As we walked out of the office (Will had told them we could see ourselves out) we heard them give one of those girlie screeches.
“I think you have a couple of fans,” I giggled, taking his arm.
“Let’s just hope they don’t stand up when the registrar asks if anyone objects.”
“You’re bad,” I laughed, nudging him with my shoulder.
“Very bad,” he agreed. “You should probably do something about that.”
“I didn’t bring the handcuffs.”
“Maybe Hannah has some we can borrow.”
I gasped but I wasn’t really outraged. “I am not asking my sister if we can borrow her sex toys!”
“But you know she has sex toys.”
“I- I- I-”
Will bumped me with his elbow, as if I were a stuck record.
“I may be privy to that information, but that’s because she’s my closest relative and she told me about the birds and bees and let me cry on her shoulder when I trusted the wrong boys. You are not allowed to know about that stuff!”
“Why not? I’m going to be family soon.”
“Being my husband doesn’t trump the girl code.”
“Never?” he asked.
“Never. Unless you want to share locker room talk with me.”
“Oh, no! No gentleman would share that with a lady.”
“And no lady reveals the secrets of the sisterhood.” We continued strolling back to the car. “You did notice that some of the beds are four poster, right?”
“Oh yes,” he replied with a smug grin. “I’m already making plans.”
***
I kissed my mother’s cheek as she came into Hannah’s house, saying hello to Brian, my step-father.
“Let’s let Brian and Han take your bags,” I said, linking arms with my mum and half dragging her to the kitchen.
I turned the kettle on and prepared four mugs.
“Hey, can I borrow your phone for a second?” I asked. “My battery died.”
“Here,” she passed me her phone, which I took, turned off and slipped into my pocket. Right now, Hannah was using a similar ruse on Brian.
“Hey!” she said as she saw that I had essentially stolen it.
“Sorry Mum, but I have some news and you cannot tell anyone, so I am confiscating your phone until it’s over.”
“Eleanor, you give me my phone back right now!”
“No! Now sit down and wait for Brian and Hannah to return, then I’ll explain everything.”
I continued making the tea and the others returned just as I was putting the mugs on the table. Hannah gave me a nod, meaning she’d succeeded.
“Would someone like to tell me what’s going on?” Brian asked.
“That’s what I want to know,” Mum agreed, glaring at me.
“I’m sorry to take your phones but there is a very good reason.” I took a deep breath. “Will and I are getting married.”
My mother actually squealed a little. “Oh my god! I’m so happy for you! Oh, he is such a wonderful man, you are so lucky. Do you realise how lucky you are?”
“Yes, Mum, I do,” I replied as I hugged her.
“So when is it?” she asked. “Oh God, there’s so much to do! We have to find a venue-”
“Mum.”
“-then the dress, and I’ll need a new dress, then there’s the catering, and the flowers-”
“Mum.”
“-the music. I’ll need at least a year.”
“Mum!” She stopped talking. “Will and I are getting married tomorrow. Everything is already arranged and we got you up here on this ruse so that you could attend.”
“I-” She looked hurt. “Why didn’t you tell me? I can't appear in Hello magazine without a new dress.”
“We haven’t sold the rights, we want a private ceremony.”
“But they’ll find out anyway. It’s better to sell the rights and control what the public see.”
“They’ll only find out if someone tells them, which is why I took your phone.”
“But I won’t tell anyone, and what if there’s an emergency?”
“I’ll answer it and if it’s a genuine emergency, I’ll tell you.”
“You cannot keep my phone.” She held her hand out. “Give it back.”
“I don’t want to fight with you, Mum, but I know you and the second you think I won’t see, you’ll be calling your friends to tell them.”
“I will not!”
“You have never kept a single secret of mine in my life and I’m sorry, but I’m not willing to take your word that you will now, so you have a choice. I can keep your phone and you can come to the wedding, then once we’ve left on our honeymoon you can tell anyone you want what happened. Or I can give you your phone back but you won’t be invited to the wedding; you and your phone can stay here in Hannah’s house while Will and I get married.”
“You’re so unreasonable!” she spat, angered by my insistence.
I was almost tempted to give her the phone back and monitor her, just so I could prove that she wouldn’t be able to resist telling all her friends, but my wedding was more important than proving a point.
“Those are my terms. Hannah and I are leaving soon for the venue, it’s a two day wedding and you’ll get to meet a lot of Will’s famous friends if you come. Or you can stay here and Hannah, Bob and the girls will be back to keep you company in two days.”
“Who will be there?” she asked, grudgingly.
“I reeled off some names of Will’s celebrity friends and I could see my mother thawing with each name I mentioned.
“Okay, fine, you can keep my phone.”
I smiled. “Then let’s get your bags down and we can head to the castle.”
“Castle?” The look on her face was priceless.
“Yeah. It’s just a little castle though.”
Chapter Twenty
“But what if I want to take some pictures?”
My mother’s nagging to get her phone back was really starting to get old.
“There are disposable cameras on every table,” I answered. I’d predicted most of her arguments, because forewarned is forearmed. And no, it wasn’t easy to come up with that many disposable cameras in the digital age.
