Rent a Bridesmaid Read online

  That earring was very familiar. So was her face. I suddenly pictured her with her hair pinned up and wearing a pinafore dress.

  ‘It’s Miss Hope!’ I gasped. ‘Dad, Dad, look, it’s Miss Hope, my teacher!’

  ‘Good heavens! Are you sure?’ he said. ‘Miss Hope always seems so serious and schoolmarmy, but she looks amazing now. If it really is her.’

  We still weren’t absolutely sure, and we couldn’t go up to her and find out because the wedding meal was being served: melon and Parma ham, then spaghetti carbonara, then chicken with green beans and sauté potatoes, and then delicious creamy tiramisu, with coffee and little amaretti biscuits. I could hardly move after eating all that, and I breathed shallowly so I wouldn’t strain the seams of my bridesmaid’s dress too much.

  Every now and then Dad and I peered over at Miss Hope – or indeed Miss Hope’s twin. She was chatting with this person and that, gesturing and laughing.

  ‘She absolutely can’t be Miss Hope,’ said Dad.

  But she absolutely was. She came over to the top table when we were at the coffee stage, her hips swaying, wearing extraordinary high heels.

  ‘Hello, Mr Andrews. Hello, Tilly. My goodness, don’t you look beautiful! And you haven’t spilled the tiniest drop on your lovely dress. Unlike your slurpy old teacher – look!’ She pointed to an unfortunate stain on her front. ‘I was so eager to eat my tiramisu that I took an enormous spoonful and half of it went down my dress. I’m going to the ladies’ to see if I can mop it off.’

  ‘I can’t believe you’re here too, Miss Hope,’ I said.

  ‘Simon and I are old chums. We met when we did our teacher training and we’ve kept in touch ever since,’ she said.

  ‘Well, we only met him a couple of weeks ago,’ said Dad. ‘Tilly here put an advert in the newsagent’s—’

  ‘Renting herself out as a bridesmaid – I know!’ said Miss Hope, laughing. ‘But I had no idea she was hired for this wedding too!’

  ‘Hey, Sarah, how do you know each other?’ Simon called.

  ‘Tilly’s one of my pupils!’ she said.

  ‘Well, lucky Tilly!’ said Simon.

  ‘No, lucky me. Tilly’s one of my favourites,’ said Miss Hope.

  ‘I thought teachers weren’t supposed to have favourites,’ said Dad.

  ‘We’re not. You’re not meant to have heard that!’ she told him.

  One of the Italian waiters put some music on – ‘Somewhere Over the Rainbow’ – and Simon and Matthew got up to do a slow dance in the middle of the floor while everyone clapped. Miss Hope sat in their place and started talking to Dad. Simon’s mum was talking to me, admiring my dress, so I couldn’t hear what they were saying properly. I think it was about me, and I heard Dad ask something about my drawing. Miss Hope sounded very reassuring when she answered.

  Then Simon came back and asked me to dance. I felt a bit shy because I had no idea how to do that kind of slow dance, but luckily it was a bouncy tune so we could just jiggle about as we liked. Then Matthew asked me to dance, and by this time there were lots of couples on the small patch of floor.

  I looked round – and saw Dad and Miss Hope dancing! At first I thought they looked the most unlikely couple in the world, Miss Hope so blonde and curvy in her red dress and high heels, and Dad so slight and pale and grey in his best suit – but after a while I got used to the way they looked. They seemed more used to each other too, shouting over the music and laughing. Dad’s usually rather a hopeless dancer, very shy and stiff, but he was getting much better, even giving Miss Hope a little twirl every now and then. Yes, they were getting on really, really well.

  I started drawing on one of the paper napkins, borrowing a biro from Simon’s mum. I drew another wedding couple. The bride was wearing a long, slim, elegant dress. The groom was smiling. I drew a girl in a beautiful bridesmaid’s dress too.

