by Karen Swan
‘What? I am agreeing with you. You are the case in point for why this wedding should not go ahead.’
‘Nooks is right,’ Suzy said solemnly, staring into the middle distance. ‘We let you make the biggest mistake of your life because we were all as young and stupid as you were. Are we just going to sit by and watch history repeat itself? Mum’s in a right state – Germ’s nowhere near as sorted as she’s trying to make out. She was the proverbial wild child when we were growing up – don’t you remember? I used to read Mum’s letters out to you. I thought Mum was going to lose her hair worrying about all her antics.’
Cassie frowned at the nickname Suzy had used. Gem was Germ? Why had no one said? Of course she remembered the girl! Suzy had never stopped moaning about her when they were at school.
‘She was expelled from everywhere, dropped out of uni, disappeared round the world for nearly two years, and now she’s come back saying she wants to settle down for the rest of her life? Ha!’ Suzy gave a contemptuous snort and wagged her finger. ‘I don’t think so.’
‘Is Hattie very close to her, then?’ Cassie asked.
‘Incredibly. It’s not just that Mum became her legal guardian. Mum was so close to Uncle Pip, and when he died, I think she felt a responsibility to give his little girl a happy life. I mean, it was obvious why she was playing up – everyone could see it. Even the headmasters – when they’d call Mum in to tell her they couldn’t have Germ at the school anymore, very often they’d end up crying more than she did! And Mum never threw the book at her. She’d just hug her and say that she was loved and everything would be OK.’ Suzy narrowed her eyes. ‘Honestly, if ever there was an argument for tough love . . .’
‘You can’t keep calling her Germ,’ Cassie said disapprovingly, hugging a scatter cushion to her and staring past the billowing curtains to a couple of pigeons sitting on the telephone wire.
‘Well, not to her face, maybe,’ Suzy grumbled. ‘What? My poor mum was run ragged by her. She was a brat, I’m telling you.’
‘Yeah – because her parents died. Cut the girl some slack,’ Cassie said, her hand automatically reaching to stroke Velvet’s hair as she came within touching distance on the bed.
Suzy huffed crossly but didn’t try to defend her position further.
‘Besides, she talks about you with a lot of fondness. Isn’t that right, Nooks?’
Anouk shook her head, inspecting a rogue hangnail on her right index finger. ‘She wants your bosom,’ she murmured.
There was a momentary silence as Suzy looked, puzzled, from Anouk to Cassie.
Cassie soothed her friend with a reassuring pat on the arm. ‘Your bosom, Kelly’s hair, Nooks’s skin . . . She idolized the lot of us, apparently. Thought we were this tight-knit gang of cool big girls.’
‘I am not big,’ Anouk said with a prickle of defiance.
Cassie laughed. ‘I meant big as in older.’
Anouk frowned. ‘I am not old either.’
Suzy slumped back into the pillows with a short laugh, her eyes on her daughter. ‘Well, I’m not having her come back and stressing Mum out again. The last thing Mum needs is Germ—’ Suzy caught herself, biting her lip as Cassie shot her a scolding look, ‘I mean Gem marrying some total stranger when Archie’s still in hospital. A wedding’s the absolute last thing she needs.’
‘Or maybe a happy event like a wedding is exactly what Hattie does need,’ Anouk said, playing devil’s advocate, as ever. ‘Who knows? Perhaps they are love’s young dream.’ The words were laced with particular irony, coming, as they were, from Anouk – hardly the proponent of enduring love.
‘Poppycock!’ Suzy spluttered. ‘The girl is lost, that’s all. She’s come back from this big global adventure to what? What’s she going to do? She’s got no qualifications—’
‘She’s a qualified yoga instructor,’ Cassie interrupted with a finger in the air.
Suzy inhaled slowly, patiently, refusing to be derailed. ‘No education to speak of. Of course she wants to get married! I see it all the time with my brides – it’s a big, exciting project, something to do while she gets used to being back in Blighty again. But then what, huh? Six months, a year down the line, when that’s all done and she realizes she’s shackled herself to this surf bum for the rest of her life . . . ?’ Suzy shook her head. ‘Nope. We have got to stop this from going any further. My daft brother may be too soft-hearted to refuse her, but I’m not. I repeat – Mum does not need this kind of stress.’
