At least, she bloody well hoped so.

‘You’d better go, Emma,’ Martin said at last. ‘Simon’s over there jumping up and down looking for you.’

So that was it. Simon was one of the ushers, and Emma must be his plus one. She’d probably bullied him into inviting her at the last minute so she wasn’t on the list, stupid cow.

‘Don’t forget,’ Emma’s tone dropped to intimate and seductive. ‘It’s not too late. If you want to bolt, I’ll come with you. My car’s in the car park.’

After that it was silent.

Nicky gathered up her armful of calla lilies and headed back inside, trying not to think about what she’d just heard. She wasn’t going to worry. She knew Martin would find a way of getting rid of Emma.

Jo surveyed herself guiltily in her mirror. She ought to be still downstairs helping out, but the temptation to slip up here and re-do her make-up, in the hope of looking her best, was too strong to resist. Any woman in her position, she decided, who’d suffered the pain and humiliation of being replaced by a younger model, would want to look fabulous.

The trouble was, she wasn’t sure she did. Her self-confidence had been so shattered that even getting up in the morning had been a struggle at first.

‘Look how far you’ve come,’ she reminded herself out loud, straightening her back and taking a deep breath. She needed Sophie here to make her say she was gorgeous again.

‘Jo Walker, you’re gorgeous!’ she attempted, but it just made her laugh. Oh well, laughing was OK, laughing was good.

Besides, she wasn’t a guest at the wedding; she was on duty, trying to make it the best possible day for Nicky, and prove that the château really was the perfect place for countless other brides to come and celebrate in gloriously romantic surroundings.

She patted down the smart green silk dress, straightened a stray grey-blonde curl and smiled at herself. ‘You may have lost a husband,’ she informed the mirror, ‘but you have wonderful friends. And they’re not going to dump you for anyone!’

‘There! Aren’t they bloody amazing!’

Ronnie stood back to admire her three enormous arrangements of peonies, blowsy-headed roses, huge ranunculus in tones of sugar almond, palest lilac bearded iris, old-fashioned cottage lilies, exotic parrot tulips and tall spikes of blue and white delphiniums, finished off with generous branches of green ivy that hung down in a decorative fringe.

Drafting in a couple of unwilling kitchen staff, she placed them where Nicky had recommended, then changed her mind and moved one to the table where she knew the bride and groom would be sitting to ensure it would be viewed by the maximum number of guests.