The car journey over to the Ashton-Burns estate seemed to last a lifetime, at least, it did to Ashleigh, as she and Pippa knocked back a few more glasses of champagne, with Wesley enjoying a couple of beers. In truth, the journey took around 45 minutes, what made it seem longer in fact was that barely a word was spoken by the trio along the journey, as an awkward silence filled the car with each of them drifting off, deep into thought.

“Not much longer now,” said Pippa with a smile etched on her face as she gazed out of the window.

Ashleigh looked out of the window and watched as the car turned off from the main, tarmacked road and onto a rather long, gravel road that led amongst the trees of the countryside.

“Oh, how peaceful it must be to live all the way out here with not a neighbour in sight,” thought Ashleigh as the car continued up the gravel road. The silent journey they’d had was now replaced by the sound of gravel crunching beneath the tyres of their vehicle as it crept slowly up the long road with the occasional small stone flicking up from the ground and tapping on the side of the car. A rather large, black, cast-iron gate, slowly swung open as they approached, allowing the limousine to pass through before closing once more behind them.

Ashleigh glanced across at both Pippa and Wesley, who each wore a completely different expression. On one hand, there was Pippa, whom it was clear was bursting with joy, not only was she rather excited about being back at her parent's home and spending quality time wither family, but also the prospect of becoming a married woman in less than 24 hours. The polar opposite of this, however, was Wesley who, although loved his family dearly, spending 48 hours with them seemed to almost be torturous, especially considering in his eyes both his mother and father looked down on him with disdain in comparison to his siblings. Whilst his older brother Jude had married a model and was seen as the successor to their father’s incredibly successful investment company and his younger sister was set to marry an almost equally successful property developer, Wesley was seen to be somewhat of a failure in comparison. No matter how significant the breakthrough in the field of science, that Wesley managed, he always seemed outshone by his siblings. He lived with his best friend of 10 years, with no wife or children to speak of, the amount of money he earned was far less than that of Jude, Wesley had even become so desperate, that he’d taken to duping his best friend into swap genders just so he would have a date for the weekend.

After making their way up the long gravel driveway, the car finally came to a stop by a huge fountain that stood proudly in the middle of the gravelled road, outside of the vast manor belonging to Mr and Mrs Ashton-Burns.

“Oh great,” muttered Wesley, looking out of the window and noticing that both his mother and father were standing outside, waiting to greet them.

Pippa slapped Wesley on the arm as James quickly opened the door to let the trio out of the car. Pippa stepped out first and was greeted warmly by her parents, as they made their way over to welcome them.  Wesley and Pippa’s mother was wearing a rather short lady of around 5ft 6 inches, was wearing a rather smart looking, lilac blouse and a long, white, pleated skirt that hung just above her ankles. Her rather long, grey hair was tied up on top of her head in a smart, tidy bun. Her demeanour was that of a soft, kind and warm-hearted individual.  

 Their father on the other hand was slightly taller standing around 5ft 10 inches,  wearing a brown, tweed suit and a white shirt. His short grey hair was slicked back and a grey, smartly trimmed moustache, adorned his face, sitting above his rather thin, narrow lips. A pair of black, thin-framed glasses sat perched upon his rather broad nose, from which his cold, emotionless, unyielding eyes sat behind.

“Oh, you must be Ashleigh, oh, how lovely to meet you,”  stated Mrs Ashton-Burns, her voice as soft yet as well-spoken as you would imagine. She gave Ashleigh a gentle hug before kissing her on the cheek.

“Lovely to meet you too Mrs Ashton-Burns…” Ashleigh mumbled nervously in response.

“Oh please dear, call me Vivian…you very well may be one of the family one day,” stated the well-dressed lady who was much shorter than Ashleigh. “Come, young lady, come meet my husband…Oh, Alistair…this is Ashleigh, Wesley’s partner,” stated Vivian, taking Ashleigh by the hand and leading her over to where her husband stood still talking to Pippa.

“Hmm…I see…” grumbled Alistair, quickly glancing at Ashleigh, his voice as gruff and emotionless as his appearance.

“Alistair…don’t be like that,” said Vivian with a warm smile.

“Oh…I’m sorry…lovely to erm…meet you,” mumbled Alistair, leaning in and briefly hugging Ashleigh. Her senses quickly picked up on the scent of a musky aftershave mixed with the strong, smoky smell of tobacco, far too strong to be that of a cigarette smoker.

“And here is my….other son,” stated Alistair, his voice sounding rather impassive, as opposed to a father lovingly greeting his son.

“Father…mother,” said Wesley, nodding his head in acknowledgement of each of his parents. That was until Vivian stepped towards him and threw her arms around him.

“Wesley…how lovely to see you,” said Vivian as she squeezed her son tightly as Ashleigh and Pippa watched on with a smile on their faces, whilst Alistair turned and headed back up the steps towards the door before stopping at the door.

“Come now Vivian…it’s rather cold out here, let’s head inside and get warm,” stated Alistair somewhat abruptly, with his back turned to his wife and their guests, before he continued inside.

“I had forgotten how much of a mean old arsehole he actually is,”  thought Ashleigh.

“Yes, come on inside…James will no doubt see to your luggage,” said Vivian rather warmly.

