Page 38 of The Wedding Pact
‘Well, you know how things were in the Regency period,’ answered August, heading back to her seat and dimming the lamp on her way past.
‘Not really … ’
‘You don’t know what they used to do? To the maids who worked in the houses?’
‘ … No … ’
‘When the women began to know their minds too much and started to speak out about the poor living wage and unfair conditions, the master of the house would shut them in the cupboard in the wall, for hours, as punishment. He would make them stand in there when they had guests, and they were not to make asound.’ August dropped her voice down low, causing Flynn to lean forward. ‘Only, sometimes, the residents of the house would forget they’d shut one of the maids in there, and they’d go out for the day, and the maids, fearing making a noise, never protested. And then, you can probably guess what happened to them.’
Flynn blinked. ‘That’s awful.’
‘You just have to watch out, if you’re ever here alone and hear a tap-tap-tap that for a second you could mistake as a bird on the window ledge. But listen closely and you might just be hearing the ghosts of the women in the walls.’
‘That is not true, you shut up,’ Flynn cried, and he saw August’s eyes crinkle in the corner. ‘It’s not true at all, is it?’ She laughed. ‘Youarea good actress! Did you make all that up?’
‘Every word of it. I have no idea why this cupboard is all wallpapered over, but I expect it’s because someone, at some point in history, whacked a bloody great MDF door in and it looked unsightly.’
‘I don’t know if I want to plan a wedding with you now,’ he said, to August’s amusement.
‘Yes, you do, come on. First of all, where do we get married. Would you like us to say we got married in Japan?’ she suggested.
But Flynn answered quickly with a definitive ‘No’. He’d thought a lot about having a wedding in Japan, for a long time, but he didn’t want to revisit that again in his mind for a moment, and it felt wrong bringing August out there – even as make believe. It felt like a betrayal to Yui, somehow.
‘All right … ’ she moved on. ‘Shall we stick to the UK?’
‘Yes, but nowhere local to here because you know somebody else in the building will have got married there and we’ll find ourselves down an even deeper ditch.’
‘Good thinking,’ August agreed. ‘Let’s not go with Edinburgh because I like your travelling-by-train-to-our-honeymoon idea. Have you been to Cornwall?’
‘I have, actually, just once when I was little.’
‘How about we say it was at a beach in Cornwall. There’s a nice beach at Watergate Bay with some good places to get a drink nearby. Fancy a beach wedding?’
‘Sounds great,’ he agreed. ‘Does it matter that I don’t know the area?’
‘No, I don’t think so, we can bump out the details with the wedding itself. So, beach wedding, summer?’
‘How about September? Less busy, still good weather?’
‘Or October? Still sunny but a nice chill in the air?’ suggested August, to which Flynn nodded. ‘Did we allow kids?’
Flynn shrugged. ‘Sure. Did we have regular cake or one of those cheese tower cakes?’
‘Both. Was it religious?’ They looked at each other, religion not having come up before. ‘Are you religious?’
‘To be honest, not really,’ he admitted.
‘Me neither,’ she said.
‘And we said no prop rings?’ Flynn asked.
‘No rings. I can always claim I lost mine,’ replied August. ‘It won’t take the neighbours long to realise I’m a loser. Ha!’
Flynn made a note on the pad that August was a loser. ‘Shall we just say the reception was on the beach too?’
‘In a marquee?’
‘Yeah.’
