Page 5 of Be More Lucy

‘If you’re sure.’ He looked disappointed.

‘How long do you reckon the speeches will take?’

Jack consulted his handwritten notes on the back of the menu. ‘Current bets range between twenty minutes and a massive two hours if you add it all up.

‘Two hours?’ Charlotte looked horrified.

‘You’re the one who suggested Sam was going to ramble on for 90 minutes.’ Jack laughed.

‘19, Jack. I said 19 minutes!’ Charlotte protested.

‘I’ll be back in about half an hour,’ Em laughed, slipping through one of the open French doors and onto the terrace.

She headed down the steps and along a path to the end of the garden, where a wrought iron gate opened onto a large meadow. She’d spotted it earlier when they were on the terrace. It looked like the ideal place to get away from the hustle and bustle of the day.

The meadow was empty apart from the groom’s brother, Tom, kicking a ball around in the short grass at the edge with his two young sons.

‘You avoiding the speeches too?’ Tom shouted.

‘Yes,’ she laughed.

‘You can join our footie game if you like,’ he offered.

The oldest boy scowled. ‘Daaaad!’

Tom looked appalled. ‘Don’t be so rude. Em can join in if she wants.’

‘It’s ok. I don’t think my footwear’s up to it,’ Em said, aware that now she was standing still, her stilettos were gradually sinking into the ground, tilting her precariously backwards. She stumbled out of them before she lost her balance completely, trying to style it out so Tom didn’t think she was drunk.

Em extracted her shoes from the soil, waved bye-bye to Tom and the boys, then set off along a well-trodden path uphill through the long grass with only her thin cotton shoe liners on her feet.

The meadow was bathed in the golden glow of the early evening sun. It brought back happy memories of that late summer evening last year when she and Jack had finally made love for the first time in the meadow by Dashford Grange. She glowed at the thought. Perhaps she should have let him join her now. He might have carried her up here if nothing else, then she’d have avoided the stabs of pain when she trod on the occasional stone. How did those barefoot models in perfume ads run effortlessly through the grass? They must have an army of minions clearing the path ahead of them.

Em took a few more steps over the brow of the hill and found a comfortable spot to lie down out of sight of the hotel.

She looked up at the clouds slowly moving across the pale blue evening sky. A swallow swooped and dived in the warm summer air. Em pulled out her phone and videoed it, pondering how to capture its movements in a painting.

Her thoughts wandered back to Jack. Was it really only a year since she’d first met him? He’d reminded her in the car as they drove to Birmingham yesterday evening. It felt like a proper partnership now he’d moved into her flat at Dashford Grange.

The warmth of the sun and the buzz of the insects were making Em feel drowsy. She checked the time. Connor would still be talking. She’d stay here for a few more minutes. Em closed her eyes.

3

‘Lost her again?’

Jack turned to see Connor walking towards him across the terrace, clutching a half-empty pint of lager in one hand and a cigar in the other. He had that annoying smirk on his face. The same expression he’d had when Jack had found him in Em’s flat last summer. Jack couldn’t get that image of Connor out of his mind. Standing in Em’s hallway naked except for a towel and doing his best to make Jack believe he’d just screwed Em.

Jack squared up to him. ‘She went for a walk. She didn’t want to listen to your speech. I can’t imagine why.’

‘Didn’t want reminding that she’d lost a good man, I should think.’ Connor said, taking a drag of the cigar.

Cocky bastard. Jack resisted the urge to call him something far worse.Keep your cool. Em may not be with you now this minute, but she isn’t with Connor either.Not that he’d really believed she would be anywhere near Connor, but Jack had noticed that Connor was on his own today, and Em had been gone nearly an hour now. Jack was imagining all sorts of scenarios to explain her disappearance. The hotel wasn’t that big. How had she managed to vanish into thin air?

‘Jack!’ Charlotte was walking towards them both. ‘Ella wants to do the bouquet throw now before her gran has to leave. I’m sure you don’t want Em to miss it. Is she still in the meadow?’

The meadow. Why hadn’t he thought to look there? It was the obvious place for her to go. Em loved walking in the countryside, especially when she wanted to relax. And it would be the perfect place for that on this gorgeous summer evening.

‘I’ll fetch her,’ he said, ignoring Connor and heading to the bottom of the hotel garden.

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