Chapter 14
On the way to Windflowers, St Aidan, Cornwall
Left over lunch and noisy bridesmaids
Sunday
Wednesday afternoon leaves me feeling stickier than a toffee pudding and flatter than a bridal dress that’s been through the wringer, but by Thursday I’m back to fighting form again.
Lando walking into a ready-made wedding venue is another example of the way things roll for guys like him.
Money pulls in more money, and privilege acts like a magnet for entitlement, and that’s why normal people like us have no hope of getting a look in.
But this time around I’m not standing by; I’m going to act.
Before Lando’s announcement, my feelings about weddings at the beach hut were a mixture of pure fear for Tia and Thom’s big day and doubting I would have the energy to carry on after.
When I wake up the morning after the sundae slide, I’m so fired up to outdo Lando’s tipis with a deluge of beach hut weddings that the adrenalin is racing around my body like a river over rapids.
As soon as I’ve dropped the kids at school and taken Angel plus two Daxis for a morning chase along the beach, I head to the shop to check how Bart’s solicitors are progressing with the licence application. I wouldn’t have given it a thought before yesterday, but now I’m pushing for an answer.
Jess says we have a confidential and unofficial thumbs up, and that it’s never too early to be thinking about chairs.
So Poppy, who is passing, points me to a job lot on Facebook marketplace that is free for collection, and Tia takes me up to borrow a side table from Oliver in menswear, in the hope it may work as a registrar’s table.
Then we nip down to the basement and find a couple of lengths of bunting and some lanterns.
And just like that we have what it takes to mock up a wedding at the beach hut, so we can see how it feels and where we can improve.
On Friday, in a spare hour between appointments, I drive over to Rose Hill where the free chairs turn out to be dusty and in need of a coat of paint, but otherwise usable. Then Thom offers to collect them on Sunday so he can check on the beach hut’s potential when he drops them off.
On Sunday lunchtime, Nemmie, Dale, Zara, Tia, Angel and I make our way out towards the beach armed with slices of last night’s pizza to start our preparations while we wait for Thom and the chairs.
As we pass the cottages at the top of the harbour, Tia murmurs to me. ‘No sign of you-know-who yet?’
I tense my shoulders. ‘This could be the last time I walk this way without having to worry he’s here. I’ve been planning other routes to the beach hut.’
Tia wrinkles her nose. ‘That’s never going to work. It’s a major detour, and everyone and their aunt will see you’re making it.’
I look at the clouds racing across the sky above us. ‘Every time I think about it, it’s like my mouth is full of vinegar.’
Nemmie runs up behind us as we skirt past the Sardine Club. ‘Who’s you-know-who?’
Before I can answer Dale comes to join us. ‘It’s all Uncle Salvador’s fault. They have to talk in code so they don’t drop people in it.’
‘You’re right. Data protection and discretion are top priorities when there’s a scandal rocking the town.’ When I’m satisfied they’re too baffled to reply I carry on. ‘First person to the beach hut gets a sour worm?’
And the next moment they’re racing off along the sand, with Angel barking along beside them.
Tia laughs. ‘Too easy.’
I hitch the picnic rucksack further onto my shoulder.
‘If only the rest of my life were that simple to fix. The more I go over my options, the more of a minefield it becomes.’ I sigh.
‘The only acceptable scenario I can think of is the one where I turn the clock back two weeks and none of this ever happened.’
Tia looks at me. ‘And in the real world?’
I bite my lip. ‘I like things as they are.’ I watch Nemmie grab Dale’s sleeve and hurl herself past him, and sigh again. ‘I mean, look at Nemmie. She’s bright and happy and she loves me and I don’t want anything to change that.’
‘The second you say something, it will.’
I frown. ‘Lando and I are from very different backgrounds, but the way he’s buying up swathes of local land has compounded that. And it’s all very public too.’
Tia purses her lips. ‘St Aidan’s like a goldfish bowl.’
I take a breath. ‘If I’d told him years ago, the knowledge would just have been absorbed into our history by this stage. But there’s also a lot more at stake for Nemmie now she’s older and can think for herself.’
Tia stares at me. ‘So what are you going to do?’
I bite my lip. ‘I’m going to protect Nemmie by keeping it from her for as long as I can, but the next chance I get, I’ll tell him.’
Tia’s fingers close around mine. ‘Well done. That can’t have been easy.’
I squeeze her hand back. ‘I haven’t done it yet.’
Nemmie comes storming back towards us, her burnished gold curls and tulle skirt streaming behind her. ‘I got there first. I beat Dale, even though he’s eleven, I get the sour worm.’
I laugh. ‘How are you so competitive, when I’m so laid back?’
She shrugs. ‘We’ve been talking about genes at school. It probably came from my other parent.’
I walked into that.
She frowns at me. ‘I mean, everyone must want to work with polar bears. My dad must be well pushy to get to do that.’
‘I guess anyone who risks their lives to protect wildlife will be highly motivated.’ I point over my shoulder. ‘The Haribos are in the backpack pocket.’
She pulls out the bag. ‘Everyone can have one, can’t they? You only made us run so you could talk without us hearing.’ There’s barely a pause and she turns to Tia. ‘If you and Thom get married at the beach hut, can I be your bridesmaid?’
I laugh. ‘Tia still has lots to decide.’
