by Agatha Frost
“Wasn’t high school great?” Julia asked with a content sigh. “Those were the days, weren’t they?”
“I was overweight, I had acne, and I was too smart for the popular kids, so they bullied me relentlessly,” Johnny said, his cheeks reddening. “I’d rather not remember those days, if it’s all the same. I’ve spent the best part of the past two decades blocking it all out.”
“But we were friends,” Julia reminded him. “And Roxy, too. And other people. Does anyone else spring to mind when I say, ‘high school friend’?”
“I was friends with Paul. Paul Lucas.”
“Do you mean Mr Lucas, the chemistry teacher?” Julia snorted. “You can’t count teachers as friends, Johnny. No one else?”
“I really do need to get back to the village hall.” Johnny hooked his thumb over his shoulder and took a step back. “Thanks for the cake.”
Julia grabbed Johnny’s hand and dragged him through the beads and into the café. The moment his eyes landed on Leah, the skin around them crinkled, as Julia’s had, but instead of breaking into a smile, his mouth twisted into a scowl. His nostrils flared, and his skin turned a deep shade of claret. Julia had never seen Johnny like this in all the years she had known him.
“Johnny?” she muttered, trying to snap him out of his trance. “What’s wrong?”
“Is this some kind of sick joke?” he snapped, the venom clear in his voice. “I thought better of you, Julia.”
“What’s wrong?”
“I do not want to talk about this, Julia. Not now. Not ever. Promise me?”
Unnoticed by Leah, still deep in her magazine research, Johnny stormed out of the café before Julia could promise anything. Julia choked on her words as she stared at Barker, gawking curiously in her direction.
“Can you take an hour off tomorrow for the dress shopping?” Leah called out, scribbling something on her notepad without looking up. “Around noon?”
“Sure,” Julia said, trying to disguise the wobble in her voice. “Sounds perfect.”
Chapter Three
When Katie realised she couldn’t tag along for the dress shopping, she offered to open the café and watch things until Julia was finished browsing with Leah. Julia knew Katie was disappointed to be missing out, so she assured her she would be there the next time they looked at dresses.
Julia woke early the next morning and followed Leah’s advice to avoid bloating by eschewing a big meal. After a cup of peppermint and liquorice, which she knew would help reduce any expansion from the Chinese takeaway Barker had insisted on ordering the night before, Julia retreated to the garden and video called Jessie.
Their conversation was even briefer than their last, with Jessie hurriedly informing Julia that they were staying on a stud farm with a ‘really cool couple’, and that she had ridden ‘four massive horses’ and only been ‘chucked off two.’ Billy had a terrible sunburn that looked like a ‘really burnt lasagne’, and Alfie was ‘badly chatting up every girl he made eye contact with.’ With an assurance that she was having ‘tons of fun’ and being ‘as safe as houses’, Jessie said she would ‘call soon-ish.’ Instead of Jessie’s face and voice soothing her, each call only cultivated Julia’s creeping anxiety about her daughter’s absence.
With Barker in the dining room, working on his second novel, Julia showered and dressed for the day ahead. When she set off to Leah’s cottage at half past eleven, she was pleased to see Leah already locking up. Leah wore a vibrant yellow blouse and high-waisted, figure-hugging jeans. It was a look Julia couldn’t pull off, but Leah was doing it with ease.
“Your car or mine?” Julia asked, swinging her keys around her forefinger. “Or we can walk?”
“Are you kidding me?” Leah slapped Julia on the shoulder and directed her towards Julia’s vintage, aqua-blue Ford Anglia. “I’ve been dying to take a spin in this retro beauty since I arrived.”
Wanting to give Leah the full experience, Julia took the scenic route into the village, heading up the lane and circling around Peridale Farm. During the drive, they talked about everything that had happened in the last twenty years. Leah had married young, divorced young, remarried, and divorced again. She had entered her thirties realising she only enjoyed planning weddings, not living with the result of them. She was childless, but claimed not to regret it, and had spent the last decade in York, the most eligible yet unattainable bachelorette in town, focussed on providing fairy tales and not living them. When Leah ran out of breath, Julia shared all about her time living in London, her failed twelve-year marriage, her return to Peridale, opening her café, her initially frosty relationship with Barker, and her chance meeting with Jessie.
