Chapter 6
‘Am I okay to sit here?’ Amanda asked, pointing to the armchair closest to the fire. Fergus’s armchair.
‘Actually, we thought we might be more comfortable over by the window,’ Bex said, swallowing back her annoyance.
After all, Amanda didn’t know it was Fergus’s chair.
But the truth was, even Duncan didn’t sit in it.
It was an unspoken rule. Whenever she looked at the chair, the same image rose in her mind, of Fergus, blanket over his knees, dogs at his feet and either a hot chocolate or something far stronger in his hand.
‘Oh, yes, delightful,’ Amanda replied, crossing the room to where a mahogany table was set with teacups. ‘Shall I be mum?’ she asked, before proceeding to fill the cups before Bex and Duncan even had a chance to reply.
‘So, first things first,’ she said as she handed the teacups to them. ‘I think I need to check that I’ve got the right contact details for you. My emails have been getting through, haven’t they? I haven’t been getting any replies.’
There was something about her tone that reminded Bex of herself in meetings.
Straight to the point. Calling you out on your bull but still being polite while doing so.
Bex was impressed, but also annoyed. She was a professional, and yes, maybe she had been avoiding what felt like seventy-two emails an hour pinging through from Amanda, but she still wasn’t going to admit to that.
‘Let me check which one you’ve got,’ she said with a smile as she poured milk into her cup, then lifted a small china bowl and offered it to Amanda. ‘Sugar?’
‘No, thank you. No, like I said, the email address.’
‘Oh, that’s the address you’ve got,’ Bex said when Amanda recited the Gmail account back to her. ‘It’s not one I check very often. That must be why I missed them.’
It was only half a lie. She checked the account, just not the emails that came from the wedding planner, although now she realised how silly that was. She’d probably be feeling a lot less nervous about the day if she’d at least skimmed through them.
‘Glad we’ve got to the bottom of it,’ Amanda said, sitting back in her chair.
‘Now we can get to the fun part. I understand you’ve brought me into this situation because you’re not fully aware of the etiquette required in such an important marriage.
Is that right? From what I’ve heard on the grapevine, Duncan, you came into this position in a rather… novel way.’
There it was again. The tone that caused Bex to prickle.
‘Well, he inherited it. From his grandfather, with whom he was very close and whom he loved dearly,’ Bex replied pointedly. ‘I’m not sure how novel that is.’
Amanda’s smile tightened. ‘Yes, yes, of course. And the hows and whys don’t matter. You want to put on a fabulous wedding, one that is the talk of the town, while also respecting the local traditions of your newfound positions and this wonderful place. All within your own personal spin.’
Bex looked at Duncan. The two exchanged a look. With no need to say a word, she knew he was thinking the same thing she was.
‘Pretty much,’ he said.
Bex nodded in agreement.
Her first impressions of Amanda may have been that she wasn’t the sort of person she’d usually socialise with, and she wasn’t particularly impressed with her tone at times, but she didn’t need to be.
She needed her to be good at her job. And Bex suspected she was.
A flurry of self-disappointment resonated through her.
How many times had she been immediately dismissed in her line of work because she was a young woman and had men and women alike assume that because of her age and genetics she wasn’t the best person for the job?
More than she wished to remember. Which meant that from now on she was on board with everything Amanda was going to say.
‘Well, having not received responses from my emails, for whatever reason,’ Amanda added with a slight smirk, ‘I took the initiative to put together a suitable guest list, based on where you are and your position in society. You know, so you don’t offend people by forgetting to invite them.’
‘Great, thank you,’ Bex said, feeling a sigh of relief lessen the tension in her shoulders. This had been their main reason for calling Amanda in, and first impressions aside, it was good to see they’d made the right call.
‘Now, of course, I don’t know any of your personal relationships with these particular people,’ Amanda continued, ‘so we’ll need to go through the list and see if there are any names that need to be removed.
Then we’ll look at who needs to be added.
When we know the size, we can start thinking about venues and the dates.
Though to be honest, for someone of your position, I’m sure you can have your pick.
