Chapter Seventeen
‘So, tell me why the bride is called Tigs, it’s a name I have never heard before. It’s very unusual.’
‘Unusual is the word,’ said Nina. ‘Her real name is Antigone, which I’m told she hated as a child and from the age of eight she was determined that she should be known as Tigs.’
It was Saturday morning, the day of Fabian and Tigs’s wedding and Nina was sitting in the passenger seat of Jakob’s car as he searched the car park for a space.
All the way here to the Dangley Court Hotel in Hertford she had been fighting the urge to tell him to turn around and drive them straight back to Cambridge.
How on earth had she talked herself into believing this would be a good thing, that flaunting Jakob like some young trophy boyfriend would help her mother-in-law realise she had a perfect right to move on?
No doubt Hilary, and everyone else for that matter, would think she was making an embarrassing fool of herself. And perhaps they’d be right.
It had been her need to release herself from Hilary’s possessive hold on her that had made her email Fabian and Tigs to ask if it would be all right for her to bring a plus-one.
She hadn’t specified who it would be, and in return, doubtless snowed under with all the last-minute arrangements for a hastily thrown-together wedding, they hadn’t asked for any more information.
Almost immediately she had regretted sending the email, and she blamed Cassie for her part in convincing her that it would be great fun to go to the wedding with Jakob.
Her encouragement had been offered during a perfectly idyllic evening at Hope Hall.
Along with Ben, they’d been enjoying a picnic supper on the riverbank, complete with setting sun and a couple of swans in the water relishing the odd titbit thrown to them.
During the picnic, and while Ben had wandered off to take a call on his mobile, Cassie had admitted that she’d recently had the ridiculous notion that Ben had been cheating on her, and all because she’d overheard him planning a surprise party for her fortieth birthday.
‘I let my insecurities get the better of me,’ she’d further admitted, ‘it just came out of nowhere. One simple misunderstanding and it led me to believe the worst of Ben. Even now,’ and she’d turned her head to look at Ben who’d had his back to them while talking to whoever it was who had called him, ‘there’s a part of me that thinks, but what if?
What if he’s as convincing a liar as Drew was? ’
Nina had been in on the secret – Ben having invited her to the surprise party he was arranging – so if Cassie had approached her, it would have been difficult to assure her friend that Ben was completely innocent without giving the game away.
But that evening on the riverbank, she did her best to assure Cassie that Ben really wasn’t the cheating sort.
‘He’s crazy about you, completely devoted, you must know that in your heart,’ she’d said.
‘We never know for sure, do we?’ Cassie had said sadly. ‘There’s always something we keep from those we love. Look how Hugh kept from you that his mother had given him money to use for IVF.’
Reminded how angry it had made her feel when Hilary had literally demanded her right for a grandchild because she believed she’d paid for that right, Nina had shared with Cassie what she was tempted to do, to have Jakob as her plus-one for Fabian and Tigs’s wedding.
‘It would be the most effective way to show Hilary she can’t hold me hostage to the past.’
‘Does that mean you’ve reached a decision about the letter from the clinic?’ Cassie had asked.
‘No. I still haven’t made my mind up. Maybe once this wedding is out of the way, I’ll be able to think more clearly,’ she’d said.
‘For what it’s worth, you should absolutely go with your handsome Norwegian. Remember, I met him in the gallery not long after he’d started working for you and I can personally vouch for his appeal.’
‘He’s not my Norwegian!’ Nina had remonstrated. ‘But what if people think I’ve hired him for the day from an escort agency? Think of the humiliation!’ She was in danger of talking herself out of the idea once again.
‘Nobody will think that, Nina. You’re a fabulously beautiful woman who could have any gorgeous man on her arm as a plus-one.’
‘But the age gap, Cassie. There’s no getting away from that, Hugh’s family will think I’m some kind of ghastly cougar.’
‘Rubbish! The women will all be mad with jealousy and the men, well, they’ll be jealous too. Just go and have some fun. That’s my final word on the subject. But I’ll want all the juicy details on your return, especially your mother-in-law’s reaction!’
That was now very near to being experienced, thought Nina as Jakob nosed the car in between a Range Rover and a BMW.
He had insisted that he drive as he wanted to give his new car a decent workout.
‘Boys and their toys,’ he’d said with a smile when he’d arrived at Hope Hall to pick her up earlier that morning in a shiny black Porsche 911.
