Page 45 of The Scottish Island Wedding

‘You’re thinking about how you’re going to support yourself and the children if we split up? We haven’t even got married yet!’ Matty shot her a quizzical look. ‘How can you say that?’

‘I can say that because around forty per cent of marriages end in divorce,’ Heather said, calmly. ‘Don’t raise your voice to me. It’s a fact. I’m being sensible. I was just having a conversation the other day with Blossom all about the fact that Tom isn’t supporting her with the kids, and that she feels alone. I don’t want that to happen to me.’

‘How can you automatically assume that I wouldn’t support you? Of course, if something went wrong between us, you’d be looked after.’ Matty stood up and started pacing around the room. ‘I believe in us, Heather. We can weather any storm that life chooses to throw at us.’

‘I know. I think the world of you, darling. But Matty, neither of us know what’s going to happen in the future, and you might feel differently if we break up. You might decide you’re not going to support me, or us, or you’re going to make it difficult. I have to be at least a little prepared for that.’

‘It’s very unromantic to be talking about this. I thought you were all about romance and flowers, true love and all that stuff.’ Matty chuckled, taking her hand.

‘I am. But I’m not stupid.’ Heather looked at their interlinked hands, wondering if he would ever understand. Matty didn’t have to worry about his financial security. He never would have to worry about it. But if at some point she became a single mother and she’d relied on him for everything before then, what would she have?

‘I know you’re not. I guess this is all just coming a bit out of the blue.’ Matty sighed and rubbed his eyes. ‘I’m really tired, honey. Maybe we should just pick this up another time when we aren’t exhausted.’

‘Okay… but we are getting married in four days. We don’t have the luxury of time.’ Heather kissed the back of his hand.

‘Yes, I know that. But I still want to marry you. The rest, we can sort out along the way. Can’t we?’ He gazed into her eyes. ‘I know that I love you, Heather. I know that you love me. Isn’t that all that really matters, at the end of the day?’

‘Yes. You know that I think that too.’ Heather sighed. ‘Why don’t we just elope? We could be handfasted, just the two of us. I’ve always thought it would be romantic. Somewhere like Duntulm Castle.’

‘What’s that?’

Heather thought about Dorothea making the Lover’s Leap and eloping with her true love, like the story. Now I know why people do that, she thought. Eloping would be a lot less hassle than the huge wedding that loomed ahead of her.

She’d dreamed of the perfect white wedding all of her life. Now that it was here, it was less perfect than she’d imagined.

‘It’s a ruined castle on the coast. It’s a sheer drop on one side, down to the sea, on top of a cliff. It’s really beautiful. Wild and quiet, with just the sound of the waves and the birds for company.’

‘Heather, I’m worried that the stress of the last week has affected you more than I realised.’ Matty gazed concernedly into her eyes. ‘We have a whole wedding planned, baby. In four days from now. Can we focus on the reality of that, please?’

‘The reality of the wedding is that it’s stressful as hell!’ Heather said. ‘How can we get married when your mother seems to hate the idea? How are we going to have a family when we both have such different ideas about what that’s going to look like? I don’t know, Matty. Everything seems to be falling to bits.’ She’d been trying so hard to keep positive about everything, but Heather felt discouraged.

She pulled away from him, wrapping her arms around herself instead in a protective gesture.

‘Heather, I know my family aren’t perfect. But they are my family. And even though they’re hard to get along with sometimes, I do respect my mother’s opinion. And my father’s. I’m not entirely happy with the way things are, but my mother will come round, and we have a lovely wedding ahead of us. I think we shouldn’t spiral and think the worst.’

‘It was pretty horrible being told that I would marry you over your mother’s dead body,’ Heather said quietly. ‘I just don’t think that you realise how upsetting that was.’

‘I do, Heather. It was a horrible thing to say.’ Matty sighed deeply. It sounded as though he dredged up the sigh from the deepest parts of his being. ‘I want our marriage to bring everyone together. I want our children to have a close and supportive family too, and that includes you and my mother having a good relationship. As I said, I think what she said came from a place of stress and shock. I don’t think that’s what she really thinks.’

‘Okay. I guess that’s reasonable… I want to have a good relationship with her too, Matty. But she’s made it so difficult so far. I really have tried.’

‘I know that you have. I love you for how sweet you’re being about all this.’ He kissed her hand.

‘I don’t want to fight,’ Heather said.

‘Neither do I. It’s the last thing I want to do. I want the two most important women in my life to get along, and it’s killing me that you don’t yet.’ Matty looked for some space to put his coffee cup down on the bedside table, picking up the anonymous letter that Heather had received about Elizabeth. Heather had left it there when she’d taken it out of her pocket a couple of days ago. ‘Hey. What’s this?’

‘Oh. I wasn’t going to mention it, but I got a weird letter from someone about your mum. Warning me that she’s evil, and keeping some secret. And I saw her have some kind of secret assignation with a man in a car.’ Heather watched him read the letter. ‘Annie said it was nothing and not to tell you. But it’s weird, Matty. I think she threw an envelope of money at him, or something. It was all very dramatic.’

Matty reread the letter, turned it over to see if there was anything on the back, and then shook his head.

‘Heather, this is just a letter from a flake. It’s not unusual to get these when you’re in the public eye.’ He handed it back to her. ‘I’m really sorry that it’s upset you; I realise that this is all new to you, and it’s going to take some adjustment. All of this is why I was nervous about introducing you to my family. I wish it wasn’t like this. Mum keeps a lot of people around her. I imagine the man in the car was security.’

‘He wasn’t security. I’ve seen your mum’s security detail. This was some normal guy in a normal car.’

‘Well, she’s got so many fingers in so many pies, it could honestly have been anyone.’ Matty sighed and ran his fingers through his hair. ‘But please believe me when I say, I am involved absolutely as little as I can be in them. I don’t care about the money and the fame.’

‘Then elope with me. Let’s just get married for us, and leave all of this in-fighting and politics behind.’ She held his face in her hands. ‘Please.’