CHAPTER 56
Cheeky Alice had even managed to squeeze Margaret onto the reception guest list without me noticing, so she was sitting smiling fondly with the old tart as more speeches came and went.

My father made a censored version of his earlier speech to me, and I realised that while it had been heartfelt, he had been preparing it for some time. The disco struck up, and my husband and I did the traditional thing on the floor, before I disappeared to the changing rooms to get out of my beautiful dress and into something better suited to serious dancing, as I intended to get well and truly sweaty later.

When I returned, jackets and ties were off, and Tone was out of his morning suit and into his own dancing kit. The disco was still reasonably sedate, and Janet was actually waltzing with Pat, apparently having abandoned stealth. Steph and her husband were similarly stylish, and I realised that both were actually natural dancers, her lean and leggy height meshing perfectly with his almost balletic grace and fluidity of movement. Karen, Suzy and Anne were deep in conversation with colleagues of Tony, and Andy and Bev were in that shuffling embrace where you feel you have to get up and dance, but you are without the slightest clue as to what you are actually meant, formally, to be doing. Just getting up, holding the one you love, and shuffling round is enough.

I was pulled into dances with Dad, and Steve, and Arwel and Hywel separately, and Geoff, Steph’s husband, and of course Andy, and a stupidly happy Pat. When I rested for a few minutes, Margaret joined me. I hugged her.

“Thank you for coming. Alice was sneaky there, but I have never forgotten the grace you showed at my interview”

“Me? Grace? I normally get called things like ‘that bitch’!”

“Well, in my case, it was ’queen bitch’”

She laughed. “You impressed me. You walked in as you wanted to be seen, and when I pulled you up on that, I was faced down”

“I was shitting myself when you did that!”

“Yes, but you stayed. Pity that nasty little worm got his hooks into you that day”

“Well, I had a lot to learn”

“Yes, you did, Sarah, and from the looks of things you are a good student. You have a wonderful man there, and friends most people can only dream of. I watched your family, as your father spoke, and they were entirely with him, and with you, even the two bouncer types. And, more than that, you have made two old lady chemists happy.

“I’ve been watching Alice, and the life in her is astonishing. For that alone, I would wish you well. Thank you”

“Thank Tony’s mother Enid for that one”

I told her an edited version of Enid’s pushing of Alice’s change, and when I got to the bit where the doctor had thought they were lesbians Margaret laughed so hard she had to excuse herself and go to the ladies’.

The dancing went on, the drinks went down, and people got friendly on the dance floor. Just before the band was due to come on, Pat and Janet asked if they could help with the kids.

“I think our job here is done” he said, “and it would be wise to get the little ones off home before the serious drinking starts”

Tony smiled at that. “That would be lovely. Now, you know where I keep my bottles….”

“Oooooooh yes!” grinned Pat.

“There are some videos for them, and a collection of treats, but be sparing” I warned, and they were off. I exchanged a look with Tony, but I kept my counsel. I scanned the room, looking for any problems, or indeed any gossip, and was surprised to see Arwel deep in conversation with Alice. I wandered over.

“Have you two been properly introduced yet?”

Alice smiled. “I think we have managed to introduce ourselves rather adequately. Arwel here was telling me about how things were at home before you…found yourself”

“Aye, Sarah, and before you start getting worried, I know what Alice here is, another one of your sort, isn’t it? She’s got balls, she has, doing it like this”

It was a moment after Alice blew wine out of her nose before he realised his gaffe.

“No, girl, I meant that she is what I was talking about before. Not some woofter, I can see that. She’s a bloke in a dress, but she’s not, if you see what…oh, for fuck’s sake, I know what I mean, and I am sure you do too, so stop giving me the Look”

I knew what he meant, of course, and I was touched that he was making such an effort to keep my day special. No, there was no sudden onset of lust, but the two of them seemed to have connected as friends, and that pleased me. My family were doing more than I had imagined their best could be.

The disco fell silent at last, and the band came out. Tony and I had, of course, gone for a biker-style rock and blues band, and as the older guests went into the smaller bar to spare their hearing, we Children of Metal prepared to get seriously down and dirty on the dance floor. I idly wondered how high Steve’s kilt might fly, and if it would fly high enough, but then slapped myself mentally. I was a Married Woman now, and lusting after blonde Norse deities in kilts was now off the menu. Besides, Dave, Tony’s chunky prop friend, had brought his wife, so I had to content myself with my own delicious hubby, shame.

Their first track had obviously been scripted for me, and as ‘Caroline’ was hammered out I got down into the boogie, Hywel, Steve, Arris, Ellie and Tony forming the circle with me. Track after excellent track followed, and then there was a booming guitar intro I recognised as the opening of Hawkwind’s ‘Kings of Speed’ and onto the little stage stepped Steph, with a violin, cable trailing.

The solo break came, and she was really into it, legs wide and right arm flying along with her hair. Fuck, she was good, and for a moment I regretted not taking her up on the offer to provide a band; then I realised that she was really a folky, and I had been right. Bloody square dances, no ta.

She stayed with them for a couple more songs, and her manic duels with the lead guitarist were fantastic. I mean, ‘Enter Sandman’, with a VIOLIN solo? Ye gods.

When she came off, she got a roar of applause, and a truly toe-curling kiss from her other half that brought another round of applause. I slipped away to the ladies’ and had to retreat in a hurry as I realised firstly that the noise from the next cubicle was a couple getting to know each other, and then that said couple were Suzy and Hywel. That would keep me in gossip for months! I didn’t have anyone to tell, though; Anne had gone home not long after the band had started, confessing (how apt) that she had the telephone number of a rather earnest young Customs Officer, Margaret had thanked us all and after a kiss and a hug taken herself off to her hotel, and Arwel and Alice were deeper in conversation than ever. Bev appeared to be trying to suck Andy’s tongue out of his head, Steph and hubby were copying my parents and canoodling to a slow dance---oh, I am absolutely sure you get the picture.

All I had left was my own man. As the band wound the night down with some slow and smoochy tunes I decided to leave Suzy and Hywel to their tryst and just enjoy my own. The floor was full of couples, old, new and very new, and I just settled into his arms as he swayed me round. This wasn’t the fulfilment of my life, this was just the confirmation. We had our lives together ahead of us, as Pat had said, two souls doing our best to melt together into one unit, one partnership.

Yes, I was happy. It’s allowed.

Eventually, it was time. The bar was closed, the band had wound down and, after a round of applause and an encore of ’I would do anything for your love’ had started to pack up. Taxis took those who needed them, and the rest of us, in small and less than sober groups, had started the walk back to our homes or rooms. Arwel had actually kissed Alice on the cheek as they went their separate ways, and I walked back wrapped in my lover’s arms as Arris walked with me, likewise protected and enfolded, as did my sister and sister in law. The next day, Elaine would drive Tony and me to Gatwick for our flight to Nice, but for now it was our own bed.

I slipped the key into the door, and we entered the quiet and dimly lit hallway. As Tony went to the kitchen to make some tea, Elaine hissed to me.

“Der i weld…ssshh!”

Come and see…Arris, Siá¢n and I edged up to the living room door, to see Pat slumped, asleep, at an angle on the settee. Cuddled up against him, his arm around her shoulders and her hand actually inside his unbuttoned shirt, was Janet.