‘Well, there’s not much you can do about it,’ Cassie said wearily, twisting slightly on the pillow so that she was angled in to the bed, her head resting in her hand. She had to resist closing her eyes. The bed felt so clean and soft she was sure she could fall asleep in an instant. She was shattered; the past few days had really knocked it out of her and she needed to get a solid night’s sleep, which was almost impossible with Henry in bed beside her.
‘On the contrary,’ Suzy replied with bright eyes. ‘There’s everything I can do. Weddings are my business, after all.’
‘So then you’re going to plan the wedding?’ Anouk asked. ‘Isn’t that the opposite of what you just said?’
Suzy nodded back happily.
Anouk looked at Cassie in bafflement. ‘Is my English failing? Did that make any more sense to you than it did to me?’
‘None whatsoever,’ Cassie mumbled with a frown.
‘It makes perfect sense,’ Suzy beamed. ‘There’s no point trying to talk her out of it. Germ— Gem!’ she cried before Cassie could admonish her. ‘Gem’s never been talked out of anything she wanted to do. Trying to stop her getting married will only make her the more determined to do it. That’s what Mum doesn’t understand. There’s no reasoning with the girl. So, we do this the smart way.’
‘We?’ Cassie echoed nervously.
‘I’ll be the big sister she was looking for all those years ago. I’ll make like I’m on her side and then spend the time we’re supposedly planning the wedding actually talking her out of it.’
‘Oh Jeez.’ Cassie collapsed into the pillow with a groan. Suzy’s ‘plans’ were invariably well intended but disastrous.
‘That will never work. She will be on to you immediately,’ Anouk said firmly. ‘Non.’
Suzy looked pensive. ‘Mmm. You’re absolutely right, Nooks – she would be on to me straight away. I mean, what kind of advert for unhappy marriage would I be, anyway? I’d be useless. She’d only need to take one look at me and Arch together and she’d be straight down the register office.’
‘Exactly,’ Anouk shrugged.
‘Which is why Cassie should do it.’
‘Me?’ Cassie spluttered, whipping her head out of the lovely cloud-soft pillows. ‘Now just hang on a minute! She’s your cousin!’
‘And yours too, soon, if you’d ever actually marry my poor brother.’ Suzy rolled her eyes and exhaled with a dramatic tut. ‘Cass, of course it has to be you! You’re the poster girl for doomed young marriage.’
‘Could you stop saying that, please? It wasn’t like I was desperately unhappy for all of the ten years, you know.’
‘Yeah, but it wasn’t like it is with you and Henry now, though, either, was it?’
It was a rhetorical question and they all knew it. Cassie sighed, catching Velvet as she wobbled on the mattress and pulling her down onto the duvet for a cuddle. She kissed the top of the child’s head, inhaling that sweet scent that could never be bottled.
Suzy turned her legs inwards so that she was facing Cassie too and Cassie knew from a lifetime’s experience that her best friend was cutting to the chase. She assumed the brace position.
‘Listen, Gem thinks you’re so pretty and sweet, and you know she idolizes Henry – I’m sure part of the reason she took off on her adventures was just to try to impress him. So, with you marrying him, she’s going to be dead keen to get to know you better and be on your good side. And you’re the obvious candidate for warning her about the mistakes you made. You don’t ha
ve to have any kind of agenda; just spend time with her and chat . . . I dunno, about all that time you lost, how you lost contact with your mates and grew old before your time.’ Cassie watched Suzy’s hand spin in circles in the air as she reeled off the long list of Cassie’s inadequacies when married. ‘I mean, you knew nothing about fashion; you could barely even dress yourself. It was like you’d been dead for ten years, not married.’
‘Worse than dead,’ Anouk muttered, rolling onto her back and inspecting her hair for split ends.
‘Christ, and you wonder why I’m in no hurry to march down the aisle again,’ Cassie cried indignantly.
‘But you see, you can use all that misadventure to do some good,’ Suzy ploughed on, oblivious to or just ignoring her sarcasm. ‘Gem’ll hear your stories and she’ll see quickly enough what a massive mistake she’s making.’
