The Guest List

by Melissa Hill

  ‘Cara, please. I didn’t mean to say all of that – it was heat of the moment stuff, I really didn’t mean it,’ he pleaded.

  She shook her head and willed herself to fight the tears. ‘You know, your family isn’t so perfect either.’

  He nodded his head. ‘I know, I know. I wasn’t trying to say that they are.’

  ‘They are very uppity, full of themselves. Your mother looks down her nose at everyone and everything. Your dad is so pompous and arrogant. Who the hell do they think they are? Acting like my family is some sort of lower-class peasants, completely beneath them.’

  ‘Cara,’ Shane said sharply, cutting her off. ‘Please, let’s not do this. Let’s not attack each other. Or our families.’

  ‘Well, you had the opportunity to do it to mine; I might as well tell you how I feel about yours.’ But her voice lacked the conviction. Truthfully, she didn’t have much of a problem with Shane’s parents. While she might not necessarily have identified with them or their society-driven ways, she certainly didn’t dislike them. She knew that her previous words about them lacked the vitriol that Shane’s had carried about her family and truthfully, the ease with which he’d delivered his genealogical analysis stung her and deeply hurt her feelings.

  ‘Babe. I am truly sorry. I was just mad. It was the heat of the moment. I don’t mean that stuff. Please – I’m sorry.’

  Cara regarded him silently before speaking. ‘You know, they say that things spoken in the heat of the moment are usually true.’ She lowered her eyes; she felt that she couldn’t meet his. After all of the stress that they had been going through lately, the last thing they needed was this. She couldn’t escape the feeling that everything had been fine before they got engaged. Now they were fighting over family issues, which they had never done before.

  Shane tried again to reach out to her. ‘Cara. Please. You know I love you and let’s face it, your family isn’t perfect, but neither is mine. Please honey.’ His eyes pleaded with her to accept his apology.

  She finally allowed herself to be pulled into his arms. ‘What are we going to do?’ she asked glumly. ‘I don’t want to stress about all of this. I don’t want to fight with you.’

  ‘I know, and this is stupid. I love you, honey. You know that don’t you?’

  Cara allowed the tears to come and buried her face into his chest. ‘Shane, this is all such a mess.’

  He stroked her hair and made comforting sounds. ‘I know baby, I know. Come on, don’t cry. I don’t want to see you sad. I’m so sorry, I really am.’

  ‘I know you are,’ she sniffled. ‘It’s OK.’ And she realised that she did forgive him. Shane wasn’t mean-spirited and she knew that despite their faults, he liked her family.

  It was just a fight. That’s all it was and it didn’t mean anything. They were in this together, and nothing that their families could throw at them could affect their relationship. They were a unit, a couple, forging a life together. And every couple had their ups and downs, didn’t they?

  ‘Cara, we will get through this. No matter what. OK? Everything will work itself out, your family will come round and we will straighten everything out with my parents today. And think of the positive. It’s not all bad news. You said Kim was excited.’

  Cara snuffled again and nuzzled closer to Shane’s bare chest. ‘Yes, she was. She said she would be a bridesmaid, she said she couldn’t wait for the wedding,’ she mumbled.

  ‘See, that’s good. And pretty soon, once the surprise wears off, everyone else will realise just how much of a great time it is going to be, and want to get involved in all of it,’ Shane said encouragingly.

  Cara looked up to meet his eyes. She had tear-streaked cheeks. ‘Do you think so?’

  ‘I know so. You’ll see. You’d have to be crazy not to get excited about a week in St Lucia.’ He smiled. ‘I know I am.’

  Cara took a deep breath.

  ‘So you’re OK?’ Shane asked.

  She nodded. ‘Yes. I just, you know, feel so tense about all of this. It’s just not how I expected it would be, that’s all.’

  ‘Nothing ever is,’ Shane said quietly. ‘But everything will work out. And I know we will have an amazing wedding, not to mention the rest of our lives together.’

  She put her arms around his neck. ‘Thank you. I love you and I am lucky to have you.’

  ‘I’m not going anywhere baby. I’m in it for the long haul.’