“Adoption?” Leah asked, smiling softly. “You always were the kindest person I knew. Not many people would take in a kid off the streets and do that, you know?”
“I’d like to think more people would than you’d imagine.”
“You always see the best in people.” A hint of sadness tinged Leah’s voice. “I wish I were more like that. After all the drama I’ve been through, you grow suspicious of everyone. I think that’s why we’ve clicked again like no time has passed. We’ve known each other since before the messiness of adulthood. Our friendship is unspoiled.”
As they pulled into Mulberry Lane, Julia wondered if she was choosing to see the best in Leah. She had spent most of the night trying to contact Roxy and Johnny to get to the bottom of their reactions, but evidently, they had taken a vow of silence. After attempting to call them each a dozen times, she dove twenty years into her memory to recall the cause of the strain, but she drew a blank no matter what angle she came at the problem from.
She remembered Leah being there when she left high school and started her patisserie and baking course at college, but they had drifted apart, and life had swept them in different directions. Whatever issues Johnny and Roxy had with Leah, Julia was sure she hadn’t been involved in them.
Whatever had happened all those years ago, Julia was sure they could smooth things out with a little time. She selfishly wanted her old gang back together, even if they were all on the tipping edge of forty. So much had changed in her life since those days, and yet it was comforting to know something old could become new again. Like Emily’s unruly rose garden, their friendship just needed a little pruning. Julia had already decided to bluntly ask Leah for the truth after they were finished with the day’s wedding task. For the time being, Julia was going to try and enjoy dressing up as much as someone who only wore one of ten revolving vintage dresses could.
Climbing out of the car, Julia gazed up at the bridal shop as the afternoon sun beat down on them. She could already feel sweat mocking the shower she had taken only an hour ago.
“Brooke’s Bridal Boutique?” Leah read aloud, an air of unease surrounding her. “Brooke is a common name, isn’t it?”
“Does it matter?” Julia asked.
Leah parted her lips to say something, but she was cut off by a voice calling them from up the street. They turned to see Julia’s sister, Sue, and her gran, Dot, walking arm-in-arm towards them. Dot waved at Julia with a beaming grin, her eyes narrowing warily when they landed on Leah.
“Something tells me this isn’t a coincidence,” Julia said, sighing as she shielded her eyes from the sun.
“There are no coincidences in life, dear.” Dot kissed Julia on the cheek. “I ran to the café to tell you some dreadful news and Katie told me where you were. You kept that quiet, didn’t you? Wedding dress shopping without us? I called Sue immediately! Jessie has been gone for a week, and your brain has already turned to mush. And you’re not looking the best.” Dot rested her hand on Julia’s forehead. “You’re clammy. Are you feeling okay?”
“We’re in the middle of a heatwave, Gran.” Julia batted the hand away. “And before you say it, no, I’m still not perimenopausal.”
“Neil has the twins all day.” Sue let out a thrilled squeal. “Which means we can spend the whole afternoon looking at dresses! Isn�
�t that exciting, Julia?”
“As long as they have air-conditioning.” Julia wiped the gathering droplets from her forehead. “I’m melting.”
“I don’t sweat,” Dot announced as she adjusted her brooch. “Never have. I don’t think I know how. The doctors called me a medical mystery. They’ll probably want my body for science when I finally pop my clogs.”
Sue and Julia looked at each other, and it took all their strength not to laugh.
“You say some strange things, Gran,” Julia said, shaking her head. “What was this urgent, tragic news you were dying to tell me?”
“Dying is the right word!” Dot opened her arms with a flourish. “Amy heard from Shilpa who heard from Father David who heard from Evelyn that Emily Burns is dead! Cancer, apparently. She escaped death during that whole Green Fingers mess, and now she’s up there with the other members that died thanks to her lying. How I’d love to be a fly on the wall of that reunion. I’d say she got what she—”
Julia cleared her throat, cutting her gran off with a weighty shake of her head. She couldn’t bring herself to look at Leah.
“I didn’t have a chance to introduce my wedding planner,” Julia said. “Or should I say, reintroduce. You remember Leah, don’t you, Gran? Leah Burns. Emily’s daughter.”
