Bridesmaid Elena:
Cappuccino-coloured strapless column dress
(Oscar de la Renta)
Nude suede shoes (Rupert Sanderson)
Jewels (borrowed from Mama)
Total est. cost: £22,800
‘Pretty good, ha?’
‘It’s time to go in if we want to get a good seat!’ Annie glanced at her watch and chivvied Ed, Lauren and Owen – all decked out in wedding finery – towards the entrance of the cool grey chapel.
‘You look great! Have I told you how fantastic you look?’ Ed slipped his arm round Annie’s waist and smiled at her.
‘I know!’ she winked at him.
‘Look at your boobs!’ he couldn’t help himself, ‘they are magnificent.’
Glancing down at the cleavage straining her dress at the seams, she felt a rush of guilt. This wasn’t just about a new bra…
She was in a tried and trusted wedding outfit because it had been a frantically busy morning and there had been no time for experimentation in the twenty-five-minute slot she’d left herself for getting ready. But she did look good in the teal empire-line silk, lace matador jacket on top. Fantastic hat, fantastic green heels, and the vibrant glow which followed the morning she’d had. She’d been so busy, she’d been so needed and she’d been so excellent at her job.
Since seven this morning, Annie had been at Svetlana’s Mayfair home, styling and perfecting the outfits of everyone in the bridal party.
Ever since Svetlana had been reconciled with Harry, the Svetlana and Annie friendship had swung so easily and naturally back on track. Svetlana had called and had started making wedding outfit styling arrangements with Annie just as if nothing had happened, which in many ways was the simplest sort of apology. It was as if Svetlana was saying ‘let’s not bother about all that stuff, going forward together as friends is what matters.’ Perhaps not so surprisingly, Svetlana had also begun to make friends with the daughter she’d not had for all these years.
‘She have hard time in Ukraine. Is hard there. And she very clever girl. Very clever, very beautiful with big ambition. She just like her mama,’ Svetlana had told Annie, proudly. As if Annie hadn’t already spotted the family resemblance.
Annie had personally laced Svetlana into her elaborate couture wedding gown, transforming her into a picture of grown-up bridal perfection. Then she’d helped Elena into her tall, cappuccino-coloured column dress, noting all the physical as well as mental features that the mother and daughter shared.
‘Pretty good, ha?’ Elena had asked when she’d seen herself in the mirror.
Petrov and Michael wore matching pageboy outfits, which admittedly might have looked ridiculous on most other little boys, but these two were dark-haired and serious enough to carry off cream knickerbockers, pale tights and buckled shoes.
Many other female friends of Svetlana’s had arrived for Annie’s expert finishing touches, and final decisions on which hat, which shoes and where to pin the flower corsage.
‘How does Igor feel about your wedding?’ Annie had asked her friend.
‘It does not matter,’ Svetlana had told her with a smile, ‘the divorce deal now watertight. No changes permissible or I press abduction charges, plus, he lose so much money with bad investments. Plus, his new girlfriend run off with the tennis teacher…’ At this Svetlana had given a great roar of laughter which had threatened to unravel the magnificent up-do perched on top of her beautiful head. ‘Silly, silly Igor,’ she’d added with an almost soft and nostalgic look.
‘I think you’re going to be much, much happier with Harry.’
Svetlana had turned from gazing critically at her reflection in the mirror to look at Annie directly.
‘Yes,’ she answered, ‘I think you right, I’m going to be happy with Harry. Not super-rich any more, but happy. Something new for me, ha? My good friend Annah,’ and at this she’d wrapped Annie in an unexpected embrace.
Now, Annie ushered her family into the Victorian splendour of the chapel. Set on an emerald lawn, it was surrounded by a peaceful quadrangle of equally Gothic style buildings, where the lavish reception was to be held afterwards.
She couldn’t help taking long, curious looks around the church at the assembled crowd. There was such an intriguing variety of people. On Harry’s side, it was very posh and old-school English: lots of morning suits, feathered hats and sensible frocks with matching coats.
On the bride’s side, things were much more unusual. Heavy-set, shaven-headed men sported gangster-ish pinstripes and blatant gold jewellery. The girls – each one more gorgeous and more beautifully dressed than the next – were tall, thin, blonde, elegant and Eastern European, draped in Gucci, Valentino and all the luxuries money could buy.
Harry was already in the front pew, tugging nervously at his cuffs, but beaming with happiness in everyone’s direction.
Then came the stir at the back of the chapel, which suggested the bridal party had arrived. Annie looked behind her and saw that Svetlana’s boys and Elena were entering the vestibule.
