‘Spit it out, lad!’ Bella encouraged.

‘Leave him alone, Bells! You take your time, Jarv.’ Ruby came to his defence, as she often did, as if trying to make amends for the great mouth smack he had received when they were kids.

He looked up and smiled at her, grateful, it seemed, for the ally. Then he appeared to lose his nerve and looked again at his feet. ‘Nothing.’ He shook his head and made his retreat. ‘It don’t matter.’

Merrin watched him go, glad he had not said or done anything that might have embarrassed them all. She turned to face her bridesmaids and mother, who all stared at her.

‘What?’ she asked, knowing full well that their thoughts probably matched her own.

‘Here we are then!’ Her gran, Ellen Kellow, announced her arrival, breaking the silent impasse and slamming the back door shut with her bottom. ‘A fisherman’s daughter marrying a Mortimer, did we ever think we’d see the day?’ She chortled and shook her head. ‘I know I never did, that’s for sure. What would old Ma Mortimer say?’

‘Loretta?’ Heather asked, her eyes crinkled in confusion.

‘Loretta, pah. No!’ her gran yelled. ‘Not Loretta, his mother, Guthrie’s mother, Eunice. A meddler, that’s what she was. A rotten stinking meddler!’

Ruby locked eyes with Merrin, who shook her head almost imperceptibly to let her sister know that she didn’t have the faintest idea what her gran was wittering on about either.

‘Tell me you’re not having your hair like that?’ the old lady commented tartly as she sat down in the wing-backed chair her daughter-in-law had only recently vacated.

‘It’s not finished.’ Merrin touched her fingers to her curls.

‘Well, I can see that!’ Her gran, as usual, didn’t pull any punches. ‘Ruby, go make your gran a cup of tea!’

Ruby idled to the stove to once again set the kettle on the hot plate.

‘I’ve just passed Jarvis on the path with a face like a smacked arse. Reckon he regrets not popping the question himself.’

‘Don’t be daft, they were only little ’uns when they were courting, playing at it more than anything,’ her mum cut in.

‘Exactly! Jarvis has no interest in Merrin, he’s far too smart for that,’ Ruby fired with her usual lack of charm.

‘I know all that, Rubes, but someone should tell it to Jarvis’s face; it looked close to tears.’

‘Jarvis is a good lad. Reckon you’ve broke his little heart!’ Bella joined in. ‘It’s not too late, Merry. Until that ring is on your finger you can still change your mind!’