The service was beautiful. The guests sang, ‘You raise me up’ but Hannah was too choked to croak a word. Amanda Louise glared when she forgot to step aside during the vows and had to be nudged to the chairs reserved for the bridesmaids. A man’s hand appeared over Hannah’s shoulder and dropped two white tissues in her lap. All she saw apart from the hand was a snowy cuff and a dark sleeve but she gasped, ‘Thank you!’ and blew her nose.

It wasn’t until the service was over and the register signed that Hannah, in control of herself now and hiding her damp tissue beneath her bouquet, rose to follow Mr and Mrs Goodbody Junior back down the aisle to a joyful march ringing out from the piano and saw the person who’d been seated directly behind her. The man with the snowy cuffs, dark suit and clean tissues was Nico Pettersson. His hair was neatly cut now and gleamed golden under the chandeliers. His closely shaved face looked lean rather than gaunt. A girl in a blue dress stood at his side, her plait over one shoulder, and a toddler wriggled in his arms. They must be Josie and Maria.

Hannah only had time to hiss, ‘Thanks,’ and flash a smile before Jemima urged her into her place in the bridal procession.

In the grand entrance hall Hannah hugged Rob and Leesa. ‘Congratulations! Wow, that was so lovely.’

‘Thanks, sis,’ said Rob, beaming. He never stopped beaming, even through the interminable process of wedding photos as chattering guests looked on and wait staff circulated with trays of sherry and orange juice. The bridesmaids were needed as set dressing and Hannah’s feet began to hurt.

Between photos, Amanda Louise hissed, ‘Do you already know him?’

‘Who?’ Hannah waved at Nan, a vision in pale lemon with a matching feather in her white hat. Someone had fetched her a chair and she was watching with a fond smile and a sherry glass. Hannah could see her mum talking and her dad nodding along. Mo had clothed her cushiony body in a classic jade number and Jeremy wore a grey suit and a brocade waistcoat. Both parents looked pumped with pride.

‘The hot guy,’ Amanda Louise whispered. ‘He gave you the tissues.’

‘Oh. Friend of Rob’s,’ she said vaguely, feeling that Nico didn’t deserve someone as annoying as Amanda Louise ferreting for information on him.

Then the photographer began to call for parents to join the photos and then aunts and uncles, cousins and friends. Eventually, the whole party was perched on the grand staircase behind the happy couple shouting, ‘Hooray!’

Rob and Leesa shouted loudest of all.

Chapter Seven