Free The Runaway Bridesmaid by Daisy James

into my weight issues!’ Rosie smiled wryly. Despite the occasional offence caused, she loved Emily’s brand of delivering the truth as she saw it. ‘How are the boys?’
    ‘Nick’s away at some electronics conference in France, lucky sod. What I wouldn’t give for a trip to Paris, but all I’ve heard from him are moans and complaints.’ Emily’s chestnut bob swung across her cheeks as she brewed their tea in Bernice’s huge brown teapot and sliced the freshly baked scones, whilst turning her face over her shoulder to where Rosie had slumped at the kitchen table engulfed by a sudden wave of exhaustion.
    Rosie had managed to grab only a couple of hours’ sleep on her overnight flight to Heathrow. She had never got the hang of sleeping on a plane, nor had she dared to nap on the train from Paddington to Tiverton Station – fearful of missing her stop. So, all in all, she had every right to feel jaded, physically and emotionally.
    ‘Ethan’s taken up tennis at the village club. Five years old but apparently that’s quite late! And Lorcan has just hit the terrible twos.’ Emily’s father had died around the same time as Rosie’s mother and this devastating fact had served to reignite their childhood friendship when Rosie had stayed with Bernice last summer. Their mutual amity had endured despite their physical distance with the assistance of regular communications of email, Skype and Facebook posts. Some weeks Rosie enjoyed more social contact with Emily than she did with Lauren!
    Their wavelengths were attuned on so many levels, except the reality of caring for two young boys. They compared notes on the tribulations of growing up with a much younger sister. In Emily’s case, her half-sister, Juliette, who had been born when Emily’s mother had married her step-father, Roger, whose dreams of having his daughter follow in his footsteps and become a dentist like himself had been dashed that summer. He was horrified and more than a little puzzled at Juliette’s persistence in her obsession for all things green and muddy and the pursuit of her dream to become a viticulturist.
    ‘Juliette has been accepted on a horticultural course at Exeter University and has even found a placement for the summer holidays at Tiverton Meadows Garden Centre. I think this is what finally got the message through to Roger that his little girl cannot be swayed into rummaging around in a procession of strangers’ ulcerated mouths for the rest of her life.’
    Emily planted a huge mug of thick, dark tea, liberally doused with sugar, and a Devonshire scone, piled with clotted cream and strawberry jam in front of Rosie, a challenge fixed firmly in her mahogany eyes.
    ‘What is it with the English?’ Rosie sighed. ‘Tea to soothe the soul!’ But she had to admit its medicinal properties had had the desired effect last time and it was one habit she’d stuck with after her visit to the UK, and one which Lauren had bought into, too.
    ‘Shall we take these out to the garden?’ Emily wrapped her scarlet pashmina around her neck and slotted the ends into the loop. She sauntered out of the kitchen’s stable door onto the silver-bleached decking which overlooked the tragic scene of the once-manicured herb garden now presenting a bouquet of gnarled stems and crumpled leaves.
    They draped tea towels over the ancient patio chairs and hugged their steaming mugs into their palms. Their eyes met and the compassion Rosie saw in Emily’s eyes caused her to crumble into hot tears as the one and only question that had been playing on her mind burst from her lips.
    ‘Why did Aunt Bernice have to die alone, Em? I wish I’d asked the lawyer for more details but I was so shocked to get that call, I didn’t think to ask any questions.’
    Emily stroked her friend’s skeletal but beautifully-manicured hand with her own cracked, reddened specimen more accustomed to washing up and wiping mouths and bottoms than Manhattan manicures.
    ‘It’s