“What about the hen night tonight?”
“I’ll get you one you can use tonight,” I assured her.
“But you’ll be getting them developed, so how will I get my photos back?”
“I’ll think of something, Mum. Now please, it’s the eve of my wedding, stop nagging.”
Hannah suddenly pulled the car over.
“Why are we stopping?” I asked, praying the car hadn’t broken down or something.
“Because Mum doesn’t have a dress for tomorrow so she and I are going to go shopping for one, then we’ll probably grab a very late lunch at somewhere ridiculously expensive, and you and Brian are going to catch a cab to the venue.”
I don’t think I have ever loved my sister more than I did at that moment. I leaned over and hugged her.
“Thank you so much,” I whispered.
“My pleasure. And don’t worry, I’ll keep a close eye on her.”
Brian and I got out of the car and Mum moved into the front passenger seat that I had vacated.
“Up for a walk?” I asked Brian. “I can call a cab but there’s a taxi rank just down there.” I pointed.
“Let’s walk,” he said.
Brian was quite a quiet, placid man, I supposed he had to be to put up with my mother.
“I take it your dad isn’t invited,” he said as we walked.
“No. I haven’t spoken to him since last year.”
“I thought he tried to sue you for libel earlier this year?”
“Slander, and he tried, but the case was thrown out because we had proof that he had received payment from TMZ. We never even had to go to court. Will’s people handled everything.”
“Must be hard, marrying someone like Will.”
“In ma
ny ways,” I agreed. “On the other hand, I know for certain that he’s the one, because I’ve never met another man I’d put up with this crap for.” I smiled to show I was at least half teasing.
“I’m sorry about your Mum.”
“Not your fault,” I assured him. “She was like this long before you showed up.”
***
Will was already at the venue and once I’d shown Brian to his room (even though his luggage was in Hannah’s car) I sought Will out and eagerly fell into his embrace.
“Rough morning?” he asked, pressing a kiss on my hair.
“I’m seriously considering matricide.”
“That’s a little extreme. I was rather hoping to live with you after we’re married, and prison might put a dampener on those plans.”
“We could honeymoon in a country with no extradition treaty, like Ukraine, and just stay there forever.”
“I hear Ukrainian cinema is really doing great things,” he teased me.
“Okay, no murder.” I laughed.
“Promise?”
“I promise to try.”
“Good enough for me.” He pulled away and kissed me. “So, where is the dreaded mother-in-law?”
“Hannah took her shopping for a few hours.”
“I’m definitely sending that woman a huge gift hamper when we get back from honeymoon.”
“Where are the girls?” I asked. Bob was playing a round of golf, so Will had agreed to watch the girls for a few hours.
“Last I saw, clambering all over Robert.”
“Is he okay with that?”
“He’s got his own kids, he’s an old hat at parenting now.”
“Still, he is a guest, so I’d better go and relieve him.”
“I’ll come with you,” he offered.
“You sure? It looked like you were headed somewhere.”
“Someone told me you were here, so I was searching for my beautiful bride.”
By the time we found them in the Library, Robert had already built a blanket fort with the girls and seemed perfectly happy playing with them. Personally, I thought he might be corrupting them but given their mile wide streak for mischief, there was an equally good chance that they were corrupting him.
After multiple assurances that they were fine, Will and I sat near the entrance to the castle, ready to greet those arriving. Most of the Sentinels crowd was here, some were golfing, some had gone into the city to shop or see a show, and others were just taking in the castle and grounds.
Will’s father, James was next to arrive; I had only met him once and I was still a little intimidated by the man, although he had always been perfectly nice to me.
“So you’re finally making an honest man out of William,” he said as he kissed my cheek.
I hated trite sayings like that but of course, I couldn’t tell him that.
“Or maybe he’s making an honest woman of me,” I suggested.
Maria, Laurie, Katie and their significant others arrived together, having caught the same flight from London. Other than my family, they were actually the only guests who were purely mine (okay, so Katie had known Will longer than me, but I was closer to her than he was). Secrecy meant that I couldn’t invite a lot of acquaintance type friends and honestly, I didn’t want a huge wedding.
A lot of the Sentinels cast and crew had to come as it would have been rude to invite some and not others and our two day wedding and 10 day honeymoon had already disrupted shooting slightly, although the director had been very good about it. They could be trusted to keep a secret though and besides, a lot of them had become my friends too.
At five we left the staff to see any more arrivals to their rooms and retired to ours for a few hours of peace and quiet. The wedding coordinators were efficient and we knew they could handle any last minute problems, at least for a couple of hours.
I told Will all about my mum and her complaints about her phone, and he suggested taking the sim card out of the phone and returning it to her.
“That’s a good idea,” I agreed.
We weren’t sleeping in separate rooms tonight because neither of us believed in silly superstitions, and it freed up another room for the guests. We did agree not to have sex for the last few days though, so we’d both be ready by tomorrow night.
Also, in lieu of wedding gifts, we were asking for donations to our favourite charities for those who wanted to.
