‘Those shoes look wicked, too, with the Louboutin red soles!’
‘On the whole, it’s a very feminine, girly cake,’ I said, eying it critically. ‘I suppose the shape of the top layer is a sop to Harry’s job, but otherwise, the only masculine thing about it is the little figure of the groom next to the bride on top.’
‘Harry won’t mind. He wants me to have the wedding of my dreams, though if it was left to him, we’d have a quick ceremony in a register office. I don’t want a huge wedding, but of course he’s had to invite his teammates …’
I groaned.
‘He couldn’t very well not invite them, but he’s going to warn them to behave themselves – they’ll have to, because we had a real search on to find somewhere for the reception at such short notice, so it’s in a posh country house hotel, not a marquee. If they start throwing food about, I don’t think the staff are going to be very pleased about it.’
‘I’m sure you’re right,’ I agreed. ‘And you don’t want to be landed with a huge bill for cleaning up the mess, either.’
‘That’s true. I’ve tried to keep the costs down, but even a small wedding seems to be super-expensive these days.’
‘Well at least your cake didn’t cost anything, because it’s my present to you both,’ I said. ‘I’m so glad you like it.’
‘I don’t just like it, I adore it … but how on earth will you get it to the reception in once piece?’
‘I won’t – I’ll pack the ball of flowers up separately, on a bed of bubble wrap, and I have special boxes for transporting tiers of cake, because I always assemble them at the venue. I even carry a repair kit with me, just in case, though so far I’ve never needed to use it.’
‘The venue for the reception is a bit of a drive from here. When will you take the cake over there?’
‘Since I’m your one and only bridesmaid, it will be easier for me if I can take it the day before. Otherwise, it would have to be the crack of dawn, so I can dash back and change.’
‘I’ll phone them and ask, but I’m sure they’ll be fine about you delivering it the day before – and I’ll come and help you,’ she offered, then paused and asked, hopefully, ‘I don’t suppose you’re free for the next couple of hours?’
‘I suppose I am between jobs at the moment, because I’ve just baked the cakes for my next commission. Why?’ I asked suspiciously. ‘What do you want me to do?’
‘Nothing much, it’s just that I’ve got hundreds of little silver organza wedding favour bags in the boot of the car, and boxes of stuff to go into them, and I hoped you might give me a hand …? It would be much more fun if we did them together.’
‘Fetch them in,’ I said resignedly, and actually it was fun filling them with foil-wrapped chocolate hearts, balloons, bubble-blowing bottles in the shape of three-tiered wedding cakes and silver and gold-covered dragées, especially since afterwards we ate all the leftover chocolates.
*
We’d arranged that Laura would come over on the afternoon before the wedding, to help me take the cake to the reception venue, but instead, to my surprise, when I opened the door I found Wes Rufford standing on the doorstep, looking like an advert for expensive aftershave.
I thought I’d imagined him for a couple of minutes, for I have to admit that he’d haunted my dreams a few times since I’d met him, though of course I’m not responsible for what goes on in my unconscious.
But it really was him and today he didn’t look so much tall, dark and handsome, as tall, dark and anxious.
‘Hi Kate,’ he said nervously, ‘it’s me, Wes.’
‘Yes, I remember you,’ I said. ‘In fact, given what happened last time we met, I’m hardly likely to forget you, am I?’
‘Probably not,’ he agreed and then offered me a tentative smile. ‘Laura had a few last minute things to do, so she rang me to ask if I’d mind giving you a hand with the cake, instead.’
‘I suppose you’d better come in, then,’ I said, grudgingly. ‘I don’t suppose you know the way to the venue, do you? Only that would be really useful, because my sat nav thinks it’s hundreds of miles away in the south of England, but Laura said it was barely over the county border into Cheshire.’
‘Actually, I do know, because I went there to suss it out with Harry when they were first searching for somewhere to have the reception. It’s a lovely old house, but well off the beaten track. I could drive you there?’ he offered.
‘I’d rather take my van, because I can secure the cake safely in it. It’s already packed up and ready to go with everything I need to assemble it when I get there.’
‘Fair enough,’ he said.
I became conscious that I was still wearing my sugar-frosted pinny and holding an icing bag in one hand. ‘Come through. I wasn’t expecting Laura for half an hour or so and I was just finishing off a cake for another customer.’
‘I know I’m a bit early,’ he apologised. ‘I hope I’m not in the way.’
I pointed the nozzle at a kitchen chair and said, ‘Just sit there while I do this and don’t distract me.’
He made a gesture of zipping his mouth closed and meekly sat where I’d told him.
Luckily there were just finishing touches to add to the smallest tier of the horseshoe-shaped cake I’d been icing, so I did those and then put it under a cover, next to the other two layers.
‘That looks very pretty,’ he said, when I’d released him from his vow of silence. ‘It’s unusual to see a blue wedding cake.’
‘The bride’s favourite colour is that Wedgwood blue and the cake is horseshoe shaped because she runs a riding school. Her fiancé is the local blacksmith, so it’s a marriage made in heaven,’ I added.
‘Forged to last?’ he joked.
‘And that,’ I agreed, switching the kettle on to make a cup of coffee before we set out. When I turned, I caught him looking curiously round my kitchen.
‘This isn’t at all how I imagined it would be – I thought you’d have a much bigger area to work in and yet here you are in a tiny cottage kitchen!’
‘The house belongs to my parents – they bought it as an investment years ago and when the last tenants moved out, I moved in and started up my business here on a small scale.’
‘But Laura says you’re very successful now?’
‘The orders book is pretty full, but it’s taken some time to build up to that. And now I suppose I’m a victim of my own success, because I need bigger premises, but I haven’t really had time to look for anything.’
‘I like the area round here. I’ve been looking for somewhere quiet to live and ideally I want a little bit of land, or a big
