Free Kate's Wedding by Chrissie Manby

perfectly happy to spend an afternoon sipping sherry with strangers. Nobody was a stranger that day. The nation was united in the celebration of love.
    Mel and Keith’s wedding reception was held in a country-house hotel. As a wedding gift, Keith’s parents had booked a room there for the happy couple on their inaugural night as Mr and Mrs Harris. Before the wedding breakfast was served, Melanie and Keith sneaked up there for a moment alone. On the tele-vision, Prince Charles and his new princess had just appeared on the balcony at Buckingham Palace, where they shared their first public kiss, to the cheers of the crowds lining the Mall.
    Melanie and Keith sat on the end of the bed and watched the moment unfold.
    ‘I love you, Mrs Harris.’
    ‘I love you, Mr Harris.’
    ‘I love you more.’
    ‘It was perfect. Any bride who gets to share her wedding day with Kate Middleton can count herself lucky, in my opinion. As far as I’m concerned, getting married on the same day as Charles and Diana really made my wedding,’ Melanie concluded. ‘It seemed as though the whole country was wishing us well.’
    The assembled brides murmured their assent. Melanie thought she was preaching to the choir.
    ‘But look how their marriage turned out,’ said one of that day’s customers, a younger sister who wasn’t impressed with being picked as a bridesmaid. She was dressed all in black and had a stud through her nose. She didn’t look as though she had much time for anything romantic. ‘I don’t think marrying Charles was lucky for Diana at all,’ she continued. ‘If she hadn’t married him, she wouldn’t have ended up being dead in a car crash, would she?’
    The young woman’s words had everyone looking pensive. It was hard to disagree with her view that marriage to Charles had been the first step on the path that led Diana to her horrible death. All the same, Melanie made a gargantuan effort to put a happier spin on things.
    ‘Without Diana marrying Charles, lovely Kate wouldn’t have her own prince to marry,’ Melanie pointed out. ‘The silver lining is those beautiful boys of hers. Her spirit lives on through both of them.’
    The older women agreed and Melanie was glad she had successfully defended romance again, even though she, more than any of the women present could know, had reason to find Diana’s story particularly sad.
    ‘Now, let’s get back to work, girls!’ Melanie clapped her hands. ‘You ladies need to choose your frocks and get them ordered before that Kate Middleton comes down here and takes up all our time.’
    There was a ripple of laughter. As if Kate Middleton would ever set foot in Washam.
    Melanie collected up all the paper cups and took them into the backroom. Alone at last, she leaned against the sink for a moment, looking out onto the road down below. Outside, it was dark already, though it was only four o’clock. Melanie wished that it were later so she could close up for the night. She could do without having to go back out into the salon in her role as cheerleader for all those happy, newly engaged romantics. Thinking about Princess Diana never failed to make her feel sad.
    Melanie hadn’t told many people how much Princess Diana’s death had affected her. Sometimes it seemed ridiculous, like crying over the break-up of the Bay City Rollers. It wasn’t as though she’d ever actually met the woman. But Diana’s death had been a pivotal moment in her life. Melanie had been right there, in Paris, the night the princess died. As crazy as it sounded, Melanie felt almost as though the dead princess’s ghost had walked right through her on her way to the afterlife.
    Back in the UK after that awful weekend, Melanie had taken a train up to London to pay her respects in Kensington Gardens. She lay flowers with all those other flowers, which filled the air with such a heady scent that Melanie felt faint to be close to them. She had cried all the way back to Southampton. Such a waste of a