‘It’s been OK once Jessie’s been getting her own way,’ Carol said drily.
Jessica’s jaw dropped. ‘That’s not very nice or very fair, Carol!’ she exclaimed.
‘Well, it’s true,’ Carol said sulkily. ‘You picked the church, the hotel, most of the menu and the flowers—’
‘Calm down, girls, it’s only wedding nerves,’ Orla said hastily, wishing she’d never opened her big mouth.
‘Carol! Stop that! You had every chance to do your own thing. You could have had your own wedding if what we were having didn’t suit you. I told you that over and over, so don’t give me that crap,’ Jessie exclaimed indignantly. ‘Don’t forget you broke off the engagement and then you got engaged again and came back muscling in on our wedding. My mother was raging!’ Drink had loosened her tongue and she gave vent to her feelings with reckless abandon.
‘Your mother’s a bossy cow—’
That was as far as she got. Jessie leapt to her feet in the jacuzzi and leaned over and gave Carol a slap on the jaw.
‘Don’t you dare talk about my mother like that! How dare you, Carol, my mum’s been very good to you and your mother. If it were left to your mother we’d be going nowhere fast except to the off-licence for more drink.’
‘Oh my God!’ muttered Katie, aghast.
‘You bitch!’ shrieked Carol. ‘That was below the belt! How dare you talk about my mother like that? She’s had a very tough life; it’s not her fault. This is going to be a crap wedding and I wish I hadn’t agreed to it.’
‘What do you mean agreed to it? You were the one that wanted it. Do you think in a million years that I wanted to share my wedding day with you pair?’ roared Jessica.
‘Girls, will you stop it! It’s drink talking,’ Amanda said in desperation.
‘No, I won’t. She’s the one who wanted the double wedding, not me. All I wanted was to get married to Mike and have a beautiful day that we’d never forget, and I have to share it with that neurotic cow who’s afraid if she doesn’t have a double wedding with me and Mike she’ll never get married. It’s not fair and I’m sick of it.’
Jessica burst into tears and climbed out of the pool. Sobbing, she grabbed her robe and rushed out of the pool room.
‘Jesus, Mary and Joseph, now look what you’ve bloody done,’ Katie spat at Carol.
‘You shut up, Katie Johnson, it’s none of your business. Can’t even get yourself a man,’ Carol taunted her.
‘Huh, that’s all you know. You call what you’ve got a man! You had a real man and you didn’t know what to do with him. Sean Ryan had a lucky escape,’ Katie sneered as she got out of the jacuzzi and went to comfort her cousin.
A shocked silence descended on the group.
‘Looks like the end of the party,’ Carol declared coolly, stepping out on to the tiled floor. ‘I’m going to my room.’
‘Phew, opened a can of worms there, Orla.’ Carrie giggled nervously.
‘Poor Jessie, I never saw her losing the cool like that before,’ Gina Dixon said sympathetically. ‘She must be up to ninety.’
‘I’d hate a double wedding – a single wedding’s stressful enough,’ Orla declared. ‘Do you think they’ll make it up?’
‘Ah, it’s only a tiff.’ Carrie wriggled her toes and yawned.
‘I don’t know. Mothers were insulted. That’s fairly high-grade weapons being unleashed.’
‘I didn’t think Jessie had it in her,’ sniggered Gina. ‘That crack about the off-licence was beyond.’
‘Carol was just as bitchy. Did you hear what she said to Katie about not being able to get a man? Smug bitch. I hate that.’ Carrie frowned. She was currently manless and not by choice. Carol had touched a nerve.
‘Well, I think we should have our showers and go to the bar and fortify ourselves for the trip home. I’d say it will be fairly frosty,’ Orla suggested. The others agreed with alacrity.
‘The brides-to-be might not be talking but that shouldn’t stop the fun,’ chortled Gina, who thought the whole thing was hilarious.
‘I suppose I should go and see if Carol’s all right,’ Amanda said dolefully. ‘I am her bridesmaid after all, and Katie went to take care of Jessica.’
‘It’s like duelling at dawn – the protagonists always have their seconds. Does this mean you can’t talk to Jessie and Katie?’ Orla grinned.
