Page 20 of Snow Going Back

Kate instantly felt guilty. ‘Sorry, Mum. I’m fine though, honestly.’

Eleanor tutted impatiently. ‘I knowyou’refine, Katherine. I’m not worried aboutyou. I’m worried about thisabsurdidea of you working from anothercontinentwhen you need to be athomeplanning yourwedding!’

Kate pressed her lips together in a long thin line and shook her head.

‘Katherine? Did youhearme?’ Eleanor demanded.

‘I did,’ Kate replied wryly. ‘You’ve spoken to Lance then?’

‘Of course I have,’ Eleanor replied. ‘I wanted to make sure he was OK, poor boy. He put so much into that amazing proposal and then youswan offhalfway across the world the very next day! Honestly, Katherine, what is thematterwith you?’

The six-inch tall doppelganger devil who Kate liked to imagine lived on her shoulder from time to time poofed to life. It nudged her neck and whispered a wickedly tempting response into her ear, but her angel counterpart appeared on the other shoulder just in time and leaped across with a well-aimed rugby tackle. As her two fantastical mini-mes fell away, Kate simply sighed.

‘I have to say, I’m amazed the man still wants to marry you atall, the way you’ve been acting,’ Eleanor continued.

Kate’s eyebrows shot up. ‘What’sthatsupposed to mean?’

‘Imean, Katherine, the way you’ve been acting since the moment he popped the question hasn’t been very nice,’ Eleanorreplied, her tone still huffy. ‘You think you hide it well, but youdon’t. At least not fromme. I know you better than you think I do, you know.’ There was a pause as she sighed. ‘I know you aren’t a fan of surprises. You never have been, but you spentall daylooking like you’d rather have been anywhere else. And you covered it well enough. Luckily, men don’t tend to notice anything that’s not spelled out for them in black and white, in my experience. But Lancewillnotice that his future wife is so uninterested in her wedding that she’s run halfway across the world.’

Kate rubbed her eyes. ‘I’m not running away from anything, Mum. I’mlegally obligedto be here, and it’s bound into a very specific contract that it has to be me.’ It wasn’t a total lie. ‘If I could have avoided this, I would have. I’ve looked for any possible way out, but there just isn’t one.’

‘Hmm,’ Eleanor mused. ‘Send the contract over to me. I’ll give it a look over, see if I can find anything.’

Kate had to pull the phone away as the little devil began to scramble back up.

You are not a lawyer!she silently mouthed at the screen. Then, taking a deep calming breath, she put the phone back up to her ear.

‘… because there could be something in that, Katherine – that’s the sort of thing people often overlook.’

‘Mm,’ she mumbled noncommittally. ‘Anyway, look, I’ll be back as much as I can between now and the wedding. I’m just so glad I have you and Amy back there to hold the fort.’ She dangled the bait and waited.

Eleanor sniffed. ‘Well, yes. Youdohave us.’ Her tone brightened. ‘And I’ve had some utterly brilliant ideas, even if I do say so myself. I think I have a bit of a knack for this, actually. Small or not, I can promise you now, with all I have planned, your wedding is going to be absolutely spectacular. It really is.You shouldseethe design boards I’ve had made up. They should be coming back from the printer first thing in the morning, just in time for the first meeting tomorrow. I called the girls to arms themomentI heard about all this, sodon’tworry. Mother has itallunder control.’

Eleanor’s words sent a little ripple of dread through Kate’s middle. The devil cringed and the angel twisted her clasped hands with a worried grimace.

‘Right,’ she managed, her tone sounding much calmer than she felt. ‘Well, um, I actually need to go now, Mum.’ She put Eleanor on loudspeaker and sent a frantic SOS text to Amy. ‘And you probably need to go, too, I imagine. It’s past three in the morning there.’

Anyone else calling at this time would have surprised her, but this was Eleanor. A woman more stubborn than a hundred mules could ever hope to be collectively. After Kate had ignored her calls, she’d probably set an alarm to try again now.

‘Yes, I probably should sleep. There’s a lot to do tomorrow.’

There was a short pause.

‘You know, you’re a beautiful girl when you show it, Katherine. You know, when you don’t have your hair up in that horrible bun or wash yourself out with one of those awful grey suits. You work hard, you’re interesting and you’reclever.Reallyclever. All in all, you have a lot to offer the world. To offer a partner.’

Kate squeezed her gaze with a suspicious frown. ‘Thanks, Mum,’ she said cautiously.

‘You trulydazzle, Katherine,’ Eleanor said simply.

Kate glanced at the screen to double-check it was actuallyhermother on the end of the line. Apparently it was.

‘But there’s one advantage you don’t have and never will,’ Eleanor continued.

Ah, here it comes, Kate thought with resigned amusement.

‘You’re not aman. Men have the luxury oftime. When they hit forty, their looks just get better. Fifty? They call them silver foxes. Do you know what they call us?’

‘Silver cats?’ Kate quipped.

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