Chapter 39
39
Luckily, when we headed down to the dining room the following morning for breakfast, which was being served in the stunning orangery, apparently the rest of the bridal party had yet to show up, so it was much more relaxed than I originally thought it might be. I’d left Lucy’s gift, still wrapped in the organza bag, with the receptionist, asking her to get it to the bride. The sun was shining, casting a golden glow over the stunning landscaped gardens and it was warm enough to have the French doors open. The forecast for the day ahead was to be bright and around 18 degrees, so hopefully perfect for the occasion. Nothing worse than a bride who was sweating her boobs off in a fancy dress on what was supposed to be the best day of her life.
The wedding was at 4p.m. so there was still a whole day to get through, although apparently Michael had booked Melissa, Lucy, Claudia and myself in for some spa treatments. I couldn’t work out if this was a really nice thing to do or a really bloody stupid one. Did he really think that Claudia and I were going to be the best of friends again? I was trying to be calm about it because Melissa and Lucy kept saying how fabulous it was. When I was handed a glass of Prosecco by the spa receptionist, I practically downed it in one but just stopped at the last half, realising that everyone’s eyes were on me, so I put my glass on the side, determined to sip the rest. Couldn’t really turn up at the wedding being smashed before the main event had even started.
It was so lovely to see Michelle and Emma arrive just after lunch. They were only staying for one day and had booked a nearby hotel as this one was full by the time that I’d decided that I’d like to invite them. Lucy did say that adding another two people to the guest list was a ‘proper nuisance’, but as mother of the bride, and someone who’d put a small fortune into the wedding, I thought that I had some right to have a couple of friends with me. Despite Michael flashing his cash around and telling everyone he’d managed to upgrade our room suite, I was paying for most of it anyway. But then again, I’d been lucky enough to have been able to not work full time for many of our years together, so I should be grateful for that. Some people work full time for years without having a break, so again I considered myself to be reasonably fortunate in this way.
‘God, am I glad to see you.’ I enveloped them both in my arms and squeezed tight.
‘That bad?’ Michelle stepped back and held me at arm’s length. ‘You’re looking great though, my friend. Glowing, in fact.’
‘That’s the spa treatments. I’m hoping that the “glow” dies down a bit before this afternoon or the make-up artist will have an awful lot of work to do. It won’t be the bride being a pain in the rear, it’ll be me being Mother of the Bridezilla.’
‘Well, we’re not stopping. We just wanted to come and see you and say hello before we go and get changed out of our scruffs, but more than that, to come and give you a bit of moral support.’ Emma always managed to look glamorous even in casual wear. She was one of those women who exuded elegance. Michelle was just naturally beautiful, she’d toned down a lot of her make-up recently, preferring a more natural look, and it suited her very much. I couldn’t wait for Mum to meet them. I knew that she would love them both.
The wedding itself was really rather lovely. When Lucy walked towards her groom, I noticed that along with her flowers, she was holding the horseshoe and it warmed my heart. She subtly raised it as she walked past me and mouthed thank you and smiled. A tear pooled in the corner of my eye. I had never seen her look more beautiful.
Once Michael had passed Lucy over to Luke, he joined Claudia, Seamus and me in the front row. Seamus held my hand tightly all the way through the ceremony and smiled at me, handing me a tissue when I teared up again as the bride and groom kissed for the first time. When we had photographs taken, the photographer was sensitive to the situation and took several shots involving many combinations and I relaxed when that was over and done with. Mum kept telling me how well I was doing and when we sat down to the meal, I felt a little calmer. The speeches went well. Michael, for once, was quite respectful of our split family in his speech; still said ‘Jo and I’ when he talked about the girls when they were younger and at one point our eyes connected and we smiled, our joint memories being shared in front of everyone. It actually wasn’t as bad as I thought it would be and I felt more relaxed as each stage of the wedding was completed. Maybe I had built it up to be something much more than I’d needed to.
Breathing a sigh of relief that the meal was over, I stood from the table, just as the DJ’s dulcet tones filled the room. There was just one more ‘family’ thing that we would have to do now.
‘Ladies and gentlemen. Please give a round of applause to the bride and groom who will be taking to the dance floor for their first dance together as a married couple. They will be very shortly joined by the mother and father of both parties.’
This was the bit I’d been dreading probably more than any other. Let’s hope that the music would be so loud, that we wouldn’t have to speak, I thought to myself. Sadly that wasn’t the case, as Michael came over and took my hand and led me to the dance floor.
‘It’s been a lovely day. We’ve done a great job.’
The cheek of him. He’d done hardly anything towards the wedding at all. Apart from the finances, to which he’d hardly contributed, from what I’d gathered the very few times that my daughter did call me, panicking because something wasn’t going her way and she’d had a disagreement with the wedding planner, he’d also hardly had anything to do with the planning.
Trying not to bite and let him wind me up, I smiled through gritted teeth. I could feel my body stiff and defensive as he held me. A song only lasted around three minutes so that would be all that I had to endure in this weird intimate close proximity. It was strange how you could love someone so powerfully, so intimately, so unconditionally, and then within a short space of time be so irritated by them, wondering how you ever spent all that time together.
‘So Claudia and I have some news,’ he said to me, leaning his head closer to my ear.
I could feel myself roll my eyes. What now? She had stolen my husband. My daughters clearly thought the world of her. She lived in the house of my dreams, literally that we built to our spec. Maybe they’d finally sold the business.
‘Have you?’ I knew that my voice was resigned to whatever he had to say deflating my current state of mood but I never, for one moment, expected what he said next.