Chapter 34
The wedding reception was riotous. Hector proved himself to be a supremely entertaining dad dancer. Although Jade was quite surprised when Charlotte told her he was just hamming it up and had often gone ballroom dancing with his late wife.
‘I’ve often wondered about having dancing lessons,’ she said to him when she got him alone. ‘But Finn’s not keen.’
‘Maybe I could treat the pair of you to some lessons,’ Hector suggested. ‘Or if Finn really doesn’t fancy it, I could teach you myself.’
‘I think I’d like that,’ Jade had said shyly.
‘Something for the future maybe?’
Having a future with her father, who she still hadn’t called Dad, but knew she would soon, was a very lovely and warming thought.
Dreadlock Dave had stayed for the wedding and at one point Jade spotted him and Ursula locked into a slow dance.
She realised she had her answer about Ursula’s lack of a love life.
She and Dave were clearly a lot more than friends, she was pleased to see.
They looked very well matched. Both beautiful people, inside and out.
Dawn, bless her, had apologised for the hundredth time for letting Chocko escape and Jade had reassured her for the hundredth time that it could have happened to anyone.
‘If it’s anyone’s fault it’s mine for bringing Buddy along. I knew he and Mickey don’t always see eye to eye. Anyway, all’s well that ends well.’
Dawn, Dorrie and Ray had now taken Mickey and Buddy back to the sanctuary, although they hadn’t been able to persuade Ben to let Chocko go.
‘She’s sleeping on my bed with me,’ he’d said firmly, and in the end Sarah and Callum had agreed this with Clara, who’d said that while it wasn’t exactly hotel policy she would make an exception in the circumstances.
Jade and Finn, and Callum, Sarah and Ben left the wedding celebrations amongst a shower of congratulations, rose petals and waving of indoor sparklers, just after 10.15 p.m.
Callum, Sarah, Ben and Chocko then made their way up the plush, red-carpeted staircase of the Bluebell Cliff to their rooms. They had the hotel honeymoon suite, which had an adjoining door for families, which led through to the small bedroom next door for Ben.
Meanwhile, Jade and Finn slipped out of the main doors and headed for the honeymoon suite in the lighthouse which was set within the hotel grounds.
They strolled hand in hand along a red asphalt winding path, picking their way between the pools of light made by the strategically placed old-fashioned lampposts. The endless rhythm of the sea shushing backwards and forwards on the beach far below them was like the ocean’s heartbeat.
‘What a day!’ Finn murmured.
‘And what a night,’ Jade agreed.
It was a beautiful night. The earlier rain shower had now cleared completely, leaving a cool sharp freshness to the salt air and a sky studded with stars.
‘It was good of them to give us umbrellas, just in case,’ Jade continued, swinging hers by its dark strap as they walked.
‘They think of everything. Although I reckon we might have stretched them to the limits today. Poor Clara. A lot of managers would have run for the hills.’
‘I know.’
They were just passing the bluebell woods that had given the hotel its name.
A dark little cluster of trees silhouetted against the sky.
The trees at the entrance were lit by hidden uplighters that shone up blue and gold to halo the lower branches and then lit the path as it disappeared on into the woods.
‘Do you think they’d let us come back and celebrate our first wedding anniversary here, Finn?’
‘Not if they’ve got any sense.’
Ahead of them the lighthouse loomed out of the dark. Although it wasn’t too dark because the lower part of the building was festooned with fairy lights.
‘Oh, wow! Isn’t it romantic?’ Jade murmured, holding tight to Finn’s hand.
‘Very.’
They reached the door and Finn fumbled with the key and they both agreed that the spiral staircase that led up and up and up was also incredibly romantic, if a little steep.
But the view when they reached the top was worth it. It was breathtaking.
From the circular glass window they could see a huge swathe of both the surrounding countryside and the wide and seemingly endless sea. A glittering silver moon path stretched out towards the horizon.
The circular room itself had been beautifully dressed.
It was fragrant with tall vases of sunflowers, delphiniums and hydrangeas that must have been transferred from the wedding venue room earlier and was lit by dozens of flickering but flameless tea lights.
On a round glass coffee table in the middle of the room was an ice bucket of champagne and two flutes.
Rose petals were scattered across its tinted glass surface.
‘Wow,’ Finn said, pausing in the doorway. ‘Now that is beautiful.’
