It was not an idea that Miss Marple approved of, that the bride should be queen for the day. Not that she had any objection to the wedding day being a day which a bride would remember with much happiness, but the assumption that everything should be perfect and just as the bride wanted, seemed, if nothing else, doomed to failure. She knew several very happily married couples who could look back on their wedding day and laugh together at the mishaps that had befallen them.

She watched now from her corner in the dining room, as the bridesmaids all fluttered round the bride, fulfilling her every whim. She had been invited to the wedding as the bride was the older sister of her goddaughter, who had insisted that she wanted Aunt Jane to come. When Miss Marple had asked Lilian why, the girl had replied, ‘You’re the only one who can preserve my sanity’.

The bride had just demanded that someone make her a cup of jasmine tea, to calm her nerves, and two of the bridesmaids had immediately dashed to the kitchen. When the tea was brought to her, she screeched, “I can’t drink it out of that cup. I want the cup with the yellow flowers on. And make a fresh cup.”

One of the other bridesmaids went out and Lilian came to sit next to Miss Marple. Her sister called over to her, but Lilian ignored the summons. “Frankly,” Lilian said, “if she tells me I’m not to be a bridesmaid any longer, I won’t be upset at all.”

“It’s just pre-wedding nerves,” Miss Marple said.

“Do you really think that?”

Miss Marple sighed. “No, and I’m a little surprised at how many bridesmaids she’s chosen; your mother told me you were the only relative.”

“And that’s because Pops insisted, and as he’s paying, she had to agree. When she left school and started work in an office she made a whole group of new friends, and she’s asked them to be her bridesmaids. I’m not even sure they like her that much.”

“Oh dear!” Miss Marple was about to say something else when their attention was drawn to the bride, who had groaned and slumped forwards, gasping for breath.

The bridesmaids all shrieked and stepped backwards, allowing Miss Marple and Lilian to reach the bride.

“Quickly,” Miss Marple said to Lilian, “phone for an ambulance!”

“I will. And I’ll run over to Dr Reynolds, he’s only a few houses away.”

Miss Marple turned the bride onto her side, and then cautiously sniffed the tea. She could smell the jasmine, but underneath there was another, more caustic, smell. She rather feared that the day’s queen had been too much for one of her subjects.