‘Tom? Didn’t you hear me calling you?’ Carolyn’s enthusiasm hasn’t abated by the time she’s reached the gardener, despite his reticence. He’s still working away with his shears, pausing only briefly to flicker a smile at the pair. The smile doesn’t even come close to reaching his eyes.
‘Gosh, it’s been such a long time! I can’t believe you’re here.’ Carolyn’s smile is wide, genuine, and I feel a stab of anger as I watch him snipping away at the hedge. Talk about rude!
‘The gang’s back together again,’ Alice says, though, unlike her sister, her enthusiasm has dampened due to their old friend’s lack of interest. ‘Archie’s here somewhere too. We should all get together for a drink.’
‘I’m pretty busy,’ the gardener says without disrupting his snipping.
‘I can see that.’ Alice is frowning at Carolyn, who gives a small shrug. ‘I didn’t mean right now. Tonight?’
The gardener straightens and swipes at his brow with the back of his hand. ‘Don’t you have plans? Big wedding stuff?’ I see his lip start to curl as he turns towards the hedge again. Is he pissed off because he wasn’t invited? He has a bit of a cheek, especially since it appears he was the one who severed contact.
‘We’re having cocktails and dancing after dinner.’ Carolyn doesn’t appear to have clocked his resentment, even though he’s completely turned his back on us. ‘You should come!’
‘Maybe.’ Tom, still facing away, shrugs his shoulders and resumes his hedge-trimming. ‘I’ll see if I have time.’
‘Please come.’ Carolyn’s voice is so small, so disappointed, that I can’t help feeling for her. She was so excited to be reunited with her old friend but he’s behaving like a bit of a turd.
‘It’ll be fun,’ Alice says. ‘Like old times.’
Tom stops now, turning to face the sisters with a deep frown, but his forehead smooths out again and his lips flicker into a suggestion of a smile. ‘I can’t promise to stay for long, but I’ll pop over for a bit. Toast your marriage. Have a quick catch-up.’
‘Maybe have a dance?’ Carolyn nudges him playfully, but his smile doesn’t return.
‘Don’t push it.’ He opens the jaws of the shears and starts to snip away again. ‘We all know I’ve got the coordination skills of a drunken elephant.’
‘You were never that bad,’ Alice says, but Tom shakes his head, still working away with the shears.
‘I think you’re looking back with rose-tinted glasses.’
A silence follows, the only sounds coming from the shears as they lop off unruly clumps from the hedges.
‘We’ll let you get back to work then.’ Carolyn reaches up on tiptoe to kiss Tom’s cheek, ignoring the way he flinches away from the contact. ‘See you tonight.’
Tom simply holds up a hand in farewell before the three of us wander back towards the castle.
‘He seemed… nice,’ I say, once we’re far enough away from the rose garden.
‘He is.’ Alice glances over her shoulder, where Tom is merrily working away uninterrupted. ‘At least he was. He isn’t usually so…’ Grumpy? Uninterested? Rude? Alice can’t seem to find the right words, so she simply shrugs. ‘We were really close, but then we stopped coming here after…’ Alice’s eyes widen as she looks at her sister. ‘He hasn’t forgiven me, has he?’
‘Forgiven us.’ Carolyn puts a hand on Alice’s arm. ‘But I’m sure he has. It was a long time ago. I’m sure that whatever’s going on with Tom, it has nothing to do with…’ Carolyn’s gaze slides towards me briefly before returning to her sister. ‘That. Maybe he’s just really busy and couldn’t stop to chat. There’s a lot to do before the wedding. I have high standards, you know.’ She winks at Alice, who manages a small smile. ‘Speaking of the wedding, I should be getting back to Francelia.’ She pulls a face. ‘She has so many to-do lists, I’m exhausted just thinking about them.’
Alice smiles wryly. ‘Have fun. I’m going to give Emily the grand tour and introduce her to the male guests. She’s single and ready to mingle.’ Alice giggles at the look of disgust I throw her way.
‘All the single male guests,’ I add. I need to clarify this after Tom’s tip-off earlier. He may be a bit sullen, but he helped me dodge a bullet there.
‘You should go and find Piers’ best man, Teddy.’ Carolyn is already backing away towards the staircase. ‘He’s a hoot. And single, obviously.’ She winks at me. ‘They were playing pool the last time I saw them. Have fun and I’ll see you at dinner.’
Alice links her arm through mine, clinging tightly in case I feel the need to bolt (I do). I already have my reservations about the best man and I haven’t even met him yet.
‘Don’t say it,’ Alice warns as she leads me down one of the corridors.
But I can’t help it. ‘Teddy, though? How can I take anyone seriously when they share a name with a soft toy?’
‘He was smarmy. There is no way I could date him without wanting to push his face into a bowl of piping hot soup.’
‘You’d already pre-judged him on his name.’
‘Of course I pre-judged him on his name! Who wouldn’t?’
Alice and I are sitting in our designated seats in the dining room. Despite stuffing ourselves silly with the picnic lunch earlier, we are now feeling so ravenous after our exhausting wander around the castle and its grounds that we’re among the first to arrive for dinner. I’ve changed out of my travel-creased jeans and T-shirt combo and slipped into a slim-fitting, off-the-shoulder cream dress with a midi-length skirt. It’s gorgeous and I fell in love with it as soon as I saw it in the shop (and fell more deeply in love when I noticed the sales tag). My ballet flats have been replaced with a pair of T-bar peep toe heels and I’ve made an effort with my hair. I usually scrape my shoulder-length brown hair into a simple ponytail, but this evening I’ve pinned it up into a messy bun with gently waved tendrils framing my face.
‘I wouldn’t have judged him on his name.’ Alice arches an eyebrow at me. ‘And don’t think I’m fooled by your pickiness either. I know exactly what you’re up to.’
I fold my arms across my chest. ‘And what would that be, exactly?’
‘You’re avoiding relationships. Using any excuse to end them – or stop them from forming in the first place. Take your recent date, for example…’
I raise a finger to stop Alice in her tracks. ‘Hold on there. He wanted me to meet his parents after three measly dates. That’s a perfectly valid reason to halt proceedings!’
Alice gives a one-shouldered shrug. ‘Perhaps. Or – and here’s a crazy thought – you could have explained that it was a bit too soon, that you should get to know each other a bit better first. I’m sure he would have understood, but you never gave him the chance. You saw your opportunity to dismiss him and killed the relationship before it could begin. It’s what you do.’
‘I beg your pardon?’ My mouth is gaping open in outrage. It’s what I do? ‘Since when?’
‘Since Edward.’ I flinch at the name. I’d been with Edward for almost three years and had silly notions of doing the whole settling-down thing with