Bobbles and Broomsticks Page 5

  “Rupert is like family. I’d a soft spot for your mum, too. And her Sunday lunches.”

  Alistair chuckled. “She used to make her Bakewell Tart especially when you were coming. She knew it was your favorite.”

  Charlie nodded. “Will you see if you can find the recipe? You can give to Alice.” He reached over and touched his fiancée’s hand. “If you want to make me a happy man, you’ll give me Alistair’s mother’s Bakewell Tart. Served with custard.”

  “I’ll be sure to remember that, if I ever want to make you happy.” Then she bit into her perfectly marmaladed toast with a decided crunch.

  Since Alice had spent the first years she worked for Charlie showing him her love by baking him cakes every day to go with his tea, it must have seemed a reasonable request when he suggested she bake him a tart. He looked at her in a puzzled way. But then, he hadn’t been at the hen party. Sophie and Boris’s names had come up enough times in this breakfast that Alice was obviously wondering about Charlie and Sophie’s past together and why he hadn’t told her. I didn’t blame her. I was wondering about it myself.

  Alice kept her gaze on her plate. Then Wellesley reminded Charlie that they were to pick up their morning suits that afternoon, and the moment was lost in reminders of where they were to meet and when.

  When the bill came, Charlie put up his hand for it. Mary put one hand on her hip and waved the bill with her other. “That’s a turn up for the books. One of you actually wanting the bill instead of trying to shove it off on someone else.”

  Wellesley put his own hand in the air. “No. No. This one’s mine.”

  Mary looked around at all of us with a surprised look on her face. “Now they’re fighting for the bill. Will wonders never cease?” She winked at me.

  Charlie shook his head at Wellesley. “Really. It’s mine. You were all nice enough to come to my wedding.”

  Giles, Alistair and Nigel jumped into the fray, arguing that they should have a chance at the bill too. I could see Alice was getting ready to just hand her credit card to Mary, and that made me feel like I should pay it. But Wellesley simply stood up and, walking around the table, took Mary in his arms and gave her a big smacking kiss on the cheek. He passed a couple of bills. “Will that cover it?”

  I had rarely seen Mary shocked, but her jaw dropped. “Welly. That’s far too much.”

  “I’m an investment banker now. I make an obscene amount of money. Besides, I hope this makes up for all the times we were poor students and didn’t tip you properly.”

  She patted his cheek. “You’re a lovely boy. You all are.”

  “I work in banking, too,” Giles said, looking put out.

  We walked out together calling out our thank-yous. Beatrice said to Wellesley, “Are you by chance single?”

  He looked down at her, smiling and not a bit embarrassed, as though he was asked this all the time. “In a committed relationship.”

  She shrugged, not looking very surprised. “You make an obscene amount of money and you’re gorgeous. My hopes weren’t high.”

  We all laughed, and Alice put an arm around her slightly embarrassing friend. “Come on. We’ve got some last-minute errands to run. We’ll see you all at the rehearsal tonight.”

  In truth, we really didn’t have a great deal to do today. Alice was extremely organized. Still, we were all getting our nails done, and so we headed toward the salon where Alice had booked us.

  As we walked, I managed to get Alice in conversation. When I thought no one was listening, I asked her if she’d talked to Charlie about Sophie Wynter.

  “No. I wanted to, but then they were teasing him about Sophie coming into his room during university, and I didn’t want to appear jealous. After all, what he did before he knew me isn’t my business.”

  “It is if it bothers you,” I replied.

  “Maybe Sophie had too much to drink and didn’t mean to say what she did.”

  She’d seemed stone-cold sober to me. But I was no expert. “The point is, it doesn’t matter whether she was drunk or sober. If what she said bothered you, you need to talk to Charlie. You don’t want to start your marriage with a cloud hanging over it.” Personally, I suspected that Sophie Wynter had fully intended to cast a cloud of doubt over Alice’s wedding day. Why else would she have said such a peculiar thing?

  “I know you’re right. Of course you are. I just feel silly. If Charlie wanted to marry Sophie Wynter, he had plenty of opportunity. I don’t want to look like a jealous wife when we aren’t even married yet.”

