COUNTRY LOVING
A family wedding brings merriment and mixed messages for Imogen Green
Rural life isn’t always idyllic, especially when it comes to dating…
‘Bewildered countrywoman seeks man to make her wishes come true’
THIS MONTH, INSTEAD OF CONCENTRATING ON MILKING AND HARVESTING, I’ve been making tiny heifers out of marzipan and arranging them in circles on a three-tiered cake. I’ve even spent an entire evening writing guests’ names on ear tags as a cow-themed table decoration. Yes, I’ve been caught up in wedding preparations, and the bridezilla is my niece Freddie.
None of us have much money, so everything’s been done on a shoestring. A friend loaned us a big, worn marquee – smelling so strongly of burgers, the farm terrier decided it was his dream home and wouldn’t budge – and every guest was asked to bring a dish of food and a bottle. But that didn’t stop Freddie wanting it all to look beautiful. So in the last, desperate 12 hours, our whole family cut wheelbarrow-loads of flowers from volunteers’ gardens, and draped them in swathes around the hay-bale tables and benches.
As I was putting the finishing touches to the bride’s bouquet, a car drew up and I realised it was my handsome neighbour, Matthew Antiza. I knew he was on the guest list, but had been dreading meeting him, because last month he caught me kissing the vet (in completely innocent circumstances). We’ve been avoiding each other ever since.
I went out shyly, wishing that I’d had time to put on make-up. “What’s all this?” I asked, as he unloaded cardboard boxes.
“It’s my present to the bride. You can’t have a wedding without champagne,” he said.
As we stacked bottles of Moët in a water trough to cool, I said, “I’m so sorry about the vet – it was all a terrible misunderstanding.” He looked at me so fiercely, his dark eyes seemed to flash. “Don’t worry about it,” he said. “It’s not as if we’re really even friends.”
I was so stunned, I couldn’t think of anything else during the ceremony, the long tractor procession to the village church and back, the photographs (with cows), even the meal. But I suddenly snapped back into focus at the end of the groom’s speech. He was describing how he’d fallen for Freddie the moment he first saw her – in primary school – but they were only friends, and he had to wait until she was 20 before she’d agree to go out with him. “So, for 17 years, each time I blew out my birthday candles or threw a coin in a fountain, I asked the same thing: ‘Please let us end up together,’” he said. “It’s a good way to get what you want, but it takes a heck of a long time.”
As the thunderous applause died away, I murmured to my sister-in-law, “It’s all over with Matthew. He’s never going to feel like that about me now.” She didn’t reply, just smiled, topping up my glass. Everything dissolved into a merry haze and, after some wild dancing, Freddie’s Young Farmer friends started playing hide and seek in a crop of forage maize in the next field. This is unimaginably exciting at night, even if you aren’t tipsy – which we all were. The stems tower above your head, and when anyone approaches down the narrow channels they rustle frighteningly. You cover your eyes with your hands when you run, so the leaves don’t hurt, and because I couldn’t see, I fell into a deep ditch. “Help!” I squealed, flailing about, before a figure shimmered out of the corn and extended his hand. Matthew.
As I grabbed hold, my entire body seemed to tremble and catch fire. He pulled so much I hurtled right into his arms, and I swear he responded the same way I did: his heart was pounding so hard I could feel it thump against mine. And then he released me. “You need to get dry,” he said, guiding me to the farmhouse, disappearing into the darkness as I reached the door. So perhaps it is still on?
JOIN US FOR OUR PLOUGHING AND FEASTING EVENT!
WHETHER YOU’RE LOOKING FOR LOVE OR JUST LIKE THE IDEA OF SPENDING A DAY AT BEAUTIFUL YEO VALLEY FARM IN SOMERSET, FIND OUT MORE ON PAGE 53.