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Lucy woke to the sound of her alarm. She reached for her phone to switch it off. She lay back in bed and checked her messages. Uh-oh, ten missed calls from Debbie. Five new text messages. The last one said:CALL ME!!!!!

Lucy sat up in bed and dialled Debbie’s number.

‘Oh, Lucy, it’s a total fiasco. I thought my mother not coming to my wedding was bad, but now the bloody restaurant we’resupposed to get married in has gone into receivership. They only told me last night. What the hell am I going to do? I have twenty guests coming to a wedding that now has no venue. They were organizing the hairdresser and the make-up artist and the flowers and …’ Debbie trailed off as she began to weep.

Lucy had to think fast. She wanted to help Debbie, plus she was relying on the seven-hundred-eurofee to pay for her car insurance and she wanted to treat Kelly to a new outfit to cheer her up. She could see her daughter was struggling to get used to St Jude’s, although she had been in much better form the last few days.

‘Debbie, this wedding is going ahead. Leave it with me. I’ll call you back in ten minutes. Sit tight.’

Lucy called Jenny.

‘Somebody better be dead. It’s eight thirty ona Sunday!’

‘Are you free today?’

‘I’m meeting Frank later, but I’m free until four.’

‘I need your help. Remember the lesbian wedding I was telling you about?’

‘No.’

‘Never mind, I need you to do wedding make-up. I’ll call you back with when and where.’

‘Whatever. I’m going back to sleep now.’

Lucy hung up and rang Sarah.

‘Hi.’

‘Listen, I have a big favour to ask. The wedding I’m supposedto be doing today now has no venue. Is there any chance I could use the salon? You’ll get a good fee for the day and I’ll have Kelly and Shannon to help me do it up. I’ll also need you to do the bride’s hair – actually, it’s the lesbian wedding I was telling you about, so two brides need their hair done.’

‘Sure that’s fine with me. But are you sure they’ll be happy with getting married in a hairdresser’s?’

‘At this stage she’d be delighted to get married in a cow barn.’

‘Well, I’m free this morning so I can help decorate too. What time is it at?’

‘Two o’clock.’

‘Grand. I’ll drag Shannon out of bed and meet you in the salon at nine. We can decide what we need to do to dress it up.’

‘You’re an angel. Thank you. Tell Shannon she’ll be paid well for her help.’

Sarah laughed. ‘That’ll certainlyget her out of bed.’

‘See you in half an hour.’

Lucy hung up, then called Debbie and filled her in.

‘Oh, my God, you are a lifesaver. Thank you so much.’

‘Now it is a hairdresser’s salon, so it’s not your ideal wedding venue, but we’ll do it up nicely. We’ll do hair and make-up there too, and I called Luigi’s, our local Italian restaurant, and they said they can book you a table for after.’

‘I’m so grateful, Lucy. Thank you.’

‘Don’t forget to tell all your guests about the change of venue. I’ll meet you at the salon at midday. That gives us two hours to get you two ready and have a final run-through of the ceremony.’