Page 5 of Wedding Games
Rory started choking.
Zoe leapt to her feet but Barbara got to him first. She whacked him between the shoulder blades with enough force to jerk his upper body forward. A chunk of meat flew out of his mouth and knocked over an unfinished bottle of Prosecco. It crashed into a glass on its way down, smashing it to pieces.
Rory was on his feet. ‘I’ll do the glass.’
‘Lordy!’ said Morag, throwing napkins onto the table as if expecting them to become sentient and start mopping up the mess.
Rory carefully picked up the pieces of glass as Zoe and Mary cleared the rest of the dishes.
Barbara simply watched. Her lips a thin line, her back ramrod straight.
Zoe snuck glances at Rory. His mum was meant to be in LA. What the fuck was she doing here? Rory’s jaw was set with tension and he didn’t return her gaze.
All too soon the table was cleared and silence fell thick around them.
‘Barbara,’ said Morag, brightly. ‘What a pleasant and unexpected surprise. Can I offer you a drink?’
Barbara shook her head, her focus solely on Rory.
‘No, thank you. I’m here for my son.’
‘Is everything okay?’ Zoe asked, remembering Barbara’s cancer scare earlier in the year.
Barbara frowned at her. ‘Why are you shouting?’
‘Mum, what’s happened? I thought you were in LA.’
Barbara’s jerked her head back. ‘And why areyoushouting? I’m not deaf. Stop bellowing like a half-wit.’
Rory and Zoe removed their ear plugs.
‘Eh?’ said Morag, loudly. ‘Why are you wearing them?’
Barbara looked at Morag and raised a perfect eyebrow as if transferring the half-wit status to her.
Rory and Zoe blushed.
‘I’m here to see if my only child is alive,’ said Barbara, addressing Rory. ‘Seeing as how he’s been ignoring my emails and phone calls for the past two weeks.’
Zoe looked at him. ‘Rory?’
‘And I haven’t been able to reachyou,’ Barbara continued, now eyeballing Zoe, ‘because you’ve never given me any of your contact details.’
‘I wonder why,’ Mary muttered.
Zoe held her breath as Barbara’s head swivelled to face her mum.
‘Mrs Maxwell,’ she enunciated. ‘Despite the ravages of Father Time, I see some things haven’t changed.’
‘Mum!’ snapped Rory. ‘Let’s discuss this at the castle.’
Morag grabbed Mary’s arm and pulled her to the door. ‘No need. We’ll give you a bit of space.’
Zoe dithered. Should she clear off, or did Rory need her support?
‘Please stay, dear,’ said Barbara. ‘This concerns you as well.’
The door shut and Zoe sat next to Rory. Barbara positioned herself across the table from them, her hands steepled as if about to fire them both for misconduct.
