Katie Fforde - Wedding Season

The drawing room was beautiful, made so by its semicircular ceiling-to-floor windows through which summer sunshine now streamed. It too had a parquet floor that needed, according to Sarah's unskilled eye, nothing more than a good polish. The walls had the tattered remains of wallpaper that was more like a mural than paper, although a repeating pattern could be detected. Birds of paradise flitted between trailing vines and classical columns. Distant vistas included pyramids and rolling hills.

‘What fantastic wallpaper,' said Sarah.

‘Isn't it? We're hoping to get a paper restorer to tell us about it. If we were millionaires we'd get it reproduced and put it back,' said Fenella.

‘Even as it is, it's heavenly,' said Sarah. 'In fact I'm not sure that it would be as good if there weren't great bits missing. It might be too much.'

‘We had exactly the same thought, but there's probably a middle way.' Fenella paused. 'Do you really think you might persuade your client to come here? I mean, let's face it, although we've started work, it's still in relatively bad decorative order, as an estate agent would say. I'd call it shabby.’

Sarah was outraged by this description. 'No, not shabby! Shabby-chic if you must, decaying grandeur, fading aristocracy, any of those things – but not just shabby!’

Fenella laughed. 'OK. But will you be able to sell it to her?'

‘I'm not sure, to be honest. She was so set on the traditional English country church thing and I'd need to see the rest of it. And of course what it really depends on is if you can get your licence in time.'

‘Oh, here are the boys,' said Fenella as voices could be heard echoing through the empty house. 'Have you met Electra, Sarah?'

‘No.'

‘You'd like her. She's fun.’

Sarah managed some sort of smile as if the prospect of meeting Electra was, while not at the top of the list of most-wanted events, at least not at the bottom. In fact, it languished a few places behind Godzilla in a temper. 'It's a beautiful house,' Sarah said to Rupert as the men joined them. 'I can't wait to see the rest of it.'

‘The library's through here,' said Fen. 'This is the one without a decent floor.' She opened double doors into a room as enormous as the drawing room.

‘Just put something down to cover it and paint it white,' said Hugo, raising his camera.

At least while he was taking a fusillade of shots from every conceivable angle, she didn't have to talk to Hugo, and nor could Rupert and Fenella. It helped. She didn't want the subject of Electra coming up just now. By the time they left, Sarah was convinced she'd feel absolutely fine about Hugo having a fiancée – why she'd allowed him to inhabit the emotional part of her brain even for a nanosecond was beyond her. But she'd have all that soppy stuff well under control any minute now.

‘Let's have a look at what's through here,' she said firmly and walked as if she was thinking only of her client, the venue and the floor.

‘The piece de resistance is this,' said Rupert, ushering them through the door of a panelled study.

‘Ah, the chapel,' said Hugo. 'Amazing!'

‘It's actually quite a recent addition to the house,' said Fenella. 'One of Rupe's ancestors made a fortune doing something dubious like slave-trading – exploiting someone, anyway – and absolved his sins by building this. It's not to my taste, actually.’

A high, vaulted ceiling, a marble floor and three stained-glass windows at the end made it look, to Sarah's eyes, more like a small church than somewhere for a mere family to worship. In fact, she'd arranged weddings in churches that felt far smaller.

‘It's an almost perfect example of the High Church revival,' said Rupert. 'Not exactly a copy of much earlier churches but it reflects the best medieval precedents and shows a return to sacramental tradition.'

‘You sound very knowledgeable,' said Hugo. 'Been boning up on it all, have you?'

‘Of course.' Rupert laughed a little defiantly. 'I'm almost an expert now.'

‘Don't encourage him, Hugo,' said Fenella. 'He'll bang on for hours if you let him.'

‘What I need to know,' said Sarah, on tenterhooks for the answer, 'is could you actually use it for weddings? Getting a licence for the house is one thing, but if you could have the ceremonies here, it would be even more wonderful.’

Fenella and Rupert exchanged glances. 'That's what we're hoping for,' said Fenella. 'Like you, we thought using the house for weddings would be nice, but if people could actually get married in the chapel, well, that would be brilliant.'

‘The aunts, who I inherited from, were always thinking up money-making schemes and I know they talked abut weddings, but I'm not sure if they got as far as getting it licensed.'

‘We haven't followed up seeing about getting the chapel licensed because we thought the house was in far too bad order for us to use it,' explained Fenella. 'We didn't know what we wanted to do anyway. It's only quite recently that we decided the house needs to earn money and not just us.'

‘Would it still be consecrated?' asked Hugo. 'Presumably if it is, you could still have weddings here.’

Fenella shook her head. 'Don't know that either. Sorry to seem so stupid. We haven't been moved in all that long.'

‘I know,' said Hugo. 'I was at your house moving party when you left the old place.’

Sarah felt that at any moment she might be exposed to distressing details of what Hugo got up to at that party, whom he met, or went home with, and how much fun Electra was. She wanted to get back on track. 'So do you have to go through the house to get into it? I'm just wondering-'

‘No!' Rupert interrupted her gleefully. 'The beauty part' – he strode across the aisle to the other side – 'is that it has access to the outside world. It was so the local people could use it too. At the time there was something happening that meant the local church was out of action, and so the ancestor who was building this had the side door put in.'

‘This could be so perfect,' said Sarah, almost trembling with excitement and anxiety. Please, she muttered, don't show me this fabulous venue and then let it be unusable. 'I'd be so grateful if you could find out if it's licensed, or still consecrated or whatever. I'm sure I could talk my client into coming here, if it would be legal. It would be just the place.'

‘Let's have a look at it from the side door. It's no good trying to persuade her to walk through a ploughed field,' said Hugo.

‘We could mow the grass,' said Rupert.

They all went out of the side door. A long path came up a gentle slope from a small wooded area by the road, through parkland to the door of the chapel.

‘If she really wants all the extras,' said Hugo, 'I've got a mate who does film sets. He'd turn this into a graveyard as traditional as you liked.'

‘I'd try to convince Carrie not to have a fake churchyard,' said Sarah. Too late, she realised she shouldn't have used Carrie's name.

‘Oh my God!' said Fenella. 'You're not talking about Carrie Condy, are you? I am a major fan of hers.'

‘She is a surprisingly good actress for one with her assets,' went on Rupert.

‘Mm,' said Hugo, obviously thinking about them too. Sarah felt herself blush. It was totally unlike her to be so unprofessional – it was bloody Hugo's fault! 'Well, yes, it is her, but please – I beg of you – don't tell anyone! I should never have let her name out like that. I should be sacked!’

‘But it's your company,' said Hugo.

‘I should think of something else to do for a living!’

‘Well, don't beat yourself up about it,' said Fenella, sensing Sarah really was distressed. 'We won't tell anyone. We certainly wouldn't want to jeopardise her coming here. It would be so wonderful!'