I didn’t think it was possible, but Carolyn looks even worse when I step back into the room, her face deathly pale beneath last night’s streaked mascara.
‘Jeez, is she okay?’ I whisper the question at Alice, but Carolyn overhears.
‘I’m fine.’ She takes a shuddering breath and her hand reaches for her stomach. ‘Just feel a bit sick.’
Oh, no. She’s going to hurl. The very worst bit of a hangover, especially if you’re in hearing distance of the sufferer. This room feels suddenly too small, the bathroom too near. Ugh.
‘Piers is going to be so annoyed.’ Carolyn’s hand is still clutching her stomach. ‘His parents are arriving today and look at the state of me.’
Alice pulls her sister into a hug, stroking her hair like a dog. Tom is no longer in the room – and who can blame him? I’d backtrack out of here if I could get away with it, even in my unicorn pyjamas.
‘It’ll be fine. We’ll get you cleaned up and you can rest here for a bit until you’re feeling better. I’ll nip downstairs and bring you some food up when you’re ready to eat, okay?’
Carolyn nods, but her face crumples again almost immediately. ‘They said they were setting off early. They could be here at any minute. And I’m going to throw up.’
Carolyn suddenly leaps up off the bed and bolts for the bathroom. Alice looks at me, her brows down low, but if she’s looking at me for assistance, she’s barking up the wrong tree. I can’t deal with people puking. The thought of it is making me feel a bit queasy.
‘Alice?’ Carolyn’s voice is small and childlike. ‘Can you get Piers for me?’
‘Of course.’ Alice, still clad in her pyjamas and robe, pushes her feet into a pair of complimentary slippers, but I throw myself in front of the door before she can leave.
‘You can’t go. You can’t abandon me here with that.’ My eyes dart to the bathroom. I haven’t heard so much as a gag yet, but it’s surely only a matter of time.
‘That?’ Alice places her hands on her hips and quirks an eyebrow. ‘You mean my sister?’
Your sister who is about to vomit all over the place. You’d think I’d be accustomed to playing nurse after a childhood filled with looking after Mum, but I don’t possess an ounce of bedside manner.
‘I need to go. I’m supposed to be meeting Archie for breakfast.’ I turn to reach for the door handle, but Alice stops me. She’s smiling when I turn to face her. How can she smile at a time like this? The room is about erupt into the soundtrack of spew and she looks like she’s about to burst into song.
‘Wow, you’re keen. I never thought I’d see the day Emily Atkinson was so keen to see a boy that she’d leave wearing her pyjamas.’ Gah! She’s right. I am still wearing my pyjamas. And if the Primark PJs weren’t enough, my greasy hair is sticking up all over the place and I’m pretty sure I didn’t remove my make-up before I went to bed last night. ‘I knew Archie would be perfect for you. Didn’t I tell you?’
‘You did.’ I push a smile on my face, hoping it looks dreamy and not psychotic. ‘And I’m supposed to be meeting him down in the dining room. It’s all arranged.’
‘I’ll pop in on my way back,’ Alice says. ‘Let him know you’ll be delayed. No offence, honey, but you need a shower before you go anywhere.’ She kisses me on the cheek to soften the blow before toddling on her way. I lower myself onto the stool in front of the dressing table, avoiding another glance at my ghastly appearance. Still, I know Alice is right. I need a bloody good scrub before I venture anywhere today. Hopefully Carolyn will stop hugging the toilet basin long enough for me to jump into the shower.
Finally, there’s a knock at the door and Piers arrives. I’m expecting him to be hopping mad – or at least grumble a bit at the state of his bride-to-be – but he’s full of concern as he hurries into the bathroom and crouches in front of Carolyn, pushing the curtain of strawberry-blonde hair away from her face and tucking it behind her ears. It must be love, because he doesn’t brush it back into place when he catches sight of her face.
‘I’m really sorry,’ Carolyn says in that small, childlike voice again. ‘I wanted this week to be perfect, but I’ve ruined it.’
