Tennison (31 page)

Pam looked at her father. ‘Please don’t get into a bad mood with Mummy – she’s just excited like we all are. Can you get my bouquet, please?’

‘For God’s sake, Pam darling, you’ve got ten minutes before we need to leave. Jane, you keep an eye on your mother and help her hand out the buttonholes at the church – the chaps should all be there by now.’

The journey to the church took five minutes, the three bridesmaids squashed in the back seat and Mrs Tennison sitting nervously in the front. By the time they arrived the groom and best man were standing outside on the church steps looking anxious, and the ushers were showing the last few guests to their seats.

Mrs Tennison fussed round the girls, patting down their dresses, fluffing up their puff sleeves and straightening out their coronets.

‘You all look absolutely gorgeous, and remember, Jane, as chief bridesmaid you take the bouquet from Pam when she says her vows.’

She gave Jane a tearful smile, patting her and leaning close.

‘I hope one day it will be your turn, but you shouldn’t have worn your hair down, I said put it up in a chignon. I’ve got a comb, just let me run it through.’

‘Leave it alone, Mother, just go and sit in your pew.’

It was a waste of time: Mrs Tennison opened her small purse and took out a little comb and started tugging it through Jane’s long blonde hair.

‘That’s better, now push the coronet up a bit as it’s too low down.’ As Jane used her right hand to push the coronet up her mother gasped.

‘Good heavens, your bust is falling out. I don’t know . . . that woman made dresses for Alma Cogan – you’d think it would fit you better.’

Jane was appalled as her mother insisted on hitching up the front of the dress and pushing down her breasts.

Jane stepped back. ‘Enough, Mother, and you need to straighten your hat!’

‘I wasn’t going to go with this one, but your father said the one I liked was too expensive.’ She adjusted the hat. ‘Is it all right now?’

‘It looks lovely.’

Jane sighed with the relief as the groom and best man accompanied Mrs Tennison to her seat and then took up their positions at the front of the church while the bridesmaids went to wait in the small anteroom for Pam and her father to arrive.

The other two bridesmaids’ constant nattering irritated Jane so she stepped outside to wait for her father and sister and saw the vicar at the foot of the steps looking at his watch.

‘Is everything all right?’ she asked him.

‘Yes, we’re just running a few minutes late. I’ve another wedding at one thirty, and then the usual evensong to prepare for as well, so we need to keep everything tickety-boo and on time.’

Jane, annoyed by all the fuss, politely said hello to a couple of guests who were late arriving, though she didn’t have a clue as to who they were.

‘How much older are you than Pam?’ one of them stopped to ask.

Jane turned to face a flushed coiffured woman who she suspected was a friend of her sister from the hair salon, and said that she was four years older.

‘Oh, must seem odd, Pam marrying before you.’

Jane stopped herself from making a sarcastic reply. Hearing the crunch of tyres on gravel, she turned to see the car carrying her father and sister pull into the churchyard. The vicar promptly paced up the steps and into the church and waved his hand at the organist who started playing the wedding march, which caused the other two bridesmaids to hurry out from the anteroom.

Mr Tennison helped Pam alight from the car and the two bridesmaids rushed down the steps to straighten her veil, and pull out the wedding gown’s long beaded train.

‘Right, we all set?’ her father said quietly as they reached the church porch. Standing to Pam’s right he linked arms with her and they proceeded to walk down the aisle followed by Jane and the other bridesmaids.

When they reached the chancel the groom stepped forward and shook hands with Mr Tennison who then gently lifted Pam’s right hand and placed it on the groom’s extended left hand before stepping back behind the bride.

Listening to their vows Jane was surprised to feel quite emotional. Her baby sister was so nervous, and stumbled over a few lines as she gazed at Tony, who had big raw hands and ruddy cheeks.

The ceremony was over within half an hour and after photographs outside the church there was another crushed journey to the Clarendon Hotel for the reception. The further photographs in the hotel grounds took ages, and the speeches, apart from her father’s, dragged on and on. Jane was anxious to escape, but her father had hired a disco for the entertainment so she was obliged to stay. As more guests arrived the two other bridesmaids made a beeline for one of the ushers and the best man. Elderly relatives looked on and cheered as they watched Jane’s parents attempting to do the twist to the Chubby Checker song.

