properly,” Elizabeth told her. “And if my staff does the food, you’ll only have to pay for supplies, not labour. We already pay them to be there, and most of the time they don’t have to do anything.”
“I’m not sure I’m comfortable with all of this,” Helen said quietly.
The waiter delivered plates of spaghetti and ravioli before Elizabeth could reply. All three women turned their attention to their lunch, leaving the conversation for later. It was only after they’d all ordered chocolate cake with ice cream that Elizabeth brought up the wedding again.
“I know I’m pushy and I try to take over everything that I get involved with,” she began. “But I really do want to help you. If you’re getting married next month, you don’t have much time to plan things, and you may find most venues are already booked. I know Thie yn Traie is available.” She winked at Helen.
Helen sighed. “I’m sorry. I was feeling completely overwhelmed by everything all morning and now I’m feeling, well, I don’t even know how I’m feeling. There’s a part of me that would love to just tell you to plan the whole thing so that I can just turn up on the day, but it’s my wedding. I don’t plan on ever doing this again.”
Elizabeth nodded. “Are you busy this afternoon?”
“I’m meant to be buying a wedding gown, booking a church and a reception hall, finding caterers, and ordering a cake and flowers,” Helen told her, making a face.
Bessie laughed. “I think that’s rather ambitious for one afternoon.”
“I had the morning, too, but I couldn’t stop crying long enough to make any decisions,” Helen replied.
“Why don’t you come back to Laxey with me?” Elizabeth suggested. “You can have a look at the great room at Thie yn Traie and we can talk about catering. I meant what I said about the staff there, though. I know our chef would be delighted if I told him he had a wedding to cater. He grumbles all the time about only have me to feed, especially since I’m hardly ever there.”
“I would want to pay them for their time,” Helen said.
Elizabeth nodded. “I’m sure we can work something out,” she said.
“As her fiancé is with the police, they can’t be seen to be getting large favours from members of the public,” Bessie suggested.
“Surely the police are allowed to have friends,” Elizabeth argued.
“They just have to be extra careful,” Helen said. “Letting us use Thie yn Traie is probably okay, but we will have to pay for everything else, the food and drink and for whatever sort of music we end up having.”
Elizabeth nodded. “Are you planning for an afternoon wedding or an evening wedding?”
Helen shrugged. “I suppose I should get in touch with a church somewhere and see what’s available. It’s no good planning an afternoon wedding if I can’t find a church that can marry us in the afternoon.”
“Is the date set?” Elizabeth asked.
“Yes, and so is the honeymoon,” Helen told her. “Pete planned all of that and I was supposed to be doing the wedding. I feel as if I’ve let him down, really.”
“If you are having your reception at Thie yn Traie, maybe you should think about the using the church in Laxey for the ceremony,” Bessie said. “It’s a lovely church and I doubt it’s fully booked. It’s such a small parish, really.”
“I love that church,” Helen said. “I assumed that we’d get married in Douglas as we both live here, but it isn’t as if Laxey is that far away.”
“Why not ask Pete what he thinks?” Bessie suggested.
“Yes, I suppose I should,” Helen agreed. “After pudding,” she grinned as the waiter set plates of cake on the table.
When they were finished, Helen excused herself so that she could ring Pete. She was smiling broadly when she came back to the table.
“Pete’s just happy that I’m finally planning something,” she told the others. “He said he was starting to worry that I didn’t really want to marry him, as I wasn’t doing any planning. He’s offered to help more with the plans now that he knows how stressed I am about it. He thought he was helping by leaving it all to me. Apparently his first wife did everything for their wedding; she’d been planning hers since childhood and wouldn’t listen to a single suggestion from him.”
“Have you been planning your wedding since childhood?” Elizabeth asked.
“Not really,” Helen shrugged. “When I was five my aunt got married and had a huge wedding. I thought then that some day I’d have something exactly like that, but the more I think about it, the less appealing it is. Even if Pete and I could afford something extravagant, I’m sure we can find better uses for the money.”
“Let’s go back to Laxey together,” Elizabeth said. “We can visit the church and talk to the vicar before we go to Thie yn Traie. Maybe we can pop into the florist shop as well. Once you have a church and flowers, you’ll be almost done.”
Helen nodded. “Are you sure you have time for this?” she asked Elizabeth.
“Time is one thing I have in abundance,” Elizabeth replied.
Bessie settled the bill and then followed the happily chatting pair out of the restaurant. Helen had walked from her flat into Douglas, so she was happy for Elizabeth to drive them both to Laxey.
“Bessie, do you want a ride, too?” Elizabeth asked when they reached the high street.
Bessie thought about it. Riding with Elizabeth would save her from having to catch a taxi later, but she still hadn’t been to the bookshop. She shook her head. “I need to do some more shopping. Thank you anyway.”
Helen gave her a tight hug. “I can’t thank you enough,” she whispered. “Elizabeth is a bit overwhelming, but I’m pretty sure the wedding will happen now. I had my doubts this morning.”
“It will happen,” Bessie said with a smile. “And I’m delighted for you.”
Elizabeth grinned as she and Helen turned to walk to the nearby car park. “Thanks, Bessie,” she said. “I’m so pleased to have something useful to do for a change.”
As the pair walked away, Bessie grinned. She was delighted to have helped both of her friends at the same time. Now she just needed a few good books to add to her collection.
The bookshop was nearly empty. Bessie wandered around, picking up titles and reading blurbs for nearly an hour. In all that time, only two other customers appeared. One young man bought something that looked like a textbook and an older woman came in to ask for directions to the nearby ShopFast.
Aunt Bessie Provides (An Isle of Man Cozy Mystery Book 16) Page 7
