Happy Ever After

by Kitty Wilson

  He headed back to Chase’s, who had been good enough to suggest he move into his huge house, partly because that’s what friends do but also because it did no harm to have it occupied when he and Angelina were away and they were away a lot. With most of Chase’s business interests in the States – wellbeing investments, he called it, but in Richard’s head anything that generated that kind of revenue was definitely a capitalist venture rather than an altruistic one – the blonde power couple spent an awful lot of time there.

  Richard was grateful; it was much better than staying in Treporth Bay and he hoped it wouldn’t be long before he got back to the marital home. Marion’s misconception of what Claudia had been doing at his house couldn’t last much longer. She’d have to listen to reason soon. Although even the thought of Marion listening was enough to make him chuckle a bit. As if.

  Tonight, with Angelina away, Chase had organized a dinner party. The regular crew of Alex, Chase and himself – Hector had jetted back to Morocco – had been invited along with Matt Masters, who he liked immensely, and Dan the vicar, who he didn’t know so well. He did hope the man’s job didn’t limit their freedom to speak as openly as they wanted, but figured meeting him and then deciding was probably better than leaping to conclusions. On the other hand, as a man of God he may well decide it was in his best interests to aid Richard’s marriage, may have experience with other parishioners and have some useful suggestions. It certainly couldn’t hurt if he could rope God onto his side.

  There was a large van parked in the drive as he walked into the vast house – far too big for his tastes; it made him feel lonely – and he found Chase in the foyer directing a couple of men who were struggling with a portrait so huge that it could be used for pasting wallpaper. A portrait of Angelina.

  ‘Oh, nice,’ Richard said, thinking it was anything but. ‘Does she not want to supervise you hanging it, make sure it’s just right and things? Marion has such a good eye for these things, I’m useless, would have all the pictures wonky and not even notice.’

  ‘That’s what these guys and this is for.’ Chase brandished a spirit level. ‘She asked me to get it up before she got back from London. She was on morning TV today; you’ve just missed it. Twitter are blasting her for what she said about regional accents and people with home-dyed hair – it was a dig at the host, I think they have some kind of history, maybe a fallout on a celebrity cooking show years ago – but she never seems to mind the hate too much, says it keeps her profile and the bookings high. She said she has more articles and jokes on panel shows about her than the Pope and the Dalai Lama have combined. Terrifying, isn’t it? What do you think?’

  ‘That she shouldn’t be allowed to do live television?’ Richard queried, only half joking and deliberately side-stepping having to give an opinion on the picture. It was a Marilyn Diptych-like print – four colourful prints of the same image: Angelina’s bottom, well her whole body, but largely a bottom, her back, hair and her hand held up to give the artist, and the viewer, the finger. ‘So, this is a present for her from you?’

  ‘Oh no, this is her engagement present to me.’

  Richard failed to stop his laughter.

  ‘I know, right?’ Chase said, smiling himself. ‘She says it’s to keep me company if she’s ever away, like this evening. But we both know it’s a great big stamp of possession over the house and me; there’s no one who is coming into the house and not knowing that she lives here. But if it makes her happy then that’s good enough for me.’

  Richard wasn’t the only one to laugh as he viewed the portrait. It was the reaction of Matt, Alex and even Dan as they each entered the house that evening.

  Richard found he immediately liked the vicar, one of those automatic things when someone walks into a room and you know instantaneously whether you love them or loathe them. As the men all settled in the kitchen around a vast table, Chase happily cooked for them. He was great at cooking and had been a massive foodie influence over both Richard and Alex at uni. The conversation soon turned to marriage, but to Richard’s immediate relief, the focus was Chase. Whilst he was hoping to speak to his crack team this evening, he would prefer to have a couple of beers in him first. He had never been great at talking about his emotions and had a feeling that he may make a bit of a twit of himself this evening, that his carefully buttoned-up, public-school-educated gates may flood open in the company of men that he had known for ever.