‘Ha, ha, ha! Very funny. Order me a double vodka – I’d say I’m going to need it,’ Amanda groaned.
* * *
‘Don’t mind that ungracious cow,’ Katie comforted, stroking Jessica’s back. ‘She was way out of line.’
‘Did you hear her?’ Jessica sat up, incensed. ‘She agreed to a double wedding, as if Mike and I were down on our knees begging her to get married with us. And how dare she call my mother bossy!’
Katie hid a grin. Bossy was not an altogether unfair description of her Aunt Liz.
‘And we were having such a nice hen party until she opened her big gob. I was really enjoying myself.’ Jessica hiccuped.
‘Me too,’ Katie agreed.
‘The poor girls, they must be horrified,’ Jessica fretted.
‘Don’t mind them, it won’t knock a feather out of them,’ Katie declared. ‘I bet we’ll find them in the bar.’
‘Carol’s not able to drink – we shouldn’t have persuaded her to. Look what’s happened now,’ Jessica said tearfully. ‘How can we have a double wedding if we’re not speaking?’
‘It will blow over, you’ll see,’ Katie assured her kindly.
‘Katie, it’s Carol we’re talking about,’ Jessica said mournfully.
Katie chewed her lip. ‘True,’ she acknowledged. ‘No better woman for holding a grudge after a row.’
‘Oh God.’ Jessica lowered her throbbing head into her hands. A row with Carol was the last thing she needed.
* * *
‘The women are after having some sort of a row,’ Gary announced irritably as he sat back down at the table beside Mike. They were in The Gravediggers, having a pint and watching a football match before heading off to Heuston to collect the girls off the train.
‘About what?’ Mike groaned.
‘Don’t ask, I didn’t. Carol was yattering down the phone at me. Imagine ringing me in the pub when I’m trying to concentrate on a football match.’
‘Terrible,’ grinned Mike. ‘These wedding nerves are getting bloody hard to handle. Jessie was bawling the other night because some cousin of hers sent a wedding gift and when Jessie folded up the wrapping paper a gift tag addressed to the cousin from someone else fell out. It was a recycled present. Of course she went spare and wanted to withdraw the invitation. This pair are loaded seemingly.’
‘ ’Course they are if they go around recycling presents. Forget them; let’s enjoy our last hours of peace and quiet. When the girls get back this wedding stuff is going to take off in earnest. This time two weeks, my son, the pair of us will have rings on our fingers and nooses through our noses.’
* * *
‘Where’s Carol?’ Katie demanded. They were in the foyer of the hotel, waiting for taxis to take them to the train station.
Amanda cast a sympathetic glance at Jessica. ‘She got a taxi by herself. She wants to be alone.’
‘Greta bloody Garbo,’ snapped Katie unsympathetically. ‘Come on, here’s our taxis. It’s going to be a tight squeeze, seeing as Madam Logan hogged a whole one to herself.’
‘Ah, leave her alone, Katie. She was upset,’ Amanda said loyally.
‘So’s Jessie, but you don’t see her behaving like a prize prat.’
‘Stop it, you two, it’s bad enough that the brides aren’t talking. We don’t want the bridesmaids falling out too. You two have to hold it all together until the pair of them are safely down the aisle,’ Gina ordered crisply as they piled into the taxis.
* * *
Carol sat in the back seat of her taxi, studiously ignoring the efforts of the driver to engage her in conversation. She was rigid with a
nger. Jessica Kennedy was a bitch of the highest order and for two pins she’d tell her to stuff her tacky, cheap, parochial little wedding and get lost.
But it was too late, much much too late, all the arrangements were in place. Invites sent out, flowers and cakes arranged, seating plans settled, dresses bought, honeymoons booked and paid for. Besides, she thought wearily, it had been a hell of a struggle to get this far with Gary. If she turned around and said to him she was cancelling the wedding she’d never get another chance. She was between a rock and a hard place for sure. She stared out of the window, scowling. The taxi driver prudently desisted from trying to have a conversation with her and concentrated on his driving.
She had two options as she saw it, Carol decided. Call the whole thing off and forget getting Gary to the altar, ever. Or swallow down her anger and pride, as usual, and get on with it. A thought struck her and she felt a flicker of fear. Jessica might call it off. She’d never seen her friend so wrathful. It had been shocking, actually, she reflected, remembering her friend’s tirade.