We had a couple of stress free hours relaxing together, chatting about nothing much and just enjoying our lovely room, but we had to go down again for 7pm, when the stag and hen parties began.
Hannah was handling mine (she had sworn no strippers or tacky props) and Will’s best man and old school friend, Mark, was organising the stag do, out in the Auld Keep.
I ran into Helen Atkins on the way down.
“You made it!” I said, hugging her tightly.
“Just,” she said, hugging me back. “Stephen’s already been dragged away. I just need five minutes to freshen up, then I’ll be down and ready to party.”
“No hurry, take your time,” I assured her.
Hannah refused to tell me her plans for tonight, which was slightly worrying considering that the mother of the groom was joining us, but Hannah was a mum herself, so I hoped she wouldn’t plan anything too outlandish.
I gave my mum her phone back when I saw her.
“I took the sim card out so you can take pictures but you can't send them or make any calls until I give you the card back.”
She didn’t seem appeased by my compromise but I ignored her glares.
Will’s sister had arrived while we were upstairs and I greeted her, then she went off to crash the stag do for a few moments, both to drop her husband off there for the night, and to say hello to her brother.
We got drinks and made small talk until everyone was back and ready.
Hannah began the evening with the handbag game. Everyone had to put three items from their bag into a ‘pot’ and everyone picked one item out, blind, then had to guess who it belonged to. It was a great ice breaker. Even Mum seemed to be on her best behaviour, if slightly star struck by Audrey and Helen.
Next we moved onto a questions game; think that old game show Mr and Mrs, testing how well I knew Will. Will had already been asked the questions so he didn’t need to be there, I just had to guess his answers to things like his favourite bands, foods, and a few multiple choice questions like ‘Will described apples as… green, delicious, fruity, or tart’.
I did pretty well, I think, although they did suggest calling off the wedding when I couldn’t guess Will’s favourite position in bed (I knew it, but his mum was in the room, so I couldn’t say it out loud).
We helped ourselves to a buffet next, to soak up some of the alcohol and after that we were merry enough to play ‘never have I ever’ and I was drunk enough not to lie too much. Then we played truth or dare but unlike my university days, we seemed to have learned some moderation, as no striptease or streaking dares were given.
After that, the men joined us, en masse, then blindfolded Will and I in turn and made us identify each other by body parts. I had to feel four men’s biceps and choose which man was Will (they tried to cheat, he wasn’t among the four but I knew him well enough to guess that correctly) and he had to pick me from four of my friends, by feeling our calves (he won too, as well he should after spending so many nights tickling them).
The groups stayed merged after that and games were forgotten in favour of just chatting.
Mum monopolised Ben, an acting friend of Will’s that she had a crush on, for a while (poor chap) but he handled her with aplomb and Brian dragged her away before she could make too much of a nuisance of herself.
Will hadn’t had too much to drink, he was merry, like me, but neither of us would suffer much more than a very mild headache in the morning. We both stopped drinking then, switching to water and by midnight, I was ready to call it a night. Will agreed and we both thanked our respective parties f
or organising the evening. Will got drawn into a discussion though, so I left him to it and went up alone.
As I approached our room, I could hear someone who sounded suspiciously like my mother, talking. The door was unlocked so I quietly eased it open.
“And Ben called me ‘love’ and ‘darling’! He’s such a sweet man.”
My heart sank.
“Yes, he’s Ben to me now, he’s my son-in-law’s best friend, you know.”
I opened the door wide and saw my mother on someone’s phone, gushing over Ben.
“I know! Yes, I got loads of pictures, he was really sweet about it. I can't wait to show them to you. I’ll email them as soon as-”
Her words abruptly cut off when she spotted me.
“I’ll have to call you back.” She hung up the phone.
Chapter Twenty One
My mother looked defiant as she approached me.
“Whose phone is that?” I asked.
“I borrowed it from one of the servers.”
I don’t think I’d ever been so disappointed in someone. Well, not since my father.
I turned away.
“Don’t you walk away from me!”
I turned back. “What do you want me to say?”
“Becky is my best friend, she’s not going to tell anyone.”
“You sure about that?”
“Yes.”
“Completely sure?”
“Yes!”
“Great. Since you’re so sure your friend won’t tell anyone, if security spots the press tomorrow, you’ll be happy to leave.”
“Well what if they are here? How will you know they learned it from Becky?”
I got my phone out and opened the Twitter app. “Oh look, a new tweet from BeckyJay. ‘My best friend just met Ben Latham at Will Braxton’s wedding in Scotland’. And she’s very helpfully tagged their names so any fans of theirs can easily find the tweet. It already has fifteen retweets and six replies asking for more information. What do you want to bet that she tells them everything she knows within the next five minutes?”
“Well you can't blame me!”
“Six months of planning and secrecy, flushed down the drain because you just had to brag. You couldn’t even give me one fucking day!”
My emotions were getting the better of me and I turned away again. She grabbed my arm and pulled me back.
Making Love (Destiny Book 1) Page 21