As Pippa, Wesley and Ashleigh began to make their way up the steps to the house, Vivian clutched Ashleigh’s arm and smiled at her.

“How have you managed to keep such a beauty hidden Wesley,” said Vivian, “I can’t wait to hear all about you, my dear,” she added as she grinned from ear to ear.

“I never realised how much it would mean for Wes to finally be seeing someone…even if it is all make-believe,” thought Ashleigh as she began to feel her cheeks reddening after hearing Vivian's sweet words toward her.

As the group entered the house, Vivian led them into a rather large hall. A large strip of red carpet covered the white marble floor of the main entrance to the hall, running all the way up to the grand staircase that stood facing the entrance. The hall was dimly lit by a large, crystal chandelier that hung overhead, as well as two large candelabras, standing on each side of the staircase. Looking at the staircase, Ashleigh noticed that the first set of stairs led to a small landing before the stairs branched off both left and right as they led to the upstairs. On this landing, however, hung a huge portrait that stood about 8ft in height and was of Alistair and Vivian, along with their 3 children; Jude, Wesley and Pippa when they were all much younger. As her eyes continued to dart around the place, Ashleigh noted that one of the reasons the hallway was so dimly lit was the décor, which consisted of what appeared to be wood panelling made of dark brown oak.

“This place is much bigger than I remember,” thought Ashleigh, as the group then turned left inside the hall and Vivian led them between two of the large, pillars that stood and into the first wooden door on the left-hand side. The door led to a large sitting room, the décor of which was the same as the hall, with dark wood panels covering the walls, another chandelier hanging in the centre of the ceiling and several large candelabras positioned around the room. To the left were three huge windows, starting around the mid-point of the wall and going almost all the way up to the rather high ceiling. On the wall at the back of the room were two large bookshelves standing on either side of another doorway. To the right of the room was a huge fireplace, its golden glow filling the room as it crackled and popped, in front of which was a large, red sofa and two red chairs. Cigar smoke filled the room as Alistair sat in one of the chairs, gazing into the fire as he puffed away on his cigar.

 “Would you like to take a seat, my dear,” asked Vivian, ushering Ashleigh towards the sofa.

“So mum, are we the first ones here?” asked Pippa.

“Up to now, the only ones who haven’t arrived yet are Edward and Warren…oh and your friends,” replied Vivian, “Jude and Elle are up in their room, as are your cousins and your Aunt Bridget and Uncle Jasper.”

“Oh great…Jude and his wife are here already…yay,” sneered Wesley.

“Now, now Wesley,” stated Vivian.

“There’s a surprise, Tiffany and Rose haven’t arrived yet,” giggled Pippa, “Oh and mum, Ashleigh and I have a nail technician coming in around 2 hours.”

“Coming here?” asked Vivian.

“Yes…I didn’t think it’d be an issue,” replied Pippa.

“No…no issue at all,” replied Vivian, “We just have to make sure you and Edward do not set eyes on one another, that’s all.”

As they were mid-conversation, Pippa and Vivian left the room and headed back out into the hall, leaving Wesley and Ashleigh in the sitting room with Alistair, who had not looked up from the fire once.

“So…father…how have you been?” asked Wesley, taking a seat on the sofa beside Ashleigh.

There was a brief pause as Alistair continued to stare into the flames as he puffed on his cigar,

“Hmm…yes…I’ve been good…yes…” replied Alistair, “Are you excited to see your younger sister become a married woman tomorrow?”

“Yes…I know Pippa is excited…she and Ashleigh spent the day together today…” answered Wesley.

“Hmm…very good…yes...I see you have finally got yourself a girlfriend,” said Alistair, his eyes still firmly fixed on the crackling fire.

“Yes…I have father,” replied Wesley.

“Very good…” stated Alistair.

Just then the door to the sitting room opened and in walked Jude.

“Father…Wes,” said Jude as he approached them, nodding in acknowledgement to Wesley. Jude stood around 6ft tall, his short black hair slicked back in a similar style to his father. In fact, everything about Jude was almost his father’s double just many years younger, minus the moustache.

“Jude my boy,” said Alistair getting to his feet and hugging Jude, “I have some exciting news for you… At the country club, tonight will be one Mr Alfred Heston…”

“The owner of Heston enterprises?” asked Jude.

“Yes, yes, the one and the same… word is that with the right price, he’s willing to sell up…he’s yours for the taking my boy,” said Alistair with the most enthusiasm that Ashleigh had seen the old man display since arriving.

Jude simply nodded, before casting his eye on Ashleigh,

“Mum said you had finally found a girl Wes, yet part of me did not believe her,” said Jude with a chuckle, “I’m Jude, Wes’s older brother,” he added.

“Ashleigh,” Ashleigh replied with a smile,

“Pretending not to know who everyone is, is a real pain in the arse,” thought Ashleigh.

“Well, one thing for certain…my brother is definitely way out of his league with you,” sneered Jude before both he and Alistair began to chuckle.

Ashleigh observed as Wes began to look rather angry, the sound of his teeth grinding was almost the loudest thing in the room.

“Come on Ash…I’ll show you around,” said Wesley, taking Ashleigh by the hand and leading her towards the door back to the hall.

“So lovely to meet you,” said Jude as Wesley slammed the door shut behind the pair.