‘Dad! Oh, my goodness, it looks beautiful!’ She walked forward in her kitten-heeled shoes, holding the hem of her skirt up with one hand and gripping her simple lily-of-the-valley bouquet in the other, before letting her dress go and running her hands over the multicoloured wild flowers. Long lengths of variegated ivy and snaking leaf garlands had been braided and affixed to the sides of the carriage, the harness, the spokes of the wide wheels and anywhere they could be attached. Even the old clodhopper Daisy had flowers painted on her bridle – the work, she suspected, of the artistic Nancy.

‘We can’t have our girl walking to the church; you will travel in style!’ Her mum clapped.

‘I really will! I love you all so much!’ Happiness spun her in a cloud of joy that was sweet, perfumed and glorious. She breathed it in, knowing there would rarely be moments like this in her life, when everything was perfect.

‘And we love you,’ her mother called in response.

Bella fetched the small, rickety wooden stepladder from the side alleyway and the photographer continued to snap as Merrin hitched up her skirt and used the ladder to climb up on to the fat pillows that had been placed on the bed of the wooden cart. Sitting up straight with her legs now dangling over the edge, she looked at the view out over the bay where the sun, high in the sky, sent diamonds to dapple the sea.

‘Are you coming up, Dad?’ She patted the pillow by her side.

‘’Course, but I thought I’d sit up with Jarv.’ He made his way to the front and climbed up. Adept as he was at stepping on and off ladders on boats whilst rolling on the sea, this short hoick up to the driver’s bench was a doddle, even for a man trussed up like a turkey.

‘Don’t worry, Merry!’ Bella climbed the ladder next and took up a spot at the back of the cart. ‘We won’t let you take your trip to the gallows alone!’

Before Merrin had a chance to question the plan, her gran was being shoved, bottom first, up on to the cart by Ruby. Next came her mum and, finally, her sister, until all the women were settled on pillows, sitting in a sea of floaty lilac silk, the soft reams of her ivory taffeta gown, all set off with the abundance of flowers in their hair, held in their hands and looped around the cart itself.

Their laughter was loud and drawn from the deep wells of happiness inside them. This was some day! The photographer stood on the lane and clicked like crazy, capturing the sight of the cart in all its glory, trundling down the lane with its raucous, floral-framed crew.