‘Marla. This is an unexpected pleasure.’
Her eyes flashed with ill-concealed fury. ‘Thank you, Gabriel. For your help, I mean.’
He could see that the outwardly cordial words had cost her dearly. He leaned over to lift the box from her arms and took the opportunity to whisper in her ear.
‘See? I told you. Good thingscanhappen when we work together.’ His eyes lingered on the fresh bloom of blood on her fingertip. ‘You might want to suck that.’
He heard her sharp intake of breath and winked imperceptibly as he pulled back and upended the petals all over a laughing Gelvira, who had climbed into the coffin.
‘Bluey, no!’ Emily’s frantic shout rang out across the grass as the over-enthusiastic Great Dane bounded past her out of the side doorway of the chapel to join in the festivities. He made a beeline for the coffins and jumped straight into the empty one next to Gelvira on the grass.
‘Here, boy!’ Marla called out, aware that the sheer size of the dog was enough to spook most people. Even spooks. But Alaric, thankfully, fell instantly for the big hound with his droopy jaws and comic sense of timing. He stole a lace-trimmed top hat from one of the guests and placed it on Bluey’s huge head, as someone else unwound their black tie and placed it around the dog’s neck. To everyone’s amusement, Bluey posed solemnly between the happy couple laid out in their coffins.
‘One for the album,’ Gabe murmured to Jonny, who grinned and turned pink beneath his theatrical make-up. He couldn’t help it. It might be fraternising with the enemy, but he was high on the success of the wedding and Gabe was too hot to freeze out.
Emily leaned against the porch and laughed, right up to the moment when Dan pulled up in the hearse, at which point she promptly threw up behind the nearest mock headstone.
As proceedings wound down Alaric and Gelvira finally roared off into the sunset on a Harley, whilst their guests splintered off to scare the locals and boost the pub’s coffers and Jonny vanished with a transvestite Bride of Dracula.
Marla turned to Emily inside the chapel and found her still slightly green around the gills.
‘Cup of tea?’
Emily shook her head and glanced out of the window at the sound of a car engine.
‘I couldn’t stomach it.’
‘Still feeling rough?’
Emily nodded. ‘With lots of things.’
Marla looked at her quizzically. ‘Is everything okay?’
Emily half shrugged. ‘Yes. No …’ She leaned back again to glance out of the window at the sound of another car engine outside the chapel. This time it slowed to a halt. ‘There’s Tom.’
Marla laid her hand on Emily’s arm, sensing that her friend had been about to say more. ‘Em, if you ever need an ear, choose mine, okay?’
Emily leaned in and kissed Marla’s cheek. ‘I’m fine. Honestly, I am.’ With a squeeze of her hand and a small, tight smile, she was gone.
Which left Marla alone for a couple of moments, until Gabe shouldered open the front door and stepped inside.
CHAPTER THIRTEEN
‘I guess I should say thank you again.’
Gabe followed her along the aisle into the kitchen. ‘Go on then. I’m all ears.’
Marla reached for the coffee jar, but then thought better of it and grabbed a bottle of wine down out of the cupboard instead. ‘You’re enjoying this, aren’t you?’
Why did saying thank you have to feel like such a huge admission of defeat?
She knew she owed him that much: he hadn’t called the police about the window last week, and now he’d gone undeniably out of his way to make Alaric and Gelvira’s wedding day perfect.
‘You’re welcome, Marla.’ His soft laugh excused her reluctance to verbalise the apology, but somehow it made it worse too. Did he have to keep displaying that vein of decency and making her feel like a fool?
She reached down a glass from the top shelf, sighed and reached for a second.
‘I believe you, by the way,’ he said, as he leaned back in his chair. ‘About the window, I mean.’