  ‘So congratulations are in order.’ Dan started the conversation, raising his bottle to his host, who was busy chopping vegetables at whip-smart speed, making it a miracle that he still had his fingers.

  ‘Thank you.’ Chase stopped for a moment, to nod his head in acknowledgement. ‘It is exciting; I had never much thought about marriage but when Angelina proposed I knew I wanted to spend the rest of my life with her so it was an immediate yes.’

  There was a wordless battle around the table as every man sitting there struggled to keep their eyebrows under control. A lid for every pot.

  ‘You’re an absolute glutton for punishment. I love my sister, I have to – it’s the rules – but honestly she is far from easy. And as to that’ – Matt gestured back out of the kitchen and everyone knew he was referencing the painting – ‘I don’t think I can keep coming around if I have to stare at her arse every time I walk through the door. Most unsettling.’

  ‘I’ll drape a tea towel over it every time I know you’re due over.’

  ‘A tea towel? I don’t think so. Like her ego, she needs a full-sized blanket to cover it and even then it’s not quite going to get to the corners. A sail, that’s what you need. I’ll buy you a sail and some pulleys, that should do it.’

  Chase laughed, put the knife down again and pulled his phone out of his pocket, pressing the voice recorder function. ‘So Matt Masters, TV darling, are you saying that your sister has a huge arse, big as a boat?’

  ‘No, I am not.’ Matt bent over and clearly and loudly spoke into the phone, as if he were an elderly gentleman. ‘But I am saying she has a huge ego, and I think that painting is merely a ploy to stop me visiting. And the whole finger thing, Ange, what would my fans say? You’ve just alienated my core base. Huh? Huh?’ The men chortled as Chase put his phone back in his pocket.

  ‘I shall give you some respite and not send her that until tomorrow.’

  ‘See, this is why I’m glad to have you in the family – a man of good sense, bar the actual marrying her thing.’ Matt smiled.

  ‘Both of you are planning to get married this year. It’s going to be a pretty romantic summer,’ Richard said, his genuine joy for Chase and for Matt overriding the pinch of irony that his wife would be helping both.

  ‘Ahh, yes, I was going to talk to you about that, Matt,’ Chase said, artfully arranging the eeny-weeny slices of veg on a plate, throwing fish from the pan on the top, complete with crispy skin and a high-held chef-y drizzle of something citrussy and delicious. ‘I’m so pleased we’re both getting married but Angelina only just mentioned the timings the other day; she says she has set things up to be a double wedding in the summer. It took me by surprise and I wanted some time before I talked to Angelina about it, time to work out best possible alternative solutions. With you guys I can just come straight out and say it. I can’t do that and had Angelina been thinking straight then she would have realized. We can’t get married until next summer at the earliest, it’s simply not practical, for either my workload, Angelina’s or that of the majority of our guests. I have commitments in the States all throughout this summer; obviously I’ve rejigged so I can fly back in for your wedding but doing mine at the same time, not feasible. Especially if you look at our guest list. People need way more notice, they’re coming in from everywhere. I don’t know why Angelina didn’t realize and I wanted to sound you out before I went any further but I think she just got caught up in the idea of a Masters wedding extraordinaire and didn’t go past that.’

  ‘Hmm, that’s the exact same phrase Marion’ – Matt p
aused and nodded at Richard – ‘used when she came and pitched it to us.’

  ‘I think Marion may have had a fair bit to do with it. How do you feel about not doing it this summer? Letting us have time to get properly organized, although I don’t doubt Marion will already be all over it and I could probably get married on Wednesday if I asked her nicely.’ Chase swapped a half-smile with Richard. The years between them all meant he was allowed. And she would be, he was only speaking truth.

  ‘Truthfully, Chase, I don’t want a double wedding. I told Marion it was a no and she fought a good fight, didn’t she, Dan?’ Dan nodded and Richard knew there was a wry smile on his face. ‘Rosy and I have categorically ruled it out, but I suspect Marion thought she could still wheedle it through. However, we actually got a text the other day saying “I am listening to you”, so I guess I have to hope she has finally heard us and stopped the double celebrity, mad paparazzi jerk-off that she was planning. I know she’s excited to have your and Ange’s wedding to plan. She just may not have mentioned the separate wedding thing to Angelina yet.’

