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‘You were there, Nikki. You saw how she reacted to that first-choice dress. And you have to admit, it was stunning – totally made for her. I know she’s already a celebrity, but she looked like a fairy-tale princess in that gown, didn’t she?’ Tish’s eyes, the colour of liquid sapphires, glazed over as she tumbled into her own fantasy world.
‘Tish, quit the Cinderella fantasy. We have to sort this fiasco out ourselves. We can’t burden Lilac with the problem. She’s got enough to worry about.’
‘So what are we going to do? I’m slammed as it is. I’ve not eaten since yesterday lunchtime. I’ve got the bridesmaids’ bouquets to finalise, the wedding cake topper to chase – you know the confectioner is crazy, don’t you? There’s the champagne still to source, and I have a meeting with the printer tomorrow to finalise the wording on the invitations andorders of service. The invitations need to be sent out by the end of the week at the latest, although the whole world knows when the wedding is going to be.
‘The only thing that seems to be on schedule at the moment is the music. The organist at the cathedral is sorted and he’s rehearsed the pieces Lilac and Finn have selected for the ceremony. And the band is booked, and the lead singer has even written a song especially for the happy couple that he’s agreed to debut at the evening reception. Oh, Nikki, I’m so excited we’re getting to meet The Razorclaws. That lead singer, Noah Drake – what a dreamboat. I hear he’s unattached. Do you think he has come-to-bed eyes? My sister thinks he has.’
‘Good grief, Tish will you calm down with the hearts-and-flowers fixation. You’ll have to squeeze some time from somewhere and it’ll have to be straight away. We promised to inform the designer they’ve won the competition as soon as possible. Everyone who submitted will be thinking their design hasn’t been selected and they’ll start accepting a bunch of new commissions. There’ll have to be a couple of fittings at least and Lilac is a busy girl. She’s on location in Croatia for three weeks before the wedding which, can I remind you, is just three and a half months away.’
Nikki was used to lurching from one crisis to the next. In fact, she thrived on the daily adrenalin rush. It made her feel worthy of her position as Lilac’s right-hand woman – her Girl Friday. She almost hated it when things went smoothly. But this wedding had proved to be the ultimate headache. Tish was so involved in the romance of it all that, on occasion, she had to restrain herself from throttling her.
Okay, yes, wedding planners had to be in love with everything ‘planet bridal’ to work in the industry, but Tish had taken her obsession to a new level. She was usually to be foundfloating around the office on the wings of Eros, constantly chattering about diamanté tiaras, personalised confetti (with pictures of the bride and groom printed on it, for God’s sake!), and sugared almonds, which she had the perfect excuse to indulge in. Annoyingly, Tish also seemed to have been blessed with a metabolism that ignored the onslaught of sugar. She, on the other hand, despite following a semi-vegetarian diet, still struggled with losing the extra pounds that had crept up on her unnoticed – and it had nothing to do with the cupcakes from the Parisian patisserie that had popped up on the corner in the last three months.
Tish had certainly thrown herself into her chosen career, happy to hunt down the most bizarre of requests as she waited patiently to play the lead role in her own fairy-tale Happy Ever After. Of course the girl had her own wedding day planned right down to the toilet tissue she wanted in the ladies’ cloakroom of the Savoy. Only one tiny detail was missing – there was no groom loitering in the wings, or backstage, or even on the auditions list. So, whilst her own personal hearts-and-flowers scenario was on the back burner, she was content to pour all her energies into conjuring up everyone else’s dream wedding.
‘But where should I start?’
Nikki rolled her eyes. ‘Look, make a list of all the designers who were asked to submit. Then go through the dresses thatdidarrive with the correct paperwork and tick them off. See what’s left. There may be a couple who decided not to submit, but at least we’ll have narrowed it down. I’m late for a meeting with Lilac’s agent, but I’ll be back in an hour and we’ll go through the list together.’
‘Don’t worry, I’ll ring them.’
‘No! You can’t do that.’
‘Why not?’
‘Well, how do you plan on finding out if it’s their dress?’
‘Email them a photo – oh, no, right, I see.’
‘We’ve got to be careful not to disclose the final design of the most anticipated wedding dress this year to anyone. Absolute secrecy – we promised Lilac – nothing until it is unveiled to the world on the steps of Gloucester Cathedral. We can’t go around emailing everyone a photo. Especially the designers whose gowns failed to make the cut. Think about it!’
‘So what are we going to do?’
‘I’ll think of something. Just get that list sorted and I’ll see you in an hour.’
Nikki gathered up the designer handbag Lilac had given her for Christmas and a bundle of box files and left Tish to her task. This latest development was the last thing she needed, but her ordered mind was already clicking through the possibilities as she affixed her new badge of ‘Nuptial Detective’ to her already crowded breast.
Solving problems was her forte, along with a mild addiction to list-making and fighting off the media, sometimes physically. Everything she did was organised with almost surgical precision. There was no conundrum that outfoxed her. She knew Lilac’s entourage gossiped about her for catering to the actress’s every whim, no matter how bizarre or outlandish, and her strategies for negotiating the best price would have embarrassed the head buyer of Poundland. They would locate the creative idiot who had submitted the gown without the paperwork, but she’d have something to say to the designer about his or her business practices.
As she stepped into the glass elevator for her ride down to the foyer, Nikki allowed herself a faint grimace. They wouldprobably end up having to tour the whole country in their search for the elusive designer, which meant Tish had actually got her wish, after all. This wedding was turning into a real Cinderella story, just not the hearts-and-flowers bit – the Poirotesque bit.
Chapter Nine
When she woke a few days later, Sophie felt like she’d been hit by a juggernaut. Her body ached, her head was fuzzy, and when she tried to get out of bed her legs could barely support her as she made her way to the bathroom. She had barely slept, with the competition whirling around her head as she asked herself whether she could, or should, have done anything differently, even though the sensible side of her brain assured her over and over that she couldn’t.
She took a long, hot shower, dressed quickly, then padded into the tiny kitchen to make herself a rejuvenating mug of tea. She felt better, but she still couldn’t stop thinking about the boutique, and she had to struggle against the insistent voice in her head that whispered that all her designs were substandard, and it was time to call it a day on her dream. She grabbed her phone and dialled Scarlet’s number.
‘Is everything okay, Scarlet?’
‘I told you when you called yesterday, and the day before that, and the day before that,everything’s fine.’
‘Well, I hope to be back at the boutique by the end of the week.’
‘Look, Soph, why don’t you take this opportunity to have some time out? A sort of short sabbatical?’
‘What? No! After I’ve sorted out the shop I need to come back and bury myself in the studio. I really need to up my game,Scarlet, especially after receiving this blow to my confidence, and I have to keep designing for my sanity. I also need to return to my own life in London. There’s nothing left for me here in Somersby. I’ve got a few ideas for the Spring/Summer Collection next year floating around in my head that I want to brainstorm with you, and I… I… sorry.’
Despite her attempt to keep a lid on her raging emotions, to her embarrassment, she burst into huge racking sobs.
