Page 46 of Always, in December

The castle!

She got a line of heart emojis back, then I’m SO excited. I’ll see you tomorrow!!

Josie smiled as she slipped her phone back in her coat pocket. Thank God Bia had agreed to step in as her plus one after Josie’d had to tell Laura that Oliver wouldn’t be coming after all – she didn’t think she could manage the whole weekend alone, pretending that she had absolutely no problem with being single in the face of her friend’s marital bliss.

For a good minute, Josie made herself stand there, trying hard to be in the moment. She had to admit, something about the atmosphere here, the beauty of it, made her feel a little more peaceful than she thought she’d be. But not just here – she’d felt the same in Edinburgh. Almost the moment she’d stepped off the train, she’d decided she loved the city and was instantly sad she only got one night there. She’d never been to Scotland before – her grandparents had taken her to Wales a few times on holiday, but never Scotland – and now she was struggling to think why she’d never bothered to visit of her own accord.

After giving herself that moment, she grabbed her suitcase and wheeled it through the double doors – heavier than they looked – and into the main hall. It was quiet inside, almost eerie. There was a fireplace on the right, though no fire currently burned there, and there were a few candlestick holders dotted around, half-burnt-down candles dripping wax down their sides. There seemed to be an abundance of wooden furnishings, and the big rug made it feel like she was stepping back in time – it was the type of thing that might have been fashionable when Josie was a child. Still, she supposed that was all part of the charm.

There was a smartly dressed man, holding a clipboard and smiling politely in front of a blue table – was blue granite a thing? – with the biggest bouquet of flowers she’d ever seen on top of it. ‘Hello, miss,’ he said, his accent softer than the taxi driver’s, his tidy appearance somehow giving the impression that he was too modern for a place like this. ‘Are you here for the wedding? Can I take your name?’

‘Josie Morgan,’ she answered, still glancing around the room, trying to take in every little detail.

Clipboard Man nodded. ‘You’re in Buttercup.’

‘Buttercup?’ Josie repeated with a slight frown.

‘The name of your room, miss.’

‘Oh, right. Sorry.’

He came forward and took her suitcase for her. ‘Shall I show you the way?’ At her nod, he wheeled her suitcase ahead of her, leading her to the left, past a circular wooden table and four ornate wooden chairs, and up an epic staircase, wide enough to fit at least four people side by side. They passed a chair and table at the corner of the staircase, in case you wanted to have a quick sit down, apparently. Josie ran her hand along the banister, feeling little tingles run up her arm. People actually used to live here. She couldn’t help grinning at Clipboard Man, who smiled back, as if he knew exactly what she was thinking.

As they neared the top of the stairs, there was the sound of voices, seeming to echo softly around the whole interior. ‘Ok, well look, I don’t need a microphone, I think that’s too formal for this evening, but please make sure that— Josie!’ Laura turned as Josie reached the top of the stairs. She had one hand in her hair, which looked both blonder and messier than Josie had ever seen it, and was standing with an older woman that Josie thought she recognised from a barbeque a while ago – Laura’s mother – and two almost identical petite women, both also holding clipboards. Laura pulled her hand out of her hair and broke into a big smile as she came towards Josie. ‘You’re here!’ She turned to Clipboard Man. ‘Can you just take her bags up for her and put them in the room, leave the key in the door?’

Clipboard Man nodded. ‘Of course,’ he said smoothly. He turned to Josie. ‘Will you be able to find your room?’

‘Where’s she staying?’ Laura asked.

‘Buttercup, I think,’ Josie said.

Laura waved her hand in the air. ‘No problem, I know where that is.’ Josie smiled wryly. Of course she did. No doubt Laura had studied and memorised the floor plan weeks before. Laura shifted back to the other three women. ‘This is my mum, Jose,’ she said, proving Josie correct as she indicated the older, classy-looking woman. She smiled politely at Josie, like she recognised her but couldn’t quite place her. ‘And this is Tiffany and Abigail,’ she said, gesturing at the clipboard women. Why did everyone need a clipboard? Josie wondered. Was it Laura instigating that, or something they just did here?