  ‘Crazy family and all?’

  He laughed. ‘Yes. Crazy family and all. If you can put up with mine, I’ll put up with yours.’

  ‘Deal,’ she giggled, already feeling better about things.

  She had to think positive and not let the stress get to her. She had to keep her chin up, that’s all there was to it. Shane was right. They would get through this, her family would come round. They would straighten things out with his parents later that day, and everything would get back on track.

  Chapter 20

  ‘You plan on doing what?’

  Upon arrival at the Richardson residence Cara and Shane had at least been permitted entry into his parents’ country estate, and somehow got through the short initial conversation that broke the ice and opened the floor for further discussion.

  However, Lauren and Gene’s expressions, as their son and future daughter-in-law told them about their plans in St Lucia, were a sight to behold. They looked as if they had just stepped in dog dirt.

  ‘Mum, you heard me, Cara and I are having a beach wedding in St Lucia. On September twelfth,’ Shane stated.

  Since their argument the night before, they had promised to show a united front against any complaints that could be thrown at them by either side of their family. Or indeed against disdainful looks like the ones they were now getting.

  ‘Yes Lauren,’ Cara said confidently. ‘All is confirmed and we have put down a sizeable deposit with the resort, so everything is ready to go.’ Cara was suddenly concerned that she sounded defensive, when really all she wanted to do was state a fact.

  Lauren narrowed her eyes at Cara. ‘I care nothing about deposits.’ The woman spat it out as if it was some form of low-class terminology, like layaway. ‘This simply is not going to happen.’

  ‘Son,’ Gene implored, finally speaking up. ‘This really won’t do. I won’t have it.’

  ‘Dad—’

  ‘No Shane, your father is right. We do not approve of this and we certainly don’t support it. You know our position, regardless of whatever notion you choose to operate under. You cannot expect us to participate in such idiocy,’ stated Lauren primly, refusing to look at Cara as if this was all her idea, that it had been her decision alone to have their wedding in St Lucia, and Shane was merely going along with it.

  ‘Mum, Dad, this was mine and Cara’s decision and we are paying for your airline tickets and accommodation at the resort, so this is how it is going to be. Regardless of what you may think, I support this idea wholeheartedly.’

  Lauren let out a burst of shrill laughter. ‘Oh please. You grew up in this house, Shane. Do not try to make me believe that suddenly you think that some silly beach wedding is something that our kind would subscribe to.’

  Cara’s mouth dropped open. ‘Excuse me? What do you mean by “our kind”?’ What was his mother getting at?

  Lauren turned on Cara in much the same way as a viper regards its prey before striking. Her nostrils flared in anger. ‘Cara, what I mean is that I don’t expect you to understand what goes into a proper wedding. Yes, yes, yes, you can spend plenty of money and put on a show, but a real society wedding is only identifiable by people who happen to move in certain circles. Members of society do not have beach weddings. They do not get married at resorts. All of it, the entire idea, is crass and common. But really Cara, you can’t blame yourself. It’s what you were born into.’

  Cara paled. She was speechless. Had Lauren really just called her crass and common? Did her future mother-in-law actually just suggest that she couldn’t help bei
ng tacky because of the family she was born into? Bloody hell, what was happening here?

  ‘Now wait just a second Mother, you are completely off base and out of line. I demand you apologise immediately,’ Shane shot back, the anger rising in his voice, and Cara noted how he was no longer addressing her by the more informal ‘Mum.’

  His mother turned on him coolly. ‘Why? I have nothing to apologise for.’

  ‘Talk about crass and common – how it is good manners to insult someone who has done nothing to you, or indeed, good manners to insult them at all?’

  ‘Now that’s enough, Shane.’ Gene made quite a show of gruffly inhaling and pointing a finger at his son. ‘I refuse to allow you to talk to your mother this way. You will apologise at once.’

  ‘No, not until she apologises to Cara,’ he replied, crossing his arms and refusing to budge on the issue.

  Lauren sniffed in Cara’s direction, refusing to meet her eyes. After a beat she spoke again. ‘Cara, I’m sorry if you misunderstood what I was saying.’