People can always be persuaded to shift their special day if there’s enough of an incentive. ’
And there it was again. That prickle of apprehension. Surely Amanda wasn’t suggesting they pay another couple to ensure they could have the wedding date they wanted? That didn’t seem right. Still, she quashed the feeling. After all, she still had her heart set on one particular location.
‘About the venue,’ she said tentatively. ‘We would like to have the wedding here. In the castle, or on the grounds somewhere, right?’
She looked at Duncan. ‘Aye,’ he replied, offering her a soft smile that made her heart flutter.
‘That won’t be a problem, will it?’ Bex asked the planner.
Rather than responding immediately, Amanda drew in a long breath.
‘How should I put this?’ she said, pursing her lips slightly before she continued. ‘Ah, yes, before you moved here, you were living in London, were you not? Was that in a house or a flat?’
‘An apartment,’ Bex said, not sure why the nervous sensations had restarted.
‘Right.’ Amanda smiled broadly. ‘An apartment. Now, I’m sure however glorious that apartment was – and however intimate a wedding you might have envisioned for yourself before now – you’d never have dreamt of hosting it there, would you?’
‘Well, I guess not,’ Bex replied.
‘No, because your wedding day is about love exceeding the ordinary. I mean, even Kate and William didn’t get married in Buckingham Palace, did they?’
Bex wasn’t entirely sure that Kate and Will lived in Buckingham Palace, but it didn’t feel like the right moment to say that, so she remained silent.
‘What you have here is wonderful, truly,’ Amanda said.
‘Why, I know a thousand people who would get married here in a heartbeat. I mean, it would probably make it onto some of my own lists. But you’re not one of those thousand people any more.
Duncan, you are the laird. Rebecca, you are about to be his wife.
That’s how you have to think. This will be the wedding the village talks about for years to come.
Generations, even. So you want to give them something to talk about. Give them a wedding they’re proud of.’
Nerves fluttered in Bex’s stomach. The way Amanda spoke made it all seem phenomenal, and yet at the same time, terrifying.
‘Now,’ Amanda continued before they could respond.
‘Let’s have a look at this guest list.’ Without uncrossing her legs, Amanda reached into her bag and pulled out a large plastic wallet.
‘Let’s start with the higher titles and work our way down, shall we?
The Earl of Quaffington. I’m assuming you’ve no problem with him coming? ’
‘The who?’ Bex asked.
‘That’s good.’ Amanda placed a tick next to his name. ‘If you don’t know him, there’s likely no bad blood between the families, so we’ll put him as a yes. Now we’ve got the Count and Countess of Cantakary.’
‘I’m sorry. Who are these people?’
Amanda’s eyebrows rose.
‘You haven’t met the countess yet? Don’t you worry, you will. She’s at all the events. Fabulous host too. Absolute life and soul. You’ll love her.’
‘Right… right.’
As Amanda continued with the next name, Bex turned to Duncan.
‘Are we meant to have all these people we don’t know at our wedding?’ she whispered.
‘I think so?’ he whispered back.
‘Why?’
‘Etiquette?’
Bex bit her lip. As much as she didn’t like to think about it, this wasn’t a standard wedding.
This was a laird’s wedding. She had to start thinking differently.
And it wasn’t like she’d been one of those young girls who planned her big day while playing with dolls and dressing up in her mother’s clothes.
Did it really matter if the wedding took on a very different shape from what she’d expected?
‘Now, we’ve got the Cavertys. They’re a bit further away than most of your guest list, down in the Cotswolds, but I did my research and it turned out the family did once lend your great-great-great-grandfather fourteen goats and a hundred guinea fowl, so it’s only right that they’re invited.’
‘Because of fourteen goats two hundred years ago?’ Bex said in disbelief.
‘Exactly.’ Amanda smiled. ‘We’ve also got the—’
‘Sorry.’ Bex couldn’t help but interrupt. ‘Are there any people from the village on that list? You know, the people that Duncan’s actually laird for?’
‘Pardon?’ Amanda cocked her head. ‘I’m not sure I understand.’