Cassie kissed Velvet’s head again. Was it possible, she wondered, to recreate this smell? Anouk probably knew someone, some famous nose in Paris, who could do it. Now, that would be a birthday present . . . She realized Suzy had stopped campaigning and was staring at her. ‘Look, I am not going to hijack someone else’s happiness, even if it is well intentioned. I love Hattie too. I don’t want to see her stressed and upset, but what if it’s like Nooks said? What if he really is her great love?’
‘This isn’t great love!’ Suzy sneered. ‘This is distraction, life displacement . . . Call it what you will, but we are saving her from herself.’ Suzy slapped a hand across her heart. ‘Don’t you want to save the poor girl from the heartache you’ve only just come through yourself? Weddings are no picnic, but divorce . . . ? Horrific!’
Cassie plucked non-existent lint from the duvet with a trembling hand. Gil had drawn out their divorce as long as he possibly could, instructing his lawyers to negotiate on every last asset as her lawyers trawled through the old family’s complicated and meandering trusts.
‘Listen, if I thought I’d be half as effective as you, I’d do it myself,’ Suzy said in a quieter voice, patting her knee. ‘But what with looking after Arch, we’ve both got to scale things down and keep any stresses to a minimum . . .’
‘Oh, you did not just do that!’ Cassie laughed, reaching over and swatting her arm away.
Suzy’s eyes were wide and innocent. ‘What?’
‘I can’t believe you! Using your husband’s near-death experience to cajole me into doing your dirty work!’
Suzy grinned back at her slyly. ‘Does that mean you’re in?’
‘No, it doesn’t!’ Cassie refuted. She looked across at Anouk. ‘Can’t you help me out here, please? You’re supposed to be on my side.’
‘Well, it’s a stupid idea – of course I agree.’ She gave a Gallic shrug. ‘But there is perhaps some sense in it. You have been there and bought the T-shirt. Where’s the harm in just talking to her, I guess? Check the relationship is real.’
Cassie groaned, outnumbered. ‘Well, I’m not making any promises,’ she said finally. ‘I will simply try to suss her out, and if I think she’s doing this for the wrong reasons, or if I have any doubts, then I’ll stage a modest intervention and offer up my history as a cautionary tale. But I’m not making any promises.’
‘I wouldn’t ask you to,’ Suzy replied. ‘All I’m asking for is just a heart-to-heart chat and a metaphorical takedown.’ Her hand slammed down on the bed as she made the point, making Cassie jump.
‘But you have to behave yourself,’ Cassie said, holding up a finger warningly. ‘I know what you’re like. Don’t start putting pressure on me. I could have a heart attack too, you know. I get very stressed.’
Suzy’s mouth dropped open and she kicked Cassie’s legs. ‘I can’t believe you just used my husband’s near-death experience to get out of doing my dirty work.’
Anouk laughed. ‘You two will never change.’
Velvet reached out for her mother’s arms and Suzy leaned forward to take her. Cassie watched as the little girl nuzzled into her mother’s neck, seeming to fit into the nooks so perfectly. A sigh escaped her. She had wanted a baby once, before Gil had destroyed her idea of family life as well as marriage.
‘I suppose you are going to say Cassie has to keep this a secret from Henry?’ Anouk said, watching the tender scene with more remove.
Cassie’s head whipped round. ‘Why?’
‘Well, like Suzy said, he’s too soft-hearted; they are clearly very close – he has agreed to walk her down the aisle.’ Anouk shrugged. ‘Do you really think he will approve of you both trying to break up her relationship?’
‘He’ll understand when I explain why we’re doing it,’ Cassie said quickly. ‘There’s no malice behind our actions. In fact, just the opposite – we’re trying to help her.’
‘Nooks is right, Cass. Henry’s a romantic. Look at him – he’s finally got you, the only girl he ever wanted, and that’s after you were married to someone else for ten years! He believes in true love and happy endings. He’ll never understand. You’ve got to keep him out of the loop.’
‘No. I’m not comfortable with that,’ Cassie protested. ‘Henry and I don’t keep secrets from each other.’
‘Listen, all you’re going to do is open Germ’s eyes and ears to the brutal realities of marrying too young to the wrong person. It’ll be her decision to break off the relationship. It’s not like you’re going to have Laird exported or—’ Suzy’s eyes widened. ‘Hey, we should check his visas.’
Anouk laughed, rolling over onto her side, in a mirror image of Cassie’s pose. ‘You are incorrigible.’
