CHAPTER TWENTY-SEVEN – SYLVIE
It wasn’t every day one got serenaded by a duchess.
Today, apparently, was that day for me.
I was on the brink of asking Emily how much she was charging for her duets with Michael Bublé and if I needed to add entertainment charges to my sister’s bill.
If I was honest, I wasn’t even sure why Emily was here. I hadn’t arranged for her to join us, yet she’d wandered in as if it was perfectly normal for her, the Duchess of Castleton, to be decorating an old, dusty town hall for a wedding.
Even Nana wasn’t here with her pig, and she’d boldly threatened that when she’d been informed of our morning guest and told me she wanted to know when I was marrying Thomas.
Never.
That was what I’d told her, at least.
It wasn’t that I didn’t see a future for myself in Castleton. I’d been nothing but confused ever since I’d come back for this endless stressball of a wedding, but I wasn’t fickle enough to uproot my life and career across the country just because I had feelings for a man.
Even if that man was Thomas.
Not to mention that I had commitments down south. I had a rental agreement I couldn’t break on a whim, and I had a business that depended largely on my physical presence.
I had weddings booked in over the next two years and enquiries beyond that, so I couldn’t simply move back here without considering all of that.
Even if there was a part of me that really, really wanted to.
I just couldn’t focus on anything other than getting this wedding to go off without a hitch. God only knew I’d encountered enough problems over the past few weeks, and it truly was taking every last bit of my will to keep my shit together through it all.
For now, I had to focus on the wedding.
I could think about all the uncertainties in my life when this was over.
If it ever ended.
I was starting to think that the wedding would truly never come.
“Sylvie, we have a problem.”
I flinched at the sound of my sister’s voice and turned to see her standing in the doorway.
Empty-handed.
“What now?” I asked, although I already knew by her sheepish expression and lack of decorations.
“The delivery of the decorations has been delayed.” She glanced away. “They’ll be delivered in two days instead.”
I pinched the bridge of my nose and tightly gripped the string of fairy lights with my other hand.
If I didn’t keep my hands busy, my sister was going to attend her wedding with a black eye.
“Hazel. What did I tell you about these decorations when you insisted that I let you handle ordering them?”
She coughed into her hand, staring at something off to the side. “I… Uh… Make sure I order them in plenty of time.”
“In what world is six days before the wedding considered plenty of time?”
“It was next day delivery.”
I dropped the string of lights and glared at her. “Say that again. I dare you!”
“Sylvie…” Mum stepped towards me, reaching out. “Calm down, dear. Don’t speak to your sis—”
“No.” I held my hand up. “I can speak to her like this, and I will. I’m both her sister and her wedding planner right now.
This was the one thing she begged me to let her handle, and I agreed, against my better judgement.
I told her to make sure she had the decorations in hand two weeks ago at the absolute latest. I have been reminding her weekly for the past two months at her request, and now I have to hear that they were only just ordered on next day delivery? With this unpredictable weather?”
Mum hesitated, a flicker of guilt passing through her gaze. “She’s been busy, love, and—”
“This is why she’s like this!” I threw my arms out, finally turning fully towards her as anger pulsed through me.
“Why are you making excuses for her all the time, Mum? She’s been busy?
Do you have any idea what the last couple of weeks have been like for me with her flightiness?
Her chopping and changing of every little thing?
Her endless indecisiveness? If she weren’t my sister, I’d have dropped her as a client months ago!
Not to mention she promised me last week that she had them ready to bring, and I trusted her.
She lied to my face! Can you not look at this situation and admit that she was wrong for once? ”
“Hey, don’t yell at Mum!” Hazel unwound her scarf, walking over. “What’s pissed on your cornflakes this morning?”
“You, you bloody brat!” I snapped at her. “Do you think I’m spending the next few days swanning around like some festive fairy princess? Do you think I have the luxury of flipping around my schedule because you screwed up?”
“Sylvie—”
“If your trees are nothing but lights and bows on your wedding day, know that you only have yourself to blame. It’s not just my time you’ve wasted by not doing the one thing you were responsible for, but everyone else’s here, too.
