Contents
The Wedding Night — Chapter 24
Overview
In a violent gale, the ushers form a search party between the Folly and the marquee after the power cut and scream. They battle wind, fear, and the surrounding bog, rescuing Pete when he sinks. Drug-fueled superstition surfaces, but they dismiss it and press on, realizing their unpreparedness.
Summary
The ushers head out into the storm after the power failure and a scream, clutching paraffin torches that sputter in the wind. The gale drowns their shouts as they begin combing the strip of land between the Folly and the marquee, bogs flanking them on both sides.
Femi suggests spreading out to speed the search, but Angus insists they stay close, wary of the unseen bog edges. They keep within touching distance, unnerved by the darkness and the thought of what they might find.
As visibility worsens and torches snuff out in gusts, Pete slips and sinks to his knee in the bog. The group hauls Pete free. Duncan, rattled but relieved it’s not a body, snaps that he and Femi earlier rescued Charlie’s wife from the same mire.
Shaken and high, Pete mutters about “bodies in the bog.” Duncan angrily dismisses the folklore and calls Pete a liability. The men ignore the superstition but cannot ignore the real hazards around them.
Chastened, the search party presses on together into the gale, acutely aware of the terrain’s dangers and how ill-equipped they are for what they might yet uncover.
Who Appears
- DuncanUshers the search; rescues Pete; recalls earlier saving Hannah; mocks Pete’s drugged panic.
- AngusInsists the group stay close to avoid the bog; admits fear amid the gale.
- FemiSuggests spreading out; previously helped rescue Hannah from the bog; continues the search.
- PeteFalls into the bog, is pulled out; clearly high; mutters about ‘bodies in the bog.’