  “Your trouble is you’re too nice for your own good. Because you’d never say something deliberately to hurt another person, you can’t believe such people exist.”

  She chuckled softly. “I’m not a saint, Lucy.” She pointed in the window. “And I do love those open-toed sandals. They’ll look very nice with my going-away outfit. I was going to wear a pair that I already own, but it would be rather nice to have new shoes.”

  I liked the trend of her thoughts. A woman who was thinking about her going-away outfit was clearly feeling confident about her marriage. I glanced at my phone to check the time. We had plenty. “Let’s go and try them on.”

  So then, of course, we all had to go into the shoe store. Alice ended up with her sandals, and Beatrice fell in love with a pair of short boots for fall.

  I didn’t need shoes, but I did find a small handbag that would look a lot better with my bridesmaid’s dress than the straw bag I had intended to use.

  Pleased with our purchases, the bridal party continued toward the nail salon.

  On the way, we popped into a store that sold cosmetics and all tried on lipsticks until we found a shade that suited all of us and was in the right pink tone to match the bridesmaid dresses. Alice and Beatrice were having their makeup done at the hotel, and then the salon was bringing in a couple of hairdressers to do their hair. She’d invited Violet and me to join in the fun, but I couldn’t stand the thought of spending that many hours in the salon. Besides, I wanted to have time to check in with William, Rafe’s butler and the caterer for Alice and Charlie’s wedding. That task probably should’ve been left to Beatrice, as she was the maid of honor, but Beatrice didn’t know William and I did.

  So I agreed to go and get my makeup done in the morning, and then I’d get Sylvia to do my hair. The glamorous vampire always did a wonderful job, better than any hairdresser I’d ever found.

  That would give me time to take care of any last-minute questions that William might have and ensure that everything was perfect before Alice arrived. The bride and her attendants would get ready at Crosyer Manor. Alice’s father had a friend with an antique Rolls-Royce, and they would pick up Alice. We bridesmaids would be driven in a more modest vehicle, but we would all leave from the Tudor manor house.

  We’d feel like royalty.

  Chapter 6

  Alice and Charlie couldn’t have asked for a more perfect wedding day, I thought that morning as I headed to Rafe’s. The only clouds in the sky were a few white puffy ones that looked down benignly like angels blessing their union. Yes, weddings made me think of things like clouds being angels looking down from on high. No doubt all they really meant was that rain was on its way, but I didn’t think it was going to come soon enough to cause any problems for Alice and Charlie, not for their wedding here in Moreton-Under-Wychwood or for the reception to be held at Rafe’s house afterward.

  William was absolutely efficient and so excited about catering the wedding that he been working on it for weeks.

  Alice hadn’t needed to hire a wedding planner. Between her and William, they’d planned the whole thing and beautifully. Since Rafe’s place was closer than mine to the ceremony, I had also taken him up on his offer of a bedroom for the night. I wasn’t a big drinker, but it was nice to know I could imbibe freely of the bottles of champagne even now cooling to the perfect temperature without having to worry about transportation home.

  Ever the perfect host, however, Rafe had organized a
fleet of cars and drivers to transport the wedding guests back to their homes or hotels so everyone could celebrate in style. The drivers were all vampires, but I didn’t think anyone needed to know that.

  Wellesley had thrown some more of his obscene salary around, booking a suite at a hotel in downtown Oxford where Charlie and the groomsmen would get ready.

  Charlie and Alice would spend their wedding night at the Randolph Hotel, a luxurious five-star hotel in Oxford. I was pleased to see that Charlie was pulling out all the stops for his bride. As he should.

  Then, after a night of being utterly pampered in the bridal suite, they were heading on a European tour of the most famous libraries in Europe. It might be an odd way to plan a honeymoon for some people, but for Alice and Charlie, who were united in their love of books, it was perfect.

  Where other brides swooned over pictures of white sand beaches with palm trees and cool blue water, Alice got excited about the Royal Library of San Lorenzo de El Escorial, near Madrid; Trinity College Library in Dublin; and the National Library of the Czech Republic in Prague. I knew this because I’d seen the photos. I had to admit, if you were a library geek, these were some good ones.

