Chapter 4
Two days after Cooper had gone missing and had been spectacularly reunited with his young owner, Jade had a phone call from a gruff-voiced man who introduced himself as Stella’s Uncle Malcolm.
‘Am I talking to the wonderrrful woman who helped my niece find herrr dog in herrr darkest hour?’ was his opening gambit. He had a strong West Country accent himself, and rolled his rs like Mr Spock.
Jade felt herself warming to him immediately. ‘I wouldn’t go that far.’
‘Oh, I’d definitely go that farrr.’ He chuckled.
The upshot of the conversation was that they arranged for him to call by Duck Pond Rescue the following Saturday to see how he got on with Mr Spock.
Jade would usually have done a home check but Uncle Malcolm, it turned out, lived in Barnstaple, which was nearly three hours away.
‘Don’t you worry about coming all down he-rrrre, I’ll come to you, and we can see how the land lies with Mrrrrr Spock. I’ve told Talky Tallulah all about him.’
‘Is Talky Tallulah your parrot?’
‘Aye, she is, and if the potty-mouthed pair take to each other, then maybe my Stella would vouch for me as the kind of person who’d give your Mr Spock a good home.’
Jade trusted him instinctively. His warmth was tangible even on the phone. ‘OK,’ she said. ‘We’ll start with you coming here then. I’ll look forward to meeting you on Saturday.’
Before Saturday came, Jade had another nice surprise. She received a sizeable donation into the Duck Pond Rescue PayPal account with a message that said simply:
With love and thanks from Stella, Jed, Everley and Cooper.
She showed Finn on Thursday evening when they’d both finished for the day and were having a telly tea in their back room with a tired Mickey sprawled out on the sofa beside them.
‘Jed must be Stella’s partner. That’s nice of them, isn’t it?’
‘Very. And it’s great about Stella’s Uncle Malcolm too. Let’s hope he and Mr Spock like each other.’
‘Fingers crossed.’
‘Everley’s been sending Ben dozens of pictures of Cooper,’ Finn added idly. ‘It’s a pity they don’t live closer. They’ve got a lot in common.’
‘I guess they’ll keep in touch on social media though…’
They were interrupted by a sharp woof.
Mickey had a habit of barking at baddies on crime dramas, a skill they’d realised he had the previous year, which made their viewing very interesting as the small brown cockerpoo wasn’t often wrong.
On this particular night he’d been triggered by an innocuous-looking middle-aged female gardener. They were barely five minutes into part one of Murder on Annie’s Allotment.
‘Do you think he’s right?’ Finn said, slanting a gaze at Jade. ‘No one’s even been murdered yet.’
‘Hmmm, possibly. In which case it’s probably not worth us even watching the rest. But he doesn’t usually bark this soon, does he?’ She stroked their dog’s soft ears. ‘Is she the one whodunnit, boy? How sure are you?’
Mickey looked at her unblinkingly, wagged his tail twice and rolled over for his tummy to be tickled.
‘I guess the only way to tell is to keep on watching,’ Finn said hopefully. ‘I’m quite enjoying it so far.’
‘Or we could save ourselves the bother and I could show you the final seating plan for the wedding.’
‘I thought we’d done that ages ago. We’ve only got forty-five people coming, haven’t we?’
‘Yes, I know. But this is the final, final plan. They’re your relatives,’ she added pointedly, as she caught the reluctant look on his face that he wasn’t quite quick enough to hide.
She knew Finn would have far rather left all of the planning to her.
Sarah said Callum was the same. Maybe it was just a man thing.
But at least with a double wedding there were two women at the helm instead of one.
Not to mention lovely Zoe, the wedding planner they’d hired. That helped.
‘Of course we can go through that if you’d rather,’ Finn said equably, and Jade felt a rush of love for him.
Finn glanced wistfully at the television. The first body had just been discovered on the allotment with a sharpened beanpole protruding from the back of his red mottled neck. Ouch. And Mickey had been quiet ever since.
It would have been good to watch it and see if Jade’s cockerpoo was right about the perpetrator, but Finn guessed they could catch up later. Reluctantly, he pointed the remote control at the television and switched it off.
He knew Jade’s angst about the seating plan wasn’t just about who sat where. She’d been feeling overwhelmed lately, and he wanted to reassure her.
It had become apparent when they’d first started planning the guest list that Finn had an awful lot more relatives than Jade did.
She had no siblings, no uncles or aunts, and her grandparents on her mum’s side had died when she was small.
Her mum had died unexpectedly a few years ago, and her father had left before ever meeting his daughter and had never been a part of her life.
Last year, buoyed up with the success Finn had had with meeting his own estranged mother and half-siblings, Jade had tried to contact her father.
The only thing she’d had to go on was his name on her birth certificate, but fortunately that was unusual. There weren’t many Hector Ajax Fosters about.
Jade had sent a letter to his last-known address, but it had been posted back to her with the words RETURN TO SENDER scrawled in red capitals on the front of the envelope. She’d interpreted this as a big fat rejection and had said nothing would induce her to try and get in touch with him again.
It didn’t matter that Finn had argued there could be another explanation, Jade had refused to discuss the subject again.
Finn was very sensitive to her feelings around the whole subject of biological family; after all, he’d been there himself, and he ached for her.
She was very alone in the world and he wished he could think of a way to help.
Then, of course, the whole subject had been thrown into stark relief when they’d sent out invitations to their wedding, and then again when they’d been doing the seating plan. For this reason Finn gave Jade a lot of slack every time the subject came up.
Now, he cleared his throat. ‘OK. Seating plan. What needs changing?’
‘It’s the top table. At the moment we’ve got us, obviously, and Sarah and Callum and Ben.
Then we’ve got Callum’s parents and Sarah’s adoptive parents.
