Total pages in book: 124
Estimated words: 121898 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 609(@200wpm)___ 488(@250wpm)___ 406(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 121898 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 609(@200wpm)___ 488(@250wpm)___ 406(@300wpm)
“Sir?”
I gently brushed Sylvie’s hair from her face, letting my fingers linger on her cheek for a second. “You’re studying nursing, aren’t you?”
Louise’s cheeks flushed. “Oh, I didn’t think you knew that. If she’s not injured at all, I’m happy to monitor her.”
I smiled at her. “Thank you. I’ll be in the main sitting room—please have someone get me the moment Sylvie wakes up.”
“Yes, sir.”
With that, I left Louise to it and headed downstairs to wait for everyone else to get here.
***
Hazel’s endless tears were silent.
They’d started the moment I told her what was happening fifteen minutes ago. A soundless stream of devastation that was written all over her face.
Somehow, her quiet pain was just as gut-wrenching as Sylvie’s panicked sobs had been.
Everyone was here. Joanna and Richard; Hazel and Sylvie’s parents. Steve and Cassandra; Julian’s parents. Nana and Gramps. My mother. Zara and Beth. And Heath, who was continuously topping up cups of hot tea and coffee.
“Well,” Mum said, strolling back into the room. “It appears that the council made a mistake on the final contract sent to the building company.”
Joanna blinked at her. “Are you telling me all this has been caused by a typo?”
Mum grimaced. “That’s exactly what I’m saying. From what I know right now, it seems the correspondence with the contractors only ever gave the date in numerical form. It wasn’t written out as it was on Sylvie’s contract.”
Steve’s jaw clenched. “Either way, they’ve breached the contract.”
“But what do we do?” Julian asked. “We can’t get married there. We’ll have to cancel everything.”
“The fault lies with either the contractor or the council, so we’ll be able to recover all the funds and then some,” his dad replied. “But unless there’s a miracle, I don’t think you can get married, kids. I’m sorry.”
Hazel buried her face in Julian’s chest. Her whole body shook, but there was still no noise. Almost as if she really couldn’t make a sound.
“There has to be something we can do,” Joanna said, rubbing Hazel’s back.
“But how?” Nana said. “Even if it weren’t Christmas, nobody can organise a wedding in three days. And even if such a miracle could occur, there’s no chance of getting a venue, especially given this time of year.”
I cleared my throat to cut through the murmurs of agreement. “I might be able to provide you with a miracle.”
Everyone froze and looked at me.
“What do you mean?” Julian asked as Hazel peered out at me from between her fingers.
I grabbed the folder I’d stashed down by the side of my chair and pulled out a sheet of paper.
“Thomas! Is that—” Mum stopped, pressing her fingers to her lips. “I thought you didn’t renew it.”
“So did I,” I answered. “But I checked just in case. It’s dated not long after Dad died, so the administrative staff must have done it automatically when I was swept away in all the inheritance paperwork.”
“But what is it?” Richard asked, leaning forwards.
“A marriage venue license.”
Hazel stilled. “For where?”
“For here.” My lips twitched to one side. “It might not be the wedding you both dreamt of, but the ballroom has hosted weddings before, so I don’t see why we can’t do it again.”
Mum clasped her hand to her neck. “This is true. We haven’t booked one since before Michael’s diagnosis, but we still have everything that’s needed to host one. How many guests were there?”
“I, uh—” Julian paused.
“One hundred and three,” Hazel replied, slowly sitting up.
“We can easily accommodate it.” I slipped the license certificate back into the folder. “You were having a buffet over a sit-down meal, right?”
She nodded. “There was to be a break after the ceremony for photos, but…”
“Easy. You can take them all here, and your guests will be more than comfortable.” I shrugged. “It’s going to be a lot of work getting everything switched over to here, and we’ll all need to put the work in, but I don’t think it’s impossible. It’s up to you two, though.”
Hazel and Julian looked at each other. “It’s your choice,” he said to her. “You know I’d marry you in an alleyway if it was the only option.”
“I feel the same. And I—” she paused. “I just can’t let all Sylvie’s work go to waste, either. Not after everything.”
“She did get herself into a bit of a state,” Nana said, tapping her nails against her teacup. “And we really shouldn’t impose this work onto her now. Where would we even begin?”
“Divide and conquer,” Cassandra said, clapping her hands together as she looked at me. “There’s more than enough of us here, and we’re all capable adults.”
“Exactly,” I repeated. “Between us all, we can do it. We have both sides of the family to contact the guests. We have a household full of staff who can prepare with the set up,” I said, looking at Hazel and Julian. “Your florist over there still has all your flowers.”