Nice Day For A White Wedding

by Le Carre, Georgia

  What the fuck are you doing?

  Waking up to find someone watching you sleeping is pretty fucking creepy, and the last thing I want is for Cindy to start thinking I’m a pervert. I turn away instantly and go back to the corner seat. I feel shaken. My lack of control is extraordinary. I’m never like this.

  I open my laptop. Work. Work is always the answer. At least if I’m working, I know I have to focus on what I’m doing. I type in my password. I might as well get some emails out of the way since I’ll be keeping work to a minimum while I’m at my aunt’s house.

  Cindy makes a little snuffling sound and shuffles in her seat and in spite of myself my head lifts and my whole body comes to attention and listens intently, the way a man in a jungle who has heard a twig break behind him might.

  Resisting her is going to be hard. Much, much harder than I’ve imagined.

  Cindy

  Something wakes me up and my eyes flicker open. It takes a second for me to remember where I am. Ah yes, I’m on Alex’s plane heading to Russia. I come awake fully when I think of Alex. Turning my head, I spy on him, sitting in his seat, a slight frown etched into his forehead as he types something into his laptop.

  He must have felt my gaze on him because he raises his eyes and looks unsmiling at me. I have dragged him out of another world; there is no trace of the hunger/lust whatever you want to call it in his eyes. He is completely unapproachable and brutally distant.

  “Just need to get this email sent before I shut down for landing,” he says quietly.

  “Of course,” I croak and quickly turn my head back around. Frankly, it’s a shock to see him like that, and I realize with a start that this is the face he shows the rest of the world.

  I hear him typing furiously as I put my seat upright, then take my compact out of my purse. After I make sure I don’t have drool running down my chin I snap my compact shut close. As I straighten my clothes, I hear him close his laptop.

  He strolls over and slips into the seat opposite me. “Do you feel better for your nap?”

  “Yes thanks,” I say, searching his face. The hunger is back. Suddenly, I feel self-conscious. “Was I snoring?”

  “Like a full-grown hog,” he drawls in that deep, smooth voice of his.

  My God, this man is calling me a full-grown hog and yet it sounds like he is making love to me. I feel heat rush up my throat and cheeks.

  Alex laughs. “I’m joking,” he says. “You slept like an angel.”

  I clear my throat. “How long before we land?”

  He glances at his watch. “Less than half-an-hour.”

  “I’ve been sleeping for nearly three hours?” I ask surprised.

  “Mmm …”

  “And you worked the whole time?”

  “Three hours is not exactly a long time,” he says quietly.

  At that moment Gloria comes through to the cabin to check our seat belts are fastened correctly for landing. I fasten my seat belt quickly, then I peer out of the window. We’re flying lower now, coming in to land over a vibrant city. I remember what Alex said about this part of our journey. We’ll land at a normal airport and have our documents checked before we’ll take off again to get to our final destination. Wherever that is.

  Soon the plane lands, touching down smoothly on the tarmac. Within twenty minutes, the customs officer has been on board, checked our passports, and the captain’s flight paperwork, then disembarked after finding everything in order. In no time we’re taking off again. I go to take my seat belt off.

  “Unless you’re planning on moving around, I wouldn’t bother,” Alex smiles, nodding to my seat belt. “We’ll be in the air less than fifteen minutes.”

  “How long would it have taken if we drove from the airport?” I ask, not heeding his advice and leaving my seat belt open.

  Alex shrugs. “At least a couple of hours, especially with the early evening traffic.”

  I look out of the window as we leave the city behind. Through the wispy clouds, I can see we’re moving across beautiful, rolling countryside. It seems like the summer fields are every shade of green imaginable.

  Gloria comes flitting in again to tell us we’ll be landing at our final destination within the next couple of minutes. She checks our seat belts again, then moves away.

  I keep looking out of the window, watching as the ground seems to start moving up to meet us. This part of the country really is stunningly beautiful. I can’t see a town or even a house anywhere and I imagine how beautiful this place will look in the winter, covered by a white blanket of snow.