‘Oh God, what a mess,’ she muttered.
‘Sorry, did you say something?’ the taxi driver said hopefully.
‘Talking to myself,’ Carol muttered, in such an intimidating tone that he retreated into silence.
* * *
‘What’s happened?’ Mike asked stoically as Jessica got into the car beside him.
‘Ah, Carol had a go at me and I had a go back and we ended up having a slanging match and then she went off on her own and wouldn’t sit with us on the train. You saw the way she stalked off down the platform. I’m just sick of her,’ she exploded. ‘She had the cheek to say that my mother was bossy and that she was sorry that she’d agreed to the double wedding, as if I’d bloody asked her to have it. And then she accused me of making all the decisions. I was totally humiliated, Mike.’ She burst into tears of frustration.
‘Don’t cry, Jessie,’ Mike said in exasperation, glancing at Katie, who was in the back of the car. She threw her eyes up to heaven.
‘I will cry, I was having a great hen party until she opened her big gob,’ Jessie sobbed.
Mike’s lips tightened into a thin line and he looked uncharacteristically stern as he started up the engine. This was a great blooming start to their wedding celebrations. Battling brides! What more could he ask for?
* * *
‘If you’re going to sit with a face on you all night, I might as well go to the pub,’ Gary said irritably, as he sat in Carol’s flat flicking through an old paper. ‘I don’t know why you wanted a double wedding in the first place, all you and Jessie seem to do lately is fight. I’m going for a slash, make up your mind what you want to do.’ He marched into the loo.
Carol was fit to be tied. She couldn’t tell him the ins and outs of the row. It would be the perfect excuse for him to call off the wedding. She was half surprised he hadn’t suggested it. She’d better put on her ‘everything’s fine’ act and get on with it.
‘But everything isn’t fine,’ she muttered. ‘I’m sick of them and I’m sick of him.’ She stared out of the window, deeply unhappy and bubbling with resentment.
What a way to be preparing for her wedding. She should be happy and excited. She was anything but.
‘What are we doing?’ Gary came and put his arm around her.
‘Let’s go to bed,’ she murmured, cuddling in against him, desperate for comfort and a loving touch.
‘Brilliant idea,’ Gary approved, moulding her close to him. As he kissed and caressed her, Carol started to relax. In two weeks’ time the wedding would be over and she’d never have to see Jessica Kennedy again if she didn’t want to. Right now that seemed like a very good idea.
36
Mike glanced at his watch as he sat in the car. He’d give it another twenty minutes. If she wasn’t home by then he’d have to talk to her on the phone. He’d prefer to talk face to face. What he had to say would be far more effective that way.
Dusk was settling on the city, the western sky washed with orange and pink hues. He hoped they’d be lucky with the weather on their wedding day. It had been a fantastic summer, and now an even more beautiful Indian summer was blessing them, with not a hint of autumn chill. Only the shortening of the evenings indicated the change of seasons.
A movement caught his eye in the rear-view mirror. His guess had been right. After all this time, he knew Carol quite well. He saw her jog steadily towards her flat, eyes forward, looking neither to the right nor left. She never noticed him sitting in the car as she sprinted past.
He uncoiled himself out of the car and called after her as she slowed down to walk up her path. ‘Hey, Carol, can I have a word?’
‘Oh! Oh, hi, Mike,’ she said, surprised. She eyed him warily. ‘What’s up?’
‘Will we go inside?’ he suggested. He didn’t want to have a slagging match on the front step.
Reluctantly she inserted her key into the lock and he followed her inside. Her new flat was far different from the hovel she’d been living in previously. Carol was such a strange girl. She could easily have afforded a decent place to live, but her insecurities were so great that she preferred to save a great chunk of her salary rather than have a good quality of life. He supposed it stemmed from her father walking out on the family. Money had been tight.
Mike chewed the inside of his jaw. When he’d made up his mind to confront her, he’d been gung-ho about it, but now he was less inclined. That was always the way with Carol. People were always making allowances for her. Jessica had had to cope with her father’s sudden death, a huge trauma in anyone’s life. She didn’t spend her life making other people pay for her misfortune the way Carol did. His resolve strengthened again when Carol glowered sulkily at him as he followed her into her flat and closed the door behind them.