  Dad and Miss Hope danced together a lot, right up to the end of the evening. Simon and Matthew kissed and hugged everyone goodbye, ready to drive off for their night flight to Boston.

  ‘Right, Tilly, here’s your wages for today,’ said Simon, handing me an envelope.

  I’d told them I charged five pounds, but there seemed to be several notes in the envelope.

  ‘No, please, I don’t want all this!’ I said.

  ‘You’ve earned it, sweetheart,’ said Matthew. ‘We absolutely insist!’

  ‘And we’ve bought you a little present too,’ said Simon, giving me a small blue leather box.

  I thought it was going to be another necklace, but this time it was a silver bracelet with a heart charm. It fitted perfectly. I loved it so much I kept putting my arm up and down in the air so my bracelet could slide about elegantly.

  ‘It’s so lovely. Look, Miss Hope, isn’t it the most beautiful bracelet?’ I said.

  ‘Yes it is. Really special. Though you’d better not wear it to school on Monday!’

  ‘Oh, I want to show Matty and the others,’ I protested – but not seriously, because I knew we weren’t really allowed to wear jewellery to school.

  To my great delight, Dad offered Miss Hope a lift home and she said yes. We got in the car, Dad and Miss Hope in the front and me in the back. I hadn’t sat in the back seat for ages. I didn’t mind at all.

  I spread my pink silk skirts out over the seat so they wouldn’t crease and sat there happily in the dark while Dad and Miss Hope chatted to each other. They weren’t saying anything important, just talking about Simon and Matthew and the wedding, but the soft steady buzz of their words was so soothing I fell asleep.

  I was so sound asleep I didn’t even wake up when Miss Hope got out of the car, though I had a very hazy memory of her leaning over her seat and patting my shoulder. The next thing I knew, Dad was helping me out of the car, half lifting me as if I were a baby.

  ‘Come on, sleepyhead,’ he said.

  ‘Where’s Miss Hope, Dad?’

  ‘She’s gone home, silly.’

  ‘Oh, I wanted to see where she lives. Is it a house?’

  ‘She lives in a big old house, but I think she just has a garden flat.’

  ‘What did you two say to each other when she went?’

  ‘Mmm? Goodbye, of course!’ said Dad.

  ‘Did you kiss her?’

  ‘What? No! For heaven’s sake, Tilly, she’s your teacher!’

  ‘Yes, but you were dancing with her for ages.’

  ‘I know, but it was a wedding. Everyone was dancing. You were dancing. Come on, let’s dance you up to bed,’ said Dad, opening the front door.

  He clasped me tight and did a funny waltz with me down the hall, and then he two-stepped me all the way up the stairs.

  ‘Oh, Dad, I do like it when you’re funny like this,’ I said.

  ‘I do like it when you’re chirpy too, little Till,’ said Dad, giving me a kiss on the end of my nose. ‘And it’s all down to you that we’ve had such a lovely day.’

  ‘Yes, it is, isn’t it? So can I put another rent-a-bridesmaid advert in Sid’s window?’

  ‘No, enough is enough! You’ve had two fantastic weddings in one month. I bet very few girls are so lucky.’

  Chapter Fifteen

  I DREW PICTURES of the wedding most of Sunday. I did a really big picture especially for Simon and Matthew, with us all in the Italian restaurant, clapping while they danced. I couldn’t remember all the guests, so I mostly made them up, but I did quite good likenesses of Simon and Matthew, colouring their shirts very carefully, and of course I knew what Dad and I looked like. I drew me at the end of the table, so that I could show all of my bridesmaid’s dress and my pink shoes. I also paid particular attention to Miss Hope, with her new hairstyle and her amazing red dress.

  I did a little private drawing of Miss Hope and Dad dancing together. I drew thought bubbles above their heads. Miss Hope was thinking: Oh, Mr Andrews, I wish you were my boyfriend, and Dad was thinking: Dear Miss Hope, I think you look absolutely stunning.

  When I got to school