I left Mum, Harry and Louise down in town and walked back up the snowy hill alone. I wasn’t convinced about going to watch Kirsty sing – judging by her staid appearance I was fairly sure the sort of music she performed wouldn’t be my cup of tea. I pictured some sort of religious group with guitars and perhaps a flute. But Harry and Mum were right that Douglas was the person to ask. I’d have to make an effort.
But before then, I wanted to see Jamie. And I also wanted to put on my lawyer hat and quiz Tansy about where Jamie stood, legally.
As I walked, I pulled Leona’s phone out of my pocket and called Jamie.
‘It’s me,’ I said when he answered, knowing he wouldn’t recognise the number. ‘I’ve got a new phone.’
‘Hello you,’ he said. ‘That’s brilliant. Where did you get it from?’
‘Harry sorted it,’ I panted. It was hard work tramping up the hill and talking at the same time.
‘And,’ I said, ‘she’s also worked out a way for us to get married. We don’t have to cancel the wedding!’
Feeling triumphant I ended the call, threw my phone into my bag and marched on up the hill with renewed vigour.
Jamie was waiting for me at the front door. I wrapped my arms round him and he kissed my cold nose.
‘You’re looking much better,’ he said as I de-layered – winter clothes were so time consuming. Then he frowned at me, mock-stern.
‘What’s this about cancelling the wedding?’
I giggled at his cross face.
‘It’s fine,’ I said. ‘I thought it was the only thing we could do, but Claddach has sprung into action.’
I explained about Leona and the dress as I followed him into the kitchen. Eva and Allan were there, sitting at the table with Parker. Allan was drawing pictures for Parker and Eva was watching them, a funny wee smile on her face.
She should have had grandkids, I thought. Her son Simon had been a year or so older than Harry. If he’d lived maybe he’d have had kids by now. Bad things really did happen to good people sometimes.
Tansy was leaning against the worktop drinking from a mug. She looked up as Jamie and I entered.
‘Esme’s figured out a way for us to go ahead with the wedding,’ Jamie told her. She smiled at me. It seemed genuine but it was hard to tell.
‘I heard what you were telling Jamie – it’s great news,’ she said. ‘So Leona’s sorting out your dress?’
‘Third time lucky, eh?’ Jamie joked. I glared at him. I wanted Tansy to think Jamie and I had a perfect relationship. Not that we had in fact broken up twice and I was indeed about to buy wedding dress number three.
‘The dress and the food are all under control,’ I said. ‘Harry’s come up with an idea of finding a celebrant too, then it’s just my dad we need to worry about.’
‘What’s Harry’s idea?’ Tansy asked. I grimaced.
‘She thinks we should ask Douglas,’ I said.
‘He’s a funeral director, right?’ Tansy said. ‘Makes sense he’d know people.’
‘I guess,’ I said. ‘I just feel funny about asking him because I don’t know him very well.’
Jamie gave me a sharp look.
‘More likely because you don’t want to know him well,’ he said.
Eva looked up.
‘He’s a nice man, Esme,’ she said. ‘And your mum adores him.’
‘Seems he thinks she’s pretty wonderful too,’ Allan added, giving Parker a crayon so he could colour in the cat he’d just drawn.
I fidgeted guiltily.
‘She is wonderful,’ I muttered. ‘That’s the problem.’
‘Don’t like sharing, huh?’ Tansy said. ‘Parker was the same when I started seeing Michael.’
Embarrassed to be compared to a five-year-old, I changed the subject.
‘Anyway there’s some party tonight – a survivors’ celebration or something,’ I explained. ‘Doug’s niece is singing so I said we’d go along to support her and to talk to him.’
‘What sort of singing?’ Jamie asked.
I shrugged.
‘Dunno,’ I said. ‘But she dresses like a bank manager and she works in an undertaker’s, so I can’t imagine it’ll be very exciting.’
Jamie chuckled.
‘Well I’ll come along and suffer with you,’ he said. ‘For the sake of the wedding.’
‘You go too, love,’ Eva said to Tansy. ‘Let your hair down. We’ll look after young Parker – he can stay over if you like?’
Parker cheered but Tansy looked uncertain.
‘Really?’ she said. ‘You don’t mind?’
‘Course not,’ Eva said. ‘We can make popcorn and watch a DVD.’
Tansy looked at me. I forced myself to smile.
‘Come along,’ I said. ‘You’ve been flat out helping everyone. It’ll be good for you to have some fun.’ I didn’t think for one minute that the party would be fun, but I wasn’t going to tell Tansy that.
‘Right, I’m going to phone Chloe finally and then sort out what I’m going to wear,’ I said to Jamie. ‘I’ll be upstairs.’
Oh it was good to have a phone again and be back in the real world. I sat on my bed, keeping one eye on the window because it had started snowing again and that made me nervous. I logged into the Wi-Fi and synced my contacts on to Leona’s phone, then added my email accounts and watched as dozens appeared in my inbox. There were lots about the wedding, from the registration office in Inverness saying the registrar couldn’t reach us, from the photographer saying the same, and the catering suppliers. I fired off emails saying what a shame, I understood, we were making alternative arrangements and I trusted they would return my deposit.
