But when Kate rang Will to make the arrangements, she was mortified to discover that this was the first he had heard of it. As it happened, he was going to be in Cork city on Thursday attending a charity function with Walking Wounded where they were to be the guests of the Lady Mayoress. He offered to pickKate and Brian up the next day and they would drive the rest of the way together.
Grace was bitterly disappointed when she learned that her plan to throw Kate and Will together for the drive down had been scuppered. However, she cheered up when Rachel had pointed out to her that this would be better for their cause as it would provide what she called ‘maximum lifestyle contrast’. Brian would be too cheap to spring for the train so Kate would have a nightmare journey down by bus, surrounded by smelly students going home for the weekend. Then Will would roll up in his classic car, a knight in a shining Jaguar, to whisk them the rest of the way in speed and comfort.
True to form, Brian hadn’t let them down. Kate’s relief at not driving the whole way with Will turned quickly to regret when Brian had insisted that they take the bus, complaining that the train was too expensive. Besides, he’d said, the bus was ‘friendlier’. Kate had longed to override him by paying the difference, but she was too broke to make the gesture.
So, the bus it was, and now, apart from being knackered, she was in a foul humour. The bus was indeed half the price of the train but it took twice as long. Her mood wasn’t helped by Brian wittering on about the wonderful ‘characters’ you got on buses. Kate wondered if he was referring to the backpacker behind them, whose surreptitious weed-smoking was making her nauseous, or the red-faced pensioner across the aisle who was leering at her.
‘Are you cold?’ Brian asked, amazed, as she took a big black cardigan out of her bag.
‘Just tired of being the floor show,’ she said, pulling it tightly over her breasts and folding her arms over it.
* **
Four hours later, the bus pulled into the station in Cork city. They found Will waiting for them outside, leaning against his car, the sun bouncing off the gleaming paintwork and his snowy white shirt. ‘Hi, Kate,’ he said and bent to kiss her.
Kate noticed that his hair was beginning to grow out. ‘This is Brian. Brian, Will,’ she said, introducing them.
‘Hi, Brian, nice to meet you.’ The two men shook hands.
‘Isn’t Tina with you?’ Kate asked.
‘She’s off doing a photo shoot forVoguein the Caribbean.’ Will took their bags and opened the boot of his car.
Kate was relieved. She always felt uncomfortable around Tina. Out of the corner of her eye, she caught Brian glowering at Will’s car, no doubt mentally calculating his carbon footprint.
‘Crikey, what have you got in here?’ Will asked, as he hefted Kate’s bag. He wouldn’t have batted an eyelid if it had been Tina’s – she never went anywhere without her own weight in cosmetics and enough shoes to sink the Titanic. But Kate had never struck him as the high-maintenance type.
‘Oh, you know,’ Kate shrugged evasively, ‘just a few bottles.’ She had spent half of yesterday running around buying gifts for Brian to give her parents, not trusting him to do the right thing.
It was such bliss to stretch out in the front of Will’s car with the window open and the wind in her hair that Kate forgot to be self-conscious.
‘This is lovely. It’s a lot nicer than the bus, isn’t it?’ she said to Brian.
‘Afraid I can’t enjoy it,’ he said. ‘I feel too guilty about travelling in such a gas-guzzler.’
Why couldn’t he resist the chance to have a go?Kate thought irritably. It was so rude when Will had been kind enough to give them a lift. If this was the way he was going to behave all weekend,acting superior, making snide remarks and getting in digs at people, it was going to be a total disaster.
Will eyed Brian coldly in the rear-view mirror. It was on the tip of his tongue to say he could get out and walk if his conscience was bothering him but, for Kate’s sake, he let it go. ‘I’d better warn you,’ he said to Kate, ‘that Rachel’s bringing the wedding DVD and she’s going to make us watch it at some stage over the weekend.’
Kate groaned. ‘But we werethere. We lived through the whole thing in real time.’
Will laughed. ‘I knew you’d be pleased.’
‘How did your charity ball go?’ Kate asked.
‘Oh, great – until Owen tried to shag the Lady Mayoress.’
Kate giggled. ‘He didn’t.’
‘Oh yes, he did.’
A doughty matron with a twinkle in her eye, Will suspected that the Lady Mayoress had, in fact, been hugely flattered to be propositioned by someone so young.
‘But she’s old enough to be his mum!’
‘Owen doesn’t discriminate on grounds of age, race, creed – or species. He doesn’t discriminate much at all, actually. Luckily for us, she was a very good sport about it. Her husband wasn’t so pleased, though. I just hope we never get invited to Buckingham Palace. I doubt the Queen would be amused.’
‘And Prince Philip would beat him to a pulp!’