‘I mean the people who live in LochDarroch?’ Bex asked, not sure how she could have put it more bluntly.
After all, it hadn’t been that long ago that Amanda had been saying this was a wedding the village would talk about for generations, yet that seemed unlikely if none of them were actually invited.
‘You see, the thing about a wedding like this, like any wedding of this status,’ Amanda said, ‘is while it’s for the village, it’s not technically for the village, you understand?’
‘I’m not sure I do,’ Bex said, wondering why she was having such difficulty getting her head around all this. Sure, she’d heard weddings were complicated to plan, but she was an intelligent woman. She hadn’t imagined she would feel this far out of her depth.
‘Why don’t I just keep going through the list so we can get that done,’ Amanda suggested, ‘and then at the end, you can ask me any questions you’ve got. How does that sound?’
Bex looked at Duncan, not sure what answer he could offer, aside from the one she knew he had to say.
‘Aye, sounds good,’ he said, before reaching out and squeezing Bex’s hand in a way that told her exactly what she needed to hear.
They would get through this. Together.
* * *
Bex’s mind was numb.
She had sat through some tedious meetings in her time; she was an accountant, after all.
She had once spent an entire three-day course learning about the changes to tax rules and auditing.
Then there were the countless twilight sessions spent learning how to implement new software.
She’d learned to look awake and keep paying attention even when her eyes were sagging, her head bobbing forward as she tried to stifle her sighs.
But this?
Hearing name after name of landed gentry or minor celebrities they had to invite to the wedding? It felt endless. Although maybe it was because all the anecdotes Amanda gave were almost identical.
Absolute life and soul of the party. Such a darling. Oh, you’ll love them.
There was also the issue that none of them seemed to have simple names. They were all double-barrelled – if not triple. All in all it was near impossible to stay focused.
Even Rosie had given up chewing on the leg of the dining chair and had fallen asleep.
That was close to a miracle. Normally when there was someone new in the house, she wouldn’t settle unless they were physically holding her on their lap.
Maybe, Bex thought to herself, they could invite Amanda for another meeting the next time they ran out of ideas to tire the pup out.
She let out a slight chuckle at the thought, which caused Amanda’s eyes to spring up to look at her.
‘Everything all right, Rebecca?’ she asked.
‘Oh, yes, just a tickle in my throat,’ Bex lied.
When Amanda finally closed the folder, the sun was already low in the sky.
‘Well, I think we’ve really broken the back of that list,’ she said. ‘And think of it this way. The wedding will be a lovely chance to meet all these people.’
‘Right. Yes, of course,’ Bex said, forcing her face into a smile, only for Amanda to adopt a pointedly stern expression.
‘I need you to do your homework too. No more ignoring my emails. I can’t plan this myself.
Well, I can, but I don’t want to. It’s your wedding.
You need to have your input. I need your guest list, friends, loved ones.
And if there’s somebody you think you want on the list, and you want me to reach out to them, then just say the word. ’
‘Someone? Like who?’ Bex frowned.
‘I don’t know. Do you have any favourite celebrities? Or C-listers?’
‘Oh… I’m not sure,’ Bex replied, thinking how wrong it would be to invite someone she didn’t know to a wedding just because she liked them, while simultaneously wondering if the TikTok forager who wrote that quirky little song about poisonous snacks would count.
Although given that she lived in the States, it felt unlikely she’d come anyway.
‘Well, think about it.’ Amanda smiled.
‘Will do.’
‘We’re meeting again soon, right? I want you to have some ideas. And not just about guests. Themes. Motifs. What colour chair seat covers do you want, for example?’
‘Chairs have to be covered?’ Bex said. ‘Can’t we just sit on them?’
‘Oh, you are funny,’ Amanda said, rising to her feet. ‘Now, remember, this is your day.’
When the front door finally slammed shut, Bex and Duncan looked at each other. She didn’t need her fiancé to speak to know that he was feeling exactly the same way she was.
And yet he did.
He spoke just one word.
‘Pub?’
‘I couldn’t put it better myself,’ she replied.