Chapter 12
TWELVE
Do you know about this? Heather had texted a photo of the sign to Matty before she’d driven off to the shoe shop with Blossom: she’d ordered in kitten heels for everyone, and had them dyed the precise shade of green to go with their bridesmaid dresses.
When they were almost back to the castle with all the shoe boxes on board – including her own designer while silk stilettoes, which were unbelievably beautiful but also very high - she got a short reply.
Yes.
Heather stared at the one-word answer.
And??!! she replied. You can’t just say ‘yes’. This is a big deal.
I’ll be at the castle in an hour. We need to talk. I have some news.
Heather stopped the car outside the castle entrance and stared at her phone.
She couldn’t deny that she was filled with a huge sense of relief.
It had been so worrying, not having Matty around, and even though they’d been texting since he sent his gift, and he assured her that he was all right and that yes, he still wanted to get married, there had been a part of her that just hadn’t believed it.
She was relieved that he was back. She’d missed him. It had been five days.
But like Blossom had just been saying, and like Violet had reminded her, Heather also felt angry at Matty for abandoning her in the two weeks before her wedding.
It all seemed to be on his terms. He hadn’t considered how Heather would feel if he left suddenly, leaving her to deal with his terrible family and all the stress of wedding logistics.
He had left her alone in the days approaching their wedding, and, frankly, what work was so important that he had to do that?
Was he secretly training for a last-minute triathlon?
Had he had to sign an extensive NDA to do the King’s tax return?
Had Matty in fact been conscripted to fight an alien invasion, à la Will Smith in Independence Day?
Heather couldn’t imagine a sensible reason for his absence.
The only things she could think of were ridiculous, or awful.
Heather knew that she’d always been right to listen to her instincts, but if she did that, it meant that she was unable to live inside a fairy tale reality where everything was perfect. Because trusting her own judgement meant seeing things for what they were, and not what she wanted them to be.
Matty wasn’t perfect, and neither was she: that was what she was coming to realise.
She didn’t want Matty to have faults; she wanted the fairy tale.
Ever since she’d met him, she’d put Matty on a kind of golden pedestal, but that wasn’t healthy.
After all, young women often came to sticky ends in fairy tales: they were perilous.
It was better to be realistic about who she was, and who Matty was, and meet him halfway, rather than expect him to act like a prince in a story who had never been a real person in the first place. It was better to be a hopeful romantic, rather than a hopeless one.
For the first time, Heather wondered what had happened to her heroine Dorothea after she and her beloved had eloped from Huntingtower Castle.
Had they, after a couple of weeks, started arguing about who was going to take whose surname, about the fact that her lover didn’t actually like her parents, or maybe Dorothea discovered that her new husband snored?
How did she know that Matty wouldn’t abandon her again, at another time of stress?
She didn’t know. That was the answer.
She wanted to believe they could be imperfect together. There was something very romantic about that: it suggested a high level of acceptance of each other’s flaws as well as their wonderful qualities – that only came with a deep love.
Perhaps that was the romantic goal: to have such a powerful love that it could embrace imperfection.
‘Hey. Everything okay?’ Blossom asked.
‘Matty’s back.’ Heather showed her phone screen to her sister.
‘He took his time.’ Blossom raised an eyebrow. ‘All that work was a lot, huh.’
‘Yeah. Interesting that he disappeared to deal with some non-specific emergency work two weeks before our wedding, and then we find that notice. No one’s mentioned it. Just a little golf course in an area of importance for nature’s biodiversity.’ Heather realised that she was furious.
‘Well, now’s the time to ask him about it.’ Blossom shook her head.
They carried the shoe boxes into the castle and put them in one of the small storage rooms off the kitchen that Uncle James had put aside for her to use for the wedding.
‘Okay. That’s everything,’ Heather said, looking at the contents of the storeroom – as well as the shoes, there were boxes and boxes of wedding guest gifts, favours, napkins, candles – anything not perishable, like the flowers, that had to be delivered on the day of the wedding.
‘Good job, babe,’ Blossom said. ‘Look – unless you need me for anything else, I’m going to find Mum and see if I can get her to make some time to babysit.’
‘Yeah, of course! No problem. And if she can’t, then I will.’ Heather kissed her sister on the cheek. ‘I really don’t mind. I was being serious before.’
‘Okay. I’ll consider it.’ Blossom grinned. ‘Thanks, Heather. You’re always the kindest person.’
‘I don’t always feel it, but thanks.’ Heather shot her sister a smile.
‘Oh!’ Blossom stopped dead and reached into her pocket. ‘I am SO SORRY, Heather. I’ve been with you all morning and I totally forgot to give this to you.’ Blossom handed her an envelope. ‘It was in the post this morning, and Evelinda gave it to me to give to you.’
‘No problem. Thank you.’ Heather took the envelope. ‘Not sure why anyone would be sending me post to the castle, though, and not to the Inn.’
‘Wedding suppliers?’ Blossom asked.
‘No… I don’t think so. All of the paperwork’s been addressed to me at the Inn.’ Heather frowned. ‘Anyway. You get on. I’ll see you later.’
‘Okay. Love you.’ Blossom gave her a little wave; Heather sat down with the flower boxes and opened the envelope.
Inside, it wasn’t an invoice or some kind of receipt for something attached to the wedding; it was a short letter, printed from a computer. However, the person who had composed the letter had chosen an unusually elaborate font which mimicked stylised handwriting.
