Their wedding was, as Ray had wanted, very small. Ray looked extremely striking, Melissa thought, in a smart navy suit and new striped tie. She wore a pink spotted frock with a nipped-in waist and padded shoulders, which managed to disguise the last few pounds of baby fat that she couldn’t shift. Leah wore a pretty white dress, so at least one of them was conforming to convention. The witnesses were not, as Ray had suggested, pulled in off the street, but a couple of guests who had arrived early for the next ceremony. They seemed very nice, smiling and doing what was necessary before fading back into their own wedding party.

The deed done, Ray took her to a hotel not far from the registry office where they picked from the à la carte menu and drank two bottles of cold, crisp champagne. It was not, she had to admit, the wedding of her dreams, but despite that, Melissa still felt like a princess. Ray was attentive and nothing was too much trouble for his new wife, whom he insisted on calling ‘Mrs Allen’ at every opportunity. Even Leah was happy to sleep her way through the lunch so they could enjoy themselves without interruption.

With the meal over and the last of the champagne drained, Melissa’s ubiquitous smile suddenly slipped away.

‘It’s not fair,’ she said with such depth of feeling that Ray jumped in his seat.

‘What?’ he asked her urgently. ‘What on earth’s the matter?’

‘It’s not fair that we’re not having a honeymoon,’ said Melissa, the champagne smudging her words into one another. ‘We just got married. We should have a bloody honeymoon!’

The corners of her mouth drooped sulkily and she rested her chin on her hand and sighed. She had had the quietest wedding in living memory and she wasn’t even going to get a holiday afterwards. She wouldn’t have wanted much: a week in the Lake District or Wales would have been lovely. She didn’t have a passport, so they couldn’t have gone abroad anyway. But nothing? Nothing at all? That was rubbish. Tears began to blur her eyes and trickle down her cheeks.

She looked up at Ray, hoping for a sympathetic smile at the very least, but he just shrugged at her, like the fact that they weren’t going on honeymoon was just one of those things.

But then the corner of his mouth began to twitch and then his whole face broke into an enormous smile.

‘I have a small announcement to make,’ he began, his eyebrows arching like a pantomime villain’s.

Of course, Melissa thought, she had absolutely no reason to worry. Ray wouldn’t let her miss out. He must have arranged something in secret. That was her Ray all over, always doing things to surprise her.