‘You better believe it. Jonathon used to say we’d have to pay some man to take her off our hands.’ Molly’s gaze moved instinctively to the kitchen window to watch Jess walking across the grass.
‘She’ll be fine,’ Nick said.
‘She’s still my baby,’ said Molly, voice tight with tears. ‘And why isn’t Max here helping her? He should be here. We don’t know anything about him.’
Nick slipped his arm around her. ‘No, but we will. And Jess is sensible – we have to trust her.’
‘That’s what I said to Jonathon.’
‘And?’
‘I didn’t believe it then either.’
Outside the rain had stopped, so Jess headed over to the swing that Nick had fixed up under one of the big apple trees at the bottom of the garden. Bassa bounced alongside her, tail wagging, glad to be out. As Jess walked the phone rang and rang, and she was about to ring off when someone picked up.
‘Hi, honey,’ said Jess. ‘Not working too hard, are you?’
‘Oh, hello,’ said a very polite female voice. ‘This is Max Peters’ phone. I’m terribly sorry but he’s not here at the moment. May I take a message?’
‘Oh,’ said Jess, totally wrong-footed and almost instantly sober. ‘Oh, sorry – where is he?’
‘He’s left his phone on the table. I thought I’d better answer it.’
‘Oh, right,’ said Jess. ‘Well, if he’s busy could you give him a message for me? Can you tell him –’
But before she could finish the woman’s voice warmed. ‘Jessica, is that you?’
‘Yes, yes it is,’ she said, still not quite able to place the voice.
‘Oh, I’m so glad you rang. Max told me you were terribly busy at work this weekend, which is such a shame. We would have loved to have seen you and congratulate you both on your wonderful news. We are so pleased. But I do appreciate things are a little busy at the moment. I just wanted to say that we couldn’t be more delighted for you both, my dear. Congratulations.’
‘Mrs Peters?’ Jess began, the penny having dropped.
‘Do call me Mummy, or is that too old-fashioned? I’ve never been terribly keen on Mum, or Mother come to that. Maybe you should just call me Daphne.’ Max’s mother laughed. ‘Anyway I was telling Max that the two of you really must come down as soon as possible. I was wondering if you would like me to arrange the cake? We can obviously discuss the design but I have a very good friend. Marjorie. Cordon bleu – fabulous cook. She did the cake for – well, what I’m saying is, if you’d like me to arrange it then I’d be absolutely delighted to call her.’
Jess didn’t know what to say, so she settled for, ‘That sounds wonderful, and I’m sure we’ll be down to see you soon.’
‘Lovely. We were all just planning to go out for lunch at the Lion. Which reminds me, perhaps you and your parents might like to come down for lunch? Max said you were busy next weekend and I know Hampshire is a terribly long way from Norfolk, but it would be lovely if we could all get together – maybe the weekend after? Do let me know.’ She laughed, the sound like the tinkling of cut glass. ‘After all, there is so much to organise and we haven’t got that much time. I’ll tell Max that you rang, shall I?’
‘Yes, please,’ said Jess, totally dazed. ‘That would be lovely.’
And then Daphne was gone and Jess found herself staring at the phone. It rang in her hand seconds later.
‘Jess,’ said Max.
‘What is going on, Max? You told me you were working all this weekend.’
‘I was, I am,’ he blustered. ‘Well, I am tomorrow.’
‘That isn’t what you said when you dropped me off at my place last night. You said you couldn’t stay because you had to be up early to get some system in. And your mother said you’d told her that I was working.’
‘Jess, I’m really sorry.’ His voice was barely above a whisper. ‘The thing is, I wanted to talk to my parents on my own. They’re a bit old-fashioned when it comes to this sort of thing. I just wanted to break it to them gently, that’s all.’
‘You make getting married to me sound like bad news.’
‘That isn’t what I mean at all – but it was just something I needed to do. Please try and understand.’ He paused, presumably waiting for a reply, but Jess couldn’t find the right words. ‘You’re upset,’ he said.
‘Of course I’m upset! I’ve just spent most of the morning trying to organise a wedding without you, with no idea what you like or what you want. I wanted to talk to you about it and you’re over at your mother’s.’
‘I told you what I wanted, something special, I want everyone to see us – a wonderful, perfect day with all our family and friends. No sneaking off to some secret location.’ He paused. ‘Please don’t be upset that I wanted to tell Mummy and Daddy my way. On my own.’
‘I’m not upset that you wanted to tell them on your own, I’d have understood that. What I don’t understand is why you didn’t tell me the truth.’
‘May we talk about this later? We’re all about to go out to lunch.’
Jess wondered what she could possibly say. ‘I’ll call you later,’ he continued. ‘How are all the wedding plans coming along?’
‘That was what I rang to –’
‘Sorry, sweetie, I’ve really got to go. My father’s in the car outside,’ and with that Max hung up.
Speechless, Jess stood with the phone in her hand, furious with Max and feeling horribly hurt. What the hell was he playing at? The phone rang again and without looking at the caller ID Jess pressed receive. ‘I really hope you’ve rung to say something nice,’ she snapped. ‘I’ve been here all morning going through these bloody wedding books on my –’
‘Jess?’
Mouth open, Jessica was caught mid-sentence.
‘It’s me. Remember me? Jack. Your baby brother? I was just ringing up to say congratulations. Bad timing?’ he joked.
‘No, no, not at all – just a misunderstanding,’ she hedged. ‘So how are you?’
‘I’m fine. More to the point, how are you?’
‘Good, great,’ Jess lied, nodding furiously despite the fact that he couldn’t see her. ‘Really well, just getting a bit stressed out by all the stuff we’ve got to do for the wedding.’
‘It’s months away yet.’
‘Yep, but not enough months apparently. According to this list Mum downloaded off the Internet we should have started booking everything about ten years ago. And we want some really special –’
‘That’s what I was ringing up about. I was talking to my boss, Bert, yesterday and he wondered if you might like to have the wedding here.’
‘At Vanguard Hall?’
‘Uh-huh, I mean you can at least think about it.’
‘Oh God, that would be perfect. It’s lovely there.’
‘I think you’d probably have to have the legal bit somewhere else but you could have the reception here if you wanted to. He suggested you come over and take a look round. He was thinking you might like to use the Tythe Barn – after all it’s got loos and fire exits and all that stuff for when we open the gardens up in the summer. Do you know the room I mean?’
‘The one they do tea and cakes in?’
‘That’s the one. Anyway, it’s