Aoife — Chapter 10

As dinner approaches, Aoife takes a rare free half hour to refresh flowers in the island graveyard. Passing the battlements, she overhears the ushers’ drunken talk about “sending them off with a bang,” which she files as potential mischief but leaves unchallenged.

In the graveyard at sunset, Aoife recalls childhood summers on the island and contemplates its haunted reputation. She visits a specific grave, expressing love and anger over an unnamed loss she carries. A cormorant perches on the ruined chapel—a local death omen—which chills her and deepens her unease.

Returning to the Folly with champagne flutes, Aoife finds the bride, Jules, sitting closely with Charlie, their heads together and his knee recently under her hand. Introductions confirm Charlie will MC and that his wife is Hannah. Noting the intimacy, Aoife withholds judgment but recognizes rising tensions among guests.

Aoife reaffirms her role’s paradox: to be invisible if all goes well yet remain watchful. With the ushers’ hinted prank, the ill omen, and Jules’s closeness with Charlie, Aoife resolves to stay a step ahead to prevent the wedding weekend from unraveling.