Nemmie lets out a wail. ‘Sienna Harry in my class has been a bridesmaid seven times already. I haven’t done it once.’
I pull a face. ‘I’m afraid we Brownburys aren’t big on weddings.’
Nemmie’s face brightens as she turns to me. ‘I’ll be your bridesmaid, won’t I?’
For someone so tuned in in other areas, you’d think she’d get that if I were going to get married I’d need an actual partner, and that considering she hasn’t seen one in nine years, I’m more likely to fly to the moon.
I always try to tell the truth, but this is an exception. ‘Of course.’
Nemmie punches the air and calls to the others. ‘Let’s go and collect shells. If Tia’s getting married on the beach she might like to give out those instead of flowers.’
Tia and I watch them running across the shingle, and a few yards before we get to the beach hut we stop.
I half close my eyes. ‘Imagine deckchairs on the sand, bunting coming down from each front gable to the floor, tall lanterns on the front steps. We’ll fold back the double doors so the inside flows out to the verandah.’
We walk up the steps, I pull the doors open, then the shutters, and Tia goes in. ‘Now that it’s empty apart from Oliver’s table, it looks more spacious and even prettier.’
The huts along this section of the beach are generous, with double doors opening onto a covered verandah out front. There are side windows with shutters and a door at the back, but as Windflowers is only seven feet by ten with a four-foot verandah, I’m desperately hoping she’s okay with it.
‘I’ll put cushions on the built-in benches along each side, then we’ll have the chairs, and it’s high enough to hang bunting in here too.’
Tia stands in the doorway. ‘I’ve adored this place since we were kids. I just hope Thom likes it too.’
I hear a clatter and glance out to see the pickup parked on the narrow lane above the sands and Thom stacking chairs against the roadside railings. ‘He’s here, let’s go and help him unload.’
As we make our way from the lane to the hut and stack the chairs on the verandah, it feels like a good time to talk about the drawbacks.
‘There are no mains services and it’s not licensed, so we’d have to use lanterns or battery-operated fairy lights and you bring your own fizz.
The toilets and water are in a building by the Sardine Club, and you can drive in the way you’ve come or walk along the beach.
Apart from that, welcome to the world’s smallest and most basic wedding venue. ’ I’m anxious to see his reaction.
Tia takes his hand and leads him across the deck. ‘So what do you think?’
Thom nods. ‘They’re very solid considering they were free, and it’s great they fold flat.’
Tia snorts. ‘Not the chairs, I mean about the hut!’ She pulls him inside and waves her arms in the air. ‘I know it’s minute compared to other places we’ve seen, but if it means we can get married rather than not…’ She bites her lip as she looks around.
Thom catches her hand. ‘The important part of our wedding isn’t the party. It’s wanting to celebrate our love and express our commitment to each other.’ He wraps his arms around her. ‘Looking out on the ocean now, I can’t think of a better place to do that.’
I’m silently thanking the sun for giving the sea a brightness that’s making the whole bay shimmer, and I desperately hope the day they choose is this good when it arrives.
Then I think how some days, even in summer, the rain hammers so hard it drills holes in the sand, and I add umbrellas to my mental shopping list, and then move on from that thought.
I’m completely hard-hearted when it comes to the mushy stuff, but I scrape a tear away from the corner of my eye, then wiggle my eyebrows at Tia.
‘You’re my favourite couple in the world.
I can’t think of anyone I’d rather get married here.
’ There’s a rush of enthusiasm as I realise it’s truly going to happen.
Tia reaches up and kisses Thom. ‘Just think, we won’t have to stress over invitations or seating plans or menu choices; we won’t have blow-ups in bridesmaids’ WhatsApp groups, and no bridezilla meltdowns.’
Thom smiles down at her. ‘It’s just us, a handful of guests, and bottles of bubbly we bring in paper bags.’
She laughs. ‘I don’t know why we didn’t do this all along.’
Thom holds his finger up. ‘And a cake. We must have cake.’
‘Can it be a rainbow one with rainbow hundreds and thousands sticking to the buttercream covering, and jam between the layers?’ Tia’s eyes are shining.
Thom’s eyes are bright when he looks at me. ‘There’s no point in waiting. We’ll be your first wedding. I don’t know how to begin to thank you for this, Maeve.’
I’ve been thinking about this. ‘If you let me use a couple of your pictures for the beach hut wedding publicity, I’m the one who’s going to be grateful forever.’
Tia smiles. ‘In that case, I think we may need to stretch the guest list to two more.’ She calls down the beach. ‘Nemmie and Zara – please will you be my bridesmaids?’
We try to discourage screaming at home, but as they stampede towards us shrieking, I let it go. When they eventually calm down, I grin at Tia. ‘A full five minutes for the yells to subside! You’ve made two girls very happy.’
Tia turns to Dale. ‘You’re very welcome to join as a page?’
Dale shudders. ‘Definitely not … if that’s okay with you?’
Tia laughs and nods. ‘Now I’ve got my attendants sorted, let’s bring in some chairs, hang up some bunting and see how it looks.’
And just like that, Weddings at Windflowers is really happening.
I am so terrified my legs are shaking. But if I’m going to outperform Lando’s venue, this is just the start. I’m going to have to do this a lot more times than one.
I’ll take it in bite-sized pieces, starting with the match pots.