Gilly looked over at the clock. ‘I’d better get on with dressing the tables. And the deli will be delivering the food any minute.’

‘Let me worry about all that,’ Rachel said. ‘You get back down to the cottage and help Edie get ready.’

‘But you can’t do it all yourself!’

‘Don’t worry,’ Rachel told her. ‘Ezra and Ron will be here soon to help – they’re bringing the chiller they’ve rented for the wine.’

‘Okay then.’ Gilly gave her a hug. ‘Thank you so much. I’ll see you later, at the register office? Make sure Ezra isn’t late!’

‘He won’t be,’ Rachel laughed. ‘He’ll probably be the first there.’

She heard a shout and the murmur of other voices as Gilly left the lighthouse and went to the door to see the girl passing the others coming the other way. A small van was slowly crunching up the gravel behind them, and as they moved aside to let it past, Rachel saw that it was from the deli in Great Dunbar.

‘Good morning!’ Rachel called, as the three men got closer. She kissed Ezra on the cheek. ‘How’s the bridegroom? Nerves not getting the better of you?’

‘Nothing’s going to get the better of me,’ Ezra said cheerfully. ‘Not today!’

‘This is such a great idea,’ Rachel said, as she and Ron helped carry the picnic baskets into the lighthouse.

‘Don’t look at me,’ Ezra said, ‘that was all Edie. She’s the brains of this union.’

Once everything was unloaded, the team set about arranging the space. They shook out white tablecloths and laid the tables before arranging some of Gilly’s flower displays as centrepieces and setting out the name cards that Edie and Gilly had designed and printed together. There was no top table – neither the bride nor the groom wanted anything so formal, and there would be no set speeches either. Instead, anyone who wanted to speak would stand in the centre of the room behind the counter – Rachel had cleared and polished the wooden surface the night before in preparation. Now she strung more of Gilly’s bouquets from the edge, linking them with loops of the grosgrain ribbon. They repeated the bouquet motif around the room, tying them to the ends of bookcases and adding strings of tiny, glinting fairy lights. The end effect was simple but prettily bohemian.

‘We’ve got candles to put on the tables for the evening,’ Rachel said, as they all stood back to regard their work. ‘Do you like it, Ezra?’

The bridegroom swung an arm around her shoulders and squeezed her slightly. Rachel didn’t think he’d stopped grinning once all morning. ‘I love it. And I know Edie will too – just be prepared for her not to actually say as much.’

Rachel laughed. ‘Don’t worry. I don’t expect her to have a complete change of character the minute you two get married.’

The marriage ceremony was due to take place at 2 p.m. By noon all the preparations at the lighthouse were in order. Outside, the sun was shining brightly out of a pure blue sky, as if someone had ordered up perfect wedding weather for the day. Rachel was grateful that inside the lighthouse’s thick stone walls the temperature would remain cool and steady enough for the food and flowers not to spoil.