They rose as the priest gave his final blessing. The groom lifted Emily’s veil and kissed her, oh, so tenderly.
It was just lovely. She was feeling … weird.
‘Very romantic,’ Alistair whispered dryly.
‘Be quiet,’ Georgie said for a final time, and to her fury she felt tears start to well again.
‘I’m sorry,’ Alistair said, and he sounded startled.
‘There’s no need to be sorry,’ Georgie whispered.
‘No,’ he said, and squeezed the hand he shouldn’t be holding. The hand she shouldn’t be letting him hold. ‘There’s not.’ He looked down at her in concern as she swiped angrily at her eyes with his handkerchief. ‘We’ll find him, Georg.’
But she hadn’t been thinking about Max. Her eyes flew upward to Alistair’s. And something … connected?
Their gazes held. He was comforting her, she told herself furiously, but she didn’t quite believe it. For this wasn’t a look of comfort and the confusion she felt was mirrored in his eyes.
She tugged her hand away with a faint gasp and turned her attention resolutely back to the bride and groom. They were being hugged by their respective families in the front pews.
A slate came loose from the roof above their heads. It crashed down—the sound tracking its progress on the steep gabled roof above their heads. She winced. Alistair tried to take her hand again but she wasn’t having any of it.
She gripped her hands very firmly together and kept her attention solely on the bridal party. The Trumpet Voluntary rang out—played by Charles. His splinter skill. The trumpet’s call was pure and true, almost primaeval against the backdrop of the storm, and once more Georgie found herself blinking back tears as the bridal party swept by them on their way out of the church.
But then, as the doors swung open and the wind blasted in, the bridal party stopped in its tracks.
Another slate crashed down.
The surge to leave the church abruptly ended.
‘We might rethink the exit,’ the priest announced in a voice he had to raise. Having left the technology of microphones to lead the couple out of church, he now had to raise his voice above the sound of the wind.
‘This has to be a cyclone,’ Alistair said, and Georgie blinked and bought herself back to earth. Earth calling Georgie … What the hell was she about, crying at weddings? She was losing her mind.
She didn’t cry. She never cried. Crying was for wimps.
Alistair’s dumb handkerchief was a soggy mess.
‘We’re still copping the edges,’ she managed, hauling herself together with a massive effort. ‘Despite what Dora’s waters are saying, it’s still only category three. Strong but not disastrous.’ She winced as a particularly violent gust blasted past the church, loosening another couple of slates. ‘Harry says the biggest problem is flooding inland. It’s the end of the rainy season and the country’s waterlogged as it is. We’ll have landslips.’
‘As long as that’s all we have.’
‘Scared?’
‘Yeah,’ he said, and he grinned. ‘This wind is really terrifying for a man with a toupee.’
She choked. It was lucky the combination of wind and trumpet was overpowering because her splutter of laughter would ordinarily have been heard throughout the church.
He grinned.
Her laughter faded. He looked … a man in charge of his world. He was wearing his lovely Italian-made suit. His silver-streaked hair was thick and glossy and wavy, just the way she liked it. His tanned face was almost Grecian, strongly boned, intelligent …
A toupee …
She couldn’t resist. She put her free hand into his hair and tugged.
‘Yikes.’ This time they were overheard. The people in the last pew—great-aunts en masse by the look of them—turned in astonishment. One started to glare but Georgie was giggling as Alistair clutched his head, and the old lady’s glare turned to an indulgent smile.
‘It’s lovely to see the children enjoying themselves,’ she said in the piercing tones of the very old and the very deaf. ‘Look at the pair of them, canoodling in the back pew like a pair of teenagers. These will be next by the look of them. Sophie said this doctors’ house makes them breed like rabbits.’
Georgie’s mouth dropped open. ‘Canoodling,’ she muttered, revolted.
But Alistair was chuckling. ‘Come on, rabbit,’ he said, and nudged her to the end of he pew. ‘Let’s get out the side door before everyone figures that’s the only exit out of the wind.’
‘If we duck out the side door, the great-aunts will think …’
‘Yeah, but we don’t care what they think, do we, Georg?’ Alistair said. ‘We’ll just get another tattoo and say damn their eyes.’
‘How do you know I have a …?’ She paused. She swallowed. Alistair’s grin became almost evil.
‘Aha! So where?’
‘It’s none of your business.’
‘I told you about my toupee.’
‘It’s not a—’
‘I just have very good glue.’
‘I’ll pull harder.’
‘If you show me your tattoo, I’ll let you pull all you like. I’ll even let you canoodle.’
They were at the side door. He was ushering her through it, his arm around her waist as he propelled her forward. Behind them the entire wedding party was crowding round while they figured out the protocol of getting the bride and groom out of the church where the main door was suddenly unusable and slates might crash down on their heads. They’d have to use the side door. But not yet.
‘Em and Mike … you’ll have to go back to the altar and start the wedding procession again.’ It was Mike’s mother in full battle cry. ‘Charles, start the trumpet again, from the beginning. Bridesmaids, back into line!’
‘No mere cyclone’s going to get in the way of Sophia’s perfect wedding,’ Georgie said, giggling, and then they were out the door, propelled into the instant silence of the vestry.
Alistair closed the door behind them. The silence was suddenly … electric.
‘Hey. Um … Maybe we should go back and get in procession like everyone else,’ Georgie said, suddenly breathless.
‘But you’re not like everyone else,’ Alistair said, turning. He’d been holding her hand. By turning, she was against the wall and he was right in front of her, smiling down. ‘You’re different.’
‘I’m not different.’
‘Yes, you are,’ Alistair said softly. ‘You don’t belong.’
She stared at him, confused. ‘I do belong.’
‘Why did you come to Croc Creek?’ he asked suddenly.
‘I got a job here.’ He was so close …
‘With your qualifications there’s a job for you wherever you want to go in the world. Croc Creek’s home for those who want to devote a couple of years to a good cause. Or those who want excitement.’
‘That’s me.’
‘Or it’s a refuge for those who are escaping,’ Alistair said, as if he hadn’t heard her. It was almost as if he was talking to himself. ‘What are you escaping from?’
‘I’m not.’