Midsummer Magic (8 page)

Josie wasn’t the sort of person to get irate, or worked up about things; she normally hated taking charge, and being confrontational, but this was her’s and Harry’s wedding and she just wanted it to be special. So she decided that she would have to take charge for once, and be more forthright.

‘Look, Harry,’ she said, as she caught him drifting off again, ‘this is important. We can’t just sit your Auntie Vi with Dad’s sister. It won’t work. Lulu is a huge snob and an alcoholic to boot. She’ll be vile to Vi, I just know it.’

‘I can’t believe we’re even talking about the tables,’ said Harry. ‘The wedding’s next
year
. Auntie Vi might not come.’

‘Fail to prepare, prepare to fail,’ said Josie. ‘I do not want my wedding to turn into an episode of
My Big Fat Gypsy Wedding
, with brawls at the top table.’

‘Come on, it can’t be as bad as all that,’ laughed Diana, ‘weddings aren’t normally that exciting, except in films.’

‘And we’ll have to keep Ant away from pretty much everyone. He’s bound to upset somebody.’

‘Now that, I can agree on,’ said Di.

‘Oh come on, Josie,’ said Harry. ‘I think you’re being unfair now. And you’re worrying about nothing. Why would anyone want to fight at our wedding?’

‘I just want things to be perfect,’ said Josie, wishing he’d understand.

‘I know,’ said Harry, ‘and they will, I promise. But the most important thing is we’re getting married, and nothing else matters.’

He grabbed her hand, and squeezed it tight, then gave her that little grin she found endearing, and she was instantly mollified. Harry was right; she was getting hung up on detail. Everything would be fine.

‘Excuse me while I barf,’ said Diana, with characteristic sarcasm. ‘I think I’ll just leave you two lovebirds to it.’

‘Di,’ said Josie, stricken. She hadn’t meant to make her friend feel left out, but she knew sometimes she felt she and Harry were in their own little bubble and the rest of the world was excluded.

‘It’s all right,’ said Diana, ‘I really need to get hold of work. I might get a signal on top of the cliffs. And I fancy watching the sunset anyway. I’ll wander back up to the Stones, and see you back at home. At least it means I get to avoid Tony for a bit longer. Result.’

‘If you’re sure,’ said Josie.

‘Absolutely,’ said Di firmly. ‘So lose the stricken face. You and Harry can have some time to yourselves. I’m sure you need it.’

And with that, she was gone.

‘Okay,’ said Josie, ‘time to talk about flowers …’

‘Josie,’ said Harry with a groan, ‘do we have to?’

‘Yes,’ she said firmly, ‘we absolutely do. Now shut up and listen.’

‘I love it when you come over all dominant,’ said Harry, giving her a grin that made her go shivery all over.

‘Oh, do shut up,’ said Josie, throwing a beer mat at him, but she felt better. Organising weddings was hard work, it was bound to make them tense with each other sometimes. So long as Harry always looked at her like that, they’d never have anything to worry about. ‘And concentrate, we have a lot to organise.’

Ant was having a whale of a time. Freddie Puck was fascinating company and Auberon Fanshawe a master of the discreet, or not-so-discreet, celeb story. Ant couldn’t believe his luck. Fancy meeting his boyhood heroes. No one, but no one would ever know how much time the young Ant had spent alone in his parents’ shed with a box of matches and a firelighter, trying out Auberon’s ‘How Do You Light The Burnt Match?’ trick. It was his little secret, but for the first time in his life he felt able to share it. They would understand. Freddie and Auberon were both good sports too, happy to have their photos taken with him, joking that their pictures would no doubt be all over Twitter and Facebook in an instant. Discreetly, when he thought they weren’t looking, Ant had done exactly that. He felt a little foolish when they caught him out, but it wasn’t every day you met your heroes …

‘So what’s your next project going to be?’ Ant asked.

‘Hush, hush, my boy,’ Auberon tapped his nose. ‘Early doors and all that. Let’s say my agent is in some … interesting discussions. And I have a few irons in the fire production-wise. I’m more in the production side of things now, with Freddie here.’

Freddie gave Auberon a sly look.

‘You could always sign up for
A Dream
. I hear an old friend of ours is playing Titania soon.’

Auberon blushed, and looked flustered. ‘I don’t think so,’ he said.

‘What about you, Freddie? Any chance we’ll be seeing
Illusions
back on our screens?’ asked Ant.

‘Possibly,’ said Freddie, ‘but actually, I’m down here researching a new project.’

