Freya tutted. ‘Well, don’t! No, I’m not jealous of her. She might be beautiful but I think she’s also a bit weird. A bit intense.’

‘It was odd the way she insisted on following us on our walk,’ Matt agreed.

‘Exactly. What did Ben say about her?’

‘He seems happy.’

‘Did he mention Charlotte?’

Matt shifted uncomfortably. He always told Freya everything but wasn’t sure if he was betraying Ben’s confidence in this case. ‘Um, he just said it obviously wasn’t meant to be. That’s all.’

‘Why not? They were together for years. He was going to ask her to marry him.’

‘I know, but …’ Matt paused, trying to find the right words. ‘He thinks it’s a sign that Bella got pregnant almost immediately, whereas he and Charlotte never even had so much as a scare.’

‘Well, we’ve never had so much as a scare either.’ Freya’s voice suddenly sounded very small. ‘I hope you don’t think that means we’re not meant to be?’

‘Don’t be daft!’ Matt gave her shoulder a squeeze. ‘I don’t really share his view that the pregnancy is some kind of miracle …’

‘What, you think she may have deliberately trapped him?’ There was a sudden note of excitement in Freya’s voice.

‘No!’ Matt said quickly, although that was indeed what he thought. ‘But it does seem a bit odd that he would have been taken so much by surprise. He clearly thought she was taking precautions …’

‘Hmmm. It does,’ Freya agreed. ‘I miss Charlotte.’

‘You still see her.’

Freya laughed. ‘I know, but it’s not the same. I miss her being part of our foursome. It was so easy. I never had to check myself with her. I knew she loved me whatever.’

‘You’ll get used to Bella. I’m sure she’ll grow to love you just as much as Charlotte did.’

‘You sound like you’ve got used to her already.’ Freya adopted a sulky tone. ‘That didn’t take long.’

Matt sighed and kissed Freya’s head again. ‘Shut up and go to sleep.’

Chapter Four

Jo twirled in front of Peter. ‘Will I do?’

Peter gazed down at her, his eyes swimming with love. ‘You’ll do very nicely. You look stunning.’

Jo smiled and smoothed down her taupe, fitted dress as she stepped into her high-heeled, nude Louboutins. She had left it until the last possible moment to put them on, as she would be wearing them all day and knew that her feet would be protesting loudly by the time she took them off again tonight.

‘I wish it wasn’t …’ Peter began, before stopping for a second, thinking. ‘It’s not how I imagined Ben’s wedding would be.’

Jo looked up at Peter, handsome in his bespoke dark grey suit. He had been uncharacteristically quiet all morning. Actually, the truth was that he had been quieter in general ever since Ben first brought Bella home. ‘I know you’re not keen on her, but it’s not up to us. She’s Ben’s chosen partner, so we have to just accept her. And he seems happy, doesn’t he?’