Then the phone in her handbag began to buzz. She’d turned it to vibrate just in case there was some last-minute dress smoothing to be done.
‘Annah!’ Svetlana’s voice hissed at the other end of the line, ‘I’m in the church!’
Annie looked back at the vestibule again, but couldn’t see any sign of the bride.
‘Uri just courier me huge diamond ring. Huge!’ she repeated, ‘he say I should be his wife, not Harry’s. Now I’m not so sure. Uri very rich man. He want to invest all my money in his fund, make me multimillionaire. With Harry… we are just comfortable.’
‘WHAT?!’ Annie exclaimed prompting curious looks from the people around her. Then in a fierce whisper she told Svetlana, ‘but Harry’s going to make you happy! It’s time to forget about the whole multimillionaire thing, it’s over, babes. So last season. If you ask me, Uri sounds like a fraud! And anyway, bling is finished. Real is in. It’s time to grow up.’ With a final attempt at persuasion, she burst out, ‘You can’t even flog off gold snakeskin bags on eBay! No one is bidding!’
Annie looked helplessly at Ed, who was sitting beside her looking confused.
‘Svetlana?’ he guessed, ‘Crisis?’
‘Just a moment,’ Annie said into the phone.
‘No! I have no moment,’ Svetlana replied, but Annie had already removed the phone from her ear.
‘It’s the kind of crisis only Svetlana could have,’ Annie whispered urgently to Ed: ‘another supposed multimillionaire has just proposed to her. Now, she doesn’t know what to do.’
An amused look settled on Ed’s face and he shook his head slightly. ‘Could it get more colourful?’ he asked with an eyebrow raised. ‘Pass me the phone.’
Now Annie’s eyebrows shot up: ‘The phone? You want to talk to her? Are you sure… I don’t know if that’s such a good idea.’
Guests’ heads were turning, and Harry was beginning to turn a shade of pink which Annie knew would only get deeper, the longer this delay went on. The organist was still trilling away with the background music and had obviously not yet been given the signal to begin the Wedding March.
‘Hello Svetlana, this is Ed, Annie’s Ed,’ he began, ‘there was something I wanted to say…’
‘Ed?’ Svetlana asked with surprise. This was the man who’d brought Elena back. The man who’d spoken so sternly to her on her own doorstep!
‘If you marry for money,’ Ed began, ‘there will always be someone richer. If you marry for beauty, there will always be someone more beautiful, but if you marry for love…’
He looked up and his eyes found Annie’s as he went on in his calm, teacher’s voice, ‘you’ll never find anyone else who can compare.’
With that he hung up the call and took hold of Annie’s hand.
‘What did she say?’ Annie was desperate to know.
‘I dunno,’ Ed gave a little shrug, ‘she’s a big girl. It’s up to her.’ He still didn’t take his eyes from her. ‘I love you,’ he whispered, ‘let’s get married.’
Suddenly, Annie wrapped both arms around him very tightly and whispered her confession in tiny words, right against his ear. ‘Ed, you got me pregnant.’
To her astonishment, he turned his head and whispered straight back, ‘I sort of know.’
‘You know?’ She pulled away: ‘what do you mean you know?’
Aware the rows of guests both behind and in front were now really taking an interest, Ed leaned to whisper in her ear as quietly as he could, ‘Annie, you very quietly throw up in the bathroom most mornings and think that I don’t hear you… you’re a little tired most of the time… and your boobs…’
‘Why didn’t you say?’ she asked but realised as the words left her lips that he had been waiting for her to tell him… he had been giving her time to adjust… get her head around it. ‘Thank you,’ she said, moving in to him again.
With a tight hold around her waist, whispering to keep this as private as he possibly could, he had to ask the question now. He would burst if he kept it in for any longer.
‘Now’s not the time, I know, but I answered your phone, and someone wanted to confirm an appointment with…’ he faltered for a moment, ‘a clinic?’
‘Oh no, no! It’s not what you think, oh Ed,’ she held him tightly, ‘I had Botox and I’m allowed to get a tiny top-up as soon as I pass week twelve.’
Whatever Ed might have said in response to this was lost as the great booming sound of a twenty-four-pipe organ filled the chapel and reverberated off the walls. ‘Mendelssohn’s Wedding March’: it was a classic. Svetlana had used it for all her ceremonies.
As she came magnificently down the aisle, she managed to spot Annie and Ed in the sea of guests and she actually paused for a moment, just long enough to mouth a few words at them.
Because Annie had tears in her eyes, she couldn’t quite be sure, but she thought Svetlana said, ‘Love, ha? OK, we try love.’