‘No, no, you’re right. Keep it simple,’ Suzy said, getting back on track as she rubbed Velvet’s back. ‘Germ will dump him and then she’ll tell Henry it’s over and he won’t think twice about it. In fact, deep down, I’d expect he’ll be pretty relieved. I bet right now he’s beginning to get an idea of how stressed Mum is about this . . .’
‘Gem. Her name is Gem.’
‘That’s right. Just what I said,’ Suzy agreed solemnly.
There was a knock and Bas’s mahogany face appeared round the door. ‘Is this discussion only for people with ovaries, or can anyone join in?’ he asked, advancing towards the bed as Cassie motioned gratefully for him to join them. He would be on her side, at least.
‘Say you don’t have to go,’ she implored as he lay down, sardine-style, next to Anouk, but where her feet dangled off the side of the mattress, his long legs meant his feet were planted flat on the floor. Velvet immediately wriggled from Suzy’s grasp and began crawling over him, like he was a giant climbing frame. ‘Just stay a few more days. It’s been so long since we had a stretch of time together.’
‘No can do, sweet cheeks,’ he said apologetically, reaching overhead and grabbing one of her hands, kissing it affectionately. ‘I’m booked for Bazaar on Monday. Cara and Jourdan. New sports luxe.’ He rolled his eyes as he said the words. ‘Ergo, swishy ponytails and headbands.’
Anouk sat up, instantly more animated. ‘Tell me the truth. What are her eyebrows really like? Mannish? They are de trop, non?’
‘She’s as pretty as a doll. The whole thing, it just works,’ he shrugged. ‘Sorry.’
Anouk slid back into her previous position, a slight sulk on her face.
Bas looked across at Cassie. ‘So what were you all talking about, anyway, before I came in? We could hear you squealing and laughing from downstairs and you know I can’t bear to be left out of the gossip.’
‘Gem,’ Suzy said solemnly.
‘Gah. That’s all they’re talking about downstairs too,’ he sighed. He turned his head towards Cassie. ‘Promise me one thing – if that girl is going to take out those cornrows, you call me and I’ll be on the next plane over and do ’em myself.’ He stretched his fingers as he gave a little shiver. ‘They make me OCD, those things.’
‘Mmm.’ Cassie wrinkled her nose. ‘And they must be so uncomfortable to sleep in, don’t you think?’
‘I don’t want to think about it. Chanel suits are
woven, not hair.’
‘You can take the boy out of fashion . . .’ Suzy chortled.
‘When have you got to leave for the airport?’ Cassie asked.
‘Now, really.’
She pulled a sad face. Their twenty-four hours had flown by too soon, everyone losing precious time together by sleeping late this morning in an attempt to recover from the tequila shots that Gem had insisted upon last night. ‘Are you missing Luis?’
‘What makes you think that?’ Bas asked, before gnawing on his fist and making them laugh again.
‘Oh, it’s horrible you being separated,’ Cassie sympathized, laying her head on his chest so that he could stroke her hair. He had always loved her hair. ‘When did you say you’ll see him next?’
‘He’s coming over to New York at the end of the month.’
‘That’s grim. I know how hard it is trying to keep a long-distance relationship going. I hate it when Henry goes away.’
‘Do you?’ Anouk seemed genuinely surprised. ‘In my opinion, absence is the best thing for desire. More people should try it.’
‘Oh Christ, don’t tell Arch that!’ Suzy said urgently. ‘I’m forever trying to tell him the longer he goes without sex, the less he’ll want it.’
Bas and Cassie spluttered with laughter.
‘What? It’s not funny,’ Suzy said, but chuckling herself. ‘I’ve not slept in two bloody years. I keep a packet of pregnancy sticks on the bathroom shelf just to put the fear into him and stop him getting any ideas.’
‘Well, he’s not going to be bothering you for a while, at least,’ Bas said cheekily. ‘That’s the last thing his ticker needs.’
Suzy’s eyes brightened. ‘Oooh, I hadn’t thought of that. Silver lining!’
Everyone laughed, feeling guilty and yet relieved at the same time – joking about Archie’s heart attack would have seemed unthinkable even yesterday, but now he was out of danger and had come out the other side, they all had.
It was official – life was back on the straight and narrow again.
Chapter Eight