‘What are you waiting for?’
‘To carry you over the threshold, of course.’
‘Isn’t that for when we get home to Duck Pond Cottage?’
‘I’m getting some practice in.’ He bent and kissed her gently and then lifted her into his arms and carried her in.
A luxurious cream-leather sofa encircled the room and Finn placed her gently on it and then knelt briefly on the floor in front of her. ‘We got there in the end, Mrs McTaggart.’
‘We did.’
‘Even though the day didn’t go quite as we planned.’
‘I think it’s all the more magical because it didn’t go as we planned. And we were so very, very lucky!’
Finn raised an eyebrow. ‘Care to elaborate?’
‘Yes, but I think I should do it over a glass of champagne.’
‘Then let me do the honours.’ He popped the cork and poured them both a glass of the bubbling fizzing liquid. ‘I’m all ears.’
‘Then I will begin…’ She counted on her fingers. ‘Number one: Chocko was safely found. Of course it would have been better if she hadn’t got lost in the first place, but I’m never going to forget the look on Ben’s face when they were reunited.’
‘That’s true.’
‘Number two: If she hadn’t got lost we’d never have experienced that huge camaraderie amongst our guests, all pulling together to help us get her back. That was amazing.’
‘That’s also true.’
‘Number three: That lovely celebrant was able to stay and marry us, which saved us having to book another wedding.’
Finn laughed. ‘That was very lucky. I’ll give you that.’
Jade knew her eyes were sparkling brighter than the champagne caught in the light of the dozens of candles, but she couldn’t stop smiling.
‘Number four: Your lovely brother got his comeuppance, and we didn’t even have to get involved. It was just pure karma. I’m never going to forget the picture of him sitting on the floor with a dollop of sticky toffee pudding on his head.’
‘Yes, I wish I’d been there. I’d have loved to see that.’
She’d filled him in on what had happened between Declan and Mr B earlier and he’d just kept shaking his head in disbelief.
‘But if you had been there,’ Jade continued, ‘we might all have been standing in slightly different positions in that little corridor and I might never have got toffee sauce on my dress and then I might never have had the chance to speak to Mr B about knowing my mother and Brian.’
She hadn’t told him this bit yet and now Finn looked at her curiously. ‘Mr B knew your mother and Brian?’
‘Yes. It seems he knew Brian the best but he also met them both at Chamber of Commerce events and I discovered that my suspicions about them being close were right.’
‘Wow! What did he say?’
‘He said they were in love and that lots of people in the industry were surprised they didn’t get married.’
Finn reached for her hand. ‘That is a revelation. How do you feel?’
‘A whole mixture of things.’ She sighed.
‘I feel that I’ve taken a step towards finding out why my mother banished Hector from my life.
She must have been in love with Brian before I was born.
But I still don’t know the full story. And the only way I might ever find out is by tracking down Brian and speaking to him. ’
‘And do you want to do that?’ He paused. ‘Because if you do I’ll support you every step of the way.’
‘I’m not sure. I haven’t had time to think about it.’
‘Well, admittedly you’ve had a few other things on your mind.’
There was little pause that stretched out between them and it was Jade who reached over and grabbed his hand. ‘I’m so sorry. You don’t want to hear all this on our wedding night.’
‘I’ll always want to hear what you have to say, Jade.
Whenever you want to say it. Remember those words we said earlier…
“I will listen to you and learn from you. I will love you and cherish you with all that I am. With all of my heart, until the day I take my last breath…”’ He put his head on one side. ‘I meant them, Jade.’
She felt choked as she looked into his clear grey eyes because it was so obvious that he was speaking from the heart.
‘And I meant them too. And I think that right now the only thing we should be discussing is whether or not we’re going to have another glass of champagne. Or whether it’s time to go to bed and, er – spend our first night as newlyweds.’
‘What do you think?’ He put a hand out towards the bottle, and she pulled him back from it and put their empty glasses back on the coffee table.
‘I think we should go and see if a honeymoon bed in a lighthouse is as romantic as the rest of the honeymoon suite.’
She glanced up at the little ladder that led up to the topmost point of the lighthouse. ‘And I think we should also check whether or not being married makes our love life even better than it usually is.’
It was much, much later that they fell asleep in each other’s arms, having discovered that the answer to both of these questions was a surprising, but amazingly welcome, big fat yes.