Necessary as Blood

How‘s your mum?‘
    Gemma blinked back an unexpected and infuriating prickle of tears. Her seemingly indomitable mother had been diagnosed with leukaemia in May. Ongoing chemotherapy seemed to have effected a partial remission, but they all felt as if they were walking a tightrope. ‘She‘s holding her own. Dad‘s had to get in extra help at the bakery, but his biggest job is keeping her hands out of things.‘
    ‘I can imagine.‘ Hazel smiled. ‘I‘ll go and see her, shall I? One day next week.‘ She gave Gemma an appraising glance. ‘And what about you? You haven‘t said a word about the wedding plans, and the summer has almost gone by.‘
    ‘Oh.‘ Gemma‘s mind froze for a moment, then she felt the ever more frequent squeeze of panic in her chest. She forced a breath and a smile. ‘It seemed a good idea at the time.‘
    ‘Gemma! Don‘t tell me you‘ve got cold feet.‘ Hazel looked so alarmed that Gemma gave a strangled laugh.
    ‘No. Not about Duncan, anyway.‘ The proposal had been hers, after all. She and Duncan had been partners, lovers, friends and, now, parents in their blended family, and the decision to commit to being together she didn‘t regret for a moment. She hastened to explain. ‘It‘s just the bloody wedding business. It‘s driving me mad. I thought we could just get married — silly of me, I know,‘ she said, forestalling the comment she knew was going to accompany Hazel‘s raised brows. ‘But everyone‘s got involved, although I must say Duncan‘s family have been decent about it. Mine, though...‘ She rolled her eyes. ‘And it‘s not just Dad and Cynthia, demanding this and that for Mum‘s sake. The boys are even in on it. They want a reception at the Natural History Museum. Can you believe it?‘
    ‘Yes,‘ said Hazel, laughing. ‘But I thought you wanted Winnie to perform the ceremony.‘
    Winnie Montfort was the Reverend Winifred Mont-fort, married to Duncan‘s cousin Jack, and dear to them both. But she and Jack lived in Glastonbury, and Winnie, nearing forty, was expecting her first child. ‘Her doctor doesn‘t want her to travel, and of course Jack‘s frantic with worry.‘ Jack Montfort‘s first wife and their baby had died in childbirth and he had taken the news of Winnie‘s pregnancy with mixed feelings. ‘But even if she could come, she couldn‘t marry us in someone else‘s church.‘
    ‘Why not just ask the vicar at St John‘s to do the ceremony, then?‘ St John‘s was the Anglican church near their house in Notting Hill. ‘That seems simple enough.‘
    ‘Because it‘s high church. My parents were brought up chapel, and to them St John‘s might as well be Catholic. My dad says it would kill my mum, which of course it wouldn‘t, but my mum says to try to humour him.‘
    ‘Then a civil venue—‘
    ‘Just as complicated. The boys want in on the choice, and if we hold a proper reception, the guest list turns into a nightmare. We‘d end up having to invite everyone either of us has met since primary school.‘
    ‘A register office—‘
    ‘Then we‘ll disappoint everyone.‘ Gemma shook her head and looked out of the window so that she wouldn‘t have to meet Hazel‘s eyes. ‘I don‘t know. I‘ve done this before — it seems now that the wedding was the beginning of the end for Rob and me — and I don‘t want to go through that again. I‘m just about ready to chuck the whole thing.‘

    The heart had gone from the house. Tim knew it, and Holly knew it, and there didn‘t seem to be anything he could do to fix it.
    During the longest and darkest days of the winter, he had painted the kitchen. Not that he was very good at painting and decorating, but it gave him something to do to fill the seemingly endless evenings and weekends, and when he had finished he‘d been quite proud of his handiwork.
    Gone were Hazel‘s soft greens and peaches. The cupboards were sparkling white, the walls a deep maize yellow. A new beginning, he‘d thought. Then Holly had come for a much-anticipated visit and burst into tears at the sight of it. ‘Where‘s Mummy‘s kitchen?‘ she‘d wailed, and he‘d been powerless to comfort her.
    She got used to it eventually, of course, just as she‘d got used to their routine, but he‘d never stopped feeling he had to try too hard. Holly would be six in a few weeks, and he‘d argued the case for her starting proper school here with him as persuasively as he could. Hazel, however, had capitulated