Locals and tourists alike – one of whom looked a lot like Aunty Margaret, sporting a rather dazzling fascinator as she made her way to the church – stopped to wave or stare.

‘I’m getting married!’ Merrin shouted out before falling backwards into her bridesmaids and kin, who captured her arms and kissed her face. She lay looking up at the blue sky with nary a cloud to spoil the view and knew that she had never been happier than she was at that precise moment.

Word seemed to travel ahead that the bride was en route and the residents of Port Charles who were not already in the pretty church at the top of the hill awaiting her arrival came out on to the streets to call her name or wave. It was big news in their little village that one of their own, a Kellow girl no less, was marrying the boy from the big house.

‘Look, Merry!’ Bella pointed as she pushed her friend up into a sitting position. The side of the Old Boat Shed by the slipway had been decked with a large banner that read ‘Merry & Digby’ and had a large love heart painted beside the words. She bit her lip; the love, gestures and supreme effort, all for her, were almost overwhelming. She let her head hang down and breathed slowly through her nose, feeling a little light-headed and wishing that she, too, had necked a hefty bacon sandwich before leaving.

‘I . . . I don’t know what to say,’ she mumbled.

‘You don’t have to say anything, love, just you enjoy it!’ Her gran beamed and waved to some of the onlookers as though she were the bride. Her mum wiped her eyes and nose with her lace-edged handkerchief.

The troupe inelegantly alighted at the bottom of the hill to spare Daisy the effort of travelling up it with a heavy load, and walked en masse up the street to the entrance of the church. The bells rang out loudly and strangers gathered on the kerbside to watch Merrin and her entourage, each holding up a section of her skirt, pass. The situation was as ridiculous as it looked and Merrin found the whole charade amusing.

‘I feel like a queen!’ she giggled.

‘Today you are a queen!’ Ruby replied.

With all the fun and their unusual arrival at the church most of her nerves had disappeared and, if anything, she felt more eager than ever to get on with it.

‘He’s in there! I haven’t seen him for twenty-four hours and he’s in that building!’ She clamped her teeth and jumped on the spot, making her heels click clack on the tarmac, knowing that in mere minutes Digby would turn and she would smile at him, just as she had imagined.

‘Calm down, love! We don’t want him to think you’re too keen!’ Ruby advised.