“I knew it!” Morag jumped to her feet. “My bakery lost a lot of money because of that stunt. Lake Benson, can’t you keep a leash on your monkey?”
Lake was leaning against the wall at the back of the room. “I keep telling you lot. Just because she came with the shop I bought, doesn’t mean I’m responsible for her.”
“And we keep telling you that you are!” Morag shot back.
“That’s enough.” Caroline smacked the microphone.
Betty climbed down from her seat, gave Morag a finger wave and howled with laughter.
“We’ll deal with your pie problem later,” Caroline told Morag.
Morag pointed at Betty. “She owes me the money I would have made if I hadn’t been forced to sell cut-price pies.”
“As I said”—Caroline eyed Morag—“we’ll deal with that later. Right now we have more pressing matters, like the problem of the press.”
“I don’t see how that’s our problem,” a man at the back of the room called out.
Caroline scowled at him. “It’s your problem because I’m making it yours. I’ve promised Malcolm at the Invertary Standard that he’ll have an exclusive on the wedding. It’s in everyone’s best interest to make sure that happens.”
“Why?” Morag shouted. “Won’t the press bring business? We could use the business. Especially with Betty sabotaging everybody.”
“Yes.” Caroline felt her patience beginning to slip. “The press would bring business, but not as much business as our wedding is going to generate. We’re making sure everything stays as local as possible. Plus the town will have celebrities and tourists. There will be plenty of interest.” She leaned closer to the microphone. “But if this story breaks before I want it to, if this town is overrun by paparazzi and journalists, Josh and I will be forced to have our wedding somewhere else. Then there will be no new business for anyone.” She gave Morag a pointed look.
There was silence.
“This is what I want,” Caroline told the stunned crowd. “We will keep the press out of town. No one is to deal with them. We want to keep everything about this wedding top secret.”
“How are we supposed to keep the kids off Facebook?” someone moaned.
“I’m sure you can think of a way. It’s in your best interest to control them. This wedding will bring a lot of business to the town and will promote tourism for the future. Invertary will be talked about around the world.”
“It will put us on the map,” Dougal shouted.
“The teenagers don’t care about the map,” someone shouted back.
“You’re off your head,” one of the men said. “You’re asking for the impossible.”
The crowd descended into unhappy grumbling. Caroline held up her hand to quieten everyone. Out of the corner of her eye she could see Josh shaking his head at her.
“Settle down, right now,” Caroline told the crowd.
It got slightly quieter. She folded her arms and waited. She would not tolerate being disobeyed.
Josh watched Caroline stare at the crowd like some misguided army drill sergeant. Any minute now she was going to order them all to get down and give her twenty for insubordination. He agreed with the grumpy guy with orange hair—she was out of her mind.
“I don’t see why we should do this,” a woman called out.
“I told you, it’s for the good of the town.” Caroline stuck her nose in the air. “And it’s the right thing to do.”
There was a collective groan. It was time to intervene. If there was one thing he knew, it was how to work a crowd. He sauntered to the mic, smiling at the people in the room. Slowly, quiet descended. It took Caroline a minute to notice she wasn’t the reason for the silence. When she turned to him, she frowned.
“What are you doing out of your seat?”
Josh grinned at her. “When we’re alone we’re going to deal with this teacher fantasy of yours.”
There were giggles. Caroline’s face turned a lovely shade of pink, and she was speechless for once. Josh put a hand on each of her hips and moved her away from the mic.
“Hi, folks. Good to see you all. What my lovely fiancée forgot to say was that if everyone helps us out, I’ll put on an extra show and donate the proceeds to the town.” Caroline gasped. He gave her a lazy smile. “I don’t know exactly how this town works. Maybe your mayor can help me out here.”