CHAPTER THIRTY-ONE – THOMAS
“Hey, Mum,” I said, pulling away from the disaster site with Sylvie passed out in the passenger seat. “We have a problem.”
“What’s wrong?” Her voice crackled through my earbuds. “Did something happen to Sylvie?”
“You could say that,” I replied vaguely. “It looks like someone fucked up the date on the town hall’s demolition. They started today.”
“What?!”
Rest in peace, my left eardrum.
“Shit, be careful, I’m using my earbuds. You almost deafened me.”
“How could this happen?” she demanded. “Can the wedding go ahead?”
“Do you think Sylvie would be unconscious in my car if that were the case?”
“She’s wha—Thomas!” Mum shrieked, once again stabbing my eardrum to death. “Are you taking her to the hospital?”
“No. She’s not injured. She had a huge panic attack and cried so hard she exhausted herself.
They had a first aider on-site who checked her over and confirmed she’s just asleep.
I’m bringing her home, so can you make sure there’s somewhere close for her to rest?
I don’t want to carry her all the way to my room. ” I asked, turning away from Castleton.
It would take longer to get home, but there was also less chance of anyone seeing Sylvie like this in my car.
“Of course. What about Hazel? Does she know? Julian?”
“Nobody else knows yet. At least I hope not. It’s still early. Can you do me a favour and call everyone to the house? Hazel and Julian, both sets of parents, Hazel’s grandparents…”
“Of course. Your sister and Beth are still here, too, so I’ll see if Beth can delay opening the shop. Are you sure Sylvie is okay?”
“Yes,” was what I said, but I didn’t know.
I’d never seen anyone cry so hard in my life. It was as if all the stress she’d been pushing down over the past few weeks exploded out of her in one vicious burst, wrecking her in the process.
In a way, I was glad she was out of it.
If she was asleep, she couldn’t feel the pain she’d felt not long ago. For now, in her world, this problem didn’t exist, and she could be at peace.
And I could try to fix this.
“Thomas?”
“Huh, sorry,” I said, adjusting the earbud. “What did you say?”
“I’ll get everyone here and call the mayor to get to the bottom of this,” Mum said. “What a shame the wedding can’t go ahead after all that work.”
“Don’t think that just yet,” I said, glancing over at Sylvie.
“What do you—”
“I’ll be home soon. Talk to you then.” I pressed the touchscreen on the dashboard to hang up the call and sighed.
I had an idea.
It was a long shot.
There was a real chance it was too much of a long shot, but that didn’t mean it was impossible.
Cancelling the wedding didn’t have to be the first option. I was sure of that much.
I kept an eye on Sylvie until I reached the gates of Castleton Manor. By the time I pulled up outside the front door, Heath was already opening it for me. Concern was rippled across his features, especially when he caught sight of Sylvie.
Right.
They’d become friends the morning after the storm when he’d given her his super-secret soup recipe.
Even Mum didn’t have that.
“Would you grab her bag for me, Heath? It’s on the backseat,” I asked, walking around to Sylvie’s side.
“Of course, Your Grace. Do you need a hand with Miss Harding?”
“Just make sure I don’t bang her head.” I opened her car door and, with Heath’s guidance, scooped Sylvie out of the car and into my arms. “Which room is ready for her?”
“The Austen, since it was made up. Should I call for a doctor?”
“Not yet. If she doesn’t wake up in about an hour, we’ll call then. She’s utterly exhausted, so I’m not surprised she ended up like this after her panic attack.” I carried Sylvie inside with Heath trailing behind me.
“Is there anyone who can keep an eye on her while I deal with things? Did Mum explain the situation?”
Heath opened the door to the Austen room for me. “Her Grace offered a very brief explanation, sir, but I got the gist of it. Ah, good, Louise, you’re here.”
I turned to see one of the young maids hovering in the doorway. Louise—if I remembered correctly, she worked part-time while studying nursing at university nearby.
Perfect choice.
I expected nothing less from Heath, though.
“Your Grace.” She bobbed her head to me. “Mr. Heath said you needed someone to sit with the lady.”
“Ah, yes. She’s had a stressful morning and is currently sleeping after passing out. I can’t sit with her as I need to deal with the situation. Would you help me remove her shoes and outerwear and then stay with her, please?”
“Of course.” She swept into the room gracefully and got to work as soon as I put Sylvie down on the bed. Louise worked quickly, and before I knew it, Sylvie was down to her jumper and leggings and was tucked up in the bed.
She looked so peaceful that I could barely believe she was hysterical not long ago.
“Um, Your Grace? Should we call a doctor for her?” Louise asked me hesitantly.