Dot’s eyes widened, and she took a cautionary step back. Her wobbly fingers fiddled with her brooch as her lips attempted to form words.
“Of c-c-course,” Dot said with a strained smile, her voice taking on a sweet tone that sounded altogether foreign. “Forgive me, dear. One can lose one’s marbles upon achieving a certain age, if you know what I mean.”
“Calm down, Queen Elizabeth,” Sue said through almost gritted teeth before gesturing to the shop in front of them. “Dresses! They won’t try themselves on, will they? Now, if one wants to remove one’s foot from one’s mouth?”
Sue dragged Dot towards the front door, but not before a feeble ‘sorry for your loss’ escaped her gran’s lips. When the bell rang, and the door closed behind them, embarrassment seized Julia, and she wanted nothing more than for the pavement to swallow her up.
“Don’t apologise.” Leah held up both hands before Julia could speak. “I was expecting as much eventually. It’s nothing my mother didn’t say about herself. Shall we go in?”
“Yes.” Julia inhaled deeply. “And if she says anything else, I promise I’ll banish her from any future wedding-related activities.”
“Deal. I must admit, I was a little shocked to see your gran still alive. I’m sure Dot was in her eighties when we were kids. Her hundred-and-fourth birthday must be coming up any day now.”
Leah’s wink told Julia there were no hard feelings. Holding the door open, Leah let Julia enter the boutique first. Julia was delighted when an icy blast of air conditioning hit her in the face. She was less than surprised to find Dot and Sue already sipping champagne with their feet up.
“Grab a glass!” Dot called to Julia as she lifted her flute in the air. “It’s free!”
“Free to customers,” Brooke, the owner, said with a tight smile. “Who is the bride-to-be?”
Julia raised a finger, and Brooke crossed the shop to hand her a champagne flute. Julia knew the bridal shop owner’s face from around the village, but she couldn’t remember ever speaking with her. Brooke had never visited Julia’s café, which made her think she lived out of the village and commuted in.
Brooke was a tall, stick-insect of a woman, with a turned-up nose and beady eyes. Her jet-black hair, edges already showing signs of greying, had been pulled back into an uncomplicated bun. Julia suspected they were around the same age, but the severity of Brooke’s appearance had prematurely aged her by at least a decade. Brooke’s sharp, black suit jacket and pencil skirt didn’t help soften her edges; she looked like she was about to sell them coffins, not wedding dresses.
“Do you have a date for the ceremony?” Brooke asked, glancing over Julia’s shoulder at Leah, who had already set to work sifting through the racks of dresses. “Please, all in good time. I’m the only one allowed to touch the dresses. For sanitary reasons, of course.”
Leah backed away from the dresses and nodded, her back still turned. She squinted up at the ceiling as she rocked on her heels. Dot waved at Julia and made a circular ‘cuckoo’ motion around her head.
“A date?” Brooke prompted with a tight smile.
“Oh, yes,” Julia said after a deep glug of her bubbly champagne. “November third.”
“Of next year?” Brooke’s lips thinned even more.
“This year!” Dot cried. “Where’s Evelyn with her psychic powers when you need them? She’s getting married this year. I’ll take a top-up, thank you.”
Brooke glanced at Dot, but she didn’t move to fill up her glass.
“Only the bride and her bridesmaids get a second glass.” Brooke’s tone was so cutting Julia was surprised the glass in her hand hadn’t shattered. “And I assume you,” she shot Dot a glance, “are not a bridesmaid.”
Dot pursed her lips and tossed back the rest of her champagne with a sulk. Usually, Julia would have been amused by her gran’s antics, but the awkward tension radiating from Leah, who still hadn’t turned to face them, was making her wish they hadn’t bothered stepping foot into the shop.
“Bridesmaids?” Brooke asked Julia. “These two ladies?”
“Just my sister,” Julia said, pointing at Sue. “This is my wedding planner, Leah.”
“Bridesmaid?” Sue sprung up from her seat. “Did you just say I was a bridesmaid?”
While Sue jumped up and down on the spot and clapped like a hyperactive seal, Brooke stalked towards Leah. As if sensing the approaching presence, Leah ducked away and turned to face Julia. The fear in Leah’s eyes made Julia’s gut wrench.