  Shane dropped his hands. ‘That is not an apology, Mother. That is not how you say you are sorry. You are sorry that Cara misunderstood? What is wrong with you?’

  Cara rushed forward, placing a hand on his chest, feeling that she needed to try and calm things down a little. ‘Shane, really, it’s fine.’ But she was unbelievably hurt and felt close to tears. Lauren couldn’t have insulted her any more if she’d tried.

  ‘Cara, no, it’s not fine at all. She is being disrespectful, not to mention rude. This is not acceptable behaviour and I won’t have her treating you this way.’

  Cara was insistent. ‘Please Shane. Please. Let’s just go.’

  Clearly, her belief that she was an accepted member of the Richardson family couldn’t have been more wrong. Had Lauren ever liked her? Had the woman ever approved of Cara’s involvement with her son? She wanted nothing more than to get out of her sight and away from her accusatory gaze.

  Lauren regarded the scene in front of her with obvious distaste. ‘Shane, you have always been a good son. You always respected your parents and had good manners. I can’t help but say that I am very disappointed in you, as is your father, over these outbursts and disrespectful displays of emotion.

  And you, Cara. I have always liked you, really I have. And I was very pleased to hear about your engagement and looked forward to it being a big event in this family. But I must admit, I should have expected that something like this would happen. You could never know what is expected of us given our position. There is no way that you would have ever been exposed to any of this before, so I have to consider your ignorance about how things are done. But I have to say that I believe all of this to be your fault. You should have understood that it was your role to simply take our generous offer of support on day one, and that you were not in a position to turn it down. It was a subject that was non-negotiable.’ She flicked at an invisible piece of lint on her skirt, while Cara suddenly wondered if they’d moved back in time somehow. What era did Lauren think she was living in, never mind what country? There were no formal class or societal divisions in Ireland, yet Lauren was behaving as if Shane was a member of the royal family, and they were attempting to go against protocol!

  ‘Now you have dragged Shane down with you,’ his mother continued. ‘Brainwashed him into subscribing to some sort of trashy beach wedding. I don’t have any idea what you have to hide, or why you have to run away to another country. I certainly don’t know how you convinced Shane of such nonsense.’ She turned her officious gaze on her son. ‘And Shane, you used to be such a good man. So polite, so charming. I really don’t think I know you very well any more. Not to mention I don’t know how I will ever live this down. How can I tell my friends, our associates . . .’ She turned to her husband, questions in her eyes. If Cara wasn’t so shocked by the accusations being flung at her, she would have laughed at the theatrics going on here. Heidi could learn a thing or two about drama from Lauren.

  Shane rolled his eyes. ‘That’s quite enough, Mother. Cara didn’t brainwash me into doing anything, and we certainly have nothing to hide. Cara, come on. We are going.’

  He held out his hand and Cara reached forward to take it. They started to turn and make their exit, but then Shane turned back and faced his parents. Cara fought the urge to drag him to the door; she didn’t think ensuring he had the last word was the best option at this moment, and she was eager to leave.

  ‘I’m going to say this once and I’m saying it for the record, so you both better take note. Cara and I are not changing our minds on this. This wedding is happening in St Lucia, whether you like it or not,’ Shane said firmly. ‘So, the way I see it, you have two choices. Either you can stay home and not be there, which at this point I honestly would be fine with. Or, you can come and join us in celebration of our special day. But I will tell you this,’ he added, his tone ominous. ‘If you do decide to come to our wedding, you better be happy about it and accept it. Otherwise, I don’t want you there. Not at all. Cara and I are in love. We are going to be married. From now on, I will always choose her over you. Remember that.’

  Shane turned and headed to the door, Cara in tow. While the entire scene was incredibly upsetting, she couldn’t get the look that she had just seen on Lauren’s face out of her head. While most mothers would have wept at the thought of being cut out of their son’s life, Cara was almost sure that she had seen anticipation and excitement on Lauren’s face.

  Almost as if . . . as if she was eager for a challenge.

  And the idea of that terrified her.