  I can’t keep the smile off my face as excitement starts to grip me. As my mother would say, I am now officially on an adventure.

  Alex seems completely unmoved by the beautiful scenery. He doesn’t even attempt to move closer to the window for a better view. I look at him curiously and he stares back questioningly.

  “It’s so beautiful,” I enthuse. “Are you that blasé about it?”

  “Yes, it is beautiful, but I’ve seen it all a thousand times. I grew up here.”

  “Ah, your parents lived here too?”

  His face clouds over for a second and I realize he’s never really mentioned his parents before. I hope I haven’t forced him into revealing anything he doesn’t want to.

  “Yes. We all lived here together when I was growing up. My parents died when I was fourteen … a helicopter accident. My grandmother passed away soon after I was born so my great aunt was always babushka to me, that’s Russian for grandmother. Once I became an orphan she raised me.”

  “I’m sorry,” I whisper.

  “It was a long time ago,” he replies automatically, as if he had repeated that polite, overused, meaningless line a thousand times to a thousand people.

  “What was it like growing up here?” I ask, trying to change the subject without making it too obvious.

  “Perfect.” He smiles. “All of this land you can see now belongs to my aunt, so as you can imagine, we were never short of outdoors space. We, my cousins and I, spent all our time out on the land, mostly riding.”

  “You had horses?” I ask eagerly. “Horses are my favorite animal. I’ve loved them ever since I saw Black Beauty, but ponies are for rich girls and my parents were strictly working class and proud of it. My father worked at building sites and read The Sun newspapers, and my mother cleaned houses and still smells faintly of bleach and disinfectant.”

  Alex nods. “Yes, beautiful Arabian horses. I’ll take you down to the stables tomorrow if you’d like to see them.”

  “Oh, I’d love to,” I cry eagerly.

  He jerks his chin towards the window. “There’s Winter House now.”

  Cindy

  I turn my head and gasp as the house comes into view. Well, calling such place a house is like calling China a village. It’s absolutely massive and mostly white, but with small areas painted with baby blue. The mansion stands out against the greenery around, seeming to almost shine with splendor, like something out of a fairytale. As much as it stands out, it doesn’t look out of place. Somehow, it blends into the landscape as if it’s as much a natural feature as the gorgeous tall trees that stand dotted around the grounds.

  “Wow! Surely your aunt doesn’t live here alone?”

  “No,” Alex says. “Petra and Anastasia, my cousins, live here with her. There’s also Valeriya, her qualified nurse, assistant, and companion. Actually, she is almost part of the family. Most of the house isn’t even in use anymore now, but my aunt has a whole team of house keepers who keep it in good repair. My aunt’s daughter, Marina, and her husband, Viktor, live close by and they stay over if my cousins are out of town so my aunt always has some family with her. They’ll be here tonight too to meet you. I guess you could say it’s a bit of a family reunion.”

  “Oh wow. I’ll never remember all these names,” I say.

  “You will.” His lips twist sarcastically. “They’re the sort of people who make an … impression.”

  I feel a
pit of dread in my stomach, which I quickly ignore. I know how to deal with difficult people. I’ve dealt with drunken men the size of Alex on my own and never felt afraid. I’m pretty sure his family aren’t going to physically hurt me and I can definitely live with a few nasty words from a few rude, obnoxious people I’ll never see again after this stint.

  It’ll be worth it for half The Macau.

  We touch down on the runway and after we come to a stop, Gloria appears from the staff area of the plane to open the main cabin door. A set of steps are wheeled over to the plane by an ancient man in gray overalls. I squint out of the window once more before I release my seat belt and stand up.

  Alex gallantly stands back and allows me to go first. As we walk down the aisle, Gloria wishes us a pleasant stay. I reach the doorway and stop for a second. The air is mind-blowingly fresh compared to London. I fill my lungs with it. I can see the mansion in the distance and any dread I had dissipates, replaced with a kind of nervous excitement.

