the whole hog and reviving the traditions of 1816, then?’
Bella kicked him, not very successfully as her feet were bare.
He held her off, looking injured. ‘Only trying to be helpful.’
‘No, you weren’t. If you were really being helpful, you’d tell me who I should get to make the dress,’ Bella said with a sigh. She looked fondly at her ring. ‘You have a really good eye. Haven’t you got a favourite young dress designer as well?’
‘Well, I suppose I could ask around,’ he said doubtfully. ‘But it’s terrible bad luck, isn’t it? I don’t care, but a lot of people do. No point in giving the insects something else to exercise their mandibles on.’
‘You’re probably right. I think my mother would worry too. She’s quite superstitious. Oh, well. Back to the drawing board.’ Bella glanced at the screen again, and said wistfully, ‘Did you see that they got married in Carlton House? Family and fifty guests, that’s all. Those were the days.’
They had decided to marry in the Cathedral. It was beautiful, of course, but not, as Bella said, human-sized. Besides, there was a huge echo. It made their footsteps on the marble floor sound like Death treading ponderously up from the vaults to claim a soul. That was something she did not say.
Richard knew she wasn’t comfortable with it. He also knew – they both did – that there wasn’t really an alternative.
So now he gave her a quick hug and said, ‘Look, what about a Working Party?’
‘What?’
‘OK, you can’t see off the Meringue Party without support. So get some.’
‘What do you mean? How?’
‘Think who you would have asked if you hadn’t been marrying me.’ He winced a little at the thought. ‘I just bet your grandmother has ideas about wedding dresses.’
He had responded to the summons to meet Georgia far better than Bella had dared to hope, especially as her grandmother had grilled him with ladylike thoroughness and there had been several dodgy moments.
The turning point had come, though, when Georgia, ramrod straight and acid sweet, said, ‘Are you saying that you knew you would get my granddaughter the moment you saw her? Like buying a painting?’
Richard smiled down at her and said, very gently, ‘I love her, Mrs Greenwood. I don’t own her and I never will.’
Georgia’s eyes snapped and Bella held her breath.
But in the end her grandmother said grudgingly, ‘Ah. You see that. Good.’
And in the car home, Richard said, ‘It’s not a word I normally use but that woman is truly awesome. A Southern Belle with fabulous manners and an interrogation technique that MI5 could learn from. And she looks like one of those classy old movie stars, Lauren Bacall or someone. And she’s out saving the rain forest in person.’ He drew a long, astounded breath. ‘I thought your father would be great to meet. But – wow. Just – wow! I think I’m in love.’
So now Bella said teasingly, ‘You just want to meet my grandmother again.’
He nodded enthusiastically. ‘If we work the schedule right, I could even give her, I mean all of you, lunch.’
‘Machiavelli.’
He laughed, not denying it, but said soberly, ‘Call her, Bella. Your mother too. Every girl wants to consult her mother about her wedding dress, doesn’t she? No one could criticise you for that. Maybe Lottie, too? Get them all in a room together, schmooze a bit, and come out with a better brief for the designers. Include Pansy and whoever she wants to bring along. Just make sure she’s outnumbered. She looks like a sweet little old lady, but Pansy can be quite an operator when she wants to be.’
‘Thank you,’ said Bella, surprised and grateful. ‘That sounds like a plan. Er – have you any ideas about bridesmaids?’
‘Out of my league,’ he said with feeling.
But Bella found an unexpected ally on the bridesmaid issue and she didn’t have to go looking for her.
Princess Eleanor wandered into the Wednesday catch-up meeting with Lady Pansy and said, ‘Have you seen the daffodils by the lake, Bella? Do you fancy a walk? It’s so lovely and fresh outside now that the rain’s gone.’
Bella leaped up with alacrity and, as they wandered along the banks of the lake, her soon-to-be sister-in-law said, ‘Have people started lobbying you about being a bridesmaid yet?’
Bella bit her lip. ‘Yes. It was a bit of a shock, actually.’
‘Well, this is a bit of a cheek. But I’m lobbying, too.’
‘Eleanor—’
‘Call me Nell, like the boys do. I’ve been thinking about bridesmaids since I was