‘I suppose Jessie sent you.’
‘No, actually, she doesn’t know I’m here. And I’d appreciate it if you didn’t tell her. This is between you and me.’ Mike cleared his throat. ‘Look, Carol, I don’t want to cause a row, there’s been enough of those, but there’s a few ground rules you should be aware of. We’re all getting married in less than a fortnight. Now you know full well that the double wedding was your idea—’
‘Well, you all agreed to it,’ she interrupted sullenly.
‘Be honest, now, Carol. You know in your heart of hearts that Jessie didn’t or doesn’t want a double wedding. You know she wanted for just the two of us to have our day. You took advantage of her soft heart. It’s something you tend to do.’
She went to interrupt again, but he held up his hand and said sternly, ‘Let me finish, Carol. Jessie’s her own worst enemy. If she’d been a tougher nut you wouldn’t be walking up the aisle with Gary as soon as you are and I think you know that. You told her when she said that she wasn’t sure about the double wedding because of Liz, that Liz could organize it whatever way she wanted. Then you started to row back and make demands. OK, fair enough, it is your wedding too but it was a bit much insulting Liz to Jessie’s face—’
‘Jessie insulted my mother,’ Carol raged.
‘After you’d insulted hers,’ Mike said calmly. ‘But that’s not the point and that’s not why I’m here. The point is, Carol, Jessie made a sacrifice for you. I know sacrifice is a very strong word but that’s what she did. And you’ve never acknowledged it. The whole lead-up to the wedding has been fraught. First yours was on, then it was off, and then there were huffs about morning suits, not to talk about your family problems. Jessie and Liz have enough to be dealing with themselves, especially emotionally, with Ray being dead, without all of what you’re laying on them, so cut it out now, Carol. Fair is fair.
‘Now whatever row the pair of you have had, get over it and you make the first move. It’s the least you can do, because Jessie and I are going to have the happiest day of our lives on our wedding day and you and your problems are not going to interfere with that. Deal with whatever you have to deal with and get over yourself,
Carol, because if you don’t you’re going to lose the best friend you’ve got,’ Mike warned her.
Once he’d got going he’d let her have it fair and square and he was glad he had. Jessie deserved that much from him. It was only when he’d verbalized it that he realized just how much of a sacrifice his fiancée had made and just how little Carol appreciated it. She’d had this talking-to coming for a long time and he didn’t regret one second of it, he decided as he eyeballed her. She dropped her gaze first.
‘You certainly have a lot to say for yourself,’ she muttered.
‘Not for myself, Carol, for Jessie,’ he corrected her coldly. ‘And I hope you’ll be honest enough for once in your life to acknowledge the truth of what I’m saying. You take and take from Jessie; it’s time now to do a bit of giving. Think about what I’ve said – phone her and apologize or else pull out of the wedding and let us have our day. OK?’ he challenged.
‘OK,’ she muttered.
‘Fine. I’ll be off.’ Mike headed for the door. Right this minute it wouldn’t worry him if he never saw Carol Logan again.
He sat in the car and gunned the engine; he wasn’t sure what she would do. Would his home truths make enough of an impact on her for her to ring Jessica and apologize? Even better, would she get indignant enough to tell them to stuff their wedding so they could go it alone?
He sighed as he drove past Dalymount. He’d done what he should have done months ago, stood up to Carol and her bullying. It was probably too little and too late.
* * *
Carol’s heart hammered in her chest. She felt sick. Confrontations always made her feel nauseous. Mike had been really horrible saying those things to her. The cheek of him! Where did he get off?
She slumped down on the sofa and curled her knees into her chest. The awful thing was that deep down she had to admit that he was right. She couldn’t hide from the truth of his words, not that she’d admit it to anyone, ever . . . not even to Gary. It was even hard admitting it to herself, she thought, cringing inside. Mike was right, she’d known all along that Jessie didn’t want a double wedding. From that very first night long ago in The Oval when she’d first mooted it, her friend had been completely resistant to the idea. It was only after Carol had done some serious ‘pity me’ stuff that Jessica had caved in.
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