28. Mina

"Mum, that's very thoughtful, but I don't know if we have time to set out these very attractive coffee cups at each place setting?—"

They were not very attractive. They were a lurid green colour, and the monogrammed H on them was all wonky. But I was in survival mode and the photographer wanted me in the garden five minutes ago for some portraits with Jo and Bree and Lydia, and I was still stressing about what Heathcliff had yelled this morning about the ‘saboteur'—

"Oh, honey, don't you worry about a thing. I'll just pop into the dining room while you do your photos and set them up myself. I already have to go back there, because I see that Cynthia's forgotten to lay out my napkins. I showed her that if you fold them lengthways, no one can see the burn marks?—"

"Arf Arf!"

Oscar was being such a good boy today, but the whole house was a hive of stimulation, and the wait staff flowing past us carrying tiny cocktail meatballs to the early guests was just one distraction too many. He pulled on his lead, which normally wouldn't be a problem, except that I was wearing seventeen layers of silk and tulle, and I tripped on the dress, fell across his harness, and sprawled out unglamourously across the foyer floor.

Ow. Owie.

"Mina, honey, are you okay—argh!"

I turned toward Mum, but before I could get to my feet, something hit me with the force of a freight train, sending me skidding on my skirts across the foyer. The air fled my lungs.

I gasped for breath, clutching my stomach as the heavy weight untangled itself from my ample skirts and tried to pick me up.

"Mina, Mina." Heathcliff's voice was wild. "Are you hurt? Are you okay? Where is he? Where's the fiend hiding?"

I rubbed my throbbing arse. "I'm fine, apart from some crazy groom bowling me over. What are you doing?"

"You're okay?" He brushed his hands over me. "He didn't hurt you?"

"No one hurt me. I tripped. Floor-length dresses and guide-dog harnesses don't exactly go together. Why are you here? It's bad luck to see the bride before the wedding."

"I saw you go down. I thought…" His voice trailed off as Morrie and Quoth came up behind him. Quoth made a desperate sound and Morrie didn't make a single wisecrack, which made me instantly suspicious.

"What?" I snapped. "What did you think?"

The guilty, miserable look on his face broke something inside me. This is what he's been hiding from me. "What's going on? The three of you have been acting strangely for the last few days. You're keeping secrets, and not just about the wedding plans."

"Someone is trying to sabotage the wedding!" Quoth cried out. "I wanted to tell you, but these two talked me out of it."

"You were so stressed about your book launch, we didn't want you to worry," Morrie said.

"We thought we could catch them," Heathcliff growled.

"Wait, what do you mean, sabotaging the wedding?"

"They destroyed the wedding cake, cut the chair covers into slivers, stabbed the decorations Quoth made, left threatening notes about you, and…"

"They killed Iwan, didn't they?" I staggered back, my stomach dropping into my boots. This can't be true, can it?

But the silence that greeted me confirmed my fear.

"This person killed our celebrant and you didn't even tell me? All our friends and family are here today, everyone we care about, and you put them all in danger."

"Hayes has officers surrounding the property, and undercover cops in the crowd. He and Wilson are here, don't forget. You're the one who forced me to invite them. They're checking all the guests at the gate. Jo's got her crew of lesbian film critics watching as well, and Lydia and her soldiers are ready to jump into the fray." Heathcliff growled. "We promise, this scoundrel is not going to ruin our special day."

"Maybe not, but we shouldn't have taken the chance. I can't believe you didn't trust me with this."

Someone reached for my hand, but I shoved them away. How could they? After everything we'd been through together, after all the murders I'd solved and scrapes I'd got us out of, they didn't think I could handle this.

They don't think I'm capable.

"Mina, what do you want to do?" Quoth's voice trembled. "If you don't want to marry us, we understand."

"No, we bloody do not understand," Heathcliff shot back at him. "Mina is ours and we are hers and no sodding saboteur is going to stop us from making her our wife."

But I kept coming back to those words in Jen's letter, how much they'd cut me, and how Heathcliff and Morrie and Quoth had swooped in to reassure me that she didn't know what she was talking about. But did they really believe that? Or did they think that now that I couldn't see, that I had to be protected from bad things, instead of helping them work together to solve them?

Was I less than in my own marriage?

"Mina?" Quoth's voice croaked.

