Christmas at Strand House Read online

  ‘Kissed?’ Xander said.

  ‘That,’ Lissy said, feeling nervous now. ‘But we didn’t. So we’re not carrying any guilt on that score, are we?’

  ‘No.’

  Lissy put her top teeth down over her bottom lip and pressed hard. Xander was standing on the rise of the hill and she below him. All of her ached to follow that moment through to what could have been its ultimate conclusion, right now, in the middle of a pine plantation, when she had two friends waiting for her back at Strand House, and a million things to do before Christmas Day. Lissy hadn’t expected those feelings to resurface, surprised at the depth of them.

  ‘It comes to me in dreams sometimes,’ she finished almost in a whisper. ‘That moment. What might have been. But wasn’t.’ She wasn’t sure this was the place to follow that feeling through. Then she raised her voice and said, ‘One tree down, two to go.’ She could hear a tractor being started up over by the shed where the trees got put into green netting carrying sacks. ‘I think they’re waiting to shut up shop.’

  ‘Whatever you say, Lissy,’ Xander said. ‘But I hope that wasn’t the big brush off. I’ve got one of those – a brush – on the lorry.’

  Again, Lissy got that bubble of laughter inside her, making her stomach flutter.

  ‘Of course it wasn’t,’ Lissy told him. She began to walk back towards the smaller trees, knowing Xander would follow. ‘Still not our time perhaps?’ she said turning back to look at him and Xander shrugged and pulled a mock-sad face. She got the feeling their time would come though. This was all getting a bit deep a bit too soon maybe. A change of subject was required now, for both of them. ‘There are decorations in the shop, so the man said. I might choose a few more to go with the ones we’ve already got.’

  ‘The ones we’ve already got,’ Xander repeated behind her and Lissy realised that was the second time she’d used the word ‘we’. Perhaps her sub-conscious was telling her something?

  ‘I’ve got some large buckets on the lorry,’ Xander said when they got back to Strand House. ‘And a couple of bags of gravel. The trees will stand up better in that than they will mud.’ He hoiked the larger tree off the back of the lorry. ‘I’ll get this one in first, then the others, then I’ll sort the buckets. Could I come over all bossy bloke again and ask you to put the kettle on while I do it?’

  ‘You could,’ Lissy said, finding her key. Far from thinking he’d been given the brush off it seemed that Xander was more comfortable with Lissy than before they’d gone up to fetch the Christmas trees. That, Lissy told herself, as she let them in, was a good feeling. ‘Come on through to the kitchen when you’re ready. Or I could bring it out to you if you prefer?’

  ‘Best not stop the workers,’ Xander said. ‘I’ll drink it in the hall while I work.’

  ‘Best not!’ Lissy laughed.

  She walked on towards the kitchen, listening out for sounds that Bobbie and Janey might be back. She couldn’t hear them and her heart gave a little whoop of joy that they weren’t. She hoped they were having a good time in town, she really did, although it would be noisy and busy, and full of light and colour, along with the Festive atmosphere. But she was glad she wasn’t there, and that it was just her and Xander for a while yet, if not for long. The light was beginning to drop now, and it would be dark soon.

  ‘Ladder?’ Xander said when she got back with the tea. ‘I know I’m tall but even I’m not going to be able to reach the top of this tree to plonk the fairy on it.’

  He had the tree in a huge builders’ bucket that had bits of cement stuck all over it, and was pouring in gravel from a big bag, holding it as though it was feathers he was pouring it in.

  ‘In the laundry room. One of those A-frame things. Vonny used to scare me half to death climbing it to change lightbulbs sometimes. Will that do?’

  ‘Perfect. Show me to it.’

  Lissy put the tea down on the hall table.

  ‘Follow me. I’ll be getting on with some mince-pie-making while you get the ladder,’ Lissy threw back over her shoulder as Xander followed her through to the kitchen and the laundry room.

  He fetched the ladder and was gone again while Lissy found a bowl and the ingredients for mince pies. She made them the way Vonny had always made them, with a teensy bit of cream cheese on top of the filling, and some flaked almonds on the pastry lid, letting the flaked almonds catch a little to give them an even nuttier, smoked, taste. The sausage rolls she intended to make were Vonny’s recipe too – ordinary sausage meat mixed with a grated apple, some finely-sliced spring onions, and chopped sage. Rough puff pastry. Sausage rolls and mince pies after the candlelit Christmas Eve service up at St Paul’s was the tradition. Lissy would go out of respect to Vonny who had always gone although she wouldn’t force the others to.