” I waved my arm around. “Mum, Cassandra, Christina, Amy, Jodie, Danielle, and Layla… Everyone is taking time out of their lives to help us decorate because you refused to hire a professional company. Because you wanted to handle it yourself to make it perfect. You’ve even got the Duchess of Castleton wearing reindeer antlers and bloody slippers over there, for God’s sake.
And the one thing…” I threw the string of lights down into the box with a thud that echoed through the hall.
“One thing, Hazel. This was the one thing you had to do. That you asked to do. Out of everything I’ve planned for your wedding, this…
Jesus Christ. What have you been doing for the last several weeks?
Months, even? This isn’t a surprise sprung on you at the last minute! Agh!” I finished on a scream.
Her lower lip trembled, and I shook my head, pressing my hand against my eyes.
I knew what was coming.
She’d cry.
She’d get her own way.
It would be ‘poor Hazel, it’s just a little mistake.’
And I’d be the mean big sister bullying her yet again.
This was a play I’d acted in hundreds of times as a child. I knew the script better than I knew myself.
A hand gently wrapped around my wrist and pulled my hand away from my eyes. “Ladies, I think we’ve all earnt ourselves a tea and coffee break. Cassandra, dear, will you take everyone’s orders and text them to me? My future daughter-in-law and I will walk over to Sue’s place and bring it back.”
“Who are you calling your future daughter-in-law?” I muttered.
Emily laughed breezily, looping my arm through hers. “Come along, darling. Oh, but give me a minute to swap my slippers out for my boots. I don’t fancy having wet socks all day.”
She swept me away before I had a chance to say anything against her, and before I knew it, I was in the space we’d designated as the cloakroom and was putting my coat on.
Almost as swiftly as she’d swept me in there, Emily was fully kitted out for the outdoors, and I was dragged outside by her movie-star looking self.
Seriously.
She was dressed as though she was right out of that sexy, spicy Hollywood era of the nineteen-fifties.
Good for her.
I’d look like a potato if I tried dressing like that.
“That was very succinct of you, Your Grace,” I muttered.
Emily chuckled, linking our arms again. “Enough of that. You know my name, Sylvie, so use it.”
“Yes, ma’am.”
She tutted. “I suppose that’s better than the last one.”
I swallowed, looking at the crowds of people bustling through the streets. The undeniable energy of the festive season rang through the air despite it being the middle of the week, and it was an infectious buzz that trickled over me no matter how hard I tried to ignore it.
I did love Christmas, after all.
“You know, I see a lot of myself in your relationship with your sister,” Emily said, ushering us to the side to avoid a group of little old ladies while greeting them with a gentle smile.
“My sister is four years younger than me, and I had the same issues you’re facing right now.
I was the oldest, so I had to be the mature and responsible one.
My parents would have forgiven Maggie if she murdered someone on my mother’s favourite rug, but I got in trouble if I didn’t notice she’d left her bedroom light on. ”
“Sounds familiar,” I muttered.
“There, there, dear.” She patted my arm.
“It’s frustrating, isn’t it? No matter what you do, you’ll never be recognised or appreciated for your efforts and achievements.
Oh, I’m not saying your parents aren’t proud of you,” she added quickly.
“Goodness knows I’m proud of what you’ve achieved in your life, so I’m sure they are, too.
I could merely see that your mother was far more bothered about you upsetting Hazel than Hazel upsetting you, and I thought it best to get you out of there before I joined you in kicking up a fuss. ”
I glanced at her, fighting a smile. “You don’t need to do such a thing for me.”
“Nonsense. It’s just standing up for my future daughter-in-law.”
“Please don’t go around the village calling me that. People will get the wrong idea.”
She grinned. “The wrong idea? Was my son not being a bit of a floozy at your house last night?”
I coughed into my fist and looked away. “That’s… irrelevant.”
“We’ll agree to disagree,” she replied, far too cheerily for my liking. “I always wondered why you moved away as soon as you graduated university. You didn’t even come back after, and I thought it was strange.”
“Ah. Hazel’s birthday was a couple of weeks after, and there was something about a joint party. I decided I didn’t want to share my moment, so went on a trip to Ibiza with my classmates instead.”