  Wait till I tell you all about this adventure, Mum.

  I really hope Alex is right about his great aunt’s preferences for a wife for him and she likes me. She is the only person he seems to care about keeping happy so I’ll concentrate on being the perfect fiancée to Alex she could ever hope for.

  As we walk down the steps the old man in the overalls ignores me and nods reverently at Alex. My feet touch the ground and a delicious cool breeze starts to roll in. I turn back toward Alex and watch it lift strands of his hair and drop them across his forehead. I feel my stomach do a little flip at the sight.

  The temperature is similar to the evening air in London which reassures me that I have packed correctly. I gave up trying to work out what exactly the weather would be like, and I just brought a selection of my usual clothes. Thinking of my clothes draws my attention to collecting my suitcase, but when I look in that direction, I see the cargo compartment is already open and the ancient man in the overalls has already begun to unload our luggage.

  In front of us there is a long black car waiting. The chauffeur who is actually wearing a peaked cap is waiting by the open passenger door. He nods politely at me.

  I have a feeling I’m going to have to get used to being waited on for the duration of this trip. Alex is the sort of guy who has drivers back in London and maybe some other household staff, and if I react like this is all new to me, then his aunt will know instantly that this is all a sham. Alex puts his hand on the small of my back to lead me to the waiting car.

  He grins down at me. “Show time, baby.”

  The endearment is so foreign I have to laugh. But as soon as the laugh dies away it becomes impossible to concentrate on anything else except his hand on my back. I suddenly wish my dress wasn’t forming a barrier between us. I want to feel his hand on my bare skin. I blink the thought away as we reach the car.

  Alex allows me to get in through the car door closest to us and walks around to the other side. I smile my thanks at the chauffeur and slip into my seat. Alex slides in next to me as the driver closes my door. I can feel that dangerous heat from his body. I don’t know whether he feels the pull I’m feeling, but he starts tapping his fingers impatiently on the leather seat, until the driver gets in and we’re heading for the house.

  I watch the house through the window and as we get closer, I see how grand and imposing it really is. It reminds me of Buckingham Palace. I am so far out of my depth here I realize with a sense of panic. It’s all good and great saying it’s an adventure, but how the hell can I convince a person who lives in a house like this that I’m good enough for her great-nephew? I’ve watched a program on TV about the complicated dinner table settings of polite society. How simply eating with the wrong cutlery can turn you into the uncivilized outsider. In fact, there are thousands of innocuous things that you can trip up on and out yourself.

  “Hey,” Alex says.

  He brushes his fingers over mine and his touch does nothing to quell the rolling of my stomach. I blink and look at him.

  “Relax, Cindy,” he says. “It’s just a house. Seriously.”

  I chew my lower lip. “I’m just a normal girl, Alex. Your great aunt is not just rich, she’s practically royalty, isn’t she?”

  He shakes his head and laughs, a humor filled laugh that I don’t quite understand.

  “Once you get to know my aunt a bit, you’ll see why I’m laughing. Honestly, she’s the most down to earth woman you’ll ever meet. She just happens to come from an old family with money, that’s all.”

  I nod my head, not entirely reassured by his words. I remind myself I’m only here for a week or two. I can do anything for such a short amount of time, including pretending I fit in with people who are clearly only a step or two down from Russian royalty.

  The drive is a short one and we pull up at the bottom of a set of white stone steps with huge fierce griffins standing on either side. Alex gets out of the car and even though my hand goes automatically to the handle, I resist the urge to open the door myself. Anyone could be watching out of the windows and it is time to get into character.

  Alex nods approvingly as he opens my door and I climb out of the car. The boot of the car is already open and a man dressed in red trousers, a white shirt, and a matching red jacket starts unloading our luggage.

  “Come on,” Alex says with a panty-melting lop-sided smile as he offers me his arm.

