‘Sorry, Maman, I can’t think of a thing. I don’t know what you’re talking about. It’s just a plain old Wednesday.’
Her mother’s smile faded as she eyed her youngest daughter.
‘I think you are teasing your maman,’ she said eventually.
‘’Course I am, you silly lady,’ Ronnie said, grinning and giving her mother a hug and a kiss. ‘Happy wedding day, Maman. I have something for you. “Something old, something new, something borrowed, something blue.” You have the “borrowed” from Mrs Garland. So this is the “something old” for you to wear today. You’ll have to find your own “blue”. She paused. ‘Shall I leave it here?’
Her mother nodded and Ronnie put Dora’s shoes, still in the same bag, on her mother’s bed. Simone glanced at it but made no attempt to look inside. Ronnie smiled to herself. She knew Maman wouldn’t relish wearing ‘something old’. Well, she’d get quite a shock when she finally opened the bag and saw what lay inside. The shoes still looked brand new after Dora had changed into them that night in the pub and worn them for the first and only time, and that was for no more than an hour.
‘Thank you, chérie. I will have my tea quietly and then come down to early breakfast. Today it is important that I have plenty of time to get ready. I must look a proper bride.’ She gave a self-conscious laugh. ‘You know this marriage is the first time for Pierre?’
‘So I believe,’ Ronnie said. ‘Let’s hope he realises what’s in store for him.’
She rushed from the room before her mother could admonish her. She had a bit of titivating to do herself.
The pretty parish church in Downe was beginning to fill. Ronnie took her place by the side of Suzy, leaving a gap to her right at the aisle end of the pew. She was hoping against hope that Michael would manage to scrape in before the service began. Raine had not stopped smiling since Alec, her fiancé, had arrived in his RAF uniform, and Ronnie was proud to notice Raine’s gold-embroidered wings were every bit as noticeable as Alec’s. James, Suzy’s sweetheart, in his naval officer’s uniform, was next to join the family and Ronnie loved the way he kept hold of Suzy’s hand as though he would never let it go. The two men were perfect for her sisters.
She glanced at her watch. It was just coming up to eleven o’clock. The vicar stood facing Pierre who was already in position, his back to the congregation, and without a best man. He didn’t know anyone, he’d said, when the family had asked him who was doing the honours. ‘I must not draw the attention to my name or marriage,’ he’d told them.
On this beautiful late summer afternoon it was hard to remember the world was still at war and Pierre’s situation still potentially dangerous. Ronnie noticed his jacket hung loosely but at least he’d filled out a little with a regular diet, courtesy of whoever he was working for.
How she longed to know the part he was playing in the war since he’d fled France and arrived in London with those documents, but Maman would only say he was still working for the Resistance in some kind of training capacity and she probably shouldn’t have even told her daughters that much.
Whatever he was doing he was one of the Allies, and although he would never replace Dad, she and her sisters had welcomed Pierre into the family with open arms, to Maman’s undisguised relief. He’d certainly brought out a softer side of their strict French mother, who was visibly more relaxed and more demonstrative to her girls as well as Pierre. Ronnie couldn’t help grinning at the change.
There was some movement in the back of the church. Her heart jumped. Michael? Ronnie twisted her neck and gasped. It was Maman, on time for once, looking more beautiful than Ronnie had ever seen her. She was wearing a simple cream dress with tulip-styled sleeves that fashionably enhanced her narrow shoulders. A soft sash collar followed the deep V neckline that tied at the bust, the sash ends gently floating almost to the skirt which flared above her mother’s slim ankles enclosed in Dora’s silver shoes. On her dark upswept hair perched a cream hat with its own veil. She stood, hesitating, as she waited for Miss Read at the organ to start playing ‘Here Comes the Bride’.
Then with the sweetest smile on her lips her mother began the short walk up the aisle on Dr Hall’s arm. Pierre turned. Ronnie caught her breath. In that moment she saw in his face all the love he must have nurtured in his heart these past twenty years for their mother. She pressed Suzy’s hand and her sister squeezed it in return – but not before Ronnie saw Suzy’s eyes fill with tears.
This must be so strange for Suzy watching her own parents get married – strange, but wonderful.
When the service finished and it was time for Pierre to kiss the bride, Ronnie felt her own eyes well up. After everything Maman had been through, she was at last to have her chance of happiness.
When the newly-weds had signed the register, Simone, her smile radiant, took her husband’s arm as they walked down the aisle to the crashing sound of Mendelssohn’s ‘Wedding March’, which Miss Read played to full effect as her foot enthusiastically pumped the organ’s pedals. As her mother glided towards the pew where Ronnie sat, she sent her daughter a mischievous wink, glanced down at her feet, then mouthed, ‘Merci, chérie.’
Ronnie leaned back in the pew, a satisfied smile plastered on her face.
Ronnie watched her two sisters talking and laughing with their respective fiancé and sweetheart in the elegant Bromley Court Hotel in Downe where Maman and Pierre’s reception was being held. She glanced at her watch. It was almost noon and Michael still hadn’t arrived. She knew it wasn’t his fault as he
