Chapter 38
THIRTY-EIGHT
CIARA
My low-heeled shoes clicked on the stone steps as I hustled up the tower stairs to the second floor, where we’d converted one of the bedrooms to a bridal suite for those brides who wanted the full castle experience rather than a shorter walk to the aisle in their finery. Christina Mullen definitely fit the bill. An American bride with Scottish heritage, she’d booked Ardinmuir almost a year ago, asking for the “most Scottish experience” we could give her. Kilts. Castle. Bagpipes. The full Jock. And they were paying a premium for it, so we were going to see that today went off without a hitch. That included stopping any imminent panic attacks from the bride.
I knocked lightly on the door to the bridal suite. The door swung open immediately to reveal Melissa, one of the bridesmaids, in a satin tartan robe, her hair still up in rollers.
“Oh, thank God. She’s in here.”
I followed Melissa into the main part of the suite, where Christina sat at the dressing table. Her mum was fanning her flushed face.
“What seems to be the trouble?”
Christina looked up at me with suspiciously shiny eyes. “What was I thinking choosing an outdoor wedding at the beginning of November in Scotland?”
This had been a question we’d all had, but she’d been very firm in what she’d wanted when she’d booked, so we’d simply rolled with it. What the client wanted, the client got.
“It’s freezing outside. And what happens if the weather turns? My guests?—”
I stepped forward to take her hands in mine and put a little more of the burr I’d lost when I went to uni back into my voice. “Breathe, Christina. In and out. Wi’ me now. In… and out… Now, we have a plan. There are multiple outdoor heaters to combat the cold. You already elected to have a more abbreviated, non-traditional ceremony to limit the time in the weather. And in the event the weather changes, the entire backup tent is set up and ready to go. I’ve been monitoring the radar by the minute. The moment that anything looks as if it’s going to shift, we’re prepared to move everything. We’ll run about half an hour later than planned, to allow time to transition the chairs and the guests. We have a veritable army of umbrellas available. Everything is going to be just fine. This is why you hired us, aye? So that we can take care of all the things to give you the wedding of your dreams.”
Christina sniffed. “Everything’s handled?”
“Absolutely everything,” I promised. “Now, have you eaten today?”
“No. I couldn’t possibly. I’m too nervous.”
I reached into the bum bag of essentials I was never without on wedding days. “Here. Eat this protein bar. You’ll feel better with something in your system. You dinna want to pass out on groom now. There’s a lass.”
The bride’s mum took my hand. “Thank you so much. You and your entire crew have put in so much work and everything is simply beautiful. You’re giving my baby her dream wedding.”
A glow of pride spread through my chest. I truly loved my job most days, but it was extra gratifying to hear true appreciation from those clients we worked so hard for. It was odd to think that I might not have ended up here if not for Alex. If I hadn’t met him, hadn’t taken his advice to heart, I might not have dared to step off the path I’d started down.
I hoped we resolved the current threat soon so he had the chance to find his own path with the adventure company. He hadn’t yet had the chance to really let himself live this new life because he hadn’t truly gotten closure on the old one. I knew he still felt a little rootless and unmoored. He’d done so much for me. I wanted to be able to ground him, to be his safe place the way he’d become mine.
Once assured that things with the bride were well in hand, I made my way toward the Great Hall to check on the reception set up, with a brief stop in the kitchen to make sure Afton didn’t need anything and that she hadn’t suddenly turned green. We didn’t want a repeat of what had happened six weeks ago.
Afton’s cheeks were flushed with exertion as she moved around the prep kitchen. Her sous chef, Megan Murtaugh, was occupied wrapping scallops in bacon.
“How’s the bride?” Afton asked.
“Emotional and anxious about the weather, which we anticipated. I reassured her and made sure she ate something.”
“I’ll never understand the not eating,” Megan insisted. “I’d faint dead away if I tried to go all day without eating.”
“Everybody handles nerves in a different way.”
“How are things on the weather front?” Afton asked.
“So far, it looks like everything’s going to be okay.” But I pulled out my tablet to check the radar for the two-hundredth time that day. “Oh. Oh shite. There is a bit of a something forming.” I watched the build and spin of green and yellow on the screen. “It might miss us.”
“Can we afford might?” Afton asked.
“Shite. I don’t want to be the one to make this call by myself.” I reached for my headset. “Kyla, where are you? I want you to look at the radar and see what you think. We may need to enact Plan B.”
Kyla came back several moments later, her voice low. “How bad?”
“Tough to say. You need to see.”
I heard a low curse before she sighed. “I’ll meet you in the library.”
“Headed your way.”
With a salute to the chef, I dove back into the maze of halls and headed for the nearest set of stairs that would take me up a floor. If we needed to move things, better we do it now before the guests arrived en masse. We’d hired extra staff to manage today, and all the spouses and significant others were on deck to provide additional support. Afton would be tied up in the kitchen, and Sophie couldn’t lift anything heavy, but everyone else could be co-opted to move chairs. They weren’t that heavy. If everyone could carry two a time…
My brain was full of mental math, and I wasn’t fully paying attention as I stepped into the upper hall, so I didn’t catch the motion to my left before something hard pressed into the small of my back and a quiet voice said, “Don’t make a sound.”