Dear Miss Balhennie,
I was concerned to read in the newspapers that you are soon to marry Matthew Campbell of the Campbells of Glenorchy.
You seem like a nice young woman, and come from an old and respectable family, so I am writing to caution you.
The Campbells of Glenorchy are disreputable and not to be trusted. Elizabeth Campbell is a fake and a liar. Ask her about Drumchapel.
Beware!
A friend
‘What the hell?’ Heather murmured, bewildered, as she turned the paper over. There was nothing else on the other side or in the envelope.
‘I thought I saw you drive up.’
Heather jumped; she’d been lost in her thoughts and hadn’t seen Matty walk in. She put the letter in her pocket; she’d have to think about it later.
‘My god. You scared me.’ Heather let out a shaky laugh.
‘Sorry. Hi.’ His eyes softened as he took her in.
‘Hello.’ She stared up at him, willing herself to stay strong, but the familiar sight of his face was almost too much to bear. Instinctively, she wanted to bury her head in his strong chest and breathe him in.
No. He has a lot of explaining to do before there’s any of that, she counselled herself.
‘How are you?’ he asked. He wore an impenetrable expression.
‘Fine. You?’
There was a silence, in which Heather got increasingly annoyed.
In her mind, when Matty finally reappeared after his unexplained absence, he should have been full of apologies.
He should be on his knees, begging her to forgive him, explaining why he’d been gone.
He should have tears in his eyes. He should tell her that there was no woman on earth he would rather be with, and that he would take the guilt of leaving her before the most special day in their lives to his grave with shame.
The explanation of why he was away should be so compelling that nobody, not even the most stone-hearted of humans, could fail to understand.
But none of that seemed to be happening.
‘So… are you going to tell me why you’ve been away?’ She crossed her arms over her chest. ‘You said it was work. What was it that was so important?’
He blinked.
‘Um. Yes. Maybe… shall we go for a walk in the gardens? It’s a bit cramped in here.’ He looked around them, a confused expression on his face. ‘Is this… a cupboard, again?’
‘No. It’s a storeroom.’
‘Right. Don’t want to make a habit of it, I suppose.’ He looked at the boxes. ‘What are they?’
‘Shoes.’
‘Okay… You seem angry with me.’
‘Oh, do I?’ Heather raised her voice. All the uncertainty and anxiety she’d been feeling over the past days roiled up in her. She felt the pressure of the emotion in her throat. ‘Gosh. I wonder why that is?’
‘Heather. Please. Calm down. I can explain everything. I thought… the gift…’
‘The gift what? You thought you’d be able to buy me off with it?’ She stood with her hands on her hips.
‘No… I wanted to show you I loved you while I couldn’t be with you. I thought you liked it. I thought we were okay.’
‘I did like it. It was sweet. But you can’t just make everything okay by sending me a scented candle.
I need you to communicate with me! You haven’t explained anything so far, when you had ample opportunity to talk to me over the past few days.
And don’t tell me to calm down. Calm down! Are you actually kidding me?’
Maybe he’ll tell me to smile next, she thought.
‘Okay, maybe that wasn’t the right thing to say. Sorry.’ Matty took a step backwards. ‘Can we please get out of this broom cupboard, though?’
‘No. I’m fine where I am, actually.’ Heather stared at him, unblinking. ‘And it’s a store cupboard.’
She felt exactly the same as she had at the press conference, when she’d realised she knew, so deeply and truly, that her version of events was the truth and Elizabeth’s was a lie.
‘Um. Okay.’ Matty leaned awkwardly against the wall. ‘Well, first, I want to say that I’m really sorry for deserting you. It was unkind and selfish and I should have done better.’
‘You should. Do you know how hard it’s been, coping with your family on my own? And pretending that everything’s okay? Pretending that I’m not scared that you’ve left me?’
‘I would never leave you! Baby!’ Matty’s eyes widened; he looked shocked. ‘Please don’t say you thought that. I tried to stay in touch… be reassuring…’
‘I did think that! What else was I supposed to think?’
‘Oh, Heather… I’m so sorry. I had my reasons.’ Matty sighed. ‘However, I could have communicated better. I can only say that I’ll concentrate on doing better next time. Your happiness means everything to me, Heather… really and truly… I’m so annoyed with myself that I made you doubt me.’
‘Good. I accept your apology, because I love you,’ she said, more gently. ‘But Matty – we’re a team. That’s what it means when people get married. We’re together in this, and we should be together when stuff gets difficult. You don’t get to just disappear.’
‘I know.’ He looked miserable. ‘I’m sorry. Maybe it’s because of when I was at boarding school. I got used to being alone; it might take me some time to think of myself as a team with you. Maybe I’m not that much of a team player. Yet.’ He reached for her hand. ‘I want to be.’
‘I’ll always have sympathy for the bad things that happened to you, Matty.
And sure, I grew up with five sisters. I’ve been a team player from birth.
But you still abandoned me. You lied to me about who your parents were and who you were.
And…’ She took a breath. ‘Did you know about this golf course? Your family’s building one on the other side of the island. ’
Matty nodded.
‘Um. Yeah, I did know. That was actually one of the things I was working on. I was going to tell you,’ he protested.
‘I cannot believe you!’ Heather cried. She got up and pushed past him.
‘Heather. Wait, please!’
‘No way. I need to get out of here.’ She ran out of the room, into the long corridor and out of the grand front door.