Wedding

It was a squeeze in the car, but they managed it. On the way to Bella’s house, the children chattered excitedly to Alain, Hugo and Brontë. Promises were made about hide and seek, and Sardines, which luckily they knew all about, thanks to the clones’ ability to share any knowledge one of them gained.

‘And dressing up,’ said Maia. ‘Can we do dressing up, like we did with Xavier?’

‘I’m so sorry about this.’ Bella spoke over her shoulder to the occupants of the back seat. ‘We went to a wedding last week and ever since, they’ve been obsessed with long dresses and veils and things.’

‘They don’t expect us to wear that, do they?’ said Hugo, somewhat bemused. 

‘Oh no, what every bride needs is an audience. The girls have a whole scenario of parading down the aisle (or down the stairs, as it has to be in our house) so that everyone can be overwhelmed by how marvellous they look. It’s a limited role, you’ll agree, but essential.’

‘I think we can manage that,’ smiled Alain.

Once back at her house, Bella dumped all the toys and snacks she had planned to take to Kim’s onto the kitchen table.

’This is so kind of you, I really appreciate it.’

‘No problem, murmured Alain. ‘Any friend of Kim’s is a friend of ours, obviously.’

‘I won’t be too long - here’s my mobile number just in case you need it. Help yourselves to anything you need. ‘Bye girls, be good now, won’t you?’ A quick kiss for each of the children and she was off, back into her car and away.

‘Okay ladies, what would you like to do first?’ said Hugo.

‘Dressing up, dressing up, dressing up,’ they squealed.

‘Fine. Well, Brontë, you’d better be the Chief Bridesmaid and Alain and I will wait at the altar. Off you go.’