  Chapter 21

  ‘It’s just not fair, Mum,’ Heidi cried. ‘Cara was completely unconcerned about how her wedding would affect me and the baby.’ Betty’s youngest then launched into a long and drawn-out tirade about why it was completely unacceptable, and how Cara’s behaviour was stressing her out too, which was also incredibly unhealthy for her unborn child.

  Betty was herself rather distressed that despite all their protestations, Cara still seemed unwilling to modify her wedding plans.

  She just couldn’t get her head around the idea of flying off to St Lucia to watch her daughter and Shane get married on some public beach, in a dress that possibly wouldn’t even be a proper wedding dress.

  ‘I am totally right. I know I am. Paul agrees with me. Don’t you agree Mum? MUM!’

  Betty tried to tune back in to the musings of her youngest.

  ‘Sorry pet, what?’

  ‘You didn’t hear a single thing I said did you?’ Heidi harrumphed. ‘You weren’t even listening.’

  ‘No, of course I was listening,’ Betty replied. Listening but only hearing white noise, as was often the case where Heidi was concerned. It was her own fault really. Heidi was her youngest and had been a complete surprise (as she and Mick had been sure that with Cara their family was complete), and as such she may have been indulged a little too much.

  ‘So then? What do you think?’

  ‘I’m not sure really; I’d have to think about it . . .’ Betty honestly had no clue what Heidi had been prattling on about so she decided to try to wing it.

  ‘You have to think about what would happen if I went into labour early? On St Lucia! What’s there to think about? It would be a disaster!’

  Oh Lord, Betty thought. She had created a monster by getting Heidi involved. The girl truly had been first in line when God was giving out the gene for theatrics.

  ‘Heidi, no woman in this family goes into labour early,’ she said easily. ‘It just doesn’t happen.’ If anything, she thought, remembering her experiences, the Clancy babies were in no hurry to get out, oftentimes appearing well past due date. It had been the case with Danielle and Ben, and indeed with Cara too.

  ‘But you don’t know that for sure. These things aren’t genetic and I could be completely different to you. Imagine going into labour on some foreign island? My baby’s life would be ruined. Actually, it wouldn’t even be Irish then, would it?’ she added,
biting her lip. ‘It would have St Lucian citizenship, if there is even such a thing. I can’t have a St Lucian baby, Mum. You have to talk some sense into Cara.’

  Betty gave her a stern look. ‘Heidi, that’s quite enough. We really should be supporting Cara, not harassing her. We are a family. Therefore, we stand together to support each other in good times and bad. And this is a good time.’

  Heidi’s mouth dropped open.

  Great, she thought, now my mum isn’t even in my corner. Heidi felt morose. It was her against the world. No one cared about her pregnancy. Her poor baby; no one was the least bit bothered that he or she could be born St Lucian and not Irish. She patted her tummy.

  ‘But Mum,’ she pleaded. ‘Just last week, you were annoyed about having to go to St Lucia too—’

  ‘I was a bit taken aback, that’s all. But we have to remember that this is Cara’s day and if she wants us to eat live lobsters or whatever it is they eat on St Lucia – or dance naked on the beach – then maybe that is just what we are going to have to do.’

  Heidi looked at her mother as if she had just lost her marbles.

  ‘Shellfish? Live shellfish!’ she squealed. ‘Well there’s no way I can eat live shellfish, there or anywhere else – it’s lethal for a pregnant woman, and completely against all the rules . . .’

  Kim pulled up in front of her in-laws’ house in Greygates. Damn, she thought, spying Heidi’s car. She briefly considered pulling away again, and just coming back later. Truthfully, she wasn’t in the mood to put up with Heidi at the moment.

  She sat back in her seat and closed her eyes as another wave of nausea overcame her, and she put her hand on the door, knowing that she wouldn’t hesitate to throw it open and vomit in the street if she had to. She had already cleaned up the inside of her car after the day before when she couldn’t disengage the automatic locks fast enough, and she wasn’t planning on doing it again. It was bad enough that the horrible scent still lingered on the upholstery, one that she knew would only be removed by a bout with a professional valet.