No, don't be silly. You're only thinking that because you're still nervous about the book launch. This is Heathcliff, Morrie, and Quoth. You have come so far and been through so much together. You want to marry them. You all deserve this day.

I remembered when I first met Iwan, and he was telling me about his early days campaigning for same-sex marriage, people told him that it would never happen in this country. They'd been so certain that things couldn't change, and then they did. I thought about everything Marjorie had said, about not giving up a single sausage roll to people who don't believe in you.

Whoever this horrible saboteur was, I couldn't let them ruin this special day. I held out a shaking hand to the guys, and one by one, they placed their palms on top of mine.

"Let's do this," I beamed. "Let's get married."

"Are you ready for this?"Bree asked as she and Jo lined up with me and Oscar outside the doors to the ballroom. All our guests were inside and the cello quartet were valiantly attempting a cover of my favorite Misfits song that would've been hilarious if my stomach weren't churning with nerves.

"Ready as I'll ever be. Wait, have you looked around?" I grabbed Jo's arm as she swung the door open a crack. "Can you see anyone who isn't supposed to be here? Do you know anything about the bothy? What did you find out from Iwan's autopsy?"

"Mina, please, don't worry about it. My team at the lab are all over the bothy evidence. We'll get results in the next day or so. And you're surrounded by people here to protect you. For once, let your friends and the police look out for you, and just enjoy your special day."

"But—"

"But nothing." Jo pressed her finger over my lips. "Zip it. That's your music starting. Let's go."

Let's go? There could be a killer out there, and she's saying let's go?

Jo gave me a gentle nudge through the door, and I forced my feet to move and my hands to give Oscar his signals.

Jo and Bree set off down the aisle, and the music swelled and everyone stood up as I took my first steps. The dress felt like it weighed a million tonnes. My hands trembled. I struggled to keep my grip on Oscar's ribbon-adorned harness.

This was supposed to be the happiest day of my life, but I couldn't stop thinking about poor Iwan.

He died because this saboteur didn't think that I deserved to get married.

Everyone in the world who I cared about was in this room, right now, oohing and aahing and dabbing their eyes with handkerchiefs monogrammed with crooked H's.

What if the killer tries to hurt them?

Stop it. Morrie's right. No killer would be dumb enough to try something with so many people around. Hayes has men stationed all around the wedding. He won't let anything bad happen.

But I didn't feel safe. I felt utterly lost and alone. The guys kept me in the dark about this. I could have helped them look for clues. Like in the notes. I hadn't even seen the notes the killer left, and maybe they gave themselves away but the guys didn't notice…

They didn't think I could handle it. They thought I had to be protected from the truth, instead of helping them solve this mystery together.

They did think I was different because I'd lost my eyesight.

Less than.

I'm not ready to marry them.

The thought hit me like a smack in the face. I stumbled over my dress but managed to right myself before I fell over.

The music reached a crescendo, screaming in my head.

I'm not ready to marry them.

If Heathcliff, Morrie, and Quoth didn't believe in me enough to trust me, then everything I thought we had was a lie. I needed to talk to them, alone, and figure this out. Otherwise, every word that we speak in our vows will be a lie.

But what could I do? I was literally walking down the aisle. I could hear my mother crying loudly, other people blowing their noses, murmuring about how pretty my dress looked. The corset was so tight that I couldn't breathe.

Impeccable timing, as always, Mina.

Tears pooled beneath my eyes, but they weren't tears of happiness. I gripped Oscar's harness so hard that my hand started to cramp.

What am I going to do?

We reached the archway, lit on both sides by tall candelabras filled with glittering candles. The whole room looked amazing, filled with flickering candlelight and strategically-placed lamps that delighted my eyes and meant I could see the outlines of the space.

It's perfect. Heathcliff did all this for me.

But right now, that didn't matter. What mattered was that Heathcliff didn't trust in me enough to tell me when a killer was after me. We should have figured this out together, the way we always did. But they left me out of it, and the killer was still out there…

"Mina," Heathcliff came down from the riser, looping his hand on mine. His lips brushed my forehead through my veil, but instead of feeling my usual zing of love, all I wanted to do was run.

Heathcliff started pulling me up the steps.

"Wait," I whimpered. "Stop, please."

"Stop?" He sounded confused. "What's wrong?"

