Maddy’s dress lifted slightly in the breeze, then settled again.
The officiant glanced down at her papers, steadying them with one hand. ‘We’re gathered here today…’
The left French door creaked loudly, shifting a bit on its hinge in the breeze.
Eva watched Maddy. She was looking straight ahead, but not at Adam. It was that slightly unfocused look Eva had come to recognise, like she was standing just a fraction outside her own body.
The breeze came again, stronger this time. The dress lifted higher. Maddy reached down automatically, holding it down, her beautiful face flushing with light embarrassment.
The officiant cleared her throat, raising her voice a touch. ‘Marriage is a commitment—’
The gust hit.
It came without warning, a sudden, forceful rush that seemed to gather itself from the garden and hurl straight through the open doors.
The bottom half of Maddy’s dress lifted and ballooned up, exposing her just shy of indecency. She pushed it down quickly again, fighting the wind and not entirely winning. The bouquet in her hands shuddered, petals tearing loose and scattering across the threshold and out into the garden.
The officiant’s papers lifted, flapped wildly, and then tore free completely.
‘Oh!’ she exclaimed, reaching after them but was too late.
White sheets spiralled out into the garden, skimming over heads, dipping between chairs. A woman in the second row let out a startled cry as one wrapped around her face before sailing on.
But that was all shits and giggles compared to what happened next.
The arch gave a visible shudder. Then the doors joined in. The left one slammed inward with a sharp crack, making Maddy—still battling with her dress—flinch. The right door swung wildly on its hinge, banging once, twice, three times against the frame. Each impact briefly hid and then revealed Maddy and Adam, like a silent-era stop-motion movie about a wedding gone wrong.
Ralph appeared from within. ‘Sorry, just need to…’ he muttered, bracing his legs against the left door and leaning forward to hold the right with his top half, behind the couple, becoming wedding furniture.
Another gust followed, not quite as strong but enough to keep everything unsettled. The door strained in Ralph’s grip.
‘We might need to shift out a bit,’ he called over his shoulder.
‘No, wecan’t,’ the officiant said automatically, still half-turned, watching her paperwork disappear across the lawn.
‘Theywon’tstay open,’ Ralph shot back, as the door jerked again in his hands.
As if to prove the point, the right door wrenched free of his grip for a split second and slammed into Adam’s bottom. He howled at the slap. Maddy’s hand flew to her mouth.
But while everyone watched the doors misbehave, the real villain of the piece revealed itself. The arch. One of its supports shifted in the soft ground, tilting the whole structure at a worrying angle.
‘Careful,’ someone murmured.
Two more staff rushed forward, grabbing at it, trying to steady it before it went completely.
Now people were muttering, concern in their tones.
‘Is this safe?’
‘Should we…?’
Another gust pushed through, catching the fabric of the arch and lifting it as a very young woman in a wait-staff uniform appeared and ran forward, grabbing hold of the rebellious structure.
Adam stepped forward.
‘Alright,’ he said, louder now, pitching his voice toward reassurance. ‘Bit of wind. We can just give it a second…’
The officiant made a small, helpless gesture at the place where her pages had been.
