The Wayward Wife by Jessica Stirling

Author:Jessica Stirling [Jessica Stirling]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Hodder & Stoughton
Published: 2013-04-12T16:00:00+00:00

PART THREE

Blitz

19

It came as a great surprise when Basil’s brother turned up at the wedding breakfast. It wasn’t, strictly speaking, a breakfast at all but an intimate lunch in a side room in L’Étoile which – the restaurant not the side room – was conveniently situated for a quick sprint back to Broadcasting House where groom and bride would kiss and go their separate ways, Basil back to the office and Vivian off to the House of Commons to catch what promised to be a heated debate on the legality of the Home Secretary’s unlimited powers of preventative detention.

In the past few weeks Vivian had spent much time in the gallery of the Commons and in meeting members of various bodies concerned with funding Czech and Slovak refugees, so much time, in fact, it was all Susan could do to drag her to a fitting for the suit that would substitute for a bridal gown and to the milliner’s to pick a matching hat.

Vivian had never met anyone from Basil’s family. His widowed mother lived in the wilds of Scotland – Troon, was it? – and his sister, her husband and children were ensconced somewhere near Penzance. Basil had informed them of his impending nuptials but had politely discouraged them from coming up to London for the event. Naturally, Vivian had dropped no hint to her black sheep brother and Susan’s suggestion that she might invite one of her nieces to be a bridesmaid had been greeted with a snort of derision.

Susan had trimmed one of her old dresses for the occasion and Bob had stuffed himself into a rumpled three-piece suit. In old-fashioned morning dress, complete with topper, Basil looked decidedly out of place and the registrar’s temporary confusion as to just which couple he was expected to unite in wedlock didn’t help matters.

After the deed was done, bride and groom, accompanied by Bob and Susan, trudged round to L’Étoile in Charlotte Street. Here, rather to Basil’s chagrin, a number of CBS correspondents were lunching and, swiftly putting two and two together, stood up and applauded the happy couple before the wedding party was shown into the side room where Commander Derek Willets, in full naval uniform, waited to greet them.

‘Good Lord!’ Basil exclaimed. ‘I thought you were somewhere in the middle of the Atlantic. How did you know where to find us?’

‘Intuition,’ Derek Willets said. ‘Besides, you mentioned it in dispatches to Mother who mentioned it in dispatches to me. Now, please, introduce me to my brand-new sister-in-law.’ He bowed to Vivian. ‘Mrs Willets, I assume? I’m the dreaded brother, in case you hadn’t guessed. Welcome to the family.’

To Susan’s surprise, Vivian blushed and the air of melancholy that had marked the proceedings vanished.

Commander Willets signalled an elderly waiter to wheel in the champagne, bride and groom were duly toasted and everyone sat down to tuck into mock turtle soup and whitebait and dispose of the two bottles of Chablis that the maître d’ had been persuaded to produce from his dwindling stock.

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