‘I’ve no idea where John is,’ Laura continued. ‘He’s off with some of his Scottish relatives somewhere, I swear there are more of them than I ever knew about, and every time he speaks to them he gets more and more Scottish. I swear I can’t even understand half of what he’s saying at the moment, so God knows how the speech will go.’ She was definitely talking faster and slightly more erratically than usual. ‘Anyway.’ She gestured again towards the clipboards. ‘We were just finalising the seating plan for this evening. I’ve put you on a table with Jess and Tom from work and Erin, one of John’s friends – is that ok? He’s sure you’ll like her, though he only thought to tell me this today, of course and she still hasn’t confirmed if she’s actually bringing her plus one with her, but she’s one of John’s best friends, so.’

If Josie kept smiling like this all weekend, she swore she’d tear her facial muscles. ‘Sounds great.’ Even though she hadn’t actually spoken to anyone but Laura from Peacock’s since she’d left. A good thing, then, that it wasn’t just the two of them and Josie – it meant that work couldn’t be the only topic of conversation for the whole evening. And Jess and Tom, from the sounds of things, were minus plus ones tonight too. The thought of that made her relax slightly – maybe it would be genuinely nice to catch up with them, as long as they didn’t linger too long on what she was doing now.

‘Bia’s not getting here until tomorrow, is that right?’ Laura looked over one of the clipboard girl’s shoulder at whatever was written there.

‘Right. She’s getting the sleeper train.’ Since Bia was taking Oliver’s place, Laura wouldn’t have minded her crashing the dinner tonight too, but Bia now had a job as an estate agent – which by her own account she was quite good at because all you had to do was persuade people, Jose – and couldn’t get out of a viewing last thing today, what with it being a Friday.

‘Well, as long as she’s here on time,’ Laura said, tapping her fingers against her thigh. Laura and Bia didn’t know each other that well, but they’d met a few times at Josie’s birthdays and things like that, and Josie imagined Laura was thinking of the last party they’d been at together – Josie’s leaving party before she’d moved to New York – where Bia had got the time wrong and showed up an hour late, thinking that she was half an hour early, with decorations for the table in the pub that she’d intended to put up to surprise Josie before she arrived.

‘She will be,’ Josie said firmly.

Laura huffed out a breath, looked at her mum. ‘Could you do me a favour and try to find Dad? I just want to make sure he knows the plan today and tomorrow.’

Laura’s mum – Andrea, Josie was pretty sure her name was – smiled, and stroked Laura’s arm in a reassuring way. ‘He knows the plan, love, but I’ll go and get him, I think he’s in our room.’

‘Thanks.’ She turned to the clipboards. ‘I think that’s it’s for now, thanks.’

They nodded in unison. ‘We’re here if you need anything,’ one of them said.

As soon as they’d departed, Laura dragged Josie down to sit at the top of the stairs. ‘They’re good here, you know,’ she mused, glancing around their floor. ‘I thought they were a pain at first, but they’ve actually done quite a good job.’ It was high praise coming from Laura – Josie had no doubt she had the potential to be a total bridezilla, if only because she’d want everything to be done exactly her way and had so much experience putting things into action from being a publicist. ‘It’s been so stressful, trying to organise an outdoor wedding in Scotland of all places – the weather looks like it’ll hold, but we’ve had to have a contingency plan just in case.’ She tapped her fingers against her knees, currently covered in faded blue jeans. ‘Anyway, distract me.’ She looked at Josie. ‘You’re here early, I wasn’t expecting anyone so soon.’

‘Sorry,’ Josie said immediately, ‘I—’

But Laura waved Josie’s apology away. ‘No, no, I don’t mean that – I’m more wondering how you did it.’