and search for friendly faces—Cilla, making a delicate gesture to remind me to stand up straight, and Mom, standing next to her wedding date, my aunt Kitty, who arrived in London two hours ago and looks simultaneously jet-legged and wowed. And a few feet away, there’s Pansy Larchmont-Kent-Smythe grilling Gemma Sands about something Gemma clearly finds tiresome, and Bea with Clive and Paddington.
I gasp so loudly that Nick actually turns to me.
“Clive is here,” I tell him through clenched teeth. “Don’t look. Nick. You looked.”
Nick draws himself up to his full height. “That’s a lot of cheek, him coming here.”
“He must not think I’ve told you,” I say slowly. “He probably banked on me not knowing how to get him disinvited, and he’s trying to scare me.”
Clive gives us both a carefree wave as Freddie gets the masses to quiet their chatter. Freddie objectively looks handsome, but his face is drawn. I wonder what he and Nick did all afternoon while I had people meticulously combing my brows and zapping my tearstains.
“Welcome, all, to what promises to be a ripping weekend,” Freddie says. “I shall keep this brisk and save the saucy bits for tomorrow. Gran won’t want to miss the visual aids.”
A titter travels through the crowd.
“As the elder brother, Nick got to do everything before I did,” Freddie says. “Or so he thought. He officially learnt to drive first, but I banged around Balmoral in Father’s car two weeks before Nick’s first lesson. He was allowed to drink at family dinners before I was, but I’d already spent ages stealing the glasses people would set down and then quaffing them under the table. And he thinks he was the first to—wait, hang about, can’t say that one out loud.”
The group chuckles en masse.
“But tomorrow, he really will reach one milestone ahead of me,” Freddie continued. “Not that I’m in any kind of hurry to catch him. I’m having rather too much fun with the, er, bridal interview process.” Freddie is playing the playboy prince to the hilt. Even his bow tie is slightly askew. “But as far as that goes, I’ve been bravely doing the work of two. Because Nick was hit with a bolt of lightning eight years ago and he’s been lost to the ladies of the realm ever since.”
Nick twitches, imperceptible to anyone but me.
“I’ve had a front-row seat for this entire courtship. In fact, remind me to tell you all why Bex punched me the first day we met, although I assure you, I deserved it,” Freddie says. “’Course, you lot hide the Daily Mail behind those copies of the Financial Times, so you know quite a bit’s happened between now and then. But I started writing this speech in my head after that very first bashing—and there have been others, don’t you worry—because I saw then exactly what I’ve seen every single day since, in good times and rough. Together or apart, Bex and Nick have quite simply always belonged to each other.”
The crowd gives an appreciative sigh; there is a smattering of applause. I am in torment.
Freddie clears his throat. “And that’s what everyone’s really looking for, isn’t it? The kind of love that makes clichés ring true. It’s a jackpot that is nearly impossible to hit.” His voice is getting shaky. “So what’s truly special about tomorrow’s milestone is that it’s once-in-a-lifetime stuff. Nick may be useless at the Times cryptic, but that’s just letters on a piece of paper. He already solved the only riddle that counts. He found something I didn’t fully believe existed until I saw it with my own eyes, and I will be forever in his debt for giving me yet another reason to strive for more. To be the man that he is.”
Freddie is now struggling. Beside me, I see a tear snake out of Nick’s eye. I take his hand and we cling to each other so tightly that our knuckles turn white.
“By this time tomorrow, my dear friend Rebecca will be a full-fledged member of The Firm. We will teach her the handshake, and she will be stuck with us,” Freddie says, composing himself. “And thank God, because there is no better person to entrust with the care and keeping of my very best friend, my brother, and our future king. Please raise your glass and drink with me to Nicholas and Rebecca.”
“To Nicholas and Rebecca!” the crowd echoes, and then there is warm-hearted applause. Freddie and I make eye contact as we