Emily laughed, momentarily tossing her head back. “A good choice, it seems. I did wonder, though, but now it makes sense. I also now understand why you rarely came back.”
“It just… was easier not to. It was hard enough whenever I did. There were only so many comparisons I could take, especially when I was younger. It doesn’t bother me as much anymore, but probably only because of the distance between us.
” I sighed. “I do love my sister, but right now, I really don’t like her.
This wedding is the most stressful one I’ve ever organised. ”
Emily patted my hand on her forearm. “That’s because you care so much about it, darling. Of course, it doesn’t help that she’s royally buggered up your schedule. Everything you said was completely true, and if Hazel has any sense, she’ll leave before we get back.”
“What a tall order.”
“Perhaps we should get a shot of Baileys in your hot chocolate.”
I wouldn’t turn that offer down. “Emily… What’s your relationship like with your sister now?”
“Oh, much better. To be honest, I can’t say we ever had a truly bad one.
We had a series of frustrations that, we came to learn, were caused entirely by our parents.
Once she’d moved out and gotten a reality check in university, things changed for the better.
It helped that I married Michael shortly after that, and that distance made a big difference, just like it has for you.
” She tilted her head to the side. “Of course, our relationship was only able to change because Maggie recognised all of that.”
“And my sister has already done all of those things, and nothing has changed.”
“Ah, but she didn’t go far, did she? My sister moved halfway across the country, and she barely saw our parents unless it was a break. Hazel, if I remember correctly, stayed within driving distance each weekend.”
That was true. “Mm, I suppose. And our parents didn’t move abroad until she’d graduated.”
Emily nodded slowly. “Exactly. And after that, I bet she called you for every little thing, didn’t she?”
I paused, pressing my lips into a grim line. “Something like that.”
Exactly like that.
I’d always been the one to get her out of jail. Every time something went wrong, Hazel called me, and I was always there to pick up the pieces of her life.
“Let me guess,” Emily continued softly, gazing around. “You’ve reached your limit. You give and give and give to her, but she can’t—or chooses not to—do the same thing for you. And now you’re tired of being the one who fixes everything.”
I swallowed hard. Her words hit me right in the gut, coiling into a guilty knot of emotion that sat heavily. “I’m her big sister,” I said quietly. “It’s always—”
“Never been your job.” Emily sighed, pressing her arm against mine as she leant in. “Let me tell you something: there’s only one person you have any obligation to take care of, and that’s yourself. Especially when you neglect your own wellbeing for the sake of other people.”
“Even when you have kids?”
“Even when you have kids. What, you think you can be a good parent if you don’t take care of you?
Children are products of their environment.
If a daughter sees her mother taking care of herself, what does she learn?
That she should take care of herself—that she should love herself before all else. ”
“What about a son?”
“I’d like to think a son sees his mother caring for herself and thinks he should leave her alone, but eh.” She shrugged a shoulder. “Boys are a whole other breed of needy little bastards.”
The thought of a young Thomas trailing after a facemask-clad Emily made me laugh.
“Seriously, though, I would like to believe I’ve raised a fairly solid young man,” she said after a moment, her voice low, her tone careful. “One who sees it for what it is: a few moments of self-love in a world that is increasingly telling us that we aren’t good enough.”
I looked down at my feet as we walked, a small smile creeping onto my face. “Yeah. I think that’s exactly what he sees. Then he’d probably kiss your cheek and tell you that you’re pretty.”
“Ah, I think that’s something he reserves for you.”
“Pretty annoying, pretty mouthy, pretty snarky…”
She reached over and wrapped her arm around me, pulling me in close, and let out a small laugh. “At least he tells you that you’re pretty. You can simply choose not to hear the rest of it, you know.”
“Good thinking. I’ll do that next time.”
She kissed the side of my head as her phone pinged. “That’ll be the drinks order. Come on. I’ll make sure your sister has disappeared by the time we get back, then we’ll make the best of a bad situation.”
I sighed. “I’m not going back in there if she’s there, or I’m going to spend Christmas in jail.”
“Don’t worry, dear. I’ll make sure you have a nice Christmas dinner, wherever you are.”