Total pages in book: 124
Estimated words: 121898 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 609(@200wpm)___ 488(@250wpm)___ 406(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 121898 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 609(@200wpm)___ 488(@250wpm)___ 406(@300wpm)
“Yep.” His face lit up like the lights on the town square. “Oh, it’s going to be a lot of work, but I think we can manage. It won’t be the wedding your sister imagined, but there wasn’t much she could say after Julian boldly announced he’d marry her in an alleyway if he had to.”
“I am continuously impressed at his ability to reign her shit in,” I mused. “What about the vendors?”
“Zara and Julian should be in my office printing off all your spreadsheets from your shared folder as we speak.”
“The guests?”
“The same. Your mum and Cassandra are going to take the lead in contacting the guests.”
“The registrar?”
“Mum’s on it.”
“What about the décor? The trees? Everything is—”
“Under control, Madam Wedding Planner.” He slid his fingers into my hair, cupping the side of my head and drawing his face close to mine. “Although I am going to need you to accompany me to the tree farm this afternoon so we can pick out some new trees for the ballroom.”
“You know how to woo a girl,” I deadpanned. “Do you even have the facilities to pull this off?”
“No, I thought I’d round up extra picnic chairs from the sheds of the residents of Castleton and hope for the best.” He dropped a kiss on my cheek, just millimetres from my lips.
“You’re getting far too comfortable with that,” I warned him, smacking his arm away. “I’m going to need a full overview of the plan of action and to see your facilities.”
“Yes, ma’am.”
A shiver ran down my spine.
Huh.
It really was different when he said it. How about that?
“Wait. How did this even happen? Do we have an explanation yet?” I grabbed his wrist, shoving the covers aside with my other hand. “The demolition.”
“Ah.” He rubbed the back of his head. “How angry are you going to be if I tell you that it’s an incompetent admin at the council?”
“I’ll be more angry than surprised. I don’t think it’s possible to be surprised at incompetence in a local council.”
“Well, that’s exactly it. The confirmation and contract you received had the date written in longhand form, but it looks like the one sent to the contractor was in numerical form and a typo turned the month from one into twelve and nobody noticed that the year was different.”
I wished I could say I couldn’t believe it, but I could.
“Haaa,” I said on an exhale, burying my face in my hands. “This is why I said this was a bad idea. I knew something like this would happen when everything started going wrong, and I had the worst feeling this morning when I woke up.”
“Hey.” Thomas leant forwards and gently peeled my fingers from my face, slipping his much larger hands beneath mine until he was cradling my face and forcing me to meet his eyes. “Don’t dwell on it anymore. We can’t change what’s happened, and Steve is going to open a lawsuit as soon as he can to recover all the costs associated with the failed venue. What we can do is work with what we’ve got, and it’s not impossible to make sure they have a fantastic wedding.”
“I just feel like… I don’t know.” I laid a hand over one of his. “Like everything I’ve done so far is for nothing.”
“Don’t be so stupid.” He lowered his face to mine once again. “Without your meticulous planning and recording of everything, we wouldn’t be able to save the wedding the way we are. It’s not nothing, okay?”
Tears spilled from my eyes before I could stop them, but they were unlike the loud, painful ones I’d cried earlier. These were quiet, gentle tears—of relief, of gratitude, and of comfort.
For the first time in life, I wasn’t alone to deal with such a disaster.
“Why is it always you?” I whispered, closing my eyes as I leant into his touch. “Why are you always here when I’m at my worst?”
A quiet chuckle escaped him, and he lightly touched his lips to mine. “Well, you see, Miss Harding,” he murmured without pulling away. “It’s all a part of my grand scheme to make you fall wildly in love with me.”
Ha.
Ha.
Ha.
Mission accomplished, Your Grace.
CHAPTER THIRTY-THREE – SYLVIE
This ballroom was fucking huge.
I’d never been in here before, but the room had to span at last two storeys, and the windows brought in an incredible amount of natural light. There would be no problem whatsoever having both the ceremony and reception in this room as long as the switch between events could be done smoothly.
“What about between the ceremony and the reception?” I asked Emily, looking around. “Assuming Hazel and Julian will have their photos taken here on the estate, there’ll need to be provisions made for the guests during those hours.”
“Already way ahead of you, darling,” Emily said, motioning for me to follow her. “Ignore the current state of the rooms—we haven’t hosted a wedding in a while, but we’ve got almost our entire housekeeping staff currently here cleaning. There are two sitting rooms close to the ballroom, plus a large sunroom we will have prepared for guests. One of the sitting rooms opens directly to the sunroom while the other is quieter, and we can accommodate children there. We renovated this wing of the house with events in mind, so there are four separate bathrooms that can accommodate both disabled and able-bodied individuals.”