Opening extract
The quay was moving behind her mother's head. Ruth watched a yellow bollard pass the window, followed by the corner of the ticket office and a man walking his dog. He was going home. She had been going home too, until Vera's message arrived.
“You said you'd turned your ankle.”
“And you said hello. Such a nice start. Shall we try it again?”
They stood at the back of the wedding salon, just inside the doors to the aft deck. A gold balloon brushed the ceiling above them. It said MRS when it turned one way and showed its seam when it turned the other. Vera had put on a green silk dress that Ruth hadn't seen before. With her red leather bag over her arm and a glass of wine in her hand, she looked very well for an injured woman.
Ruth had come in jeans and a shirt, left the car about eighty metres from the pontoon gate and boarded to find her mother. Vera was in the lavatory, someone had said. Ruth had waited. She had watched the crew lift the gangway without quite believing they would sail while she still needed to get off.
Now it was seven thirty-three, the hired boat was leaving North Quay, and a man in a dark suit was coming towards them.
Vera saw him. Her smile stayed in place, but she lowered the wineglass to a table.
“Leon. You've missed the speeches.”
“I've heard them.” He stopped close enough to speak without raising his voice over the music. “May I have a word?”
“I'm collecting my mother,” Ruth said. “We need someone to turn the boat round.”
“I won't take long.” He looked at Vera. “The twelve thousand, please.”
Ruth waited for her mother to laugh. Vera's hand moved to the clasp of her bag.
“Here?”
“We agreed today.”
“Yes, but here?” Vera glanced towards the front of the room. “At Nina's wedding?”
The bride was there with a little group of guests, her white skirt caught up in one hand so that no one stepped on it. Beside her stood a broad man in a pale waistcoat. He was shaking hands and drawing people towards the tables. Ruth knew Nina by sight. Vera had talked about the wedding for weeks, down to the flowers and the sins committed by the woman making the cake. She had said remarkably little about the groom.
“Martin asked me to see you before you left,” Leon said.
“He's managed that,” Ruth said.
Leon turned to her. “Mr Kells.” He indicated the man beside Nina. “Your mother borrowed money from him for a business venture. Twelve thousand pounds is the amount outstanding.”
End of extract
Read and follow on Novelmint