The One with the Wedding Dress by Erin Lawless

Author:Erin Lawless
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9780008181741
Publisher: HarperCollins Publishers
Published: 2016-08-23T04:00:00+00:00

Chapter Sixteen

Nora was uncharacte‌ristically quiet and subdued for the rest of the day. Sarah hadn’t driven for over half a decade – not since she moved out of Wales – but she just about managed to chauffeur the seven-seater hire car from village to village down the winding country lanes, her knuckles white against the steering wheel at times. The staff at shops number two – Something Blue Bridal in Cobbledick – and number three – UnRuffled of Tatbury-on-the-Water – were far more polite – a veritable dream in the bruised-feelings wake of Pandora Pritchard-Bailey – but the spark seemed to have gone out of the day for Nora. She looked lifeless in the bridal finery the other boutiques draped her in – more like some sort of dress-up doll than an excited wife-to-be.

Conversely, Eileen got more and more vocal and tetchy, never missing an opportunity to harangue Nora about choosing a secular wedding, or for not having her three sisters as her bridesmaids. As they returned to the B&B to change for dinner Cleo felt exhausted; she hoped a good meal, a great bottle of wine and an even better sleep would see Nora to rights, and tomorrow would be another day. (And if Eileen happened to oversleep and somehow get left behind for the day, well, so much the better.)

You could tell the second that the car came within range of the B&B’s WiFi – every phone in the vehicle suddenly became alive with Facebook notifications, Tweet alerts and WhatsApp messages.

‘I’m starving,’ Daisy announced, staring at her phone, thumb moving over the screen as they walked up through the front garden. It was well past seven in the evening, but the little row of stone cottages were south facing, and they were still bathed in warmth and light.

‘Please don’t tell me you’re on Tinder right now,’ Bea laughed, nodding her head at Daisy’s phone.

Daisy laughed. ‘No, I was just replying to Darren, but let’s have a look shall we? It can’t all be crotchety old men and cows out here, can it? Where are the sexy farm boys?’

‘Do let me know if a cow actually comes up on there.’ Bea was yawning too as she waited for Cleo to unlock the front door to the cottage. ‘I’m wiped,’ she confessed. ‘Don’t suppose there’s any chance of a Deliveroo sort of set up out here? Or room service?’

Cleo overheard her and her face dropped. ‘No, come on!’ she urged. ‘We have to go to the pub for dinner. Apparently it’s all local produce and everything. And don’t even try to pretend to me that you don’t absolutely love sausage-and-mash.’

Bea rolled her eyes. ‘Honestly, I’m so tired right now I can’t even make an innuendo out of that.’

‘Come on!’ Cleo insisted. ‘Half an hour. A strong coffee and a hot shower and you’ll be set to go, I promise.’

‘These better be excellent sausages,’ Bea replied mildly as she took the stairs up to the bedrooms.

Cleo had known Beatrice Milton for over ten years now, and she was still no closer to understanding her than she had been a decade ago.

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.