An Enormously English Monsoon Wedding (26 page)

Bella, in sparkly orange, lime and purple, sashayed with her. ‘Yay! Look at us! Next time we go clubbing we’ll have to wear this stuff. It’s soooo cool.’

Nalisha smiled at them. ‘You both look absolutely gorgeous.’

Bella and Sophie grinned like children. Erin shook her head.

Nalisha started to walk to the front of the hall, then stopped and looked at Erin. ‘Oh, I knew there was something else.’

Something other than making her feel like a lard barrel? Oh, goody.

‘Really?’ Erin tried to sound disinterested.

‘Mmm, I don’t know if Jay’s told you but Deena’s coming down to Nook Green sometime in the next few days.’

‘
What
? What the hell for? And no, Jay hasn’t mentioned anything to me at all.’

She’d strangle Jay with the dupatta now, too – once she’d finished with Nalisha.

‘Jay probably forgot in all the excitement.’ Nalisha gave the last word a
frisson of rampant sexuality. ‘But he’s delighted. Oh, I know it’s hard for you to understand because you’re used to making all your decisions yourself with your parents being so far away, but I know Jay misses his mother. And I think she feels a bit left out.’

‘Left out?’

‘Of the wedding. You know how
Indian
she is about it all? I just thought it would be nice for her to be here, and be involved a bit more with the final arrangements.’

‘
You
thought? You?’ Erin said angrily. ‘Did you invite her?’

‘It might have sounded like an invitation.’ Nalisha was all wide-eyed innocence. ‘Anyway, I thought you’d like to know. Now, is everyone dressed? Good – let’s get started …’

Oh, God, Erin thought, staring after Nalisha with total hatred, I really, really can’t cope with this.

‘I’m going home.’ Erin tugged at her pink and gold splendour.

‘Get a grip.’ Bella frowned. ‘Of course you’re not.’

‘You really don’t know what a bitch Nalisha is, do you?’

Sophie shook her head. ‘Whoa. Calm down, Erin. What on earth did she say to you?’

‘She’s invited Deena down to stay
before
the wedding. My wedding! And Jay’s happy because he apparently misses his mum and –’

‘Maybe he does,’ Bella said reasonably. ‘Maybe Nalisha was being kind. Maybe Jay would like his mum to be here to join in the last-minute stuff. It’s his wedding as well, isn’t it?’

‘And,’ Sophie said, ‘your mum will be here too. It’ll be lovely to have them both together, won’t it? They can get to know each other before the big day. I don’t see what you’re getting so freaked about, honestly.’

‘No, I don’t suppose you can.’ Erin sighed, hating herself for sounding
so selfish and childish. ‘And maybe Jay would like his mum here, too – what do I know? Oh, you’re probably right.’

‘Of course we are,’ Bella said gently. ‘And you’re strung out with pre-wedding nerves so everything is being blown up out of proportion. Now, take a deep breath, forget about Deena for tonight, and enjoy yourself. Just look at all this. Isn’t it wonderful?’

Erin was still simmering, but she looked anyway. The village hall was transformed. Even really old people like Dora Wilberforce had made some sort of effort to look like Bollywood divas. The men, at first reluctant to pull on the kurtas, now admired one another and admitted the long tunics were very comfortable and hid a multitude of sins.

The gods and goddesses, watching the gentle revolution taking place, seemed to be smiling at last.

If only the same could be said of her …

Nalisha, looking smug, returned to
the front of the hall and clapped her hands again. ‘You all look fabulous! If you can dance as well as you look, we’ll have Sriram Raghavan and Dinesh Vijan wanting to sign you all up!’

‘Who’re they?’ Sid Duncan frowned. ‘More relatives of yours and young Jay and Kam moving into the village, are they?’

‘Oh, I wish,’ Nalisha laughed. ‘One is a really famous Bollywood film director and the other a really famous Bollywood producer.’

‘Ah.’ Dora Wilberforce, wrapped in a crimson and shocking pink sari, nodded sagely. ‘I could have told you that.’

Everyone stared at her. Dora stared back, daring anyone to contradict her. No one did.

‘OK.’ Nalisha paced up and down. ‘If you get lost, follow me. Let’s just go through the basic moves before I put the music on. Ready? Good. Now, first, put your palms together and bow your head … Lovely … Now, try lifting your arms to eye level and moving your hands up and down … Oh, that’s really good.’

Nalisha’s body simply
flowed, and Erin, once she’d stopped feeling murderously angry and extremely silly in equal measures, found the gentle silky-smooth movements almost therapeutic.