“Why do I feel like we’ve just walked into a lion’s den?” Julia asked, almost to herself. “Leah?”
“Leah,” Brooke repeated, her lips snarling, much like Johnny’s had. “It is you. Leah Burns.”
Finally, Leah turned to face Brooke. Julia could have heard a pin drop, but instead, she heard the shuffle of ice as Dot pulled the champagne bottle from its metal jug. Her gran crept back to her chair and topped up her glass before resuming her front row seat at the staring contest.
“What’s going on?” a male voice called through an open door at the back of the shop. “Mum?”
The words pierced the air with the sharpness of a gun crack heralding the beginning of a dog race. Julia was sure her eyes had accessed a new slow-motion mode because she saw the exact moment Brooke cracked. With a guttural, primitive scream, the shop owner launched at Leah, grabbing fistfuls of her hair. Leah copied this, grabbing Brooke’s black up-do, loosening up the bun to reveal hair long enough to rival Rapunzel’s.
Julia attempted to wedge herself between the women, but they had reached a stalemate, neither letting go.
“Mum!” the young man cried again, his deep voice booming around the tiny shop. “Stop this!”
Like his mother, the new arrival was tall, almost skeletal, with limbs that seemed impossibly stretched out. He had shaggy ebony hair, which would have scraped the ceiling if he stood on tiptoes. His youth smoothed the edges he’d obviously inherited from his mother.
“Leah!” Julia muttered through gritted teeth as she tried to pry Leah’s hands away from Brooke’s hair. “Leah, let go!”
But Leah simply grunted and gripped even tighter, forcing Julia to resort to a self-defence trick Barker had taught her. She grabbed the underside of Leah’s arms and pinched with her nails deep into the muscle. Not enough to break the skin, but enough to hurt. Leah cried out and let go, and the shock made Brooke release her grip long enough for her son to drag her away.
Immediately, Brooke looked ready for a second attack. It took her son pinning her against a rack of dresses and gripping her face to break her out of her rabid state.
“Stop,” he said sternly. “What’s got into you?”
“
That’s Leah!” she cried, pointing across the shop as a slither of spit flew from her knotted mouth. “Leah Burns, Max! That’s her.”
Max turned to face the dishevelled wedding planner. His face twisted into the perfect reflection of his mother’s, causing Julia’s heart to drum faster than it ever had; she was not too proud to admit she was scared. She stood in front of Leah and spread out her arms, much to Dot’s horrified dismay, if the gasps meant anything. Julia waited for mother and son to launch a fresh attack, but it didn’t come.
Max stood in front of his mother, mirroring Julia’s stance. He stared through Julia to the cowering new arrival. He pointed to the door, lips twisted in a grimace.
“Leave.”
They didn’t need to be told twice. Sue and Dot darted for the door, Dot still clutching the champagne bottle to her chest. Julia pushed Leah into the street, the bright afternoon sun blinding her. She was relieved when she heard the lock click behind them and the sign slap from ‘OPEN’ to ‘CLOSED’.
“I haven’t felt that alive since the war!” Dot cried, her hand on her chest as she panted for breath. “Crikey!”
“Which war?” Sue asked, also panting.
“I don’t know.” Dot paused to swig from the champagne bottle. “All of them! What was that?”
Julia looked at Leah for an explanation, but it was clear she had entered shutdown mode. Julia gripped her friend’s shoulders and tried to force their eyes to meet, but Leah was somewhere else entirely.
“I thought people would have moved on,” Leah mumbled, her voice buried deep in her throat. “It’s been twenty years.”
“Moved on from what?” Julia shook Leah’s shoulders out of sheer frustration. “What happened?”
Leah’s eyes snapped onto Julia’s long enough for her to know she was not going to find out the truth. Leah pulled away and set off up the street, but she stopped in her tracks when she came face to face with Roxy and Violet, who were walking hand-in-hand down Mulberry Lane. They were in their own summer afternoon bubble, so blissfully unaware of the chaos around them that they didn’t notice Leah until they were about to bump into her. Leah and Roxy stepped back at the same time, leaving Violet where she had stopped. Without saying a word, Roxy doubled back and sprinted up the lane, leaving Violet behind.