  ‘She will be excited; she never did get the wedding she wanted and I have a feeling she and Angelina may have similar ideas when it comes to a day to remember,’ Chase remarked casually, causing Richard’s head to jerk up from his food. It was true, his and Marion’s wedding had been dictated by his mother, before he had fully developed the backbone to defend their wishes – a backbone that was encouraged by Marion and in full swing by the time it came to the choices of his sons’ school. He had always known Marion’s wishes had been sidelined to keep peace and he felt bad for it. He didn’t realize his friends were aware of it as well. ‘So, we’re in agreement here, you and me. It’s a big no to a double wedding this summer, but one of our own, which seems a much better idea to me. Especially as I have a feeling what you and Rosy want may be quite different to your sister’s wedding wish list.’

  Matt leant over the table and high-fived his brother-in-law to be.

  ‘This is delicious, thank you.’ Richard needed to say something and decided gently-gently was a good way to go about it. ‘Marion does need to know that you guys have decided upon this. I think she is counting on your wedding to Angelina this summer to help raise her own profile and get her business established. Now I know, of course I do, as does she, that you must have things the way you want but I am worried about her. She needs to know sooner rather than later. It’s not the money so much but for her self-belief; for her own esteem she needs to make a go of this business. She is so brilliant, so clever and she willingly put her career to one side to bring up our sons so now I want to step up and give her some support, and it feels weird sitting here watching you guys high fiving plans, which you are quite right to make, but will have the downside of disappointing my wife.’ Richard took a deep breath; that was a pretty big speech for him.

  ‘Okay, well there must be something we can do to help Marion so that our postponement doesn’t hit her too hard,’ Chase responded and Richard nodded. Tonight was meant to be about getting help from his closest friends to get Marion back but this was far more important; getting Marion help with her business seemed a much better, much less self-serving idea and with this group of men around the table he couldn’t find better allies.

  The focus shifted to Marion, with Dan saying the parish was pretty penniless but he would throw anything that paid and was church-related her way. Alex added that his fundraiser last year had been a disaster so he had breathed a sigh of relief when he heard Marion was running an events company; he’d meant to get in touch but just hadn’t got around to it. He would get on it tomorrow. Matt promised to put in a good word with the Penmenna Hall owners, who were planning some big celebrations for next year; he was very happy to recommend her as a consultant.

  Dinner finished, they decamped to Chase’s mancave, complete with pool table, old-school arcade machines and bar, where things turned from the superficial to the slightly deeper and with Richard in the spotlight. It was the sort of thing that he dreaded, having all the attention on him and for something that he was finding difficult to manage.

  He was open about how much he missed her and how he would do anything to have her back. All the men nodded understandingly, but it was as he was having a ferocious bout on Frogger with Dan laughing and cheering him on – Matt, Chase and Alex were clustered around the pool table, giving the two of them space – that he was given a little hope.

  ‘I don’t want to break a confidence and I can’t say I have the answer to your problems, but it may be worth knowing that I think Marion would love to give your marriage another go; it’s second-hand information having come from Alice, but Alice is a pretty good judge of character. I reckon it’s worth hanging in there.’

  ‘Oh.’ Richard was a bit taken aback, and unsure what to say as an immediate response. He didn’t know the man yet his marital problems were obviously a conversational topic in his house. Then he remembered he was in Penmenna, and that was exactly what happened in villages. Everyone talked and what they didn’t know they made up. It wasn’t done in a malicious way, he certainly didn’t think that, it was just a bit disconcerting. He may as well embrace it. He wasn’t exactly doing a great job of getting Marion back by himself. ‘That is nice to hear, although I don’t know if I dare believe it. She’s pretty determined not to give that impression to me. I don’t think I’ve seen her a single time since I’ve been back without her mentioning my inability to be faithful. It’s not fair.’