‘One foot in front of the other, raise your arms above your head and cross both hands over your head.’ Nalisha’s voice was soothing. ‘Fabulous. Now step backwards and forwards, twisting your hands like you’re unscrewing a light bulb at the same time. Oh, you’re all naturals. That’s really great.’

Ten minutes later, with walk-throughs and several more complex moves completed, including hip swaying and twisting, toe pointing and circling hands, shoulder shrugging and even a little bit of Indian head waggling, Nalisha decided they were good to go with music.

‘Shall I just give you a little demo?’

There was a rousing cheer and a lot of nodding, but before Nalisha reached the village hall’s ancient stereo system, the door flew open.

‘Soz.’ A multicoloured braided head peered round the hall, stopping briefly to gawp at the Indian gods and goddesses. ‘Ooh, cool statues. Er, are we too late for the class?’

‘I know him from somewhere.’ Erin frowned at Rainbow Dreads and his shorter companion. Ah, yes! Of course. She leaned towards Sophie and Bella. ‘It’s, er, what’s-his-name – oh, yes, David. He said he liked dancing. Oh, and the boy who stood up to Abbie. Aiden!’

‘Uh?’ Bella and Sophie frowned at her.

‘David and Aiden. They both work at the Swan.’

‘R-e-a-l-l-y?’ Bella grinned. ‘They’re cute.’

‘Too right.’ Sophie shimmied her green and gold hips. ‘I fancy the one with the dreads.’

‘Good,’ Bella chuckled. ‘Because the little
adorable one with the buzz cut is all mine. How good can it get? New dance class. New men. This village is starting to liven up nicely.’

Erin looked at them both doubtfully. ‘Are you sure? About, er, them – the lads from the Swan?’

‘Oh yes.’ Bella nodded, wriggling her cleavage to its best advantage. ‘Absolutely.’

‘Men who can dance –’ Sophie smiled ‘– are as rare as rubies round here. And I do like a man who’s in touch with his feminine side.’

‘But I thought you were both in love with Kam?’

Bella wrinkled her nose. ‘We were. He’s totally gorgeously divine, of course. But way too far out of our league. And we couldn’t both have him, and we’d never fight over a man. So we’ve decided to back off. We’ve discussed it, haven’t we, Soph?’

‘We have.’ Sophie nodded. ‘And we think he’s already got a woman anyway.’

Erin frowned. ‘Kam? Really?’

‘Yeah,’ Bella said. ‘He’s got all the symptoms.’

Erin sighed. ‘Go on then – share. Jay doesn’t know, or if he does, he hasn’t said anything to me.’

Bella shrugged. ‘Doubt if Kam’s even told Jay. It looks very much like a secret love affair to us. We reckon it might be one of the Pony Club mums or something. He’s certainly been a bit distracted at work. He’s got all the signs.’

‘Well, I suppose it had to happen.’ Erin continued to frown. ‘But I wonder who? We’ll have to ask him.’

‘We will,’ Sophie agreed. ‘And threaten him with something nasty if he won’t talk.’

They looked at one another and laughed.

Bella grinned. ‘Anyway,
Soph and I have decided Kam’s a bit like Richard Armitage. Strictly fantasy only. You know, we can lust over him from a distance, but not get too close and risk having our dreams crushed.’

Sophie nodded. ‘And so we’re looking for real relationships with real men.’

‘Yes, well, but those boys from the Swan are – well – boys,’ Erin said.

‘Mid-twenties, I’d say.’ Bella gave them an expertly considered glance across the hall. ‘A year or so younger than us maybe. And pretty fit. Perfect.’

‘Totally,’ Sophie agreed happily. ‘So, as long as they’re not attached, not gay and fancy us in return, that’s us sorted nicely.’

Sometimes, Erin thought, looking at Sophie and Bella, even though we’ve all been best friends for ever, I’ll never, ever understand you.

By now Nalisha had efficiently welcomed the newcomers, run through the basic dance moves with them and had managed to find them kurtas.

David and Aiden, looking slightly embarrassed, slipped into place just in front of Erin, Sophie and Bella.

‘Hi.’ David turned round and grinned at Erin. ‘Lovely to see you again. This is dead cool. I love the Indian gods; they’d go dead well with your tent thing.’

Erin flinched slightly.

David appeared not to notice. ‘We’ve only just finished work. So glad we’re not too late.’ He looked across at Sophie and his eyes widened. ‘Hello. I’m David and this is my mate, Aiden.’

‘I’m Sophie. And this is Bella. Nice to meet you.’

There was a lot of mutual appraisal and grinning.

