‘I suppose all of her family will be properly attired.’ Her mother sniffed. ‘You know she comes from money?’
‘Good for her,’ Pepper countered, in a snappier tone than she had meant to. Building a new and more honest relationship with her mother was never going to happen if Pepper allowed herself to be drawn into sniping matches. It was clear her mum was on edge – probably because she was about to meet the family of her ex-husband’s new wife – and it was understandable that she would be keen to make a good impression.
Pepper decided to be the bigger person.
‘Shall I get a glass, too, so we have a toast?’ she suggested. ‘To being here, on this beautiful island?’
Her mother almost smiled.
‘If you insist, Philippa.’
They made it through the ceremony without incident, Pepper on one side of Samuel and her mum on the other. He had dressed for the occasion in a lightweight grey suit, and after catching sight of Pepper in her upcycled frock, had proclaimed her to be ‘pretty as a pink-ture’, to which she groaned and rolled her eyes in mock despair.
It was impossible not to get caught up in the romance of it all, and when Keira floated by in her flouncy white dress, the tears on Pepper’s cheeks were of genuine happiness. No expense had been spared when it came to the decorations, and as they were ushered into the ballroom where the wedding breakfast was taking place, Pepper was amused to find monogrammed ‘Mr and Mrs’ balloons, goldfish in vases on the tables and photos of the happy couple strung up like bunting around the walls. She had only seen her father for long enough to say a brief congratulations but noted that he looked happy – if a little exhausted. That was to be expected, Pepper had thought, when you married someone twenty-two years your junior. For the first time, she wondered now if Keira would want any children of her own and was surprised to find that the idea wasn’t all that horrifying. It might even be nice to have a new baby in the family.
There was champagne circulating and bottles of wine on every table, and Pepper continued to drink as the first two courses came out. She had been seated at a separate table from the others, and assumed that Keira was the one behind it, having witnessed the frostiness between Pepper and her mum at the pub all those weeks ago. She must have thought she was doing her new stepdaughter a favour by teaming her up with a group of people her own age.
‘How do you know the bride?’ she asked the girl next to her, who was tall and blonde with a place card that read ‘Hayley’ in swirly letters.
‘Pony Club,’ she said, smearing half a dish of butter onto her bread roll. ‘Kezza used to ride when she was younger, but she gave it up to crunch numbers instead.’
‘I thought she was a secretary,’ Pepper said, contemplating her smoked salmon. The lemon wedge had been wrapped in muslin – she must slip it into her bag to use for a collage.
‘Nope, global marketing manager,’ Hayley told her. ‘Whatever one of those is. You’ll have to excuse me – I work as a riding school instructor, so I have very little idea about the corporate world.’
‘Me neither,’ Pepper agreed. Then, glancing across at the empty seat on the other side of her, ‘Do you think whoever Evangeline is will mind us pinching her starter?’
‘Oh, I shouldn’t think so.’ Hayley leant across and picked up the plate. ‘She’s not coming – couldn’t drag herself away from her new sister.’
‘A new sister?’
‘Yeah.’ Hayley topped up Pepper’s wine. ‘It’s a long story with a very happy ending. Anyway, who are you here with?’
‘My mum is over there,’ Pepper told her, pointing across and catching Samuel’s eye. He had tucked his napkin in around his shirt collar and gave her a thumbs-up.
‘She’s a beauty like you,’ Hayley said. ‘And that guy reminds me of a younger, hotter Will Smith.’
‘You’re not the first to say so.’ Pepper laughed. ‘But don’t tell him that, whatever you do. We don’t want him getting a big head.’
‘I doubt he’d care much what I thought,’ Hayley pointed out, as she looked from Samuel back to Pepper. ‘From the way he keeps staring over in your direction, I would say there’s only one person at this wedding whose opinion means anything to him.’
Pepper almost choked on her champagne.
‘You’ve got it all wrong,’ she said, scooping up a slice of the missing Evangeline’s salmon. ‘We’re just friends.’
‘That’s what I used to say about Billy,’ Hayley said, resting both her elbows on the table and knotting her fingers together. ‘And we just celebrated our first anniversary.’
Pepper’s second ‘congratulations’ of the day was interrupted by someone tapping their knife against a glass, and she turned in her seat just as her father stood to make his speech.
‘I want to start by thanking you all for coming,’ he began, and Pepper swilled from her glass, only half listening as he rattled on about what a fantastic job the bridesmaids had done, and how lucky he was to have found such a wonderful woman to marry.
So far, so standard.
‘I also wanted to mention my beautiful daughter, Philippa,’ he went on, to which Pepper shifted uncomfortably in her seat. ‘Who I am so happy to see here today.’
He paused for a moment as he searched through the faces, eventually finding Pepper’s and crinkling his eyes with affection.
‘I know that I haven’t always been the best dad,’ he blundered on, his voice cracking as Pepper felt the heat rising up across her cheeks. ‘I probably could have done more, been around more, been on your side more,’ he added, this time looking towards his ex-wife. ‘Keira has made me realise that I need to do better, and that I have some making up to do. I hope this can be the first of many apologies, and perhaps the first brick towards all of us building a better future – one where we can better support one another.’
There was a crash as Trinity’s chair hit the polished wooden floor, and Pepper knew she could not have been the only person who heard her mother’s audible sob as she fled from the room.
Chapter 45
‘Mum?’
Pepper gave the toilet cubicle door a tentative knock.
‘Are you OK?’
Nothing. She put her ear against the wood, heard a faint sniff.
‘Come on, Mum,’ she tried again. ‘Don’t take what Dad said to heart – you know he didn’t mean it as a dig at you.’
Pepper recoiled as the toilet lid was slammed down, only just stepping back just in time to avoid falling into the stall when her mother yanked open the door. Her face was flushed with tell-tale anger and she looked blotchy beneath her carefully applied make-up.
‘There was no need to follow me, Philippa,’ she said, so coldly that Pepper shrank away. ‘Your father won’t have taken too kindly to you disappearing in the midst of his big moment.’
‘His speech was ill-judged,’ Pepper said, not simply to comfort her mother but because it was true. If her father had something to say to her, he should have done it in private. Now the entire wedding party knew about their tempestuous family history.