Page 119 of Electric Kiss

The wedding ceremony had a two o’clock slot but she could have persuaded Luke to the vicar at eight when they woke up. The absence of the registrar on Copper Island was unfortunate. They were to arrive on the first ferry. Freya questioned the last minute arrival but Erica had assured her she had a helicopter on standby on the mainland should the ferries, all of them, refuse to sail.

After breakfast everyone decided they were going to spend the day down by the river, playing cards on the giant table and introducing the babies to the water. Isobel loved the water and looked super cute in her baby swimming costume.

They didn’t make any bets at cards, and they didn’t talk about Cynthia. In fact they didn’t talk about anything but happy memories, on and off the island.

Luke silently escorted them back to their home, opened the back door, and secured it behind them. A happy, content silence that hugged Freya like a warm blanket. Freya wore her shorts PJ set to bed and Luke wore his PJ bottoms. He told her he could wait for their wedding night to have sex again. He just wanted to hold her.

All night, she spooned him tight. When they woke, Luke gave her a forehead kiss and told her he’d see her at the church. Then he got out of bed, grabbed a soft holdall that looked like it was full of clothing and left the bedroom. When she heard the back door close, Freya worried they wouldn’t make it to the altar and Cynthia would break them up.

“Okay, I have a surprise for you,” Erica announced coming into the large bedroom that was acting as a dressing room.

He voice jolted Freya out of her gloom she would get married. She was staring unseeing out of the windows to the lawns. Freya looked over her shoulder to see a cream dress carrier cover casually flung over Erica’s shoulder. A hanger hook looped around Erica’s finger.

Freya returned Erica’s grin with one of her own.

“Another one? You’ve already given me shoes to die for, underwear that’s so delicate I’m scared to wear it but Luke is going to go crazy over it. Then there was the champagne breakfast.”

“I know, but Yanny did the breakfast organising, can’t take credit for that. And technically Jason made it,” Erica said.

She came right to Freya who was at the wide tall sash window at the rear of Edward Hall overlooking the terrace and lawns that would be the site for the wedding reception.

Freya watched as the caterers diligently strolled along the tables placing cutlery at each setting. She had asked for a buffet style wedding breakfast where people could help themselves and graze to their heart’s content without having to wait around for their next course. Freya didn’t know what was on the menu, she hadn’t planned that part. Luke had told her Jason was taking care of the menu and she wasn’t to interfere.

So she didn’t, knowing her soon to be sisters-in-law would take care of her special day.

“It’s something for your gown,” Erica said.

“But this is already gorgeous,” Freya said looking down at her sleek silk bodice with a plunging neckline to the waist. Lace covered the entire bodice from the shoulders. Only if someone was inches from her and looked down, could they see the valley between her breasts. Freya had a fabulous view. The secret underwear in the gown meant she didn’t need to wear a bra. As the bodice reached her waist, it cinched in and then she had layers of material in a lighter fabric she didn’t know the name of but draped down to the floor in several layers.

It did not have a back. From her waist to her shoulders, it was bare.

“We’re going to make it church worthy and then when we get back up here, it can come off and you can be the sexy bride,” Erica said, bringing the garment bag to her front.

Freya casually wondered when she put the dress on half an hour before if her mother and grandmother would approve of the daring wedding gown in their church. She would bravely face the repercussions, as it was haute couture and she longed to wear it.

What Freya hadn’t put in the folder, as she’d thought about it after she’d handed it over was her bridesmaids dresses. In the folder she had said they could choose their dresses to wear. But she’d had a brainwave and wanted to spoil everyone on her wedding day. So she persuaded Daisy, Erica and Heidi to wear their wedding dresses as no one got to see them except a select few. No one had seen Daisy’s dress as she married in secret.

Erica had organised the best man, Archer, and the adult ushers, Jason and Nate. Kenny Bramlett and the five kids who helped Erica give birth to their first child, Isobel, were the younger ushers for the day.

Archer, Jason and Nate didn’t know the plan for their wives to be in their dresses. The men were getting ready at Archer’s place.

“Oh let me see,” Heidi said, coming in on bare feet with her silver strappy sandals over her fingers.

Her wedding dress cascaded down her body like a silk waterfall, flaring at her feet. The panel at the front went all the way up to her throat with a horizontal strap of silk around her throat. The front mirrored the back leaving her arms bare.

Yanny, Erica’s assistant in all things movie had demanded to help with the wedding and no one was about to argue. He took the dress bag from Erica and hung it up on the dress rail before pulling the centre zip down.

“I’ll go and get the steamer,” he said and bustled away, high fiving Heidi as he passed her. Daisy shot into the room in her dress and we all sighed at the beauty of it.

“Is this it?” she shrieked.

I couldn’t concentrate on anyone’s dresses as I looked at what Yanny had unzipped. It looked like a cloak with long thin strapping. The long train spread out behind it like a pool of water.

“Let’s get it on you before Yanny steams it for the tenth time. Make sure it fits okay,” Erica said like she’d made it herself.

Heidi helped her bring it over and Freya turned her back to them. When she slipped her arms into the sleeves, they came up to just below her elbows.

Three pearl style buttons lined up at the collar and then a sash tie at the waist that fitted her perfectly, sitting over the waistband on her dress. Each end had a hidden velcro fastening at the side just where her arms rested. The best part of it all is was the pattern over silk and those tiny little patterns were lavender bushels. The dress transformed from risque to demure, perfectly suited for a church.

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