Erin shook her head and laughed
to herself. They seemed to have passed all Sophie’s criteria with flying colours. Poor David and Aiden – lambs to the slaughter.

‘Right!’ Nalisha did the hand-clapping thing again. ‘Now we’re all organised, I’ll just pop the bhangra music on and show you a simple routine.’

The hall was instantly flooded with loud, vibrant, insistent, exciting music. The drumbeats echoed inside Erin’s head as Nalisha swirled and twirled and shimmied round the floor, her hands telling a story, her body moving sensuously in perfect time.

‘Wow,’ Bella breathed. ‘She’s amazing.’

Erin nodded reluctantly. She certainly was. Bugger.

‘And seriously seductive,’ Sophie added.

‘Mind you,’ Bella said, ‘don’t forget the Indian heritage and roots are deeply entrenched in the culture that gave us the
Kama Sutra
. Maybe we shouldn’t be surprised that Indians are naturally sexy?’

‘And it’s another reason to be deeply envious of Erin marrying Jay,’ Sophie sniggered.

‘It’s an old joke,’ Erin hissed, giggling. ‘Heard it all before. Shut up. Please.’

As Nalisha finished her demonstration everyone clapped and cheered and stamped their bare feet on the dusty floor. Erin didn’t. She simply couldn’t be that shallow.

‘Thank you.’ Nalisha curtseyed. ‘Now, it’s your turn. Just follow me.’

Watching Nalisha intently, everyone attempted to put their recently learned moves to the beat. The results were varied, but the Yee-Hawers, clearly used to being choreographed, and despite their advanced age, were amazingly good.

And David and Aiden, moving sinuously
and synchronised in front of Erin, were revelations. Sophie and Bella, clearly impressed by men-with-moves, certainly seemed to think so if the nudges and raised eyebrows and lascivious grins were anything to go by.

There was an awful lot of laughter echoing round the hall. Erin was quite surprised to find herself laughing at one point as she shimmied and swayed and twisted her hands seductively above her head and hip-bumped with Dora Wilberforce.

She was actually almost enjoying herself. How very strange.

Maybe Sophie had been right about the serotonin.

Rainbow fabrics swirled and sequins danced in the dusty sunlight.

Bollywood, Erin thought dizzily as, in company with the rest of Nook Green, she watched Nalisha and pranced and swivelled and twirled and finger clicked to the loud, exciting music, had definitely come to Berkshire.

As the music ended, Gina puffed to a halt
and blew strands of her hair away from her face. Everyone in the village hall was laughing. Everything was twinkling and sparkling. The colours were dazzling. And yes, she had to admit, she’d thoroughly enjoyed losing herself in the Bollywood dancing.

Because she really needed to lose herself tonight.

She adjusted the turquoise and lilac dupatta, throwing it over her shoulder like she had with her old college scarf, and glanced at her watch. Nearly nine o’clock already.

As always when she was away from the Merry Cobbler, she felt a pang of anxiety. Would Sam and Part-time Pearl be able to cope without her? Should she even have come here tonight?

Yes, she thought, she should. And hopefully the pub would be quiet anyway as most of the regulars were in here. Yes – the business side of her life was OK.

If only the same could be said of the emotional side.

Kam wasn’t here to watch as he’d said he would be. She’d known he wouldn’t be, of course. She’d made a complete and utter fool of herself – again.

‘Fabulous!’ Nalisha smiled at
them all. ‘Totally fabulous! Now, while you just get your breath back, I’ll walk through some more moves from some different dances, and explain to you the meaning of each of the movements and the stories they’re telling.’

Gina wasn’t really listening.

On the other side of the village hall, Erin, Sophie and Bella, looking young, fresh and gorgeous, were chatting happily and laughing with two boys she’d never seen before.

Boys … Gina sighed. Of course they weren’t really boys. Young men, then. They
were
boys to her though. Far too young … As Kam was – clearly.

Oh Lordy – she’d made an idiot of herself with Doug, who was more than ten years her senior, and now with Kam who was her junior. OK, only by a couple of years, but her junior, nonetheless.

Maybe it was time to leave Nook Green and start again. But wasn’t that why she’d come here in the first place? Could she really spend her life running away from her mistakes?

To give him his due, Kam hadn’t mentioned anything to her about the kiss. But then he hadn’t mentioned anything at all. Because she hadn’t seen him. At all. All day. He’d simply left before breakfast, before she was even up, and not returned.

His supper plate and glasses had been washed up and put away in the kitchen. And he hadn’t come back to the Merry Cobbler by the time she’d left for the village hall.