  I probably had an hour or so until Alice and the other two bridesmaids arrived. I wanted to check in with William and see Rafe. It would be a busy day, and we wouldn’t get much chance to see each other alone. When I arrived at the manor house in my red car that still had the new car smell, it was William who let me in. He wore an apron and had a smudge of icing on his nose. Other than that, he was his usual impeccable self. “Lucy. How lovely to see you. Do you need me to bring anything in from the car?”

  I was dragging my wheeled bag behind me specifically so he wouldn’t have to get anything out of the car. “No. Did our dresses get delivered all right?”

  “Oh yes. Everything’s ready for you ladies upstairs. I was just doing a few of the last-minute things.” He looked pleased with himself. “Come and have a look. Let me know what you think.”

  I knew that if William was in charge, everything would be well in hand, but when he led me to the front parlor that led out to the terrace and the gardens, I drew my breath in on a gasp. I reached out and grasped his arm. “Oh, William. It’s beautiful.”

  My eyes grew misty as I looked at the flower arrangements, the pillar candles in Alice’s signature pink and white all waiting to be lit when the evening drew in. Silver and crystal gleamed, and as he led me forward, he opened the French doors wide, and we stepped out onto the terrace. I felt as though I were somewhere magical.

  There were round tables dotted throughout the gardens, each holding a tiny arrangement of pink and white roses in a silver holder. All the tablecloths were in her signature pink. There were huge urns filled with flowers on the terrace, and the garden was strung with lights that would twinkle when afternoon turned to evening. The gazebo was set up, ready for dancing under the stars.

  William said, as though I didn’t already know all the arrangements intimately, “There will be a string quartet playing appropriate mood music in the afternoon. And then, when the evening draws in, they will be replaced by a band for dancing. Alice and Charlie wanted to keep things fairly casual, so the speeches will be held here, where everyone will gather around. They want to keep formalities to a minimum, which I always think is a sensible idea.”

  I gazed around in rapture. Add in trays of delicious food going back and forth as well as a buffet in the dining room for later, and I couldn’t imagine a more perfect wedding reception. Impulsively, I said, “If I ever get married, William, you are definitely going to be my caterer.”

  He gave me a strange look, and I realized he was thinking about Rafe and me. It was difficult not to think about Rafe and me getting married here, when it was his home. I was growing to love this place as much as he did. However, there were some fairly obvious issues between us, and they weren’t anything that a session of premarital counseling could solve. Could I marry a vampire? Could he have his heart broken by losing a mortal woman to age and death?

  I thought of Constance Crosyer resting, or not, depending on whether she’d made those beams creak above my head, and wondered, once more, about what his marriage must have been like.

  As though by thinking about him we had conjured him, Rafe strolled onto the terrace. “Good afternoon, Lucy. I hope you’re pleased. I’ve been completely neglected the past few weeks while William turned my house into a wedding venue.” He sounded grumpy, but I knew how pleased he was to host Alice and Charlie’s wedding.

  I walked over and kissed him lightly. “It’s good for you to mix with people. You can’t spend all your life with your nose in a book, you know.” As an expert in rare books and manuscripts, Rafe did, in fact, spend most of his life with his nose in a book. Or papyrus scroll or illuminated manuscript, depending on the client. No wonder he and Charlie and Alice got on so well. They were hard-core bibliophiles. I liked books as much as the next person, but my tastes leaned more to the contemporary paperback style of read. I could appreciate that a first edition of Dr. Johnson’s dictionary was exciting or that a recently unearthed scroll out of the Dead Sea was an amazing find, but I didn’t have the zeal of those three, and I never would.

  While I heaped praise on the bashful William, Rafe looked around, agreeing with me. “You’ve really done a splendid job, William.”

  I thought his butler would explode from so much praise from a man who gave it rarely. We were interrupted by a cheerful male voice saying, “Don’t bother. Put everything away. Change of plans. I can’t go through with it.”

