Chapter Eleven
Although she was early, Nick was waiting for her in the pub, a cup of coffee in front of him. Hattie was relieved. It would be so easy to find an excuse to duck out of this, but now he’d seen her she couldn’t run away.
‘Hey, Nick, thank you so much for agreeing to meet me.’
‘You sounded rather desperate on the phone. Not like you. Coffee?’
He made appropriate signals to the woman polishing glasses behind the bar.
‘So, what is it?’
Hattie swallowed, wishing he’d let her have a few sips of coffee first.
‘Nick, I really need your help.’
‘To rob a bank, obviously, going by the expression on your face.’
She managed a smile. ‘To be honest, it’s almost as bad and possibly twice as hard.’
He leant forward, his attention fully engaged.
‘Do you remember at the quiz, the nice girl on our table—’
‘Fiona. Yes.’
‘Well, you might also remember that she’s getting married, to Lance. Who’s not so nice.’
‘I remember.’ He pursed his lips but didn’t comment further.
‘I want to stop the wedding. Now, before you say anything, let me give you my reasons.’
He nodded. Hattie took a breath and then her coffee arrived, interrupting her momentum.
‘You were saying?’ said Nick when Hattie’s coffee was served.
‘Actually, I want you to stop the wedding. I’ve thought for ages about how I could do it, and I can’t think of a way.’
‘Why do you think the wedding should be stopped?’
‘Firstly and most importantly because Lance is horrible to Fiona. He bullies her. Secondly, I think he stands to make money out of marrying her, divorcing her and taking half of whatever house they buy. Finally, I know for a fact that he’s unfaithful to her.’
Nick looked very stern. But crucially, he didn’t ask her how she knew that Lance was cheating.
‘Have you thought about stopping the wedding in the traditional way?’
‘Yes, but I really don’t want to do it. It would be so upsetting—’
‘Stopping the wedding however you do it is going to be upsetting. Have you talked to Fiona about it?’
‘She won’t hear a word against Lance. She says his behaviour is a sign of how much he loves her. The other day he said he wanted to call the wedding off because she hadn’t lost enough weight.’
‘She doesn’t need to lose weight!’
‘I know. He’s a monster.’
‘That’s a polite word for him.’
Nick’s quiet anger was very reassuring. Hattie relaxed a little.
‘I think we’re right. We must stop the wedding happening if we can.
We may not be able to do it, of course. It won’t be easy.
But we’ll have tried. And if the wedding goes ahead, we’ll just have to be supportive and hope it ends gently. ’
‘We want to avoid that if at all possible.’
‘I’m so grateful to be able to share this with you. I’ve been so worried,’ said Hattie, suddenly feeling deeply fond of the man who until recently was just her most discriminating client.
‘Of course, I can’t promise anything. When is the wedding? And do you know who’ll be driving her and her father – presumably – to the church?’
‘I can find out,’ said Hattie.
They discussed details of the wedding. Hattie told him everything she knew and said she could ask for more details on some pretext, if that would be useful.
Nick wrote everything down. Then he put away his Moleskin notebook and said, ‘I’m not sure why you’ve asked me to help but I find myself compelled to try, for Fiona’s sake.
She’s a lovely woman. She doesn’t deserve to be shackled to a man like Lance. ’
And Hattie left the pub feeling lighter than she had in days.