Then we’ve got your mum and her partner, and your dad and Dorrie.
’ Dorrie was Finn’s gorgeous feisty stepmother.
Although technically she and his dad weren’t married, they’d only been an item a couple of years, she was definitely a big part of the McTaggart family because she made Ray so happy.
Finn was pretty sure his dad would make an honest woman of her one of these days.
‘That’s thirteen people,’ Jade pointed out.
‘That’s OK, isn’t?’ Finn suppressed a yawn.
‘Yes, but we’ve also got two best men to fit in. Which takes it up to fifteen and the wedding planner thinks it might be a bit unwieldy to have a table that big.’
‘Since when have there been two?’ Finn had already asked his dad to be his best man so he wasn’t affecting the numbers. Ray had brought him up singlehandedly and Finn couldn’t think of a better person to do the job.
‘Since Callum realised he can’t decide which of his best friends, Angus or Hamish, he wants to do it so he’s decided to ask them both.’
‘I see.’ Finn leaned forward. ‘Well, can’t we just split the table then?’
‘Well, yes, we can, but who do we sit with us if we do that? We don’t want anyone to feel pushed out obviously.
’ She sighed. ‘I thought it would make it simpler having a double wedding with Sarah and Callum. Especially as we’ve dispensed with bridesmaids and have just got Ben being a page boy, but it’s actually making it more complicated. ’
Finn leaned over and put an arm around her shoulders. ‘Maybe you and I and our lot could sit on one table, and Sarah and Callum and their lot could sit on another. Then we’d definitely have two top tables, wouldn’t we?’
‘Yes, it would work numbers wise, although I was hoping to be able to sit with Sarah. In a way that’s the whole point of a double wedding.’
‘Yeah, point taken.’ Finn had never realised a seating plan could get so complicated. ‘All I want to do is marry you.’ He looked into her anxious dark eyes. ‘I don’t care where we sit, as long as us two are together.’
‘That’s not much help,’ she murmured, but at least she was smiling now.
‘Why don’t we ask the wedding planner what she suggests. We’ve got one more meeting with her, haven’t we?’
‘Yes, it’s a week on Friday. Sarah and I are both going over to the Bluebell Cliff Hotel to meet her. We decided it would be better if we were there. It’s easier to talk things through if you’re at the venue where you’re actually getting married. Just in case there are any last-minute hitches.’
‘The only hitches there are going to be with our wedding are the marital kind,’ Finn said firmly. ‘Do you need me to come to that meeting too?’ He held his breath, and then let it out again in relief when she said she didn’t.
‘So, apart from the top table, is there anything else worrying you?’
She paused, and he realised he was bang on target. She was worried about something else.
‘You don’t think Declan’s going to cause any trouble on our big day, do you? Have you seen him lately?’
‘No, but our mother seems to think he’s happy because he’s got a new lady. He’s in love apparently and love makes everyone more content, as we know! He’s bringing her as his plus one.’
Jade looked relieved. ‘That is good news. I’m sorry. I’ll stop overthinking it all.’
‘Good idea.’ He leaned forward and kissed her forehead. It would probably be best not to tell Jade that according to Bridie, Declan was regularly in love and none of them seemed to last longer than a few weeks. Hopefully he’d stay in love with this latest one until after Finn and Jade were married.
Bridie was lovely, and their fledgling relationship was developing nicely, but Finn was pretty sure he would never see eye to eye with his new half-brother.
They had absolutely nothing in common. Declan was a blatant womaniser and it didn’t help that he’d once set his cap at Jade.
Finn would have been quite happy if he never saw Declan again.
Maybe after the wedding he wouldn’t need to.
He became aware that Jade was speaking.
‘It’s going to be a nice day too. I’ve been checking the long-range forecast. It’s not predicting rain at all.’
‘Great news. And all of the bills have now been paid or are just about to be. Callum and I have that in hand, so you don’t need to worry about that.’
‘Brilliant. Sarah and I have got another dress fitting soon. That’ll be fun. Are you all sorted on that score?’
‘I think Dad and I are the only ones who aren’t wearing kilts,’ Finn said drily. ‘Neither of us have changed size so we’re good. And Ben, of course.’ He leaned back on the sofa. ‘I can’t wait to see you walking up the aisle.’
She smiled softly. ‘I can’t wait to see you standing there. It’s such a beautiful venue, isn’t it, a hotel on the cliffs overlooking the sea, and the staff all seem amazing. Even that eccentric chef they’ve got. The one who won’t tell anyone his full name because of identity theft.’
‘Mr B,’ Finn remarked. ‘Yes, he was a bit of an odd character. But his food’s first class, that’s the main thing.’
‘How did you pay him, by the way? Didn’t he give you his full name for that?’
‘No, I did it via the wedding planner. She knows about his little quirks because they’ve worked together before.’
‘Yes, Zoe’s really nice, isn’t she? Apparently she used to work full time as a receptionist at the Bluebell Cliff Hotel.
She started doing the wedding planner role as a side gig, but then it took off.
So now she only does reception if they’re short staffed.
She was telling me they do a lot of weddings at the Bluebell Cliff.
It’s not surprising really with their mission statement. ’
‘We’re here to help you make your dreams come true,’ Finn quoted it. ‘Yes, that’s some mission statement. But there’s no doubt they’re very good at it. They have over a thousand five-star reviews on Trip Advisor. So stop worrying and start relaxing. Nothing is going to go wrong. I promise.’
Not even Declan was going to spoil their day.
Finn was in two minds about whether he should say something to him beforehand.
Give him some kind of warning about behaving himself.
But possibly that would make things worse.
He knew Declan didn’t like him, the feeling was mutual, after all, but there was no reason he’d want to ruin their special day.
No. Finn decided he would just have to give his brother the benefit of the doubt.