Nory laughed. “Yes, with Isaac. Who else would I be having sex with?”

Ameerah raised her eyebrows and said, “You really want us to answer that?”

Jenna grabbed hold of Ameerah and Nory again and began jump-hugging them just as Pippa walked in.

“You seem in a better mood than when I left you,” she said wryly.

“We’re all in love,” cried Jenna dreamily. “Isn’t it wonderful?”

“Technically I am still in like-like,” said Ameerah. “And Pip is too busy ruling the world for love.”

“I am in love,” Pippa corrected her. “I am blissfully and completely in love with myself. Don’t underestimate self-love, it’s a powerful force. Most nights I can’t wait to get into bed with myself.”

“Oh, come here, you big, beautiful Athena!” said Jenna, grabbing Pippa into the already crowded hug, and for a few seconds they could have been fourteen again, hopeful and untroubled by the future.

The manicurist clipped her vanity case closed with a snap and made to leave. Jenna caught her arm.

“I’m sorry about what I said, I didn’t mean it,” she said, giving the woman a look like a newborn lamb.

“It’s all right, love.” For her part, the woman looked resigned. “I’ve had worse than that from brides before now.”

Jenna handed over a fifty-quid tip, and the woman inclined her head in thanks before leaving the room.

“What did you say to the manicurist?” Nory asked.

Jenna stopped midway through devouring another sausage and pulled a worried face. “She said nail technicians were like the fourth emergency service, and I said surely that was hairstylists, and then she said people always underestimated the training involved in becoming a nail technician, so then I said, ‘Probably less training than being in the actual emergency services,’ and then she said, ‘Don’t belittle me, you half-baked soap actress,’ and then I said . . . well, it wasn’t very nice and I’m not proud of it. I hope she doesn’t go to the press. They love a celebs-behaving-badly story.”

“Sounds like she started it,” said Ameerah.

“I shouldn’t have implied that her job was less important than a hairstylist’s.”

“Well, you’re the bride, so you’re allowed to behave outrageously on your big day,” Nory soothed. “Have another sausage.”

The bridesmaids, flower girls, and page boys, along with their parents and siblings, all arrived at eight o’clock sharp, as though their arrival had been coordinated with military precision, which of course, with Pippa in charge, it had. The upstairs became a beauty parlor with multiple hairstylists hovering possessively next to plug sockets, which were in surprisingly scant supply in the castle bedrooms.

The building was suddenly loud with the drone of hair dryers and people shouting over them, and the thunderous sound of children running from room to room. Katie emerged from her room, looking radiant in a maxi-dress that skimmed her baby bump.