‘Which is?’

‘Going to different locations in the UK, and trying to work out if the local myths have any grain of truth in them.’

‘Such as?’

‘Well, here it’s the Standing Stones,’ said Freddie. ‘Locally people claim to plight their troth at midnight, and fall in love for ever. I’m going to see whether by suggestion and hypnosis, we can actually make two people fall in love with one another.’

‘Right,’ said Ant. ‘Now
that’s
something I’d like to see. Because I don’t believe it can be done. Take me for instance. I’m not in the slightest bit suggestible.’

‘Really?’ said Freddie. ‘In my experience most people are a bit suggestible.’

‘Well, if you could say, make me fall in love with –
that
woman,’ said Ant, ‘then maybe I’d believe you.’ He pointed in the direction of Diana, then realised Diana had disappeared and he was pointing at Josie.

‘What, that pretty little girl?’ said Freddie. ‘Easy peasy.’

‘No, not her,’ Ant looked round wildly for Diana. ‘She’s marrying my best friend. The other one – she was here a minute ago, tall, large, redheaded, loud, thoroughly obnoxious. She must be round here somewhere. I can honestly tell you she is the last person on earth I would want to be with, and vice versa. If you could make
her
fall in love with me, then maybe I’d believe you.’

‘Are you a betting man?’ said Freddie with a smirk.

‘Okay,’ said Ant. ‘Tenner says it can’t be done.’

‘Twenty, that it can,’ said Freddie.

He extended his hand to Ant.

‘You have a deal, my friend.’

‘Well, that was exciting,’ said Ant, finally making his way over to where Harry and Josie were sitting. Auberon and Freddie, no doubt glad to be free of their most enthusiastic fan, had settled down with their drinks in the far corner. Harry felt guiltily relieved. Maybe Josie would calm down on the wedding chat for a bit. He had tried to be as fascinated about flowers as she was, but he found he just couldn’t do it. All he really wanted was to spend time alone with Josie and not have to mention weddings for a week.

‘You’ve come to join us at last,’ said Harry, ‘and save me from this endless talk of weddings.’

He’d intended it as a joke, but a trace of irritation had entered his voice, and he could see from Josie’s slight wince it wasn’t lost on her. He immediately felt guilty again. He didn’t want to upset Josie.

‘What happened to Dynamite?’ said Ant as he sat down.

‘Gone for a walk to the Standing Stones,’ said Harry.

‘And don’t call her that,’ said Josie.

‘Talking about the Standing Stones,’ said Ant – before he was interrupted by a dramatic figure striding into the beer garden, followed by a retinue of apologetic-looking people clearly trying to calm her down.

‘Who does he think he is?’ she was saying angrily, ‘coming here, spoiling my moment.’

‘Don’t worry about him, darling,’ said a rather androgynous creature dressed in the tightest chinos that Harry had ever seen, and a long flowing top. Harry would have hazarded a guess at the figure being male, if it weren’t for the long painted nails, and the high heels. He/she appeared to be following the woman, a blowsy-looking blonde dressed in tight leather clothes thirty years too young for her and dripping in gold, touching up her make-up at every opportunity. ‘Don’t frown, darling. You’ve only just had the Botox done.’

‘Which means I can’t frown, Gray,’ snapped the woman.

‘Is that?’ asked Harry.

‘Tatiana Okeby, yes,’ said Josie, ‘I remember her now. She and Auberon Fanshawe were all over the papers at one time. But, God, she’s gone to seed.’

‘Put your claws away,’ said Ant. ‘I think she’s rather magnificent.’

Harry couldn’t see it himself, she was a bit bold and brassy for his tastes, but she certainly had … something. The whole beer garden had stopped to listen to her, enthralled by the situation unfolding before them.

‘Tatiana, my darling, what a lovely surprise,’ Auberon Fanshawe drawled. He and Freddie had been sitting quietly in the far corner. Harry could see that Freddie was sniggering into his pint glass, clearly enjoying the drama.

‘Surprise, my arse,’ said Tatiana. ‘You planned this, didn’t you? You and Freddie. Just couldn’t wait to spike my guns, could you?’

‘What do you mean?’ said Auberon, wide-eyed and innocent. ‘Freddie and I are here quite by chance. Freddie’s researching a new TV programme. We’re staying at Tresgothen Manor.’

‘How very convenient,’ said Tatiana. ‘That you just happen to turn up in the same village, where I’ve been staying already, negotiating to play Titania in
A Dream
. I’ve been in talks with Mike Slowbotham about it for days. You’d better not screw this up for me.’

