Page 27 of A Summer Wedding at Pennycress Inn
‘Ta-ra.’ Turning her back on her, Fiona held her hand in the air and wriggled her fingers.
Ellie felt sick. What had she done? She’d told Fiona something Melissa had spoken to her about in confidence. That wasn’t like her, and whether Fiona had really known or not didn’t matter one bit. She’d still done it and she’d done it in retaliation to Melissa stomping all over her reputation. And that wasn’t right. She’d stooped to Melissa’s level.
Turning back to the dresses, she blinked as tears filled her eyes. Her reputation was well and truly squashed. She quickly glanced around before staring at the dress again. Was it her imagination, or was everyone around her right now staring directly at her? One thing she was certain of: she knew why the caterers had shut her down and, yes, it may have been because they were genuinely busy, but she also knew even if they hadn’t been they wouldn’t have taken business from her, anyway. Fiona wasn’t known as the Gossip Queen for nothing, she wouldn’t have thought twice about muddying Ellie’s name to all who would listen. Especially if it had meant she could get her foot in the door of All Things Love, which she’d been aching to do for years.
Angling herself so her back was facing the majority of the people in the room, Ellie pulled a tissue from her handbag and wiped her eyes. Yes, the lies Melissa and, now, Fiona had or were still spreading about her were awful, but she didn’t have a choice but to continue now. Laura and Jackson were relying on her, they’d put their trust in her to plan their wedding, and do it well. However much Fiona had just made her want to crumble and give up on the whole idea of starting her own wedding planning service, she couldn’t, not yet. She had to see out this one wedding first.
And she was determined to do it to the best of her ability. She was determined to make it as special as she possibly could.
For Laura and Jackson, but also for herself as she had a feeling this would be the last wedding she’d be planning.
16
‘Come on, we’ve only got an hour left and we’ve still got three clothes rails stuffed full of wedding dresses to look through.’ Pushing the metal chair away from the little table they’d just been drinking coffee at, Ellie held out her hand towards Laura. She knew Laura had had enough and, if she was honest, she had too. Ever since seeing Fiona she’d wanted to head home, but she was here for a reason and she wasn’t about to allow Fiona or anyone else to stop her from doing her job. ‘One hour and then we can head back to Pennycress. I promise.’
‘Oh, really? A whole hour?’ Instead of taking Ellie’s hand, Laura pushed away her empty mug and placed her elbows on the table before sinking her face into her hands. ‘I don’t think I can. They’ve all merged. The hundred or so dresses I’ve tried on have all merged into one giant monstrosity. I couldn’t even tell you which was my favourite.’
‘That means none of them were.’ Ellie rolled her shoulders back.
‘But I must have liked one of them. Just one.’ Glancing up, Laura held up her forefinger, desperation seeping into her tone.
‘Nope. If you’d found your perfect dress, you’d be able to tell me every single detail about it. Every single position of each diamanté or stitch.’ Ellie laughed. ‘But it’s a good thing you can’t, it tells me we’ve not found it, and it’s sitting on that rail right at the back, hidden between two other dresses.’
‘Ellie’s right.’ Standing up, Nicola joined Ellie, and held out her hand too. ‘Up you jump, Laura. We’ve a wedding dress to find.’
‘I hate you. I hate you both. Do you know that?’ Groaning, Laura held her hands out and let both Ellie and Nicola pull her to standing.
‘Oh, we know.’ Ellie grinned.
‘And we don’t care. Or we won’t care if we find your dream dress.’ Nicola shook her head fondly.
‘Well, I can save you a whole lot of trouble and we can go home now because if I’ve not found it by now after walking miles up and down two thousand clothes rails and looking at five million different dresses, then I’m not going to suddenly find it now. Can’t we just go home? Please?’ Taking her hands from Ellie and Nicola’s grasps, Laura clasped them in front of her and pleaded.
‘But what if your perfect dress is the next one we find?’
‘Besides, it’s late in the day and over half the people who were in here have since left; we’ve got more space and can take a closer look at the rails.’ Ellie glanced quickly around them. It was always the way with these dress sales, they let too many people in, so you had to practically force your way through the throngs of bridezillas to reach any dresses, but then closer to the end, the number of people thinned out and it was a whole lot more pleasant an experience.
‘That just means all the good dresses have gone.’ Laura shrugged. ‘We might as well give up.’
‘Don’t be daft. Did you see that hideous flouncy gold one that woman was clutching to her chest and practically crying over before we ducked out and got coffee?’ Placing her hands on her hips, Nicola stared at her.
‘The shiny one?’
‘That’s the one. Would you have wanted that? When we watched her make her way to the tills, did your heart break? Had you been picturing yourself walking down the aisle towards Jackson wearing it?’
‘He’d have laughed at me.’ A hint of a smile flickered at the corners of Laura’s mouth.
‘Precisely. Everyone has different tastes. Now get moving and let’s see what else we can find.’ Nicola turned and led the three of them away from the small pop-up cafeteria and back towards the wedding dresses, which were set up a safe distance away from the liquid beverages and sticky treats.
Ellie mouthed ‘thanks’ to Nicola as she walked with them. Throughout the day, Nicola had been a star, ready to cajole Laura at every turn, sympathising when a dress Laura had liked on the hanger hadn’t looked anything as good once she’d tried it on and campaigning for her when she found one that had suited her. But it was true, Laura hadn’t found her dream dress. And Ellie had been doing this job long enough to know that when a client found something they loved and absolutely one hundred per cent wanted for their wedding, whether it was the venue, dress or even the colour of the chair covers, that person would be able to describe it in precise detail months down the line, let alone minutes. ‘Let’s take a look over there in that corner this time.’
‘Good idea. I don’t think we’ve looked over there, have we?’ Nicola smiled.
‘No, that was where that group of women were trying to haggle the price down with the poor staff member.’ Laura shuddered. ‘I understand weddings are expensive and they probably thought they could use the money they saved elsewhere, but there was no need to shout off like they did and demand they get a couple of hundred off it because there was the tiniest lipstick stain on the inside of the fabric.’
‘Especially when the exact shade of lipstick matched the bride-to-be’s lips perfectly.’ Nicola shrugged. ‘I’m just glad we don’t have people like that coming into Pennycress, I don’t think I’d have the patience.’
‘Oh, I wouldn’t either. Not at all.’ Laura shook her head adamantly.