It was an excruciating few hours before Jane decided to extricate herself and ask her father if she could get a taxi home.

‘Don’t be impatient – you can’t leave until the bride and groom do . . . She’s changing into her honeymoon outfit soon and we have to wave them off.’

‘I need to check in with the station in case I am needed.’

He gave a resigned sigh, and leaned close. ‘Don’t make excuses, you’ve had a face all day like you’ve been sucking a lemon, just try and show a bit of enthusiasm. It’s Pam’s big day, and who knows, maybe you could be the lucky one that catches her bouquet.’

Jane sighed and returned to her gilt-backed chair at the top table. She sipped at her champagne, which was now tepid. She had stuffed a paper napkin down the front of her cleavage to stop her mother constantly telling her to pull up the bodice. Out of the corner of her eye she noticed an overweight man accompanied by a small blonde woman approaching her table. There is always an embarrassing relative in a family and for the Tennisons it was Uncle Brian, their mother’s older brother. Clinging to him like a limpet was his tiny wife Claire. They both appeared to have had too much to drink.

‘Here she is, our own little Dixon of Dock Green . . . Evening all.’ Uncle Brian snorted as he laughed and gave a salute. ‘Collared any big-time villains yet, or are you still directing traffic?’ he asked.

Jane gave a small tight smile. ‘Dixon’s male and we’re about to crack down on dodgy car dealers, Uncle Brian.’

He laughed loudly and his wife tittered.

‘Well, when you want a nice reliable second-hand motor you know where to come. You know our Barbara’s an air hostess with Dan Air now and travels the world on long-haul flights? She’d have been here today but she’s in New York . . . lovely uniform, wonderful job. It’s the sort of work you should be thinking about.’

‘She’s lost loads of weight, you know,’ Aunt Claire added.

‘Good for her,’ Jane said, recalling Barbara was at least thirteen stone plus and as haughty and objectionable as Uncle Brian. ‘Mind you I’ve always thought an air hostess was a sort of glorified waitress,’ Jane said sarcastically.

‘She’s dating a pilot and having a lovely time,’ Aunt Claire said and gave Jane a sidelong glance.

‘I’d never have let our Barbara go into the police. In fact I was surprised when your mother told us you’d joined, and those hats you have to wear, dear me, they’re so ugly, but each to their own chosen path, I suppose.’

‘I am finding it really fascinating, and I was at my first autopsy the other day. They make this Y-shaped incision that begins with cuts behind each ear and goes all the way down along the neck and chest to the pelvis so they can remove the intestines. The pathologist also peels the flap of skin off the face and over the skull.’

Aunt Claire’s mouth was wide open in shock and disgust.

‘Interesting, isn’t it?’ Jane said, smiling cynically.

Uncle Brian laughed and did another silly salute before whisking his wife onto the dance floor.

It was half an hour later when Pam returned wearing a smart suit and hat. She threw her bouquet over her shoulder, and the auburn-haired bridesmaid, who was by now very flushed and rather tipsy, caught it. With a sigh of relief Jane watched the ‘happy couple’ depart in a red MGB V8 Roadster, a ‘Just Married’ notice taped to the boot, along with old shoes and empty tin cans tied to the rear bumper, which bounced and rattled as the car pulled away backfiring. The MGB had been lent to them by Uncle Brian and was to be returned after the honeymoon was over, but Jane suspected it might not last out the trip to the Lake District and back.

By the time Jane returned home with her parents it was after nine and she felt drained. She couldn’t wait to remove the salmon-pink nightmare dress and, after struggling out of the tight corset, she threw the dress on the floor and chucked her wilted coronet into the wicker bin. She lay on her bed in her underwear looking up at the ceiling. She realized that moving into the section house was definitely what she needed. She really didn’t want to live at home any longer. Now that she’d completed and returned the forms for a room it was time to broach the subject with her parents.

She realized sadly that she had come to feel rather alienated from them. They had not approved of her joining the Metropolitan Police Force, although they had been proud at her passing-out parade at Hendon Police College. Her parents were always warm and loving and Jane knew she had nothing to complain about, certainly not when she thought of the squalor and neglect she had witnessed at the squat. She knew deep down her parents wanted her to be more like Pam, but the reality was that she and Pam were as different as chalk and cheese.