‘You haven’t, darling. You’ve organised an amazing week. Everybody is having so much fun.’
‘But your parents are arriving any minute. Look at the state of me!’
‘It’ll be fine. I’ll take them out for brunch, take them for a walk around the village, whatever. Give you time to feel more like yourself.’
‘You can’t do that. They’ll be expecting to see us both.’
Piers shrugs. ‘It’s our wedding, Carolyn. We can do whatever we want. I’ll tell them you’ve got one of those hair and make-up rehearsal things. Come on.’ He pulls her gently to her feet. ‘Let’s get you in the shower. We’ll wash everything away – the hangover, the stress. I want to see you smile again.’
‘I don’t think there’s a shower powerful enough for that,’ Carolyn says, but there is a hint of a smile already going on.
‘I’m really sorry.’ I roll my eyes and plonk myself down in the seat opposite Archie. I’m about an hour late, even though I didn’t blow-dry my hair properly. It’s still damp on my neck, but I didn’t want to leave Archie waiting in the dining room any longer. Plus, I’m starving. ‘We’re having a bit of a nightmare up there, but I think it’s all sorted now.’
‘It’s okay.’ Archie looks up from his coffee with a smile. ‘You’re worth waiting for.’
I’m not sure how delicate Carolyn’s feeling after her revitalising shower, but I’m feeling rather sickly right about now.
‘Shall we get some breakfast?’ Archie pushes his coffee away and stands up. ‘I think we’ve missed out on the baked eggs with spinach, though.’
What a shame, I think as we move across the room to the buffet cart, but I manage to push down my sarcasm and fix a hopeful smile in place.
‘Maybe they’ll have more tomorrow?’
Archie places a hand on my shoulder and gives it a squeeze. ‘This is what I like about you, Emily. Your optimism! You’re so positive and bright. Nothing gets you down.’
He obviously doesn’t know me at all and is going to be sorely disappointed by the end of the week.
‘We all need to be more like you, Emily!’
I’m almost shaking with the suppressed need to bat his hand away from my shoulder. ‘Oh, I don’t know about that.’
‘It’s true.’ Archie indicates that I should help myself to the food on offer first, so I grab a plate and start piling it with scrambled eggs and wholemeal toast. If I have to endure breakfast with this man, I’m going to damn well enjoy it. ‘So, what are our plans for the day?’
I freeze, the scrambled eggs suspended between the buffet cart and my plate. ‘You mean after breakfast?’ I wasn’t aware we’d made plans to do anything, at least not together.
‘Yes.’ Archie helps himself to a single slice of toast. ‘What fun things are we going to do?’
‘I was going to go up to the library.’ I haven’t had chance to visit the library yet, but Alice has told me it’s stuffed to the gills with dusty old books, which is my idea of heaven, but it won’t be Archie’s cup of tea.
Will it?
‘Do you know, I haven’t been to the castle library for…’ He shakes his head as he places a solitary rasher of bacon on his plate. ‘Well, a very long time. I’d love to join you. Thank you.’
I wasn’t aware I’d invited him to join me, but whatever. At least if Alice gets wind of our library excursion (which I will make sure she does), she’ll be satisfied I’m upholding my end of the bargain.
‘And then afterwards, we could take a stroll around the grounds.’ Archie pops a grilled tomato on his plate and a tiny portion of mushrooms. ‘There’s so much I want to show you, Emily. You have to have the full Durban Castle experience.’
‘We aren’t going to play spin the bottle under the umbrella tree, are we?’ I’m masking my discomfort with a joke, realising too late that I’m supplying him with ideas.
Shut your gob, Emily.
‘Ha ha. Not really my style any more, I’m afraid.’ Archie starts to move away from the buffet cart, so I shove a little bit more of the scrambled eggs on my plate and grab a cup of coffee from the posh machine set up next to the cart before I join him at our table.
