Under His Influence

“You know how it is with work and everything, Caro.”

“I wish I did. You never call or write anymore. Anyway, I mustn’t berate you on your wedding day. I’m sorry.” Her voice dropped and Mimi had to strain her well-trained ears. “But are you sure you’re over Saskia? Grief is a difficult thing, John. I don’t begrudge you a bit of happiness in your life, God knows, but she’s such a young thing and she seems so innocent. Is she really your…type?”

“Yes, she is my type.” Stone’s voice was tight, fighting real anger. “She is a loving, caring, warm woman. I’m over trophies, Caro, and I’m over partying hard. I want a life now, a family. I want to come home to my wife after work, not have to chase a trail of coke halfway across the city to find her. Is that hard to understand?”

“No. No, it isn’t. Fine. You’re in love and you’re going to live happily ever after.”

“Exactly so. Now go and get yourself a glass of champagne.”

“John!”

Mimi’s ears tingled at the bafflement in Caro’s voice.

“You know I don’t drink.”

“Sorry, silly mistake, it’s been a hectic few weeks. Okay, um, there’s elderflower pressé doing the rounds somewhere. I have to talk to James. I’ll see you later.” He pecked her briefly on the cheek and fled.

Mimi put on her schmooze face and sidled up to Stone’s nonplussed relative.

“Hello,” she said, proffering a hand. “I’m Mimi, the bride’s best friend. So pleased to meet you.”

“Caroline. Caroline Stone-Hawkins.”

“I’m assuming, since I don’t know you, that you’re from the groom’s side of the guest list?”

“That’s right. I’m John’s sister. So you’re a friend of this Anna’s?” Caro gave Mimi a haughty down-the-nose look.

“Yes, this Anna is my closest friend, as I’ve already mentioned. I suppose you’re as shocked as I am by the whirlwindiness of it all?”

“Whirlwindiness.” Caro unfroze a fraction, cracking a smirk. “That’s a good way of putting it. Yes, I must admit, we’ve been caught a little off guard. How did it all happen, if you don’t mind my asking?”

“I’m not even sure Anna knows herself. She bumped into your brother in a bar, there were repercussions…um… That seems to be it. Do you think it’s a grief reaction?

A rebound?”

“That is my concern. John has been awfully—different—since Saskia’s death. Darker, more intense, rather closed. I suppose that’s normal under the circumstances, but I was hoping he would have emerged from that before taking another wife. We barely see him these days. He didn’t even come home for Christmas. Went off somewhere on his own to do the brooding in the wilderness thing. Well. I can only hope she cures him of all that. Perhaps it’s a positive thing.”

“You don’t sound convinced.”

Caro shrugged. “What about your friend? Do you think she and John are a match?”

“I’m afraid I don’t, really. I don’t know John well, of course, but Anna is young and naive and prone to romanticise everything. I think she might be acting in haste.”

“Marry in haste, repent at leisure,” mused Caro. “Gosh, what a pair of doom-mongers we are. Just for today, I’m determined to wish them well. I’d propose a toast, but I haven’t drunk alcohol in ten years.”

“Of course I hope they will be happy,” Mimi assured her. “And perhaps they will.”

“Perhaps. Oh, look, I think we’re being called in for the wedding breakfast. Lovely to meet you, er…”

“Mimi,” she reiterated. “Mimi Leblanc. Likewise.”

She watched Caroline move off and made to follow her, but from behind a statue, a hand shot out and grabbed her arm. Before she could utter a word of protest, she found herself face-to-face with the grim-faced groom himself.

“You like to ask questions, don’t you, Mimi? You’re a bright spark, aren’t you?”

“It’s a free country,” she muttered, looking around to find an escape route that obstinately failed to present itself.

“Yes, it is. And you’re lucky to live in one. Make the most of your freedom.”