This was now a horror film, where the arterial splatters and screams are ironically juxtaposed with the sitcom laughter track of whatever show the unwitting victim had been watching.
Edie wrung her hands and ground her teeth and paced the room and vacillated about going back down and facing people down, shouting, ‘It was him!’ while knowing nothing could dissolve the Dark Mark now upon her.
When she risked peeping out of the window, the gardens were spookily empty.
It was impossible not to look online, as much as she didn’t want to, with every fibre of her being. On her four-poster bed, she sat staring grimly at the moon glow of her phone. Every time she clicked, she thought she might be sick again. So far, nothing.
The calm before the storm. Tagged photos of the aisle walk, or smiling, signing the register, a status from Charlotte saying, ‘Champagne for my nerves!’ with scores of Likes. What would people say? What was happening downstairs?
‘Edie? Edie!’ a sudden hammering of a fist at the door had her fear-pulsing heart stretching right out of her chest, like a Looney Tunes cartoon.
‘Edie, it’s Louis. You better let me in.’
It was only then that Edie realised the music had stopped.
Louis’s unusually twitchy demeanour did nothing to make Edie less panicked. She hoped against hope he’d sail in and say, It’s blown over, what are you doing up here?
She let him pass, walking on weak, pipe cleaner legs and re-locked the door behind him, as if there really was a murderer loose in The Swan. Louis surveyed her as if suddenly in the presence of a notorious individual. He put his hands on his hips, under his suit jacket.
‘Er. So. What the HELL happened?’
‘Oh God, what’s everyone saying happened?!’ Edie wailed.
‘Jack and Charlotte,’ Louis paused, unable to keep himself from the stagey pause, as if he was announcing the winner on a talent show, ‘they’ve split up.’
Edie gasped and sat back down on the edge of the bed, to steady herself. She was trembling, almost juddering. She knew she’d ruined their wedding day. But to cause them to separate, during it? It didn’t seem feasible. It wasn’t a thing that could happen.
‘This can’t be real,’ she mumbled.
‘Charlotte’s gone back to her parents’ house,’ Louis said, enjoying himself now. ‘And Jack’s somewhere here I think, holed up with a bottle of whisky and his stag-do lads. There was a screaming match, total hysteria. It was chaos. Charlotte threw her wedding ring at him.’
Edie closed her eyes and held on to a bed post with a clammy palm, as the room swam and shifted. ‘What are they saying about me?’
‘That Charlotte caught you together. That you’ve been having an affair.’
‘We haven’t been having an affair!’
‘What happened then?’ Louis said.
It was the first time Edie had recounted it out loud and she hesitated.
‘I went into the garden and … he kissed me. Just for a moment.’
‘Wait, are you saying you weren’t shagging?’
Edie’s jaw fell open. ‘Shagging? No?! Of course not! How could we have been … Are you winding me up?’
‘Some people are saying you were, you know. At it. Or on the way to being at it.’
Edie knew Louis was prone to exaggeration and amping up drama but she had no way of telling if this was what he was doing. She could well imagine the Chinese whispers were out of control. As if the truth wasn’t terrible enough.
‘We were only a few yards from the hotel!’
‘Yeah, I did think that’s more the sort of encounter that happens on a car bonnet, after midnight. And usually, y’know. Not with the groom. So he kissed you?’
Edie nodded.
‘But you are having an affair, yeah?’
‘No!’
Oh God, this was agony. Everyone thinking the last thing she’d want them to think, ever. If she could be granted the option of being forced to streak, instead of this kind of exposure, she might just take it.
‘Erm, OK, darl. So out of the blue, Jack was like, “Are you enjoying my wedding day oh and also my tongue”?’
‘He started saying I meant a lot as a friend, he was very pissed I think, and the next minute he’s kissing me.’
‘And you didn’t kiss him back?’
‘No! Hardly. I mean, I was shocked.’
‘Mmm. Kind of odd you were hanging around out there alone? How did he find you? Sure you hadn’t texted him?’
‘I’d gone to take a photo. I can show you the photo!’ Edie waved her phone at him. ‘Also, no texts on here!’ As if there’d be a court case, and she could put her phone in a Ziploc evidence bag. It was the court of public opinion. She’d do much better from the former kind of trial.
‘Louis, think about it,’ Edie pleaded. ‘Why today, of all days, would I try to get off with him?’
‘Why would he try something like this, out of nowhere? You’re leaving something out, Edie. You must be.’
‘We messaged at work. Chatted. That was all. We were friends. Nothing more.’
‘You flirted?’
‘A bit. I suppose.’
She couldn’t give Louis nothing and get his vote, she knew that. He chewed his bottom lip, weighing things up.
‘… I believe you. I think you’re going to have a problem getting anyone else to believe you, though. The rumours are halfway around Harrogate and the truth doesn’t have its boots on. Also …’
Louis’s pause made Edie’s eyes bulge. ‘What?!’
He lowered his voice.
‘There’s only two people who are going to be blamed here: you and Jack. He’s the kind of guy who falls into a pit of shit and comes out wearing a gold watch. Not to sound cold, but you need a PR strategy. You have to let people know it was him who did this, not you.’
‘How do I do that?’
‘I’ll do what I can,’ Louis said, magnanimously. ‘You should think about that though. We work in advertising. Do crisis management for your brand.’
Edie nodded. She had to put aside everything she knew about Louis and trust him. A friend in need was a friend you couldn’t afford to doubt.
‘Do you think Jack and Charlotte are over, really over?’ Edie said, voice wavering.
Louis lifted his shoulders and let them drop.
‘Not sure I’d forgive a wedding day like this. The shame of it. Could you?’
Edie shook her head, miserably. She hadn’t thought of that until now. She’d focused on her own survival. Look at what Charlotte would have to face, the fact everyone would know about this carnage.
There was a clomp-clomp and a banging at the door, a thud as if a slavering wild animal had suddenly thrown itself at it. Both she and Louis jumped out of their skins.
‘EVIE