Page 58 of Summer at Harbour View House
She pulled Hannah into a hug. Hannah, giggling, actually said ‘Squee!’ out loud.
‘So, this just happened? Like, right now?’
‘Like, an hour ago. We went out on his boat, and he made this long speech about how the most beautiful thing he’d ever seen in his life had always been the cliffs of the Roseland Peninsula at sunrise until he met me and it became second and now I’m so happy oh my god oh my god oh my—’
‘How do you breathe while you speak?’
‘I’m so excited, I feel like I’m weightless!’
Natasha lifted an eyebrow. ‘If you were comparing the two of us, I’d say you pretty much are.’
‘I can’t believe it. This is all thanks to you, Natasha.’
‘Me?’
‘If you hadn’t invited me to stay then none of this would have happened.’
‘You could also thank Mrs. Williams for setting our apartment block on fire.’
‘But she’s not here, is she?’
Natasha smiled. ‘Then I’ll accept the praise on her behalf. The other thing … ah, next week?’
‘Davey didn’t want to wait around. He also thought it would be good to get it out of the way before the concert. We’re having the service at the local church, and the reception in the pub. The whole village is invited!’
Natasha couldn’t help but find herself swept up in the wave of Hannah’s enthusiasm. She pulled the younger woman into another hug.
‘Hannah, I’m so happy for you. I wish you a lifetime of happiness, I really do.’
‘One week,’ Hannah whispered into her ear. ‘We have one week. I need you to come dress shopping in St. Austell with me. We have to goright now.’
22
A Stunning Wedding and an Unsuccessful Call
The paceat which Hannah’s wedding preparations took place was enough to prove to Natasha that they might just be able to pull the concert off. It helped that neither Hannah nor Davey appeared particularly concerned about anything other than becoming wife and husband as quickly as possible.
St. Austell proved a pretty fruitless hunting ground for wedding dresses, so Hannah and Natasha spent two days catching trains further afield to other Cornish towns in the hope of finding something better. When Natasha suggested they simply go to somewhere bigger like Plymouth or Exeter, she was met with a firm refusal. Hannah, it seemed, was marrying the Cornish dream, and wanted her dress to be one made in Cornwall.
Eventually, they found a quaint little shop in St. Ives which had just the dress Hannah was looking for. After that, everything was easy, as Hannah’s mother swooped in from Brentwell with her father in tow, renting a room at the pub which Lizzie had to hastily prepare for guests. Determined not to miss out on organising her daughter’s wedding, Hannah’s mother took Natasha’s place at Hannah’s side, while Natasha, returning the favour, was happy to take her mother’s place at the bar beside Hannah’s father, who was happy to enjoy the local beers while watching the world go by.
The wedding—self-styled as Penkoe’s wedding of the year—although, as Lizzie quietly pointed out to Natasha, it was also the only wedding—took place on Saturday, August 12th, in the Penkoe Parish Church, with pretty much the whole village—not to mention most of the current campsite residents—in attendance. Hannah, in a white vintage dress, could have graced the cover of any fashion magazine in the country, while Davey, brushed up and wearing a Cornish kilt, looked like the dashing star of a Guinness advert. Hannah’s family had all shown up, as had a half dozen giggling former school friends, who got the hearts of the young men from the campsite racing. Natasha, much to her surprise, was Maid of Honour, while there was even a role for Charlie, brushed and tidied, as she strutted up the aisle, pulling a little wooden cart that Ben had fashioned out of driftwood with the rings on a little bed of feathers inside.
As Hannah said, ‘I do,’ the crowd erupted into cheers and Davey, grinning, put his hands on Hannah’s waist and lifted his new wife off her feet, high into the air.
‘He can do that now, but see if he can do it after six months of the good life,’ Hannah’s mother, Ellen, whispered to Natasha as the organ began to play. ‘I put on eighteen pounds in my first six months, and it’s still there.’
‘Don’t worry, there are plenty of hills in Penkoe,’ Natasha said.
‘There’d better be,’ Ellen said with a sage nod.
After the wedding, the entire congregation descended on the pub for an evening of merriment. With far too many people to fit inside, trestle tables had been set up along the harbour wall, and Lizzie, aided by Jan from the café, Demelza, Natasha, Marigold and her daughters, and even Ben and Eddie, who had been charged with peeling more than two hundred potatoes and carrots between them, had made up a magnificent spread of everything from roast beef and vegetables to scones and cream, locally caught sea bass and crab, and half a dozen Stargazy pies, to which, Hannah’s dad, Bill, had taken a particular shine. By the end of the evening, Penkoe had seen a party bigger than anyone in the village could remember. Natasha had initially worried about the noise, but Matt had grinned and told her that Jago had parked a trailer across the only road leading into the village, ‘to keep out pigs and weasels.’
Natasha woke the next morning with a hangover to end all hangovers, a vague memory of barn dancing with Ben at two o’clock in the morning, and an ache in her neck from watching fireworks illuminating the night sky. In desperate need of water and Paracetamol, she stumbled downstairs, peered out of the living room window at a wild and windy morning, and turned around to find Hannah standing in the hall, a suitcase packed at her feet.
‘Good ah, morning, Mrs. … ah, Collins,’ Natasha mumbled, realising she would need to relearn speech before she went back to school. ‘Why are you here, and where are you … ah, going?’
‘Sorry, I hope I didn’t wake you up. I just had to get some stuff,’ Hannah said, grinning, looking as fresh as ever. ‘I’m off to Barbados. It’s our honeymoon, isn’t it?’
