Page 46 of Be More Lucy

‘Go on then?’ Em was curious now. She’d been pondering how to solve the venue problem all the way back from the railway station too, but the only solution she’d come up with was to delay the wedding, and she didn’t want to do that.

‘Why don’t we have an engagement party?’ Jack suggested.

Was that it? Was he mad? That meant they’d have two celebrations to organise. ‘That’s going to be even more stressful. I thought we were keeping it low-key?’

‘Hear me out first,’ he said. ‘We invite our friends and family to the engagement party - only the ones we get on with. We’ll have no pressure from our families to include Uncle Tom Cobbly and all because it’s just an engagement party. But what they don’t know is we secretly got married that morning at the registry office in Barnstaple. Just the two of us. We get a couple of the office staff there to act as witnesses. Then we announce it at the party in the evening. What do you think?’

Em grinned. ‘I like it. I like it a lot.’ It would eliminate the stress and potentially save some money so they could spend that on the new house, but there was one drawback. ‘Lucy would be upset at missing out on the ceremony.’

‘Ok then. We ask Lucy and Mark to be our witnesses and swear them to secrecy. We only tell them on the day, so there’s less risk of it slipping out accidentally. They’ll be in Dashford for the engagement party anyway. We won’t need to come up with some excuse to get them here.’

‘That could work.’

‘I’m not as stupid as I look sometimes,’ he laughed.

‘When are we going to do it?’

‘As soon as possible, as far as I’m concerned.’

‘Nancy will be disappointed about not hosting the wedding reception here.’

‘So we have the engagement party here instead.’

‘How are we going to tell her without spoiling the surprise?’

‘We tell her the truth, but we leave out the bit about the wedding. We say we can’t get a decent ceremony venue without having the reception there too. And they’re all booked for at least 18 months, so we’d like an engagement party in the meantime if the offer of the marquee still stands for that.’

Genius. ‘I love you, Jack.’

‘I’m glad about that. It will make being married a lot easier if you do,’ he laughed.

26

‘I have good news,’ Jack announced as he walked into the flat the following evening.

‘I was just about to say the same.’ Em joined him in the hall and gave him a kiss. ‘You first.’

He put his laptop bag down and took off his jacket. ‘I’ve managed to reorganise my diary so I can work at home tomorrow, which means we can go straight round to the house as soon as the solicitor lets us have the keys.’

‘Lady Luck is on our side at last,’ said Em. ‘I’ve been dying to tell you my news all day.’

‘Why didn’t you text me?’ he asked.

‘You said you were in meetings all day, and I wanted to tell you face to face.’

’Well?’ He looked at her quizzically.

‘Nancy’s fine with the engagement idea, so I contacted the marquee company. They’re fully booked until February but they’d just had a cancellation for the last Saturday before Christmas. The registrars have a free appointment early that day, too. So I’ve got them both pencilled in subject to confirmation from you.’

He picked her up and swung her around. ’So I get a new Mrs Jack Campbell for Christmas this year?’

‘I’m not sure I like the way you said that, but yes, you and I will be husband and wife in fourteen weeks and five days’ time.’

‘I’m not bothered if you don’t want to be Mrs Carver. You can call yourself Nellie the Elephant for all I care.’

‘Sounds good.’ Em pretended to give it serious consideration. ‘Perhaps I’ll go for that. It will make me more memorable when I’m marketing my portrait services.’

‘Mrs Elephant Paints would have a certain ring to it,’ he laughed.

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