“Let me know if she doesn’t wake up in an hour,” I said, pulling off my own coat and throwing it on the chair by the window. “We’ll call someone then. For now, I think she just needs to rest. Unless you think otherwise?”
“Sir?”
I gently brushed Sylvie’s hair from her face, letting my fingers linger on her cheek for a second. “You’re studying nursing, aren’t you?”
Louise’s cheeks flushed. “Oh, I didn’t think you knew that. If she’s not injured at all, I’m happy to monitor her.”
I smiled at her. “Thank you. I’ll be in the main sitting room—please have someone get me the moment Sylvie wakes up.”
“Yes, sir.”
With that, I left Louise to it and headed downstairs to wait for everyone else to get here.
***
Hazel’s endless tears were silent.
They’d started the moment I told her what was happening fifteen minutes ago. A soundless stream of devastation that was written all over her face.
Somehow, her quiet pain was just as gut-wrenching as Sylvie’s panicked sobs had been.
Everyone was here. Joanna and Richard; Hazel and Sylvie’s parents. Steve and Cassandra; Julian’s parents. Nana and Gramps. My mother. Zara and Beth. And Heath, who was continuously topping up cups of hot tea and coffee.
“Well,” Mum said, strolling back into the room. “It appears that the council made a mistake on the final contract sent to the building company.”
Joanna blinked at her. “Are you telling me all this has been caused by a typo?”
Mum grimaced. “That’s exactly what I’m saying. From what I know right now, it seems the correspondence with the contractors only ever gave the date in numerical form. It wasn’t written out as it was on Sylvie’s contract.”
Steve’s jaw clenched. “Either way, they’ve breached the contract.”
“But what do we do?” Julian asked. “We can’t get married there. We’ll have to cancel everything.”
“The fault lies with either the contractor or the council, so we’ll be able to recover all the funds and then some,” his dad replied. “But unless there’s a miracle, I don’t think you can get married, kids. I’m sorry.”
Hazel buried her face in Julian’s chest. Her whole body shook, but there was still no noise. Almost as if she really couldn’t make a sound.
“There has to be something we can do,” Joanna said, rubbing Hazel’s back.
“But how?” Nana said. “Even if it weren’t Christmas, nobody can organise a wedding in three days. And even if such a miracle could occur, there’s no chance of getting a venue, especially given this time of year.”
I cleared my throat to cut through the murmurs of agreement. “I might be able to provide you with a miracle.”
Everyone froze and looked at me.
“What do you mean?” Julian asked as Hazel peered out at me from between her fingers.
I grabbed the folder I’d stashed down by the side of my chair and pulled out a sheet of paper.
“Thomas! Is that—” Mum stopped, pressing her fingers to her lips. “I thought you didn’t renew it.”
“So did I,” I answered. “But I checked just in case. It’s dated not long after Dad died, so the administrative staff must have done it automatically when I was swept away in all the inheritance paperwork.”
“But what is it?” Richard asked, leaning forwards.
“A marriage venue license.”
Hazel stilled. “For where?”
“For here.” My lips twitched to one side. “It might not be the wedding you both dreamt of, but the ballroom has hosted weddings before, so I don’t see why we can’t do it again.”
Mum clasped her hand to her neck. “This is true. We haven’t booked one since before Michael’s diagnosis, but we still have everything that’s needed to host one. How many guests were there?”
“I, uh—” Julian paused.
“One hundred and three,” Hazel replied, slowly sitting up.
“We can easily accommodate it.” I slipped the license certificate back into the folder. “You were having a buffet over a sit-down meal, right?”
She nodded. “There was to be a break after the ceremony for photos, but…”
“Easy. You can take them all here, and your guests will be more than comfortable.” I shrugged. “It’s going to be a lot of work getting everything switched over to here, and we’ll all need to put the work in, but I don’t think it’s impossible. It’s up to you two, though.”
Hazel and Julian looked at each other. “It’s your choice,” he said to her. “You know I’d marry you in an alleyway if it was the only option.”
“I feel the same. And I—” she paused. “I just can’t let all Sylvie’s work go to waste, either. Not after everything.”
“She did get herself into a bit of a state,” Nana said, tapping her nails against her teacup. “And we really shouldn’t impose this work onto her now. Where would we even begin?”
“Divide and conquer,” Cassandra said, clapping her hands together as she looked at me. “There’s more than enough of us here, and we’re all capable adults.”
“Exactly,” I repeated. “Between us all, we can do it. We have both sides of the family to contact the guests. We have a household full of staff who can prepare with the set up,” I said, looking at Hazel and Julian. “Your florist over there still has all your flowers.”