  Dan made a funny shape with his mouth and Richard realized how that sounded. It occurred to Richard that people may well know why Marion had left him, but they didn’t know he hadn’t done anything wrong other than be a naive fool.

  ‘Let me explain that so I don’t sound like a petulant child.’ Dan looked a little uncomfortable, as if bracing himself for a cheater’s lies. ‘I let a colleague stay at mine whilst she was having problems with her flat. I thought it was a kind thing to do and, ironically, I thought Marion would be pleased. I swear I never touched her, never wanted to. I love my wife, Vicar…’

  ‘Dan.’

  ‘Dan, I love my wife, I’ve never cheated and never would. There is no one I want to spend my life with more, and that’s even more true today than it was when we met twenty odd years ago. I think she is the most amazing person I have ever known: she’s got grit and she made me a father to three boys who combine her chutzpah, intelligence and wit in the most perfect ways. But’ – he paused to catch a breath – ‘she thought I slept with my colleague, who deliberately set about sowing discord and creating fairly compelling evidence to imply that I had. I had no idea until Marion threw me out, none, and I arrived back in London to find this other woman cuffed to my bed in a last-ditch attempt to get my attention.’ He was aware the chatter across the room had stilled. ‘Obviously I kicked her out and suddenly understood why Marion was so furious but trust me when I say I had no idea.’

  ‘He is pretty useless when it comes to women,’ Chase chipped in, his pool cue now resting at his side. ‘We have no idea how he managed to attract and keep his wife.’

  ‘Clearly I didn’t!’

  ‘You’re going to get past this. I’m sure of it. I’ve never seen a more adoring couple. It’s frequently quite vomit-inducing. This will work out in time, I have faith. I don’t believe for a second you’ve cheated on her.’

  Richard turned to include the others in his conversation. ‘I really haven’t. I don’t want to, apart from anything else. I literally have no impetus to sleep with anyone other than my wife, even when she won’t have me. Like now.’

  ‘This colleague, it wasn’t…’ Alex shuddered.

  ‘Claudia, yup. You dated her, I believe.’

  ‘Woah. Your wife set me up on a blind date, one. We had dinner and that was it and parted ways. She seeped poison.’

  ‘You could have mentioned the poison bit before now.’

  ‘To be fair I didn’t know you were planning on moving her into your flat.’


  ‘I didn’t—’

  Alex held his hands up. ‘Yeah okay, bad joke. But I know you wouldn’t have cheated on Marion and especially not with that viper. I can totally and utterly believe this has all come about because you are really freaking naive.’

  ‘Thanks, I’m going to take that as a compliment. Now if only you could persuade my wife…’

  Chapter Twenty-five

  Six weeks or so had passed since Dan had given him a smattering of hope as to getting back in Marion’s good books. The vicar’s words – Marion would love to give your marriage another go – whirled around his head at all times. And to be fair she had been defrosting a bit recently. Not on his supposed adultery front but just in generally having him around.

  In a remarkably short space of time her business was storming ahead. It would seem – and no real surprise – that her reputation preceded her. She was taken up with lots of bookings for events this summer, so much so that both Penmenna Hall and Alex were now on her books but rather as a favour to them than a necessity for her.

  There were many upsides to this, but one of them was that she was happy to rely on him when the boys needed ferrying to and from things and he was enjoying a domestic role, preparing food that he knew they would like and cramming as much nutritional goodness in as he could for the people he loved. His reward was not just the obvious pleasure of the boys racing through his dishes but also the little half-smiles on his wife’s face when she came home to find a warm dinner waiting for her, the dog walked, chores done, homework undertaken and the children happy.

  Those smiles were so special.

  She had also eased back a little on referencing Claudia at every chance she got. It had now been consigned to being one of those things they didn’t mention. But the injustice of it still smarted. One day he would find a way to show her he had never cheated. One day soon.