CHAPTER 10
We worked our way through the food, and the conversation settled down into that dichotomy that men and women deliver so well.

We chatted about the wedding plans, while the men discussed rugby, and dogs, and the declining quality of the trailers of Mr Ifor Williams. Apparently, nothing is as good as it used to be, even if it is actually better.

I just felt, finally, at home with my family, .and as can only be blindingly obvious, wondered why it couldn’t always have been this easy. The answer, of course, was sat next to me. Every aspect of my life revolved around that man, now, every time I saw my deformity and twitched in doubt, it was his love that made me see I was not mad, not delusional, definitely not male. I watched the interplay, the children alternating between trying to get into the adult conversation, especially about the rugby, and just being children. The dynamics were interesting, especially when Arthur asked about Twm’s failure to appear. There was a real presence to Arwel, I had known that since I met him, and as I watched him switch between topics and people I understood the depths that his haircut and chunky jewellery disguised so well.

“Ogling my husband?”

“Appreciating him for what he is, Alice. Iceberg, aye?”

“Oh yes. I think I might just have been the first to see that. Surprised the hell out of Sar, I will tell you!”

“So I see. What am I going to do with all these women? I can’t do the bridesmaid thing for them all, can I? And matron of honour, who do I upset?”

“All will sort itself out, dear. Who is giving you away, for starters?”

“Oh god, it has to be Albert”

“Then Naomi is out of the equation. She gets to sit and watch. You need to find a woman who is an old friend, a true friend, preferably a mother.”

She was either teasing, or unaware of my other friends. “Kirsty?”

“Yes, dear, Kirsty. I thought she would be obvious as a choice, but I wanted to let you make that one yourself”

“But what about…oh sod it, Ginny, Kate, Steph?”

“Stephanie must be a bridesmaid. There are things we girls never get to do in our youth, yes? As for the others…might I be a silly old trout? Make a daft suggestion?”

“Go ahead…”

“Has Eric suggested a best man?”

“No, but I have a suspicion it might be Den”

“I have a suspicion it might be another entirely”

I looked over at him, as he wrestled a grunting collie for a length of rope.

“Dearest beloved…”

He looked up. “And what might be my sin this time, light of my life?”

Vanny nearly spilled her tea with an attack of giggles. I batted my eyelashes at him.

“Darling…I have a question”

He slipped in next to me. “Go ahead, but I will tell you now, that ewe was definitely NOT under age”

“Best man, aye? Who are you asking?”

He was suddenly reticent. “I wasn’t sure if you would approve, love….but I was going to ask Ginny”

Alice grinned, and made a gesture of licking a finger and chalking up a score.

“That, my dears, is part of my suggestion. The other half…why should the groom be alone in having an attendant? Why should he and he alone have someone to hand him a ring?”

Of course! “Alice, no wonder Arwel loves you. Kate and Ginny, absolutely! I am sure Simon will go with that idea!”

She turned sober. “There is one thing you do seem to be making a big assumption about, my dear, and that is, you know, the adjustment.”

She was, of course, absolutely right. I was at the stage where I had absolutely no doubt that Raj would pass me for the surgery, and Sally had as much as confirmed her agreement, but would I get a slot in time? That made me giggle, despite my sudden anxiety, and I had to explain. Slot…

Eric was more thoughtful. “Annie, you do know how I feel about you, don’t you?”

“What, with your hands?”

“Stop changing the subject. We have a date in September next year for something I never believed I would be lucky enough to do, and now it is on the calendar I am not going to miss out. I have a life insurance policy…and there are flights to Thailand…”

I kissed him. I would argue the point, and the cost, later, but the mere fact of his offer deserved not just a kiss but a whole series of responses that would have seen thunderbolts destroy the chapel.

“My love, whatever it takes to wed you, I will do it, aye?”

“Aye…come here”

Later, I spoke to Merry again to confirm Alice’s ideas. “Love, what are your plans for Christmas and so on? We are getting close, why not come over to ours?”

“I usually do some work around the Chapel, sort out your Aunty Esther, that sort of thing. It might be nice to have a change, but I must have somewhere appropriate for my devotions.”

“Well, let us know, aye? Now, I think we are heading towards that time when boys and dogs need reuniting with their tents, aye?”

Eric whispered "…and bigger boys with their pints, aye?”

I kept my straight face with difficulty, and made the rounds. Arthur and James demanded a word, Hywel earwigging. Arthur was straight to the point.

“Annie, we have been discussing something of great importance, aye? The boy here, he is a fine tenor, and his father, he is surely a baritone of rare grace and power, but we will need to decide what works we shall perform at the ceremony. Why are you giggling?”

I had had a sudden vision of Hywel belting out ‘Enter Sandman’ or ‘Locomotive Breath’, with its line about a Gideon bible. “Uncle Arthur, it is simple, really, there I was scared to death, worried about not being able to bring my family back together, and here you are, not just the uncle I love, but a nitpicking musician who forgets whose day it will actually be, aye?”

He looked abashed for just a few seconds, then grinned. “Annie, cariad, I was wrong about you from the beginning, and I know that, and I will make it right, but we are the singers in this family, and we should choose which works will serve best both to magnify the Lord and celebrate the joy of our cousin, my niece, and her wedding. This must be the finest day of her life, aye?”

That did it, and the tears came, at the end of a roller coaster of a day. He took me into his arms, my favourite old uncle, and I whispered into his ear.

“The finest day of my life is in finding my family, aye? Knowing we are still kin. Nothing could be better”

He squeezed me for an instant. “Not even the love of your fine young man?”

I hugged him back. “I have that already, Uncle. This, this I was terrified about. Whatever you want to sing, I will be honoured”