‘As if I would, Tati, as if I would. I’m sure the world is waiting with bated breath for your Titania.’

‘Don’t you dare,’ she glared at him angrily. ‘And don’t call me Tati.’ But she seemed mollified enough to calm down. Suddenly aware of her audience, she smiled graciously around her at the holidaymakers packing out the pub.

Before long someone had plucked up courage to ask for her autograph, and she smilingly obliged, as if the previous scene had never occurred. Soon she was surrounded by an adoring crowd and the chatter had returned to normal.

‘Well, that was entertaining,’ said Ant. ‘What a woman. Never a dull moment.’

Josie laughed and took Harry’s hand. ‘At least we’re not like that,’ she said.

‘I should hope not!,’ said Harry, squeezing her hand tight.

She smiled and squeezed his hand back.

‘I do love you, Harry,’ she said, leaning in to kiss him.

‘Give me a break,’ groaned Ant, and Harry threw a beermat at him.

‘Sorry, mate, I am not going to pretend not to be in love, just to please you,’ said Harry, kissing Josie full on the lips.

‘Oh, Harry,’ sighed Josie, blushing in a manner which was both sexy and endearing, and Harry felt a burst of happiness.

Josie was no diva, thank God. She was lovely and down to earth and straightforward. It was true at the moment she was going overboard on the wedding thing but it was a big deal for her, even if he’d rather have kept things simpler. But the bottom line was they loved each other very much. And that was the most important thing.

Josie walked back from the pub alone. After their all too brief moment of solidarity following Tatiana Okeby’s outburst, when she and Harry had started to actually relax and enjoy some banter about the wedding instead of rub each other up the wrong way, Ant had come along and spoiled it all. Within minutes Harry had become absorbed in a deep conversation about rugby. As Josie had no interest whatsoever in the subject, this was tedious to say the least. She resented the way Ant seemed to expect to have Harry’s attention by virtue of being his best friend.
But
I’m his fiancée, I get preference
, she wanted to scream, even knowing it was childish. In the end, feeling like a spare part as Ant was extolling the virtues of some rugby prop she’d never heard of, she kissed Harry on the cheek, got up and left, telling him not to be too long.

‘I promise I won’t,’ he said, squeezing her hand and mouthing
sorry
at her, which made her feel a little better. Ant could be overwhelming. It wasn’t easy for Harry, she could see that.

The sun was low in the sky, and a warm breeze played through her long fair curls as she left the pub and walked through the rambling network of streets that made up Tresgothen. The shops were busy, tourists spilling out onto the streets, mingling among locals eating ice creams, and bearing gifts from the Piskie Shop, which prided itself on selling the widest variety of piskies this side of the Tamar. As Josie made her way up the steep winding hill home, past the little grey and white houses nestling in the hillside, she felt a wonderful sense of peace. Josie loved it down here; the colour of the sky, the sound of the sea, the call of the gulls, the briny tang in the air. While she enjoyed her life in London, Cornwall was in her blood, and she missed Tresgothen. The pace of life was slower, calmer, and
it’s 200 miles away from Ant
, she caught herself thinking. She felt uneasy that he was here. Josie remembered that long-ago summer, when she’d invited a crowd from uni to stay. She’d actually been interested in Ant, she recalled, blushing. She remembered the way he’d looked at her, remembered the way he’d been back then: exciting, alluring … dangerous. But as soon as they’d arrived he’d been all over some girl, Kerry, was it? Josie had forgotten now. And then, Harry had been there, quiet, sweet Harry, the only person who’d been prepared to come out to see Shakespeare at the theatre with her. Harry. Her lovely Harry. How glad she was she’d found him again. She couldn’t wait for them to be married.

Although … Harry didn’t seem quite as enthusiastic as he had done. Josie blamed Ant, who kept making snide remarks about wearing a ball and chain. Di had told her not to be so stupid when she’d voiced her fears earlier in the day, but Josie was worried. Harry just didn’t seem the same since they’d got here. She wasn’t sure if it was just nerves. There was a strange feeling in the air. It was unsettling and Josie couldn’t put her finger on it …

‘How was the pub?’ Josie’s mum came to greet her. So warm, so reassuring. Some things never changed, and knowing Mum was always there was one of them.

‘Great fun, the boys are staying a bit longer,’ said Josie. ‘We saw Tatiana Okeby –’