CHAPTER 77
After some more dancing, the DJ called a pause in the proceedings while Andy and Bev took their leave. Bev took his mike first.

“Thank you all from my husband and myself, and from the bottoms of our hearts. You have made this as memorable and wonderful a day as we could ever have hoped for. We hope to have a blessing at some point in the future, and as you all know, there is another event in the offing. As for us, we are off to Gatwick now for a flight to Palma and two weeks of tapas!”

Andy followed. “As she is letting me get a word in, all I will say is thank you, to all, and a special thank you to some particularly special people, without whom we would never have met. You know who you are…see you after the honeymoon!”

And they were off, to the waiting taxi and married life. Suzy came over and hugged me. “Job done, girl, and very nicely”

I hugged her back with a smile then excused myself and went looking for Alice, to give her a hint that Arwel might want a chat later, or perhaps in the hope that if he sank further into the despair he had shown outside she might be able to pull him back. She was nattering happily with mothers and Enid, and it took me a little while to entice her away. She was in her element, just another middle-aged woman (sod you, Arwel) engaging normally with others just like her. It was clear that Bev and Andy had warned their relatives about her, and it was just as clear that her charm and sheer normality had won them over.

I untangled her from whatever it s that fossils discuss, and tugged her away to the ladies’.

“Has Arwel said anything to you, love?”

“Not particularly today, Sar. Why? He seems a little distant. What’s up?”

Ah, shit, where to start? I went for the throat. “What are your intentions with my uncle, Alice?”

“Bloody hell, that’s a bit formal. Something is up with him, isn’t it?”

“I need an answer of some kind, Alice, just in case things turn to ratshit. Please…”

She sighed, and there was real weariness in her. “I suppose things have changed since the accident. I have had a chance to really look at myself; dying does that for you. Sarah, I thought all my Christmases had come at once when you and Enid took me out of that rut I was in. I was finally able to be myself, finally free, and it was everything I had ever wanted. I had never really dreamt of anything more than that, anything that could top it. Can you understand?”

“Yes, love, I have been there, just not anywhere near as long”

“Well, that all changed when I was hit. I had had Enid, and Jim, and I was settling into my happy life as a maiden aunt, and then it was knocked sideways. When I could think again, when I woke up, you were there, all of you. I know how utterly wrecked you were afterwards, how much you and all your family did for me, and it made me selfish. I wanted more. Not in a bad way, but I decided that I didn’t want to die comfortable, I wanted to die happy”

“Alice, please don’t talk of dying, that was too close for any of us”

She smiled wryly. “It concentrates the mind beautifully, though. I lay there, and as I came and went I saw Tony care for you as you looked after me, and Pat and Janet, Bev and Andy, I could go on. I remember a dream where I was trying to say ‘great dark man’ to you, and something was stopping me, stopping my voice, as if there was a barrier I had to break through to live”

“That wasn’t a dream, Alice, I was there”

“I just realised I wanted more, that if I was going to live I was going to do it in style, and fully. You asked what I wanted from Arwel, and that is it. I want him. I don’t necessarily mean his body, I still can’t see myself taking that next step without being in much better health. By the way, that surgeon, I sent him a bottle for his kindness in the little extra work”

“Alice, this is where it gets hard, and I really don’t want to interfere too much, do anyone any harm. Arwel is very, very fond of you, he just has a huge hang up about being gay, and he isn’t, by any stretch of the imagination”

“What do you mean ‘hang up’, Sar?”

“Arwel has no axe to grind with homosexuality, he just doesn’t see the attraction. He likes girls, and even though he sees you as one, he also knows what you are physically, and that disturbs him. In truth, I do believe he has fallen for you, but…well, he just gets stuck on the odd bit of body”

“Story of my life, isn’t it?”

“Alice, he is confused, he is hurting, and he has put away his pride, and he is a proud man, to talk to me. Please, I know I shouldn’t have to ask you this, but just please, be gentle with him. Don’t hurt my uncle. Talk to him, see what you two might be able to compromise on. Just don’t push too hard. Life isn’t a fairy story, we’re all old enough to have a lot of history”

There was a cough behind me. “I thought it was me that was supposed to do the talking, girl. You never could stay out of things, could you?”

He was smiling, though. Tiredly, nervously, but still smiling.

“I think the two of us have need of a long chat, Alice. Now, I remember a pub down the road, so if you don’t mind, I’d like to take a walk down there for a bit of privacy, away from helpful friends”

He turned to me. “Sarah, love, you have a good heart, but it’s time for the two of us to do our own sorting, otherwise we never will, aye?”

“Point taken, uncle, but I do have one question”

“Aye?”

“What the fuck are you doing in the ladies’ toilets?”

He laughed. “Well, I wanted to get my two penn’orth in before you stitched me up, didn’t I? Come on, woman, let’s leave this middle-aged housewife to her scheming and do some of our own”

And they were off, leaving another couple of girls looking rather puzzled as he left. I wandered out into the function room again, feeling a little dazed, and ran straight into a grinning Suzy. She just said one word: “YES!!” and gave me a rib-breaking hug.

“So tell all, woman”

“He was thinking exactly what his dad said he was, the daft bugger, he thought I was having a bit of fun with the well-hung pheasant, I mean peasant”

“So what’s the score, then?”

“Sarah, you sod, I spent an hour waiting to try that pun on you and you just ignore it. He has admitted he is a fuckwit, and apologised for thinking what he did of me, and I sort of hinted that if he plays his cards right I might forgive him…and he sort of asked me if I wanted to make it a bit more formal. So I told him off for trying to tie me down without due process, and, well, he sort of duly processed.”

“Do you mean what I thought you meant waving that finger?”

“Yup!”

Even though I already knew the answer, I had to feed her the straight line. “So apart from proposing, what will he have to do to be forgiven?”

“Not much…just fuck me till I’m too sore to walk, no biggy. Well, it is a biggy, actually…”

“Suzy, wipe your mouth, you are drooling. And congratulations, love, you two work well together. No, wash your mind out right now…oh, for fuck’s sake, get your head out of your knickers for once. How are you doing this? Just letting people know, or making some sort of announcement?”

She turned a lot more serious. “Sar, doing things with a big announcement in public is a bit like blackmail. You know those things where blokes propose at sports grounds and that, never gives the girl a chance to decide properly. Those who are important to us will know, everyone else will find out naturally. I don’t want this to be a case of feeling that because we are at a wedding he has to propose, I want it from him because he wants me. Enid and Anne know, and Janet, so the rest will find out as and when they talk. For a big, hard boy, he is quite shy, you know”

She grinned. “Sweet, isn’t it?”