Epilogue
“Love, Actually”
Six Months Later
‘I’m sorry.’ Ellie broke off from singing along to her playlist to pat the dashboard. ‘Not far now, Fifi darling.’
Instinctively, she glanced in the rear-view mirror, then shook her head. She could barely see a thing back there, so laden was the little car with her entire portable life from Oxford.
Heart pattering almost in time to the music, Ellie turned off the trunk road. ‘Thirty minutes to go,’ she mused.
One long half-hour until she’d be back in Will’s arms again after almost a month apart.
With the filming wrapped on his docu-drama, he’d been buried in post-production in the studio in London, and Ellie had been swamped by cutting ties with her flat, life and work in Oxford – culminating that morning with a long-ago booked photoshoot – and networking madly to establish a footing in the South-West.
Delight over the change in her circumstances pulsed through Ellie’s veins as she took the turning for Polkerran Point and approached the winding descent, skimming past the cemetery near the top of the hill and almost holding her breath as Fifi finally rounded the corner which would afford a vista of the cove’s protective arms of land reaching out into the sea.
It was a stunning Saturday in mid-May, with a cloud-free, linen-blue sky, and Ellie lowered her window as she reached the harbourfront, a soft breeze stroking her bare arms as she followed the lane parallel with the water to take the track up to Peaches Cottage.
Hedgerows bursting with tiny white hawthorn flowers heralded the upcoming wedding, long grasses waving as she passed by until she slowed Fifi and pulled into the gravel driveway beside Will’s car.
He came out of the stable door to the cottage as she turned off the ignition, then grinned as she flung the door wide and tried to get out without unfastening her seatbelt.
‘Aha!’ he exclaimed, bending down as though to lean in and help her. ‘You’re my prisoner.’
Will captured Ellie’s willing mouth in an intense kiss and she wrapped her arms around his neck, the belt straining as she leaned into him.
‘Come on, let’s get you out of there.’
He led the way into the cottage, then took her in his arms, and conversation pretty much fell by the wayside for a while.
‘I feel properly welcomed home,’ Ellie sighed when he finally released her, leaning her head against his chest. Was it possible to burst from happiness? Probably a bit messy, even by Ellie’s standards.
Sensing her amusement, Will set her back, his dark eyes finding hers.
‘And that’s funny why?’
‘Nothing.’ She reached up and pressed a firm kiss to his mouth. ‘Poor Fifi is stuffed to the gunnels. I’ve no idea where we’ll put everything.’
Will steered her out to the charming terrace facing the sea. ‘It doesn’t take much to fill Fifi. Besides, there’s always that small bedroom. They used to call them box rooms, so it seems a fitting place.’
‘I’ve missed this,’ Ellie sighed, taking in the expanse of ocean, deep blue and scattered with sunlight-kissed diamonds, dotted here and there with the white mast of a yacht.
Wrapping his arms around her, Will rested his chin on top of her head, then brushed her hair aside to place a firm kiss on her neck. Ellie shivered, leaning against him as the trail moved round, Will turning her in his embrace until he had reached the base of her neck.
‘Stop,’ she gasped out reluctantly as shivers surged through her body.
‘Spoilsport,’ he whispered against her mouth, savouring a long kiss before letting her go.
‘I hate to be a bore, but we’re short of time, and I need to get my dress out. It’ll be like a rag if I don’t hang it up soon.’
Will sighed resignedly as he followed her back into the cottage. ‘Well, we can’t have that, can we. No one wants to go to a wedding dressed in a rag.’
‘What do you think? I found it on Vinted.’
Ellie held out her arms as Will made a good show of examining her outfit, hand to his chin as he walked around her.
‘Will?’
He’d stopped out of sight.
‘Shh. I’m just working out how to get you out of it later. Those fastenings look complicated.’
A pulse thrummed in Ellie’s neck in anticipation, although she swung around and tried to swat him, but he was too quick for her.
‘You’re in luck. They’re fake. The tiny buttons conceal a zip.’
Will, she had to admit, looked gorgeous in an open-necked black shirt and trousers teamed with a linen jacket.
‘Seriously, though. Do you like it? I picked the colour because it went so well with my ring.’
Ellie held up her hand, still delighting in the weight of the large, square-cut emerald flanked by two tear-drop diamonds, which had replaced the plastic ring at Christmas.
She turned back to the mirror, turning to and fro to inspect the effect of the floaty, layered fabric as it swirled around her bare legs, brushing her ankles above her favourite strappy heels.
Will’s hands snaked around her middle as he pressed a kiss to her cheek.
