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A carafe of water, a glass and a vase of flowers had been procured from somewhere and set upon the table and Sherry had proceeded to e out two phones, a lever arch file already divided into labelled sections, a stack of wedding roaned in horror—her own scrapbooks and what looked like her own Pinterest mood boards printed out and laminated

So she planned weddings online? She was a wedding photographer! It was her job to get ideas and inspiration

If Sherry Huntingdon ever turned her for other than fashion then who knehat she’d achieve? World peace? An end to poverty? Daisy winced That wasn’t entirely fair; both her parents did a huge amount for charity, ht be the

‘There you are, Seb’ Sherry was pacing around the Great Hall, looking at the panelling and the other period details with approval ‘Before you whisk Daisy away I need a bit of information’

‘Whatever you need’ His eyes flickered towards the arsenal of paper, pens and planning materials set out with precision on the tables and a an to beat in his stubbled jaw as his hands slowly clenched ‘Good to see that you’ve made yourself at home’

‘I think it’s helpful to be right in the centre of things,’ Sherry agreed, —his sarcastic undertone ‘Your nice s booked in both weekends so I can’t leave everything set up but we’ll have the hall to ourselves for the four days before the wedding so I canis perfect’

Daisy noticed Seb’s tense stance, the rigidity in his shoulders, and interrupted ‘It won’t take four days to set up for a few family and friends—and it’s such short notice I’m sure most people will have plans already’

‘Don’t be ridiculous, of course they’ll co of the year—rock aristocracy to real aristocracy? They’ll cancel whatever other plans they have, youman tells me the hall will seat two hundred so I’ll need your list as soon as possible, Seb’

‘List?’ TheDaisy couldn’t take her eyes off it She wanted to walk over there, lay a hand on the tense shoulder and soothe the stress out of it, run a hand across his firm jawline and kiss the ers into her pal re her not to cross the line To remain businesslike

‘I already did you a list, Daisy’ Of course she had Numbly Daisy took the sheet of neatly typed na to see the usual mixture of relatives, her parents’ friends and business associates and the group of people her age that her parents liked to socialise with: a few actors, singers and other cool,in common with

And yet Daisy sed, heat burning the backs of her eyes The na eyes were exactly—almost exactly—those she would have written herself It was like a This Is Your Life recap: school friends, college friends, work associates, London friends plus of course the usual relatives and soers, people she had known her entire life

‘This is perfect How did you know?’ Blinking furiously, Daisy forced back the threatening tears; all her life she had felt like the odd one out, the funny little addition at the end of the fa, fully paid-up adult member of the family, a person who really mattered

A person who they kneho they understood Maybe they understood her better than she had ever realised

‘Vi helped ruff and there was a telltale sheen in her eyes ‘Is it right?’

‘Almost perfect’ There were just a few amendments Daisy swiftly added several new names, recent friends her family had yet to meet

Sebher back to the present, to the reality that was this wedding What was she thinking?

Her hand shook a little bit as she reread the top lines These were exactly the people she would want to share her wedding day with Only

‘The thing is we did agree on a s’ She tried to keep all e her mother to hear her disappointment or Seb to feel cornered ‘If we invited all these it would be a huge affair I’ll take a look at it and single out the most important friends What do you think? Iuests each?’ She looked around at the long hall, the vast ti overhead They would rattle around in here like a Chihuahua in a Great Dane’s pen