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She didn’t mean to sound churlish, particularly after the lovely day they’d had, but there was no way she was going to spend twenty grand on that. She could feel the tension brewing in the air, and knew she needed to break it before it settled. Thankfully, Theo got there first.

‘Do you know what? You’re right, it’s completely fine. We’ll do whatever we are both comfortable with. And we’ll set a budget that you’re happy with. Not that we need to worry that much; I’ve got a fair bit saved up.’

Daisy felt her head tilt to the side. ‘How much is a “fair bit”?’ she said, not sure why the comment had twisted her emotions so much.

‘You know, just a bit.’

Daisy didn’t know. BeforeSeptember Rose, she hadn’t had much in the way of real savings or equity, and even though she had the business, and a small excess if it was needed, she still worried.

‘Theo, how much is “a bit”?’ she repeated.

Theo’s eyes remained forward until he glanced at Daisy with a slight bite down on his lip.

‘A couple of hundred grand,’ he said.

51

Daisy was sure she must have misheard. ‘Sorry, did you saygrandat the end there?’ she said. ‘As in two hundred thousand pounds? Pounds sterling?’

‘Give or take,’ Theo responded.

‘I don’t understand.’

That was all she could manage, but it was the truth. People didn’t just have that amount of money in savings, did they? Okay, it wasn’t like she’d worked her way up a career ladder or anything, but she had always been employed and no one could consider her work-shy and yet there was zero possibility of her having saved up that type of money. Even Bex, who had the most well-paid job of anyone she knew, had needed to scrimp and save to get a deposit for her flat in London. As far as Daisy was aware, Theo had never scrimped and saved, even though jobs on the canal didn’t pay well at all. Certainly not enough for him to have saved up that sort of money.

‘It’s really come off investments,’ he said. ‘Well, some inheritance that I invested. When my grandfather left me some money, crypto was just taking off, so I put a few grand into that and it’s done well.’

‘A few grand?’ Daisy questioned. To her, that meant two or three, not a quarter of a million pounds.

‘It’s not like I have an extravagant lifestyle or anything either, and I’ve always been that way. I’ve always saved rather than spent. I’m mean, you know when I bought theEscape, she was a shell, so I didn’t need to dip into my savings then and I did all the work pretty cheaply.’

Of course, Daisy knew this about theNarrow Escape. Theo had kindly used all the skills he had learned doing up his own boat – and a couple of others too – to help with theSeptember Rose, but that didn’t change how at that precise moment she was having difficulty swallowing. Her throat had dried up entirely, and her mind was racing through what Theo’s hidden wealth meant for her and their future.

Daisy could feel Theo’s eyes flicking off the road to look at her, but she needed a moment to gather her thoughts before she spoke. It wasn’t the immediate future that worried her so much as the distant one. She had no intention of leaving the canal any time soon. It was her business, her livelihood, and her life, but seeing Yvonne struggling had made Daisy realise there would be a time when dry land would be a more sensible idea and she would much rather make that move when she was young enough to enjoy that new chapter of her life. The problem was that when she had imagined her and Theo being in a place together, whether it was a boat or a house, it had been exactly that – together. Shared. Equal partners. How could they be equal if she wasn’t able to contribute in the same way?

‘I feel like I’ve said something to upset you,’ Theo said. ‘Should I have not told you? I didn’t think it was a big deal. Unless you’re sitting there thinking that you want to blow the entire lot on the wedding and honeymoon, that is. I might have a bit of a problem with that.’

‘No. Trust me, that’s not what I want to do,’ Daisy said. ‘I just hadn’t really thought about how we were going to tackle finances when we got married.’

‘We’ll figure it out,’ Theo said with an annoying nonchalance. Though Daisy wasn’t convinced.

‘Well, we really need to sort it out before we get married. I mean, where are we going to live? I really can’t have Johnny in theSeptember Rosewith all the cooking I do, but is theEscapebig enough for us to live in full-time?’ Her head was spiralling with the logistics of it all. ‘And I’m not sure I’d feel happy leaving theSeptember Roseempty at nights either. Not every night. I mean, I know we do it a lot now, but I’m always there so early in the morning. Maybe we could see about getting a mooring next to each other?—’

‘Daisy.’ Theo reached across and placed his hand on her lap. ‘This is fine. It’ll take us as long as it takes us, but we’ll sort it out. And as for the money – if I thought it was going to be an issue, I wouldn’t have mentioned it. I just wanted you to know that you don’t have to miss out on anything, that’s all. You don’t have to feel like you need to cut back on the wedding because of money, that’s all. I want you to have everything you want.’

Daisy pressed her lips tightly together. A wedding with everything she wanted. What did that mean? She wasn’t sure, but for some reason, itstill didn’t make her feel good.

52

By the time they got back to Wildflower Lock, Daisy had discovered that weddings were probably the most ridiculously expensive events possible. She had found a website that listed all the things the day was supposed to include and had the average prices next to them, too. According to this site, the average bride spent over a thousand pounds on their wedding dress and five hundred on the cake. Well, Daisy decided, that was one way she would save money – getting her mother to bake it for her. Or if Pippa didn’t want to, then she could even make it herself. And the rest of the food, too. But what about the venue and the music and all those other things? Those would be harder to find cheap options for, and could she really afford to do things on the cheap when the entirety of Theo’s family were going to be there, judging her?

‘Look, I think you’re putting a bit too much pressure on yourself to get all this sorted as soon as possible,’ Theo said. ‘We’ve got all the time in the world. Isn’t that the whole point of being engaged – to give yourself time to sort this?’

Daisy nodded.

‘You’re right,’ she said, reaching across and squeezing his hand, though she still wasn’t convinced it was true. The very first decision they had made about the wedding was that they didn’t want to be engaged for years and that was even more true now than when they’d first discussed it. Thankfully, now they were back at the lock, there was a new thought which took priority.

‘I can’t wait to see Johnny,’ she said, a lightness filling her chest at the thought of their canine companion. ‘I hope he hasn’t driven them mad.’