"I don't think I want to do this," I whispered, aware of hundreds of pairs of eyes on us. "Not after what you told me today. Someone was threatening me and you didn't even think I deserved to know. That's not how you start a marriage of equals."

"Mina," Heathcliff's voice cracked. "I never intended to hurt you or to make you feel lacking. I wanted to protect you?—"

"I'm not some simpering heroine in a gothic romance who needs protecting!" I hissed, the anger and hurt rising inside me. "I thought that we were partners. But I guess that was all just crap. When it comes down to it, you three see me just like all those reviewers see me, as someone to be pitied."

Oof. I'd raised my voice louder than I realized. The guests murmured to each other, shifting in their chairs. My mother hissed something at the band, who started playing at a raised volume to cover our argument.

"What can we do?" Quoth asked. He and Morrie moved around me, surrounding me. "How can we show you that we don't pity you? Mina, you're our whole world. Please?—"

His words were cut off by a loud CRASH.

Guests screamed. The main lights in the room flickered out. I whirled around, my heart in my throat.

One of the sculptures must have fallen down, but how?—

"Iwan's killer is here!" someone yelled.

"Don't be ridiculous. The statue cut the lighting cable," Cynthia cried. "My team will fix it. Hold on?—"

SMASH.

"Everyone remain calm," Hayes' voice cut over the chaos. "The killer isn't here. It's just that infernal?—"

"QUACK!"

What?

"QUACK QUACK QUACK!"

Before I had the chance to orient myself, a row of black and white ducks ran from beneath the carnage by the door, heading down the aisle directly for me. And they were followed by a loud, yellow?—

"James Pond!"

He's here. We found him!

It all made sense now. He got out of his cage and went in search of a girlfriend. After he discovered that he couldn't find the ducks down by the Kings Copse stream, he must have come to Lachlan Hall to chat up the ducks on Cynthia's pond, none of whom sounded keen to be his girlfriend. They hopped up on the dais and scattered in all directions, while?—

"James, no!" Maisie rushed after him. She dove for the duck, but he flapped his wings and scooted under her arms, knocking over the candelabra on my left.

In slow motion, the candlelight flickered as the stand toppled over…

…onto my dress.

I yelled and leapt back, but the fall must have snuffed out the candles because I couldn't feel any heat. My beautiful dress was safe at least?—

"Um, gorgeous…" Morrie's face collapsed as he suddenly bent to his knees and started tugging on my skirts. For a single, terrifying moment, I thought that he was going to calm me down in typical Morrie fashion, by crawling underneath my dress and using his tongue to make me scream in front of everyone.

But then I smelled the burning.

Panic flared in my chest, but I couldn't do anything. As people screamed and scattered about the room, Morrie used his suit jacket to smother the flames. As he stood up, I noticed that he only had a waistcoat on his front side. His back was just a shirt. What?

"You're okay, gorgeous," he breathed, tossing his jacket away as he slid his arms around me.

I reached down and felt for the hem of my dress. Only, it wasn't there anymore. My hands found a singed edge.

My beautiful dress. It was completely ruined.

And not only my dress…all around me, guests ran about, hid under chairs, or fled into the drawing room and slipped on ruined food as the ducks ran wild through the chaos, tearing at the decorations and knocking people down in their attempts to escape horny James Pond.

"James, no, stay out of the catering. James, get away from there! That food isn't for ducks?—"

CRASH.

"QUACK QUACK QUACK QUACK!"

Heathcliff grabbed the drake by his neck and hoisted him off the ground. "You've caused just about enough carnage here," he growled. "I was hoping there'd be duck on the dinner menu."

"QUACK!" James beat at Heathcliff's face with his wings.

"No, please! He didn't mean to." Maisie ran over, tugging on Heathcliff's arm. "Please, he's my baby."

"Mina?" Heathcliff turned to me, his voice wavering.

"Let him go," I whispered. "We're not punishing James for being who he is."

"Give us fifteen minutes to straighten everything out," Morrie said, his voice bursting with confidence. "And we'll be back to the wedding."

"No."

The moment the word left my mouth, I felt the truth behind it.

Our wedding was cursed.

And I wasn't ready.

"Mina, wait!"

But I didn't wait. I had to get out of there.

I turned on my heel, gripped Oscar's harness, and, wiping away the tears, gave him his instructions. "Oscar, take me away from here."