‘You look far too enticing. It’s a beautiful dress, made more so because you’re wearing it. Do we really have to go to this thing?’
‘Yes, I promised.’ She sent him a contrite look. ‘It’s just a shame it fell on this date.’
The depth of passion in his dark eyes was almost enough for Ellie to say, ‘ah sod it. We won’t be missed,’ but he dropped a final kiss on the tip of her nose.
‘There’s no way I’m letting you out there looking like that on your own. I’m coming as your bodyguard.’
Laughing, Ellie followed Will out to the car. ‘I hardly think Old Patrick’s a threat these days.’
‘Ha!’ Will held open the door for her, scooping up the ends of her dress to ensure it didn’t get caught as he closed the door.
‘He’s not the only single man left in the cove, you know.
’ Will fastened his own seatbelt, then reached out to squeeze Ellie’s hand.
‘Matt’s got some of his old band mates staying.
They’re playing a set at the after-party. All Gemma’s persuasion, I’m told.’
‘Oh, that should be fun. I used to have a massive crush on the drummer.’
Will shook his head resignedly as he reversed the car out of the driveway and swung it around to head down the lane. ‘So Nicki and Bella told me. He’s the one who’s newly available.’
‘Everywhere looks so beautiful, Kate.’ Ellie hugged her friend as she welcomed them inside the tastefully converted property in the grounds of Tremayne Manor.
Thick wooden struts supported the arched roof, and white lights, soft pink roses and greenery adorned the beams and tables. Candles flickered in large glass urns on the circular tables set around the outside of the space, while uniformed staff cleared the debris from the celebratory dinner.
There must have been a hundred people there. She returned an enthusiastic wave from Phoenix, chatting to a man Ellie didn’t recognise.
‘That’s the new teacher. Started after Easter. Phee brought him along as her plus one. The venue’s becoming so popular,’ Kate enthused. ‘And due in no small part to your stunning photography. By the way, did you see what’s on the walls?’
Ellie turned around. ‘Oh!’ A hand went to her throat. ‘I had no idea!’
‘Mrs Tremayne wanted it to be a surprise. She loved the black-and-white images you took of Polkerran and its community, including the manor, so had them enlarged onto these canvasses and the downlights installed to spotlight them.’
Slowly, Ellie viewed the entire room where her photos hung on the whitewashed stone walls, each with a small plaque crediting her.
‘Come on, you need a drink,’ Will urged, smiling at Kate as she greeted more guests arriving for the evening party.
Once equipped with an obligatory glass of fizz, Ellie scanned the sea of faces.
‘There are so many people here. I’m so happy for them. Let’s go and say hi.’
Will followed Ellie across the room to where the happy couple held court.
‘You made it!’ Jean swept Ellie into a warm embrace, then turned to her companion. ‘Good to see you again, Will.’
Will leaned forward to kiss Jean’s cheek. ‘Happy wedding day.’
‘You look gorgeous, Jean.’ Ellie admired the ankle-length fitted ivory dress. ‘As does all of this.’ She waved a hand at the splendour of the room.
Jean cast a quick look over her shoulder.
‘Greg paid for almost everything, but don’t tell Mum.
Bless her, she gave me an account book – years old – that she and Dad set up when I was a teen, saving for a wedding that never happened.
She stopped paying into it, of course, but the fund sat there all this time.
I think she thought it would cover the whole thing, but… ’
She pulled an awkward face, and Ellie sent her a sympathetic look. ‘It only bought the cake?’
‘Thanks to Anna, that was covered, and you did an amazing job on the invites, but at least it paid for the champagne.’ She turned back to Will. ‘How’s the post-production going?’
‘A lot more smoothly than filming whenever your mum and her cronies were on set. I’m not sure the sound man will ever recover from Mrs L telling him she wasn’t having any man called Mike coming near her cleavage.’
‘I did warn you they would be the most challenging extras you were ever likely to meet.’
Laughing, Ellie shook her head. ‘I still can’t believe they gave her a few lines.’
‘It was that interview with the journalist poking around. Went down a storm on the socials, with everyone claiming Mum should go into politics, evading every question and coming out with some classics. Someone’s even set up an Instagram account in her name: @MrsMalaplops.’
Jean plucked at the sleeve of the man talking to a couple near their table, and having shared their congratulations with Greg, he expressed his excitement about their new future together up in Newcastle.
‘Oliver is an angel with his property schemes,’ Greg added, placing an arm over Jean’s shoulders and dropping a kiss on her cheek.
Ellie’s heart felt as though it was smiling. ‘It’s set you free, Jean.’