Page 11 of The Forever Match

What had happened in their lifetime — in terms of queer rights, queer love, queer anything — was seismic. Two women walking up an aisle in a royal space. Her teenage self would never have believed it. Her teenage self would have devoured every news article about it, and sobbed.

“You’re going to make an incredible wife.” Victoria’s eyes grew glassy.

“Don’t, or you’ll start me off.” Ash swallowed hard.

“I can’t help it.” Victoria wiped under one eye, careful of her mascara. “I’m due on next week, and my emotions are all over the place.”

“If your mum sees, she’ll shout at you.”

“If my mother spots me crying, she’ll have me sectioned.” Victoria rolled her eyes and did a well-practised impression of her mother. “No weakness on display for the future Queen, Victoria.”

When they got to the top of the aisle, the magnitude of what was going to happen wasn’t lost on Ash. The Queen and Desmond sat in the front row, with the dogs at their feet.

The celebrant, Moira, greeted them warmly. She oozed positive energy and had gone out of her way to help them in the weeks preceding with what they could and couldn’t say. She was also unflappable in the face of this much royalty, which impressed Ash no end.

“How are we feeling? Ready for the big day?” Moira lived her life clad in white and beige linen, which suited her down to the ground. If she turned up in anything else on the actual day, Ash was going to be shocked.

“As we’ll ever be,” Victoria told her.

Moira gave them their positions.

“Did you bring the rings, Ash?” she asked.

Ash nodded. “We did.”

She signalled to one of the security staff, who brought them over. They were too valuable for Ash to casually carry them around.

“Just in case we need to practice putting them on.”

Which, in retrospect, seemed a little excessive. Surely, of all the things in the ceremony, she could manage to put a ring on Victoria’s finger?

“If you’ve got them, we might as well give it a run through.” Moira gave her a full-beam smile.

The security staff retrieved the posh ring box from his pocket and handed it over.

Ash took her future wife’s hand. It was only when she focused that she saw her hand was shaking. And this was only the rehearsal. If she crumbled in front of the world and became a meme, she’d never live it down. She’d have to give up football and live in the grounds of their Kensington cottage. At least the grounds were big enough to put a football pitch on.

“When you’re exchanging rings, make sure you’re not pulling a strange face like you just were, Victoria,” the Queen interjected, rather unhelpfully. “Future Queens always look serene, remember?”

Victoria dropped Ash’s hand, put her own hand on her hip and glared in her mother’s direction. “Like you? Always serene?”

“Exactly,” the Queen replied with a satisfied smile, as Honey and Truffle barked their agreement.

Moira smoothed over the family tension. “Ash, do you want to put the ring on Victoria’s finger and read out your vows?”

Ash shook her head. “I want my vows to be a surprise on the day.” There was also the small matter of her not having written them yet. She placed the ring on the end of Victoria’s finger, then glanced up, straight into those crystal-blue eyes.

A bark at her feet jolted her out of the moment.

Ash jumped.

The ring slipped from her fingers.

Truffle, who had clearly been waiting her entire eight years on earth for this exact opportunity, lunged towards it, and the ring disappeared.

“Oh my god!” Victoria dropped to her knees and seized Truffle’s jaw, prising it open with both hands. “Spit it out, Truffle!”

Ash dropped to her knees. Was Truffle smiling? Whatever, she was definitely eating something.