glass to Eloise.’ Finn smiled.
I noticed Nell’s ears twitch at the sound of her former mistress’s name.
‘Had it not been for her, you might have gone through with a disastrous wedding and not made it to Nightingale Square either.’
Tears pricked my eyes, but they were happy ones.
‘To Eloise,’ I said, raising my glass. ‘And Peter, because he was saved from a miserable marriage, too.’
I wondered what he was going to say when I told him that he’d been right about how I felt about Finn all along.
‘To Erica, Eloise and Peter,’ said Finn, joining me on the sofa and kissing me firmly on the lips before draining his glass in two gulps.
‘Thank goodness for Erica and Eloise’s timely intervention in our lives,’ I added, before emptying my glass so it matched his.
What happened after that became a little hazy. I do know that we emptied the bottle far quicker than the person who lovingly made it would probably have thought respectful, and I can remember smooching on the couch. I could also recall waking a little after two on Sunday morning with a crick in my neck to find Finn had gone, but he had thoughtfully covered me with the throw from the sofa to stave off the night’s chill.
I negotiated the stairs up to bed, content in the knowledge that the day had ended on a real high and feeling the happiest I’d been since I’d moved to Nightingale Square.
Chapter 25
Feeling dazed, I slammed my hand down on the alarm clock, but it didn’t make the noise stop. It took a few more seconds for my brain to work out that it wasn’t a weekday morning and the cacophony I was being subjected to was coming from my phone, not my bedside clock. Groaning, I pulled a pillow over my head and tried to drift off again, but it was no good. Nell was pawing at the duvet, needing to go out and I was awake just enough to register that my head was pounding.
‘Oh, for pity’s sake,’ I groaned, catching sight of myself in the wardrobe mirror as I pulled on my dressing gown and shuffled to the bathroom.
My hair was absolutely wild and I had no idea what I was going to do to tame it. I was supposed to be helping Poppy and Mark with their Winterfest session, but there was no way I’d be able to do that with the unruly mop on my head. I was a health and safety nightmare and I would need to sort it before I could go anywhere near the Prosperous Place kitchen.
‘Come on then,’ I said to Nell, letting her down the stairs ahead of me, for fear of tripping over her.
I let her into the garden, checked over the plants from Broad-Meadows which were thriving in the porch, flicked on the kettle (the boiling of which was an assault on my eardrums), rammed bread into the toaster and swallowed down two painkillers.
Accusingly, I stared at the empty bottle of champagne which was the cause of my hangover, but then I remembered kissing Finn and some of the pain in my skull receded and the heavy weight of my hair lifted a little. I wondered if he was feeling as rough as I was? Probably not, given the size of him and certainly not yet, because he didn’t have a Nell to tend to and was doubtless still asleep.
I could hear my phone ringing upstairs again and knew it would be Mum. Rather than rush to answer it, I forced down a few mouthfuls of toast to stave off the nausea and waited for her to call again.
‘Morning, Mum,’ I said brightly, determined not to give her even the merest hint that anything was amiss when she rang the third time. ‘How are you?’
‘It’s Peter, actually and I’m really, really good.’
‘Peter,’ I laughed, reminding myself that checking caller ID was never a bad idea. ‘You sound very merry.’
‘I’m a little tipsy,’ he hiccupped.
I checked the clock on the wall.
‘At six in the evening? Have I got the time difference, right?’
‘You have,’ he told me and I could image him woozily nodding, ‘we had a very long lunch and we’re celebrating.’
‘Celebrating what exactly?’
‘I asked Rebecca to marry me and she said yes! She was the beautiful woman I was wining and dining when you called me before, remember?’
‘That’s fantastic news,’ I smiled, hoping I hadn’t interrupted more than just a meal out. It would have been awful if he