  Since the cheerful tone didn’t match the words, I assumed this was yet another example of incomprehensible British humor. Sure enough, Charlie came around the corner looking as excited and happy as a man in love about to marry the woman of his dreams should look.

  William shook his head. “You have to go through with it, mate. Or I’ll shove all two hundred and twenty handmade shrimp vol-au-vents down your throat. And as many crab puffs.”

  Male handshaking and backslapping ensued. Once more I realized I would never understand men. Certainly not British ones.

  I wasn’t quite as pleased to see Charlie as the others were. “Charlie, what are you doing here? Alice will be here in an hour, and it’s bad luck to see the bride on the day of the wedding.”

  “I know. I checked with Beatrice, and they’re still at the hairdresser. I wanted to speak to you, actually.” He looked very dapper. He’d obviously had his hair cut and styled, and I suspected a professional shave job. He was wedding-ready but for his morning suit, and he looked gorgeous.

  My eyebrows rose at that. “Me?”

  “Yes.” He looked apologetic. “Take a walk with me?”

  Oh, dear. It didn’t seem very good when the groom wanted to take a walk with one of the bridesmaids on his wedding day. Still, I tried to act nonchalant as I walked down to the lawn to meet him. “What’s up?” I asked as we began to follow the path that led away from the garden and into the woods behind the manor house.

  “It’s about the hen night,” he began, looking over at the sheep grazing happily in a distant field. I got the feeling he was more comfortable looking anywhere but at me.

  I tried to keep my tone light. “You know what they say, Charlie, what happens at the hen night stays at the hen night.”

  Now he did turn to look at me. “Then something did happen?”

  “No. It’s an expression. Don’t you say that here? It’s like, ‘What happens in Vegas stays in Vegas.’”

  He looked utterly confused. “What’s Las Vegas got to do with anything? I wish you’d focus, Lucy. I’m serious.”

  I shook my head. “Sorry. You were saying? The hen night.”

  “It’s just that Alice has been acting a bit odd, rather distant, since the hen night. Did something happen I should know about? Every time Sophie Wynter’s name comes up, Alice gets a strange expression on her face.”

  I turned to him and put my hands on my hip
s. “It’s not me you should be talking to about this, Charlie. It’s Alice. You guys have to live together for the rest of your lives. You need to be able to talk about things.”

  “I tried to explain about Sophie, but Alice claimed it was all in the past and she wasn’t interested.”

  Oh, Alice. “Of course, she’s interested. She just didn’t want to seem like she was obsessed with your ex. Don’t you understand women at all?”

  “Frankly, no.”

  Well, I didn’t understand men, either, so I had some sympathy.

  “Sophie Wynter was an unfortunate mistake. Our families knew each other, you see, and Boris and I played together as boys and went to school together. Sophie is a few years younger. I didn’t think too much about her until one summer during university. I saw her for the first time in several years, and she had grown into a stunning young woman. Well, you’ve seen her.”

  “Yeah, she’s a real catch if your taste runs to the cold, cruel type.”

  “She was famously loathsome to anyone who worked up the courage to ask her out. It was sort of a joke amongst our friends. And then she paid a flattering amount of attention to me and, naturally, I had a go, and when she said yes, I was as surprised as anyone.”

  I could feel my lip curling up in disdain all on its own. “You went out with her on a dare? Just to see if you could?”

  “All right. I’m not proud of it. But remember, I was young. All of about twenty-one. I wasn’t dating anyone else at the time. We were together for one summer. And then it ended, and I went back to school.” He had a funny look on his face, and I felt there was more to the story that he wasn’t telling me.

  Okay, maybe what happened at the hen party was supposed to stay at the hen party, but I thought he should know what Sophie had announced to us all. “Charlie, she said she’d been engaged to you.”

  He didn’t look completely shocked by this news, nor did he immediately refute it. He let out a long sigh. “It wasn’t serious. We were at a charity event, and there was a fortune-teller. It was all in good fun. But after she’d had her turn with the woman, Sophie told us the fortune-teller had predicted we would get married. I laughed and said, ‘Well, I suppose we’re engaged then.’”