‘The wedding,’ Eva said. ‘It will go perfectly.’
Maddy closed her eyes briefly. Of course it would. That was the problem.
‘Yeah,’ she said, her voice steadier than she felt. ‘I know it will.’
Thirty-Four
By ten on the morning of Maddy’s wedding, the manor was alive with wedding-day movement. Staff crossed corridors carrying chairs, flowers, and trays of glasses.
And Eva had already made one sous chef cry and reduced a waiter to a visible tremor.
She strode through the dining room, checking place settings.
‘Where are the additional candles?’ she asked without looking up.
Earnest nearly dropped the box he was carrying. ‘The, the ivory ones or the white ones?’
Eva closed her eyes briefly. ‘You don’t know the answer?’
‘I’ve got both.’
‘But you only need ivory.’
‘No, I know. I know that,’ Earnest said.
Eva didn’t know why that pissed her off. ‘Then why bringboth?’
‘Belt and braces!’ he said and hurried away before she could say anything else.
Eva watched him go and felt, distantly, that she was probably being unfair to him. But she couldn’t seem to stop herself today.
Jen appeared beside her, holding out a coffee. ‘You’re terrorising the staff,’ she said.
Eva took the cup. ‘I know.’
‘One of the waiters looked at me like he was escaping a hostage situation.’
‘I’ll try to take it back a notch,’ Eva promised weakly.
Jen nodded. She’d worked with Eva long enough to know that wedding mornings always made her intense. She wouldn’t guess it was anything else.
Eva moved into the ceremony hall and took another look at the repaired plaster. Still okay. She stared at it suspiciously anyway, examining the surface like a detective at a crime scene.
Lila appeared through the side doors, carrying a clipboard and looking flushed from rushing around the grounds. ‘Florals are here,’ she announced.
Eva frowned immediately. ‘Now? Why now?’ They weren’t due for an hour. And that mattered with flowers.
Lila shrugged. ‘Ask the florist.’
Eva’s eyes narrowed slightly. ‘I’m askingyou. You took delivery.’
‘Jesus, my mother was like this when she stopped menstruating,’ Lila said.
Jen gasped. Around them, two catering staff abruptly became fascinated by a stack of folded chairs.
Eva stared at Lila in disbelief. The last time they’d argued, Lila had cried. Someone had found their big-girl trousers. But why did it have to be today?
‘You’ve been horrible all morning,’ Lila continued. ‘Earnest looks like he’s about to enlist in the army to escape you.’