  Cindy

  I slip my hand through it and square my shoulders. I’ve prepared myself for the sparks of electricity that fly between us, but that smile, though. My stomach rolls deliciously. One thing is for sure. I’m not going to have to work at faking the attraction between Alex and me. Even a blind person would be able to sense our chemistry.

  He leads me up the stone steps and as I step on the final one, I get my first look at the family. Two young women stand side by side at the entrance of the tall blue door. One of them looks to be about the same age as Alex. She has blonde hair that is almost white and piercing blue eyes that look me up and down. The other girl looks a little bit younger. She has a short black bob, and while she couldn’t look any more opposite to the other girl in her looks, her poise is the same. Haughty. She too is openly looking me up and down.

  Instead of making me more nervous, I actually find that the girls’ attitude helps me to relax. I’ve taken bigger people than these two down a peg or two, and I might even enjoy the task at hand.

  The girls stand slightly apart from the other two women. One who looks to be in her early sixties and has the look of someone who has served faithfully and selflessly all her life. I take her to be Valeriya, and the other one has to be Alex’s great aunt. She’s small in stature but erect in bearing and confident of her place in the world. Although she uses a white and silver cane to support herself as she steps forward, she looks steady on her feet. She has the same stormy gray eyes as Alex, and when she looks at me, I see they are bright, alert and full of intelligence. She doesn’t look me up and down, she just scans her eyes over me, taking me in quickly and efficiently. Then she turns to Alex and her expression changes to one of pure joy. It is clear he is the apple of her eye.

  I hang back, a little unsure of what to do as Alex wraps his arms around the old woman and picks her right off the ground. Wow! I definitely did not expect that from him. She laughs a carefree laugh. Then she says something in Russian and immediately, Alex says. “English, please.”

  She turns her head in my direction, still beaming with happiness. “Ah yes, of course. Forgive me. I told my grandson to put me down immediately and not make a fool of me in front of you.”

  She has a heavier accent than Alex, but she speaks perfect English and I’m relieved there won’t be any sort of language barrier between us.

  “It’s so good to see you, babushka,” Alex says, and kisses her loudly on each cheek before gently setting her back on the ground.

  She pats her iron-gray hair, her eyes are twinkling. “Not half as good as it is to see you, Alex. You always
make the sun shine brighter when you come.”

  I can’t help but notice the younger women have stiffened slightly during this exchange. They are both watching me now, the animosity in their eyes clear to see.

  “Cindy,” Alex says, smiling warmly at me. “This is my great aunt Babushka. Babushka, this is Cindy, my fiancée.”

  Alex’s aunt steps towards me. For a second, she just looks at me with that same scanning expression, and then she beams at me too, and I feel like I’ve passed the first test.

  “You have chosen well. She is beautiful,” she says approvingly to Alex.

  The cold, unknowable man I found cheating at the casino smiles slowly at her. Now I can see why he went to all that trouble to make her happy. He truly, truly loves her.

  His great aunt turns toward me. “Welcome to Winter House my dear. As you’re almost family now, you may as well just call me Babushka like everyone else.”

  She opens her thin arms towards me and I step up and let them close around me. She smells of dried flowers, a sophisticated, but old-fashioned smell that belongs in another world. I quell the unease in my stomach. I am deceiving this fine old lady. Her love for Alex is so sincere and so heartfelt. I promise myself that I will never do anything to hurt her. She releases me and I smile warmly at her.

  “It’s so nice to finally meet you. Alex has told me so much about you,” I say.

  “Oh, I assure you, it’s all lies.” she laughs.

  I feel Alex’s hand land gently on the small of my back. I look up at him unguarded and something sparks between us. It makes my heart skip a beat. He feels it too because I see a muscle twitch in his cheek, then he papers it over with a smile. “And this wonderful woman, my darling, is Valeriya,”

  “Hello,” I greet the unassuming woman softly.

  She nods back. It’s formal, but at the same time, her expression is warm and welcoming and I get the impression Alex wasn’t making it up when he said Valeriya is almost part of the family.