Wedding Night

tune is enough. That’s what’ll get her.
    Her eyes
are
glassy. OK, time to go in for the kill.
    “Anyway!” I break off from singing. “The important thing is that this is your special day. And it’s going to be perfect. Nice and quick. No stupid fussing about with music, or choirboys, or bells pealing from a country steeple … Just in and out. Sign a paper, say a couple of words, and you’re done. For life,” I add.
“Finito.”
    I feel almost cruel. I can see her bottom lip quivering very slightly.
    “Do you remember the bridal scene in
The Sound of Music
?” I add casually. “When Maria walks up the aisle to the nuns’ singing and her big long veil floating everywhere …”
    Don’t overdo it, Fliss.
    I lapse into silence and sip my champagne, waiting. I can see Lottie’s eyes flickering with thoughts. I can sense her inner battle between romance and lust. I think romance is just gettingthe edge. I think the violins are playing louder than the jungle drums. She looks as if she’s coming to a decision.
Please
go the right way, go on.…
    “Fliss …” She looks up. “Fliss …”
    Just call me the World Champion Bride Whisperer.
    There was no argument. No confrontation. Lottie thinks it was
her
idea to postpone. I was the one saying, “Are you sure, Lottie? Are you positive you want to call things off? Really?”
    I’ve totally sold her on the idea of a country wedding with music and a choir and bells. She’s already looked up the name of the chaplain at our old school. She’s off on a new dream of satin and posies and “I Vow to Thee, My Country.”
    Which is fine. A wedding is lovely. Marriage is lovely. Maybe Ben is destined to be her life partner and I’ll kick myself as she has her tenth grandchild and think,
What was my problem?
But at least this way gives her some breathing space. At least it gives her time to look at Ben and think,
Hmm. Sixty more years with you. Is this a good idea?
    Lottie’s gone off to the registry office, to tell Ben the news. My work is done. The only task remaining is to buy her
Brides
magazine. We’re going to meet up for coffee tomorrow and have a cozy chat about veils, and then, in the evening,
finally
I’ll get to meet Ben.
    I’m waiting to cross the King’s Road, mentally congratulating myself for being so brilliant, when I see a face I recognize. Beaky nose. Windswept dark hair. Rose in his buttonhole. He’s about ten feet tall and is striding along the pavement on the other side, with the kind of thunderous frown that you wear when your rich best friend has been grabbed by an evilgold digger and you’ve got to be best man. As he’s walking, his rose suddenly falls out, and he stops to pick it up. He’s looking at it with such a murderous expression, I almost want to laugh.
    Ha. Well, wait till I tell
him
. What’s his name again? Oh yes, Lorcan.
    “Hi!” I wave frantically as he moves off. “Lorcan! Stop!”
    His stride is so fast, I’ll never catch up with him. He pauses and swivels round suspiciously, and I wave again to get his attention.
    “Over here! Me! I need to speak to you!” I wait for him to cross, then approach him, brandishing my bouquet. “I’m Fliss Graveney. We spoke yesterday? Lottie’s sister?”
    “Ah.” His face clears briefly, then it’s back to the cheery, wedding-day scowl. “I suppose you’re heading there now?”
    I’d forgotten about the ridiculous movie-trailer voice. Although somehow it sounds less ridiculous when it’s not a disembodied voice coming down a phone line. It matches his face. Dark and kind of intense.
    “Well,
actually
 …” I can’t help sounding complacent. “I’m not heading there, because it’s off.”
    He stares at me in shock. “What do you mean?”
    “It’s off. For now,” I add. “Lottie’s gone to postpone the wedding.”
    “Why?” he demands. He’s so bloody
suspicious
.
    “So she can make sure Ben’s fortune is invested in a way that makes it easy to plunder,” I say with a shrug. “Obviously.”
    Lorcan’s face flickers with amusement. “OK. I deserved that. What’s going on? Why is she postponing?”
    “I talked her out of it,” I say proudly. “I know my sister, and I know the power of suggestion. After our little chat, shewants a romantic wedding in a small stone church in the country. That’s why she’s postponing. My reasoning is: if they delay, at least it gives them a chance to see if they’re right for each other.”
    “Well,