hair back over her shoulder. ‘Do you think they look natural?’
‘Well,’ Lottie paused, how natural could that particular shade of bleached blond look?
‘Never thought I’d need them, but my hair has been a right state since I had Roxy. I mean, at first it was really thick, you know?’ Lottie didn’t. ‘I mean that happens when you’re preggers, doesn’t it?’ She didn’t pause for an answer. ‘But then it started coming out in handfuls. I mean, we’re going to have loads more kids, so I suppose it will get thick again,’ she looked doubtfully down at her handful of hair, ‘but I can’t wait, can I, babe? I mean, it has to look right for Davey every day, doesn’t it?’
‘It’s lovely,’ said Lottie truthfully. It was. Sam always had a full head of perfectly tamed hair, even if the colour wasn’t always a shade that nature intended. Unlike her own hair, which tended to resemble something a bird would make a nest in, and was a kind of very natural brownish shade. Like bark. The same colour and not far off the texture when she got out of bed in the mornings.
‘Aww thank you, babe. I know you always say it as it is. Mandy said it suited my personality, isn’t she the sweetest?’
‘Very. Er, where’s Roxy?’
‘She’s in the car, babe. Scruffy is looking after her.’
‘He’s a dog.’
‘I know that, but he’s dead protective, wouldn’t let anybody harm a hair on her head.’
Lottie, who had been worrying more about what Roxy might be doing to the dog and the car (she had what Sam called an ‘inquisitive nature’) let it go.
‘Don’t worry, babe, I’ve got the key this time.’ Sam waved it in the air; leaving it in the ignition one time had led to the roof being put down, which was quite handy seeing as Roxy had managed to lock all the doors and was howling as she’d then shoved the keys down the back of the seat and got her fingers trapped trying to get them out again. Heaven only knew, Lottie thought, what she’d be like by the time she was four years old. ‘She was good as gold when I left her, promised to stay in her seat with the seatbelt done up and everything, bless her.’
‘That’s, er, good.’
Sam beamed, totally confident in her role as mother. ‘Well, it was little Aggie told me.’
‘Aggie?’
‘My new au-pair. She arrived the other day and she’s such a sweetie. That other one decided to stay in Croatia, said me having little Roxy had reminded her how important family is and she was homesick. Isn’t that sweet?’
Lottie had a feeling that generous and lovely as Sam and her family were, trying to cope with them would remind anybody how much they treasured their own.
‘So, anyway, Aggie said had I seen the paper? She never stops reading stuff, was asking where my library was the other day.’ Sam giggled. ‘She’s a right card. I gave her a pile of mags, but she seems to prefer to go and get her own from the village, says it’s no trouble and she wouldn’t dream of taking mine. Anyhow, she brought this back.’ Sam opened the newspaper out. ‘Makes you out to be a right cow, and we all know you’re not. You didn’t do that though, babe, did you?’ She frowned. ‘Says here that you wouldn’t give this poor girl any money back or let her have her special day here and she’s skint, can’t afford to get married at all now.’
Lottie sighed and sank down into a chair next to the Aga as she studied the picture of the distraught bride-to-be. ‘I never said she couldn’t get married here.’ The problem was there had been so many cancellations lately she was struggling to remember exactly what she’d said to this one. ‘But, I wouldn’t have given her a deposit back, cos you don’t do you? That’s the point of a deposit, isn’t it?’ She chewed the side of her thumb.
‘Well, yes,’ Sam looked doubtful, ‘but if she can’t have her wedding here, then it’s only fair to give it back, isn’t it? I mean, it’s not her fault the place burned down, is it? Haven’t you got insurance for that type of thing, you know Acts of God, or whatever.’
‘It wasn’t God, it was the act of a drunken toe rag.’ It was rather unfair that this article was all about how evil she was and barely mentioned the inebriated groom, who had nearly toasted his family and friends as well as her own. ‘But I haven’t cancelled her wedding. It’s not until next year and the house should be fine by then, so she can still have it here. That’s why I haven’t given her a deposit back.’ She skimmed over the article again. ‘In fact it’s right at the end of next summer, I remember her now.’ And she did. It had only been yesterday and one of the shortest conversations of the lot. In fact it consisted of ‘I want to cancel and can I have all my money back?’ followed by the dial tone before Lottie had even had time to discuss reduced rates or extra flowers (which was her latest tactic in the effort to stop the rush of cancellations). ‘She says here I’ve ruined her fairy tale, wrecked her dreams, and it has to be perfect or her whole life will be destroyed ‘cos his family will think she’s cheap.’ Lottie pulled at Harry’s ears absentmindedly and he wriggled, trying to lick her hand. ‘And she didn’t say any of that to me.’
‘What about this one, babe? Here’s another one.’ Sam pointed to a paragraph further down the column. ‘I think this is the Downton bit, where she says I just wanted to be like Lady Charlotte.’
‘And I’m not bloody Lady Charlotte,’ sighed Lottie, knowing she was sounding a right grump.
‘Look here, she says I was promised I’d be treated like a lady of the manor on my special day and now they won’t give me my money back or give me my dream wedding, they just think they can do what they want to normal people like us, it’s a disgrace.’
Lottie peered at the photograph, this time the bride-to-be had actually gone to the trouble of putting on a wedding dress. ‘Isn’t it bad luck to let your groom see the dress beforehand?’
‘Probably not hers, hun. I bet the press lent it her.’
‘I remember her.’ Lottie jabbed at the picture. ‘We bloody did offer her some money back. I gave her a cut price and offered them a marquee.’ She hugged Harry to her. ‘The thing is they’re not the only ones. They’re all pulling out. It’s like somebody has told them to. None of them will discuss it. The moment I ask they just slam the phone down.’
‘Like who, babe? Who would tell them to cancel? I mean that Andy that was just here. He’s a bit naughty but he wouldn’t do anything like that, not on purpose.’
‘I don’t think it’s the papers,’ she paused, ‘I keep getting these other phone calls all the time, as well as the cancellation ones.’ In fact the phone rang almost non-stop and Lottie always leapt on it in case it was good news. But it never was. ‘There’s this bloke who says bungee jumping is the answer to all my problems, then there’s the boot-camp lot who want to do squats on the front lawn, and this hyper weirdo who says we need an adventure park, not forgetting the loony who said we need lions because they are so going to be the in-thing next year.’
Sam giggled.
‘Then there’s the luxury hotel chain who want to offer spa breaks.’ Lottie frowned, but Sam clapped her hands.
‘Ooh a spa sounds exciting, that would be amazing.’
‘But I don’t
