Confetti at the Cornish Café. Phillipa Ashley
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Isla and her fiancé, Luke – and Cal of course. I’m surprised he hasn’t mentioned me?’
‘How could I ever have forgotten,’ says Cal. ‘And Kilhallon may be wild and remote but it will make a wonderful setting for the ceremony.’
Mawgan laughs. ‘If it doesn’t rain and blow a howling gale. Don’t you remember when that storm almost destroyed Kilhallon house and nearly ruined Isla’s engagement party last summer?’
‘Oh my God! Did it?’ Lily cries.
‘It was nothing more than a damaged window, which we’ve repaired,’ Cal says, slightly downplaying the incident where an oak tree smashed through the wall and almost squashed us both.
‘And Isla and Luke had a wonderful party,’ I say. ‘No one would ever have known there had been a storm the night before. I’m sure it won’t happen again.’
Ben snorts. ‘I hope not, but you know what the weather’s like down here. We ought to have a plan in case the weather goes tits up.’
‘We’re already working on that,’ says Cal, causing me to break out in goosebumps of panic. We definitely don’t have a plan yet.
‘Yes, there are a number of options we can explore,’ I say. ‘But I’m sure the weather will be kind to us.’
Lily seems reassured and Ben is still grinning about meeting up with his old mate again.
‘We should all go out for a drink together, shouldn’t we, babe?’ he says to Lily.
‘Oh yes. And dinner. Our treat.’
Mawgan’s eyes gleam with delight. ‘That would be fantastic.’
‘Bring Mr Cade,’ Ben says. ‘If there is one.’
Mawgan keeps smiling. I’m amazed her jaw hasn’t broken. ‘There’s no Mr Cade, apart from my dad. Yet.’
‘No? Is there anyone else you want to invite?’ Lily says, slipping her arm around Ben.
‘What about your sister?’ Ben asks, ‘How is she? Still doing all that arty farty stuff?’ Ben asks with a snort.
‘Yes.’ Mawgan forces a smile. ‘She lives with her partner in one of our properties near Truro.’
‘So she’s shacked up with a bloke while you’re still young, free and single, eh? Can’t think why, Mawgs.’
Part of me enjoys seeing Mawgan cringe at Ben’s awkward questions but I have a horrible feeling about what’s coming next.
Mawgan forces a smile. ‘Andi’s partner is a girl, actually.’
‘Andi lives with my cousin, Robyn,’ Cal says, cutting in with a smile even more strained than Mawgan’s. Even though Mawgan went with Robyn and Andi to see their mother in Australia at Christmas, she is obviously still not comfortable with the idea of her sister living with another woman, and a Penwith too.
Mawgan hates Cal for all kinds of reasons but mainly because Cal’s father had an affair with Mawgan’s mum. In Mawgan’s eyes, that caused the break-up of her parents’ marriage and led to Mrs Cade emigrating to Australia. Then there’s the small matter of Cal rejecting Mawgan when they were both young. OK. I get it that Mawgan was devastated by the split and misses her mum, but Cal and I both lost our mothers when we were young. We all have regrets and loss to cope with, but only Mawgan is on a mission to make everyone else’s lives a misery. I wonder how much of this story Ben knows … He seems in awe of Mawgan.
‘Did you say that Andi and Robyn have moved into one of your properties?’ he says, sounding well impressed.
Mawgan smirks. ‘Yes, Cade Developments is quite a big concern these days as I’m sure Demi and Cal will tell you.’ She’s obviously far happier to boast about her business empire than talk about her sister’s girlfriend.
Ben blows out a breath. ‘I always knew you’d get on in life, Mawgs. You never let anyone get one over on you when we were little.’
‘And I always knew you’d be a big star,’ Mawgan simpers. ‘Auntie Georgie used to take us to see him in the local theatre productions during the school holidays,’ she tells Lily.
‘Oh, I’d have loved to have seen him but he’s always been talented. I saw an advert he did for a chocolate bar when he was only around ten. It popped up on a Before They Were Famous show and he looked soooo cute. I bet you could tell me so much about him when he was little.’
Mawgan smiles. ‘I may know a few snippets.’
Ben groans. ‘Don’t start that, Mawgan. We both have a few secrets we’d rather keep hidden.’
‘I’m sure Mawgan is the soul of discretion,’ Cal says smoothly.
Mawgan smirks. ‘As you’ve found out, Cal.’ She turns back to Ben and Lily. ‘We can talk about the old days when we go out for dinner. I can’t wait to catch up with all the gossip, though I’m not sure it’s my dad’s thing to hang out with celebs.’
Lily laughs in delight. ‘What a shame, but the five of us can still have a lovely time: I had no idea that you were all so close and you have to come to the wedding, of course. How cool that you know Cal and Demi too! And I’ll make sure I bring Louie along next time. This whole wedding thing is going to be just awesome.’
Two weeks later – second week of March
Cal
‘I can’t believe that we are going to have to play happy families with Mawgan Cade and Lily and Ben,’ Demi tells me in the kitchen at Kilhallon House. It’s been over two weeks since Ben and Lily descended on us and she’s obviously still fuming about them inviting our arch-enemy to be part of a lunch party. I can’t say I blame her but I’ve other things to lose sleep over.
Demi slaps a piece of dough onto the farmhouse worktop and starts kneading it like it might come to life and attack her at any moment. Puffs of flour fly into the air as she beats it into submission.
She catches me smiling at her. ‘What?’
‘Nothing. Only that I’m mighty glad I’m not that dough.’
‘Well,’ she says, crushing her knuckles into the sticky mass, ‘I wish it was Mawgan Cade. I can’t believe she knows Ben Trevone. And to dare come here to muscle in when she knew they were paying a visit. I wish we could ban her from the wedding.’
‘Handfasting …’
‘Handfasting then. Whatever, I don’t want Mawgan sticking her six-inch leopard-skin boots into it.’
‘I can’t dictate to our guests who they can invite – unless that person is a psychopathic nutcase, of course … which Mawgan does qualify as.’
‘Yes.’ Bash. ‘She.’ Thump. ‘Does.’ Whack.
Wow, she really is giving that dough a working over. It reminds me of my mum. She used to use bread making as therapy when my dad had upset her. Yet at the same time, watching Demi knock seven bells out of that dough is strangely soothing. I never stopped being amazed at how Mum turned a bag of flour, some water and a bit of yeast into light and fluffy loaves. The smell of bread baking makes my mouth water even now. We’d toast it and slather it in butter and homemade raspberry jam from her kitchen garden, or we’d eat blackberry crumble made with berries I’d pick from the hedgerows all around Kilhallon. Me, Luke, Isla … it was a happy, simpler time.
We once studied a book at school where someone said the past is another country, or something like it. It feels so true, especially when I think about what happened in Syria with Soraya and Esme. I wonder where she is, or if she still exists at all in this realm.