Chapter Nine
Hattie found the house without difficulty but sat outside in the car for a few minutes.
Although she felt Lance deserved to be flung into the seventh circle of hell for what he was doing to Fiona, she was a bit scared.
It was after ten at night, far too late for social calls, and he would almost certainly shout.
If it weren’t for her visions she would never have got so involved with this couple.
Reprimanding misbehaving bridegrooms was not part of her job as a property hunter.
Nor even as a new friend. She hadn’t even been invited to this wedding.
She took a deep breath and got out of the car.
When Lance opened the door, he did not look distraught and disappointed, he looked annoyed. ‘What are you doing here?’
‘I imagine you know,’ said Hattie. ‘Can I come in?’ As she asked, she went through into the house.
‘Did Sheila send you?’ he asked.
Hattie found her way to the sitting room.
The hallway was too narrow for her to say what she needed to.
‘The whole family sent me. They want to know if you mean it when you say you want to call off the wedding. Actually, that’s not true: it’s me who wants to know that.
The family, Fiona in particular, wants you not to call it off. She’s distraught.’
‘So she should be,’ said Lance. ‘Silly thing should have done what I asked and got herself in shape for the wedding.’
He was so cold about it, thought Hattie.
He really doesn’t care. He just wants everyone to jump through hoops for him.
Although she didn’t want him to know, she felt she had to tell him what Fiona had said.
‘Fiona will go on any diet invented – including complete starvation – to help her lose weight for the wedding.’
He seemed pleased. ‘Good. She’s paying attention to my wishes at last.’
‘From what I’ve seen, Fiona has done absolutely everything you’ve asked and more. There’s nothing she wouldn’t sacrifice to make you happy.’
‘Good!’
Hattie couldn’t help herself. ‘And you have taken everything from her. Her friends, her hen night, the joy of keeping the wedding dress a surprise. You’ve been a bully from start to finish! And it’s my opinion that Fiona is well shot of you.’
He laughed. ‘I don’t think she agrees with you.’
Hattie exhaled. She knew he was right, and she’d undertaken to get Lance back for Fiona. She also knew now that he had every intention of marrying Fiona and had just wanted to torture her before the wedding.
‘So you’ll be there? At the church? On Saturday?’
‘And you’ll stop interfering in what is absolutely nothing whatever to do with you?’
Hattie stood her ground but didn’t speak.
‘I’m firing you as our property hunter,’ he went on. ‘I never want to see you again, and if I do – well – you won’t like it!’
‘I’m sure I won’t,’ said Hattie and walked out of the house.
She called Sheila when she was back in the car. She didn’t really want to go all the way to the house if she could avoid it. She had a lot to think about and needed space.
‘It’s going to be all right,’ she said when Sheila answered. ‘Lance will be there. Although I should say I think it would be better if the wedding was called off.’
‘I just want what Fifi wants,’ said Sheila. She sounded exhausted.
‘Well, there we are.’
‘Hattie, thank you. I don’t know how we’d have managed without you – hang on, Fiona wants a word…’
‘Hattie?’ said Fiona, sounding painfully young and vulnerable. ‘Will you be my bridesmaid? I don’t mean walk down the aisle or anything – but come here on the morning, help me get ready? I’d love to have a friend on the day. I can’t put it all on Mum, all the doing up buttons and things…’
‘Of course,’ Hattie heard herself say. She liked Fiona a lot and she found in this moment that she pitied her too, isolated from the world by her own partner. ‘What time would you like me?’
‘After breakfast? About half past nine?’
‘I’ll be there.’
When Hattie disconnected she wondered what on earth she was getting herself into.
She had to assume this meant she was wanted at the wedding though what Lance would say to that she wasn’t sure.
And, of course, she had absolutely nothing to wear.
She’d get in touch with Rose in the morning, she resolved.
Hattie drove home. Before she felt able to relax, however, she had to make hot chocolate. She found the bottle of whisky in the back of the cupboard and added a slug. It was going to take something powerful to get her brain to turn off, she realised.