Hannah could see her mum talking and her dad nodding along. Mo had clothed her cushiony body in a classic jade number and Jeremy wore a grey suit and a brocade waistcoat. Both parents looked pumped with pride.
‘The hot guy,’ Amanda Louise whispered. ‘He gave you the tissues.’
‘Oh. Friend of Rob’s,’ she said vaguely, feeling that Nico didn’t deserve someone as annoying as Amanda Louise ferreting for information on him.
Then the photographer began to call for parents to join the photos and then aunts and uncles, cousins and friends. Eventually, the whole party was perched on the grand staircase behind the happy couple shouting, ‘Hooray!’
Rob and Leesa shouted loudest of all.
Chapter Seven
Hannah was relieved when the wedding party was finally ushered to the top table, snowy white punctuated with peach napkins. She could glug down a glass of water and kick off her stilt-like shoes under the long tablecloth. She was still stuck with Amanda Louise. All the bridesmaids were on Leesa’s side of the table while Nan, Mo, Jeremy and Eerich the best man were lined up beside Rob.
Try as she might to remember that Amanda Louise, Leesa’s best friend, had to be put up with, Hannah couldn’t help but be irritated as her companion’s gaze lit on Nico on a round table nearby and she began to gush ostentatiously about the hotel’s gracious proportions.
The top table was being served by waiting staff but ordinary guests had to queue at a buffet and Nico, showing no sign of listening, went to juggle three plates of hot meats, quiches and side dishes. Hannah would have jumped up to offer a hand if he hadn’t been managing so swiftly and efficiently. She watched Josie play a game with Maria, who was strapped firmly into a high chair. Josie was a slender child with a ready smile, Maria a cherub with curls at the ends of her hair. Nico returned and set a plate before each girl.
As Amanda Louise expounded on the table wine Hannah ate hot beef, chickpeas and roasted tomatoes, still watching Nico’s group. Nobody would guess Maria wasn’t his. He divided his time equally between the two girls as Josie chattered and Maria ate with an approving, ‘Mmm, mmm, mmm.’
When the feeding frenzy around the buffet had passed, the staff delivered cake stands to each table and shortly after came the tortuous business of the speeches. Eerich was funny and Jemima touching, wishing their parents were here to see Leesa married but still enjoying the chance to speak at a wedding. Rob thanked everyone for joining in their wonderful day and the toasts marked an end to formality.
The volume of noise rose and people began table hopping. Nico set Maria free and Josie got down to play with her. Other kids joined them and soon they were skidding around the polished floor in their socks. Nico arranged himself so he could watch them, stretched out his long legs, poured a huge glass of red wine and unfastened his top shirt button behind the knot of his tie.
Amanda Louise began lecturing again, this time on the subject of the bridesmaids’ dresses. ‘I tried to persuade Leesa we should have silk. Silk’s so classy,’ she said carryingly. ‘I can’t bear anything man-made.’
Hannah retorted before she considered her company. ‘Not even orgasms?’
Nico snorted into his glass, then snatched up his napkin.
‘Fun-nee!’ sniped Amanda Louise and stalked off to talk to someone further down the room.
Nan shuffled up to take Amanda Louise’s seat, bringing with her the remains of a chocolate eclair. ‘That’s Rob’s friend, that Swedish boy, Nico, isn’t it?’ She licked cream from her fingers and nodded in Nico’s direction. He glanced up and smiled, apparently hearing Nan when he hadn’t acknowledged Amanda Louise’s clarion accents.
‘That’s right.’ Hannah gave him a wave.
Nico cast a glance at the playing children then got up and approached their table.
‘Remember me, young man?’ Nan demanded, her wrinkles refolding into a smile.
Nico’s eyes warmed. ‘Of course, Nan Heather. Rob brought me to your house and you gave us Battenberg cake. Hi, Hannah.’
Nan beamed at being remembered and was soon interrogating Nico about what he’d been doing since age eighteen and which of ‘these lovely children’ were his. Hannah tensed but Nico simply pointed his charges out. ‘Josie’s mine and Maria’s staying with us.’
After a while, Hannah excused herself to visit the ladies’, leaving Nico to listen to Nan talk about the children she fostered.
Hannah was still barefoot. She was waylaid several times on the way to