To Love and Be Loved(10)

‘Knock knock!’ came the sound of a male voice.

Merrin whipped her head towards the back door, where Jarvis Cardy – the same Jarvis whom Ruby had punched in the mouth over a decade ago – stood, wearing the jeans and a sweatshirt he wore to fish and holding an envelope.

The sight of him, and all he had possibly witnessed, was enough to send the ensemble into the next level of hysterics.

‘Jarvis!’ Merrin jumped up, trying to contain her giggles. ‘How long have you been standing there?’

‘Long enough, Merry.’ He looked away and shifted his feet awkwardly. ‘I just brought you a card.’ He walked forward hesitantly with the card in his outstretched hand.

‘Oh, Jarvis, thanks! That’s lovely.’ She held her dressing gown closed at the neck and took the shiny gold envelope from her friend.

‘It’s a fancy one; I got it in town. It’s not one from the shop.’

It meant the world that he had gone to so much trouble. Mrs Everit’s selection of cards in the village store was no more than a yellowing assortment of faded tat, covering children’s birthdays and one or two ‘In Sympathy’, but certainly nothing that would be suitable for the Port Charles wedding of the year.

‘I’ll save it and open it later with Digby, if that’s okay.’

‘’Course it is.’ Jarvis coughed and his cheeks blushed crimson.

The room fell quiet, as if all were equally embarrassed, not only by what he might have overheard, but also by the fact that he had briefly been Merrin’s boyfriend before Digby. Merrin felt acutely aware that in a parallel universe it could have been him at home right now, looking for cufflinks and ironing his good shirt, him waiting for her at the end of the aisle.

‘I’d best let you get on. Good luck, Merry. Enjoy your day.’

‘I will, and thanks for the card.’ She held it aloft as he turned slowly, as if reluctant to leave. He hovered in the doorway, taking her in, head to toe.

‘And Merry.’ He swallowed.

‘Yes?’

‘I just wanted to say . . .’ Again he faltered, and licked his lips.

‘Spit it out, lad!’ Bella encouraged.

‘Leave him alone, Bells! You take your time, Jarv.’ Ruby came to his defence, as she often did, as if trying to make amends for the great mouth smack he had received when they were kids.

He looked up and smiled at her, grateful, it seemed, for the ally. Then he appeared to lose his nerve and looked again at his feet. ‘Nothing.’ He shook his head and made his retreat. ‘It don’t matter.’

Merrin watched him go, glad he had not said or done anything that might have embarrassed them all. She turned to face her bridesmaids and mother, who all stared at her.

‘What?’ she asked, knowing full well that their thoughts probably matched her own.

‘Here we are then!’ Her gran, Ellen Kellow, announced her arrival, breaking the silent impasse and slamming the back door shut with her bottom. ‘A fisherman’s daughter marrying a Mortimer, did we ever think we’d see the day?’ She chortled and shook her head. ‘I know I never did, that’s for sure. What would old Ma Mortimer say?’

‘Loretta?’ Heather asked, her eyes crinkled in confusion.

‘Loretta, pah. No!’ her gran yelled. ‘Not Loretta, his mother, Guthrie’s mother, Eunice. A meddler, that’s what she was. A rotten stinking meddler!’

Ruby locked eyes with Merrin, who shook her head almost imperceptibly to let her sister know that she didn’t have the faintest idea what her gran was wittering on about either.

‘Tell me you’re not having your hair like that?’ the old lady commented tartly as she sat down in the wing-backed chair her daughter-in-law had only recently vacated.

‘It’s not finished.’ Merrin touched her fingers to her curls.

‘Well, I can see that!’ Her gran, as usual, didn’t pull any punches. ‘Ruby, go make your gran a cup of tea!’

Ruby idled to the stove to once again set the kettle on the hot plate.

‘I’ve just passed Jarvis on the path with a face like a smacked arse. Reckon he regrets not popping the question himself.’

‘Don’t be daft, they were only little ’uns when they were courting, playing at it more than anything,’ her mum cut in.

‘Exactly! Jarvis has no interest in Merrin, he’s far too smart for that,’ Ruby fired with her usual lack of charm.

‘I know all that, Rubes, but someone should tell it to Jarvis’s face; it looked close to tears.’

‘Jarvis is a good lad. Reckon you’ve broke his little heart!’ Bella joined in. ‘It’s not too late, Merry. Until that ring is on your finger you can still change your mind!’

‘You’re not funny, Bella. I don’t love Jarvis. I never loved Jarvis, not even a bit. He was just a mate who I practised kissing with, really. I love Digby, and Mum’s right, we were only playing at it.’ It was the truth. She and Jarvis had embarked on a childish love affair, no more than a juvenile fling that lasted mere months, and they’d certainly got nowhere near the wiggle-and-tuppence stage, but he was her last and only previous significant other, the boy who now worked for her dad and had laughed at her fringe. ‘What I feel for Digby is the real deal. . .’