Jane smiled to herself. She was proud to be a police officer and determined to make a career of it, but as yet she was unsure exactly what she wanted to do after her probation. Even though she was enjoying assisting the CID she knew there were many different branches of the force she could eventually apply for. Her sister had no ambition other than to get married and start a family. She had met Tony the carpenter only a year ago, started a whirlwind romance that led to engagement and, in Jane’s opinion, too soon a marriage. She sighed, at least the day was over and done with. She could not for a moment contemplate ever wanting an elaborate ceremony like that for herself. That is, when and if she found her Mr Right, but she felt there was more chance of finding him if she wasn’t living at home.

There was a tap on the door. ‘Would you like some cheese on toast, dear?’ she heard her mother ask. ‘No thanks, I ate too much at the reception.’

‘Daddy and I are going to have a sherry. Would you like to join us?’

‘I’ll come out in a minute, I’m just changing.’ Jane sighed and got off the single bed she had slept on since she was a child. She looked around her bedroom with its Laura Ashley wallpaper and felt proud of the silver-framed photographs of her in uniform and the Met Police plaque on the dressing table. She lifted her dressing gown from the hook on the bedroom door, and feeling guilty about the crumpled bridesmaid dress on the floor picked it up and placed it on a hanger in her wardrobe.

Her parents were sitting on high stools at the breakfast bar listening to soft jazz music on the radio. They were both eating cheese on toast and sipping sherry from small crystal schooner glasses.

‘Hi, you must both be tired out,’ Jane remarked.

Her mother gave a little shrug and sighed. ‘We’ve been going over the entire day . . . it was so wonderful and everything went according to plan, didn’t it, dear?’ she said, looking at her husband for confirmation.

‘Fabulous day, apart from your Uncle Brian and his munchkin wife going on and on about their precious Barbara being an air hostess. Even though she’s allegedly lost weight I bet she still has to squeeze between the aisles.’

Jane laughed but her mother frowned and ignored his remark.

‘Pam looked so beautiful, so happy and radiant. Tony’s a very nice young man. At first I was worried they might have rushed things, but I think he will make a good husband and he’s a carpenter so he’s good with his hands – he’ll work wonders on their lovely little flat, won’t he, Daddy?’

Mr Tennison nodded, downed his sherry then slapped the base of the bottle of Lea & Perrins making sauce splash out over his toasted cheese. Jane noticed that her mother’s cheeks were flushed and she wondered if after the champagne at the reception, and now the sherry, she was a little drunk.

‘I’ve been thinking, the bridesmaid dresses cost so much that what you should do is get the dressmaker to cut down the neck, remove the puffs and shorten the length, then you’d have a beautiful cocktail frock. Pam was going to have her wedding gown made into one, but then she said she was going to keep it in the box so that when she has a baby it can be made into a lovely christening gown.’

Jane remembered Kath Morgan’s remark. ‘Oh my God, she’s pregnant!’ she exclaimed in surprise.

‘Good heavens, no she is not. Whatever made you think that?’ her shocked mother asked.

Jane shrugged and said nothing, though she wondered if it was true and Pam had kept quiet about it.

Her mother continued, ‘She wants to start a family right away and I for one think it’s a lovely idea. I never had a big white wedding.’

‘What?’ Jane interrupted, wondering what her mother was inferring.

‘It’s not what you think. My parents couldn’t afford a big do, and don’t forget the war wasn’t long over. Daddy and I have always saved in a special account for your and Pam’s weddings.’

‘She’ll have to get a boyfriend first, sweetheart. Am I right, Jane?’ he said with a wink.

Jane hesitated and drew one of the stools out from beneath the breakfast counter.

‘I need to discuss something with you,’ she said quietly and was about to explain about moving out when her father pointed to the radio.

‘Bloody hell, there’s more on the news about that Lord Lambton scandal.’

‘Dad, I really need to—’ Jane started to say but he wasn’t listening.

‘He’s a junior Defence minister. Apparently the
News of the World
somehow got hold of photographs of him in bed with
two
prostitutes whilst smoking marijuana,’ he said.

‘You’d think a Tory minister would behave better,’ his wife added as she turned up the volume slightly.