‘Jasmine’s right, this has nothing to do with her.’
‘Do you know who did this, George? Because if you do, you have to tell us so we can—’
‘It was me.’
Shocked silence spun into every corner of the room.
‘But…’ began Lexie, bewildered by his admission until she realised that he was taking the blame so that they wouldn’t chastise Jasmine any further. ‘George, it’s okay, we’re not angry with Jasmine, we just want to make sure there are no more incidents and everyone can enjoy the rest of the wedding without worrying what’s going to happen next.’
‘No, I have many faults, but I can’t, and won’t, let Jasmine take the blame for something she didn’t do. I did this to Rachel’s duvet, although I did borrow Jasmine’s paints.’
‘But why… why would you do such a thing?’ gasped Zara, staring at George before exchanging a horrified glance with Jason who had got up from the bed to go and crouch next to his father’s chair.
‘Dad? Are you okay?’
‘Apart from being mortified about my totally unforgiveable behaviour, you mean?’
‘Well…’
It was clear to Lexie that Jason was worried about George rather than angry with him for what he’d just admitted to doing. Then something else occurred to Lexie, she tried to push it away, but it bounced back into her brain like a yo-yo.
‘Can I ask you something, George?’
George met her eyes and the pain she saw reflected in their depth caused a lump to form in her throat. She had no idea what was going on but whatever it was, George was suffering tremendously and her heart gave a nip of empathy.
‘Did you… did you also… erm, did you also have something to do Rachel’s bridesmaid’s dress?’
‘What are you talking about?’ snapped Rachel, her head spinning towards Lexie.
Lexie knew from George’s expression that she had hit the jackpot.
‘What about Rachel’s bridesmaid’s dress?’ asked Zara, turning to Rachel to scrutinise the bridesmaid’s dress she was still wearing, as well as the tiara.
‘A couple days ago, someone splashed tomato sauce on the bodice when Freya left it unattended for a few moments while she went to answer a non-existent call in the foyer. I assume you made that call, George?’
Unable to speak, George nodded; a silent admission of guilt. Tears had gathered at the corners of his tired eyes and his jawline had sunk, giving him a haggard, hunted expression.
‘And the bottle of gin in the library?’
‘What bottle of gin?’ asked Jason and Zara in unison.
Rachel was now staring uncomprehendingly at George, who was studiously avoiding looking in her direction, preferring to stare at the floor, whilst he tried to stop his hands from shaking and his head nodding like a toy dog. Lexie suspected that he was employing every last ounce of effort in his tank to keep control of his emotions.
‘Did you put the gin on the table in the library to get Rachel into trouble with Zara?’
‘Oh, my God, you did that? Why George? Why would you do that to me? The dress? The bed covers? Why? What have I done to you to deserve this?’ cried Rachel, tears now streaming down her face as Jason placed his hand on his father’s shoulder to offer comfort, as the older man had now started to tremble uncontrollably.
‘I… I…’
‘Okay, I think I’ll just take Jasmine back to the party, shall I?’ said Dan, stepping forward from his place at the window and collecting his wide-eyed sister from her seat next to Zara. ‘Come on, Jazz, how about I treat you to one of those non-alcoholic cocktails in a pineapple or a coconut shell?’
‘Yay! Yes, please!’
Jasmine bounced up from the bed but instead of following Dan to the door she rushed over to the distraught George and engulfed him in a hug. ‘Don’t cry, Uncle George. I love you. I’ll save you a seat and we can dance like Beauty and the Beast later on, okay?’
‘Of course, poppet.’
When the door had closed behind them, everyone looked back at George, waiting for an explanation for the strange things he had just admitted to doing.
‘I don’t have the words to express how sorry I am, Rachel. I really don’t know what came over me, I really don’t. I’ve been under so much pressure lately, but it’s absolutely no excuse for what I did, no excuse.’
‘But I don’t understand…’ began Zara.
‘I do. It was you, wasn’t it?’ Rachel said.
Everyone in the room switched their gaze to Rachel.
‘Rachel?’ said Zara, her face pale and drawn.
‘It all makes sense now.’
‘I’m sorry, Rachel. I should have said something to you when Zara asked you to make a copy of the damn thing. I should have begged you to keep schtum until after the wedding and promised you that I’d come clean when the whole shebang was over and done with, faced the music, made my apologies, offered reparation, but, as I said, I’ve not been myself these last few weeks. I’ve been working double shifts at the hospital, I’ve done two sponsored swims and a hike up Ben Nevis, then there was the Coast to Coast cycle ride. I’m exhausted, but that’s no excuse for what I did.’
‘What did you do!’ demanded Jason. ‘Tell us before we go crazy!’
‘I did those things to warn Rachel to keep quiet.’
‘Quiet about what?’
George sighed, his shoulders slumped into his chest and he looked like a broken man.
‘Ever since the divorce, I’ve been struggling to make ends meet. I walked away with nothing, but I had my pride and that was all that mattered. I’ve got a job I love and my charity work and I feel like I can really make a different to all those children who deserve the best chance at life. I was managing to scrape by from month to month, keeping busy by doing all these sponsored gigs, and when you announced that you were getting married, I’d never been so happy!’
George looked up from his hand-wringing and met Zara’s gaze for the first time.
‘Zara, you’re an amazing woman and I know you’ll make my son the happiest man in the world. As I said, I don’t know how it happened, some kind of brainstorm or something, but when Nadia said she was paying for the wedding, a kind of primeval machoism forced me to insist that I would pay for half. The look on Nadia’s face when I offered to contribute my share almost made it worth it. She couldn’t believe I had the funds, and of course she was right, I didn’t, but I couldn’t back out once I’d said it, could I? She would have loved that.’
‘But Dad, Zara and I didn’t expect you to pay for the wedding! If we’d had any idea about—’
‘I know, Son, I know.’ George reached out to pat Jason’s hand before extracting a large white cotton handkerchief from his pocket and blowing his nose, a gesture that caused tears to sparkle at Lexie’s eyes.
‘But what’s this got to do with Rachel?’ asked Theo, keen to move the conversation on.
‘Rachel, do you want to tell them?’ said George, his voice tightened by emotion.
Rachel nodded slowly.
‘Zara asked me to make a copy of the tiara that Nadia insisted she wore on her wedding day so we could have matching hairpieces. She sent me photographs for the design and I had my doubts about its authenticity straight away. But I couldn’t be sure, especially as Nadia had told Zara how it had been in the family for years, and also how she’d believed it to be diamonds and aquamarines and had cost tens of thousands of pounds when it was commissioned in the fifties.’