Jonathan and Kelsey led the way back to the boat where the crowd were chatting and drinking happily. Half their glasses were empty already.
‘Sorry about that,’ Kelsey called out, her eyes a little dazed. ‘Are we ready to cut the ribbon?’
Everyone cried out that they were and whooped and whistled. Just as Kelsey was inviting the Mayor to take the scissors, a voice behind the crowd rang out, drawing attention away from Kelsey again.
‘Chop chop, Gianfranco,dulzura de mi vida, we’re late, running at the cow’s tail as my mother would say, God rest her soul.’
Advancing across the gardens in a purple jumpsuit, her severe red bob flapping, was Norma Arden, followed closely by her Italian beefcake husband carrying her coat. ‘We’re here Kelsey, we’re here!’ she announced pointlessly; half of Stratford knew she was here by now. She continued exclaiming in her familiar ten-to-the-dozen way, ‘Did I miss anything? Oh look at the barge, isn’t it wonderful, well done, darling!’
Kelsey quickly stepped through the crowd to hug her and, taking her hand, pulled her up front to stand beside the Mayor by the gangplank. ‘Sorry about that. Everyone, this is Norma Arden… and this is her barge. Her business idea, actually.’
‘No, no, no, the gallery concept was all your own. I only gave you a little nudge with the photography studio, and with your young man… where is he?’ Norma scanned the crowd until she saw him. ‘Yoo hoo! Hello Jonathan.’
The Mayor was beginning to look impatient with all the interruptions. She’d already told Kelsey there was a church meeting she had to get to.
Kelsey clapped her hands. ‘Without further ado, I want to welcome you all here today to my gallery launch.’ The words caught a little as she spoke. ‘In some ways it’s been a long, long road to get to this point.’ She was looking at her mum and grandad now, both of whom were dabbing tissues at their eyes. ‘I wasn’t really going anywhere for a long time, then Norma picked me up and brought me here. She gave me a job. I found a place of my own for the first time, and I made so many friends.’ Valeria and Myrtle waved from the back of the crowd where they’d been hugging Gianfranco. ‘And I fell in love too. Now I’ve got a career ahead of me, and a happy life, I hope.’
‘Hear hear,’ Blythe called out.
‘Thank you all for coming with me on this journey. I’ve lovedalmostevery second of it, and if I haven’t loved some bits, at least I learned from them.’ Kelsey’s voice was giving way to emotion and she stepped aside.
The Mayor smiled and the newspaper photographers raised their cameras to capture the moment. The Mayor pronounced: ‘It gives me great pride and pleasure to be here at the beginning of another exciting new business in Stratford-upon-Avon. I declare the Kelsey Anderson Photography Gallery… open.’ The scissors sliced the ribbon in two and the whole riverside resounded with the great cheer that went up.
Everyone processed through the exhibition, Blythe cut the cake, and Adrian passed out the slices wrapped in napkins. Calum fed his to the ducks who to this day still refused to leave their cosy home on top of the barge, and everyone talked and hugged and said how well Kelsey had done. Holiday-makers and locals alike joined the queues and sampled the last of the cava and squeezed themselves into the gallery space to look around. Just as the day was growing dark again, and Mirren was trying to tell Kelsey from over the crowd in a kind of made-up sign language that she’d sold twelve of the framed prints, Kelsey’s mobile rang. Since everyone she knew in the entire world was here, she guessed it was a junk call.
‘Whatever it is, I’m not interested,’ she said into the phone, realising she might be a little tipsy.
‘You haven’t heard what it is yet,’ whined an indignant, nasal voice.
‘Mr Ferdinand? Is that you?’
‘I’ve got a photography job for you…’
Kelsey laughed bitterly. ‘You’re joking? You realise you haven’t paid me for the last one?’
‘Haven’t I? Well this one’s cash in hand, I’ll give it to you tonight, provided you can be discreet about it. I’ll text you the time and place. Just be ready. This job’s a little… sensitive…’
Kelsey interrupted him long before he’d finished speaking. ‘No thank you, Mr Ferdinand, I’m not in the least bit interested.’ She hung up and re-joined the party. The Mayor and the reporters had long since gone, leaving all of her friends and family, who were getting ready to head over to the Yorick for a hot meal round the inglenook. Kelsey, still in triumphant and celebratory mood, thought no more of the phone call.
Chapter Thirty-Nine
‘I know thee not, old man’
(Henry IV, Part 2)
‘May I join you?’ Adrian asked, standing over her table where she nursed a glass of bubbly, and Mirren found she had no objection at all.
The Yorick bar room was packed. Kenneth had done the pub proud and set up a hot buffet of sausage casserole and a mountain of mash and everyone had tucked in greedily. Kenneth even brought out a little dish of sausages for Alex and Ted’s dogs.
Kelsey and Jonathan were sitting thigh to thigh in the inglenook. Jonathan’s parents had only just arrived and were smiling proudly at their son and snapping pictures of them together on Art’s phone.
Jonathan’s mum was as dainty and sweet-looking as Jonathan was tall and broad-shouldered, and Art – dressed in his best suit for the occasion – kept his arm slung lovingly around his wife’s shoulders.
Gianfranco, Myrtle and Valeria were catching up about life after tour guiding and Blythe was sipping champagne next to Norma. The pair were absorbed in conversation. Seeing them across the room, Kelsey found herself wishing she’d brought her camera to capture them together, their outfits a kaleidoscope of pinks and purples all set off with Norma’s shocking red hair, but this was her party and she was here to enjoy it, not to work, though she did snap a quick picture with her phone.
The Scottish contingent were scattered around the bar, all comfortable and relaxed, and Rory and Mari were inconspicuously clasping each other’s hands behind their backs and looking even more besotted than they had at Christmas.
Mirren had felt strangely like an outsider when she sat down alone in the corner by the window, which was decked out in the strands of red loveheart lights she’d hung there herself the day before. She was thinking over the morning’s revelations and reassessing her opinion of Adrian, and now here he was, with her permission, pulling up a chair beside her.