‘I clearly pay you too much,’ she’d joked as he’d pressed his foot on the accelerator, and they’d roared off down the driveway.
‘Don’t be too impressed,’ he’d said, glancing at her over the top of his sunglasses, ‘it’s second hand.’
It was hard not to be impressed by Jakob, she thought now as after pushing open the passenger door to step out, and before she had both feet planted firmly on the ground, he had magically appeared at her side to help her, his hand outstretched.
Then while she smoothed down the skirt of her pink Chanel suit – it was her one and only Chanel suit and it never failed to make her feel strong and confident when wearing it, which was why she had chosen it for today – Jakob retrieved his own suit jacket and pulled it on.
‘Will I do?’ he asked, adjusting the cuffs of his white shirt so they protruded the sartorially correct half an inch to show off his cufflinks, and then tightening his silk tie so that the knot was perfectly positioned.
Still wearing his sunglasses and an outrageous quantity of head-turning sex appeal, he was the perfect companion for such an occasion, if only the circumstances were different. And if only he didn’t look so young!
‘You’ll do very well,’ she said, picking up the gift bag from the footwell of the Porsche.
‘I hope it would not be considered a workplace offence to say how lovely you look,’ he said.
Goodness he was disarming! ‘Since we’re not at work,’ she said with a smile, ‘the usual rules don’t apply, so thank you.’
‘Excellent.’ He locked the car and raised his arm for her to take.
When she hesitated, he said, ‘Just while you negotiate the gravel in those heels; I know from my sisters how treacherous it can be. You don’t want to risk twisting an ankle and have me carry you in, do you?’
Recognising that he was teasing her, she did as he said and once they were inside, she left him in the reception area while she went to look for the ladies.
She found there was quite a party going on when she stepped into the opulent cloakroom.
It was crowded with attractive young girls wearing an assortment of skimpy barely-there dresses.
Laughing and joking, they were taking selfies and applying make-up, at the same time passing around a bottle of champagne.
Not recognising any of them and feeling about a hundred and ten, Nina decided they had to be friends of the bride.
Back out in the foyer, Jakob was waiting for her by the reception desk. A member of staff then directed them through to the ballroom where the ceremony was being held and which was due to start in ten minutes.
In the entrance to the ballroom, they were greeted with a clamour of voices from the assembled guests, some of them seated but most of them on their feet and mingling.
Two ushers flanked the entrance, one of whom asked if they were for the bride or the groom, and the other pointed over to a large table where a mountainous pile of gifts had been deposited.
It was just as Nina had placed her present on the table that she heard her name being called.
‘Nina, there you are!’
Turning around she saw her father-in-law bearing down on her, a smile of delight on his face.
‘Hello, Keith,’ she said after he’d swamped her with one of his big hugs, ‘good journey?’
‘Not bad. Usual hold-ups with roadworks and diversions. You probably encountered the same.’ Before she had a chance to answer, his gaze slid enquiringly towards Jakob standing next to her.
‘You remember Jakob from the gallery, don’t you?’ Nina said. ‘You met him on one occasion when you called in to treat me for lunch.’
For a split second Keith clearly didn’t know what to say. Then: ‘Yes, of course, silly me,’ he said, extending his hand. ‘I didn’t recognise you out of context. So … erm … you’re Nina’s plus-one, are you?’
‘Yes,’ Jakob said, ‘she kindly invited me to join her. I feel very honoured.’
‘Well … that’s … that’s very nice, I hope you enjoy yourself.
These … erm … family get-togethers can be a bit overwhelming.
It’s like marrying into the mafia. That’s what Hugh’s best man said in his speech on your wedding day, didn’t he, Nina?
’ Keith gave an uncomfortably hearty laugh, but then perhaps realising how inappropriate his comment was, looked as if he wished the ground would open beneath him and swallow him whole.
‘You make it sound like I’m in some sort of danger,’ Jakob said lightly.
‘No, not at all, of course not, it’s just that they’re a close-knit bunch,’ Keith blundered on.
‘How’s Fabian coping?’ asked Nina, feeling she should come to Keith’s rescue, at the same time glancing to the front row of gold-painted chairs where she could see the groom on his feet talking to another man, presumably his best man. ‘Any nerves?’
Keith shook his head. ‘No, you know what they’re all like on Hilary’s side of the family, nerves of steel, terrifyingly fearless.’