In my work inbox was an email from a friend, Stacey, who I’d worked with in London. She’d transferred to our New York office, where she was flying high. Her email was full of chat about the Manhattan dating scene and her seemingly never-ending search for the perfect apartment. I paused, tapping the phone against my chin.
As a family lawyer for an international firm I had a good idea of how US law worked. I knew that unlike in the UK not just anyone could look up a birth certificate. Except we could – employees of my firm had access to databases that normal people didn’t. Our credentials had been approved in most of the states, I thought. And we definitely had an office in Boston so we were bound to have been approved for there. I couldn’t do it from here. At work we used a proxy server but it wouldn’t work from my phone on Mum’s Wi-Fi. But Stacey could do it. It was Sunday morning in the States but if Stace was at her computer I knew she wouldn’t mind having a quick look for me. It didn’t take long to run a search.
I typed out an email explaining the bare bones of our situation but claiming it was happening to a friend. I knew if I’d said it was Jamie who’d had a kid turn up on his doorstep, she’d ring and I couldn’t bear to talk about it. Not yet. I asked Stacey to track down Parker’s birth certificate – I didn’t know his exact birthday but I knew roughly, and where he was born. And with Tansy’s name too it shouldn’t be too hard. Then I asked her to email it to me when she’d found it. Straightaway a message pinged back saying she was on it. Good old Stace.
I settled back against the pillows and rang Chloe. When she answered, cautiously because obviously I had a new number that she didn’t recognise, I smiled just hearing her voice.
‘It’s me,’ I said.
‘Aaaaaaargh!’ Chloe shrieked. ‘Where have you been? I’ve been phoning and phoning but you never answer. And then someone said you’d been in the avalanche and I was so worried. I thought you were dead. And because Rob’s in the police and he knows people, I got him to check, so I knew you weren’t dead, but I was still worried…’
As she paused for breath I saw my chance.
‘I lost my phone,’ I said. ‘In the avalanche.’
‘Oh my god,’ Chloe said. ‘So it was true? Are you okay?’
‘I’m fine,’ I said. ‘I’ve sprained my wrist and banged my head, and my legs are aching like I’ve done a particularly full-on spin class, but I’m fine. It was bloody scary though.’ I told her all about being caught up in the snowfall.
‘Rob said you helped people get out,’ Chloe said.
‘Harry helped too,’ I said. ‘There were three people trapped.’ Again I felt the strange mix of pride and fear that talking about the avalanche always gave me.
‘People are saying you’ve got a photographic memory,’ Chloe said with a chuckle. ‘That you remembered exactly where the people were.’
‘It wasn’t quite like that,’ I admitted, knowing she’d know what I meant. Chloe was fully up to speed with my family’s talents.
‘So what’s happening with the wedding?’ she asked. ‘You can sort it all out, right? You and Harry and your mums?’
‘Ah,’ I said, realising I hadn’t yet told her about Tansy and Parker. ‘There’s a bit of a problem with that approach.’
I filled her in on Tansy turning up on the doorstep, Jamie’s desperation to get to know his son, and his plea that Tansy didn’t get wind of any magic whatsoever. When I finished, there was silence.
‘Say something,’ I begged.
‘Shit,’ said Chloe.
‘Not helpful, Chlo.’
‘So what are you going to do?’
‘Harry’s got a plan,’ I said.
‘Riiiight,’ Chloe knew Harry almost as well as I did, which was why she sounded doubtful.
‘She’s being amazing,’ I said. ‘She’s rallying the troops. She’s got Leona to agree to make me another dress. Millicent’s doing the food. It’s a team effort.’
‘Except I’m not there,’ Chloe said. ‘Is there any way I can get to you?’
‘We’re working on it,’ I said, a catch in my voice. ‘Dad’s not here either.’
‘Oh, Ez,’ Chloe said. ‘Where is he?’
‘Not sure,’ I said. ‘On his way. I’ll ring him next.’
‘If he can get to us, he could stay in the cottage,’ Chloe said. ‘Gran’s cottage. It’s empty just now.’
Chloe’s parents lived close to her on the new estate outside Claddach but her gran had lived further along the main road towards Inverness. When she’d died, Chloe’s parents refurbished her cottage and rented it out as a holiday let.
‘Really?’ I said now. ‘That would be brilliant. Check with your mum and let me know. I’ll feel better once Dad is nearby, even if he is on the wrong side of a huge pile of snow.’
We said our goodbyes and as I hung up I realised I’d not told Chloe about Mum and Douglas. Never mind, I’d ring her again tomorrow.
Next I phoned Dad. He didn’t answer so I left a message telling him everyone was okay, the wedding was going ahead, and if he could get up to Chloe’s, we’d found him somewhere to stay until we managed to get him, Olivia and the boys into Claddach somehow. I left my new number so he could ring back.
And then I must have fallen asleep.