  And it was as though Vonny was with her still as she made them. She could hear Xander out in the hall seeing to the Christmas trees. There was a bit of banging going on and a bit of cursing now and then as something obviously hadn’t gone the way he’d wanted it to. He was singing snatches of songs but nothing all the way through. And humming – he hummed a lot.

  ‘Put a CD in if you want to,’ Lissy shouted through to him.

  ‘Don’t you like my singing?’ he shouted back.

  Lissy went to the doorway and leaned against the jamb studying him for a moment. He’d taken off his shoes and was padding about in his socks. The largest and the middle-sized trees were in their pots and he was turning the smallest tree this way and that, sliding it around on the floor to check he’d set it squarely in the middle. He looked, Lissy was surprised to even be thinking, as though he belonged there. But did she? Would she keep Strand House after this Christmas break? Looking at the scene in front of her it would be a crime not to, wouldn’t it?

  ‘Love it,’ Lissy told him making him jump because her voice was closer to him now. ‘Just thought we could have it all Christmassy in here for when the other two get back. They should be here soon.’

  ‘Hmm,’ Xander said. ‘I thought they’d be back by now. The light’s quite gone. Hope they’re not lost. Or that Janey’s scumbag husband hasn’t turned up and there’s been trouble.’

  ‘Oh, God,’ Lissy said. ‘I’d quite forgotten that might happen. You don’t think …’

  And with that the door opened and Janey and Bobbie stood in the open doorway, red-cheeked, arms full of bags, and smiling.

  ‘Mmm,’ Bobbie said, taking a deep breath and holding it. ‘It’s beginning to look like Christmas in here.’

  ‘And feel like it. Very like it,’ Janey said.

  ‘We thought,’ Lissy said, ‘we’d wait until you both got back before we decorate the trees.’

  There it was again, that ‘we’, although she hadn’t discussed such a thing with Xander.

  ‘So we did,’ Xander said, grinning at her.

  He’d been in implicated in her fib and he hadn’t minded a bit.

  ‘We come bearing gifts,’ Bobbie said. ‘And before you start reminding me about the no presents rule, Lissy, these gifts are for the house. Boxes of Christmas tree lights, practically given away in one of those ticky-tacky shops in town. The tripper shops, I mean. We thought the house deserved a present didn’t we?’

  ‘Oh, that’s so nice,’ Lissy said. Everything in the house had been Vonny’s. All beautiful and tasteful and stylish, but hers. She hadn’t even brought so much as a cushion herself to make it her own. Bobbie, with her gift for the house, was making her think she’d have to think of a way she could keep it now.

  ‘Well, I’ll leave you to it,’ Bobbie said, handing the bag with the fairy lights to Lissy. ‘If I don’t go and put my feet up for half an hour they’re going to drop off! I hope no one’s going to fall out about it?’

  No one had fallen out about anything yet but these things sometimes happen when people – especially people who barely know one another – were thrown together for any length of time. Lissy hadn’t given a thought as to what she might do if that happe
ned.

  ‘Of course we’re not,’ she told Bobbie. ‘Take as long as you like. We won’t be eating until about eight o’clock. I’ve got soup and then quiche and salad followed by a trifle for dinner.’

  ‘Yum,’ Janey said.

  ‘Are we,’ Bobbie said, unzipping a boot and pulling it off over her foot, ‘dressing for dinner?’ In one swift moment she’d dealt with the other boot.

  ‘Are we?’ Janey asked. She looked stricken.

  ‘Bloody hell, I hope not,’ Xander told her. ‘I’m saving my best for tomorrow.’

  Was this the moment Lissy hadn’t even thought about? Was there going to be a falling out between them or, at the very least, a clash of interests? It happened, even amongst the best of friends, sometimes. Bobbie obviously lived in different circles and played to different rules from the rest of them.

  ‘It’s not a country house weekend, Bobbie,’ Lissy said as brightly and as politely as she could.

  Lissy left Janey and Xander hanging decorations on the tree, Janey doing the lower branches and Xander on the ladder doing the top. They were going to add two more strings of lights now that Bobbie had bought some.

  She went upstairs, tapped gently on Bobbie’s bedroom door. She waited a few seconds and when there was no answer she tapped again, a little louder this time. Perhaps Bobbie had fallen asleep?

  But then the door opened and Bobbie stood before her, looking a lot shorter and more vulnerable somehow in her stockinged feet.

  ‘Can I come in?’

  For answer Bobbie opened the door wider, then shutting it behind Lissy when she stepped inside.

  The two women stood facing one another and neither spoke for a moment.

  Bobbie took a couple of steps backwards and held out her hands in supplication towards Lissy.