‘So…’ Archie waits for me to sit down before he picks up his cutlery. ‘Library first, and then a lovely stroll. Perhaps we could ask Lilianna to arrange a flask of tea and bit of cake. There’s a gorgeous little meadow on the other side of the stream, up by the chapel.’
‘That sounds…’ Too romantic for my liking and not something I want to participate in, no matter how much it would thrill Alice.
‘Archie!’ There’s a huge sigh of relief coming from the direction of the dining room door (at least I think that’s where it was from. It could quite easily have gushed from me as I’m saved from having to finish my sentence). ‘I have been looking for you everywhere! Why is your phone going straight to voicemail?’ Francelia, who is descending upon us, narrows her eyes.
‘I wanted some peace and quiet while I had breakfast with Emily,’ Archie says, which causes Francelia’s mouth to purse. ‘Not from you, obviously. You know you’re my favourite aunt.’
What a lick arse!
‘Hmm.’ Francelia’s face and tone conveys that she suspects there’s a healthy dose of hogwash shovelled into Archie’s words, but she relents and drops a kiss on top of his head. ‘You’re a darling boy.’
‘Why did you need me?’ Archie grabs a napkin and dabs at his mouth. ‘Is it urgent?’ He’s already scraping back his chair.
‘It is, rather.’ Francelia emits a sigh and shakes her head. ‘Peter and Henrietta have arrived, but I can’t find Piers or Carolyn anywhere. She knew Piers’ parents were arriving this morning. Why does she have to be so irresponsible?’
‘Have you checked their room?’ Archie asks, which earns him a tut from his aunt.
‘Of course. That was the first place I checked, but there’s nobody there. I even talked Lilianna into loaning me the master key.’
What a gross invasion of privacy. I know for a fact that Carolyn is tucked up in Alice’s bed (it’s where I left her, with Piers practising his wedding speech as though it was a bedtime story), but I’m not about to divulge the information. It sounds like their absence is going to offer me a reprieve from tea and cake in the meadow for a start.
‘Roderick still isn’t here.’ Francelia’s voice is rising as a vein at her temple threatens to pop. ‘And I have so much to do. Carolyn didn’t want to hire a wedding planner as I suggested – no, she wanted to do it her damn self, but guess what that equates to?’ She jabs a thumb at her chest. ‘It equates to me having to take on all the responsibility for this wedding!’
Francelia is so close to losing her shit. I’m tempted to whip out my phone and record it to show Alice later. There’s no way she’d believe me otherwise.
‘Aunt Francelia.’ Archie places a calming hand on her arm. ‘Would you like me to look after Piers’ parents until either Piers or Carolyn are found?’
Francelia’s knees seem to give way. She clings to the table with one hand and Archie’s arm with the other. ‘Oh, would you? Oh, you’re a sweet, sweet boy.’ Francelia kisses her nephew on the cheek before gathering herself, throwing her shoulders back and adjusting her chin so it’s jutting into the air. ‘That would be a great help, Archie. Thank you.’ She turns to me, her usual icy demeanour back in place. ‘Would you please tell Alice that I cannot attend dinner tonight? I cannot possibly leave Peter and Henrietta to fend for themselves on their first night here. Lord knows, Carolyn isn’t proving to be much of a hostess.’
Ah, yes. The treasure-hunt prize. I’d forgotten about that. ‘I’m sure Alice will be gutted you can’t make it.’
Francelia is already marching back towards the door. ‘Yes, I’m sure she will be utterly devastated at missing out on a dinner date with her wicked stepmother.’ She raises a hand and performs a beckoning motion. ‘Come along, Archie.’
Archie groans and brings my hand to his lips, pressing them to my fingers. ‘Talk about rubbish timing, eh?’
I attempt to hide the grimace but fear I’ve done a pretty shoddy job of it. ‘Never mind. We’ll catch up later.’
‘Yes,’ Archie says. ‘I’d like that. Perhaps we’ll make it to the meadow after all.’
Not if I have anything to do with it.