  ‘I know. I know. I’m sorry. It was a throwaway remark. A rotten attempt at humour. I wouldn’t have wanted to upset anyone by saying what I did. I should have kept my trap shut. I’ve been putting my foot in it all afternoon with Janey. I actually asked her if she’d been rat-arsed. With a husband like she’s got, what was I thinking?’

  Bobbie looked genuinely contrite, her words coming out in girly, tumbly, rushes. Lissy thought Bobbie could be dangerously close to tears. And this close up, Lissy noticed more lines beside her eyes than she’d noticed before, even though they were heavily kholed, with – possibly – more eyeliner than Lissy had ever owned.

  Lissy moved towards her, held out her arms and then gave her a brief hug – which Bobbie didn’t return, so she moved away a few inches. Perhaps she was uncomfortable having her personal space invaded. She tried to remember if there had been hugs and kisses on parting after the art workshop weekend but couldn’t.

  ‘It’s okay. We all say things we shouldn’t sometimes. Our mouths go ahead of our brains a bit. Well, mine does. But I haven’t come up here to tear you off a strip if that’s what you’re thinking. I’ve come to apologise. My response was snippy in the extreme. Country house weekend indeed! I’m getting ideas above my station with this house, I think.’

  ‘Who wouldn’t?’ Bobbie laughed. ‘The second I saw it from the back seat of the taxi rising so large and imposing in front of me my mind was fast-forwarding to cocktails on the terrace, and walking down a staircase dressed to the nines for dinner. I don’t know where you’ve lived until now but I’m betting it’s nowhere near as big as this and that this is also the most wonderful surprise.’

  ‘You always dress to the nines, Bobbie,’ Lissy said. ‘And yes, it was – is – the most wonderful surprise. I have to keep pinching myself so I know I’m not dreaming.’

  ‘Well, dream on a bit. But back to basics, if you haven’t come up to tear me off a strip, how can I help?’

  ‘You can dress for dinner for a start, if it makes you happy. I’ll probably change out of these clothes I wore to go trudging around a pine plantation looking for Christmas trees, and baking sausage rolls and mince pies when I got back.’

  Lissy looked around the room. There wasn’t a single thing out of place. Bobbie’s bag was on the bed but apart from that everything had been put away; all the wardrobe doors neatly shut, all the drawers tightly closed, so she’d taken no time in hanging up her coat and putting away her hat and her boots, had she? She didn’t have a hair out of place either and Lissy would have bet the contents of her bank account that that was a fresh lick of fuchsia lipstick on Bobbie’s lips too. Did Bobbie ever look less than her immaculate best? Did she ever let her guard down? Lissy was pretty certain now that Bobbie had a guard.

  ‘I’ve had a bit of a nap,’ Bobbie said, ‘and I’ll come and help you. There must be still loads to do for tomorrow. Not that I know the first thing about hosting Christmas because I’ve had Christmas lunch in a restaurant for decades!’

  ‘No need. I’m on top of things,’ Lissy told her. ‘But thanks. There is something you can do though.’

  ‘Anything,’ Bobbie said. ‘I’m a bit of a freeloader here at the moment!’

  ‘You’re not! Honestly. But the thing is I’d like you to help me to help Janey if you can. She told me she’s brought hardly anything with her and I told her I had things of Vonny’s here that would probably fit. Well, they will fit, but they’re far too old-fashioned for her. A bit drab in colour. I’m a size or two bigger than Janey so my things would swamp her.’

  ‘You’re hardly big,’ Bobbie said. ‘But you’re right. Janey’s rail thin. A size eight, I’d say. I’m a ten these days, alas and alack.’ Bobbie pulled a mock sad-but-resigned face. ‘I’ll take a look and see if there’s anything that will suit.’

  Bobbie padded over to the wardrobe and threw wide the double doors.

  ‘Good grief!’ Lissy laughed. ‘I’ve seen fewer things on the racks in Monsoon!’

  ‘Which is where a fair bit of this has come from,’ Bobbie said. ‘Here, how about this?’

  Bobbie pulled out a taupe-coloured skirt on a hanger. It seemed to have a lot of material in it gathered at the waist, and a wide waistband with a large faux bow on the front. Lissy wouldn’t have minded that one for herself but could hardly say so.

  ‘It’s got slight elastication on the waist.’ Bobbie put her fingers in the waistband to demonstrate.

  ‘Looks perfect to me,’ she said.

  ‘It’ll be nearer calf-length on Janey than just below the knee as it is on me, but the fullness will be good on her, I think. There’s a navy and taupe striped jumper in the drawer she can wear with it. Boat neck, three quarter sleeves.’

  Bobbie brought the skirt over to the bed and laid it down as gently as one would a baby, Lissy thought.

  ‘What about shoes?’ Bobbie asked. ‘I’m a seven.’

  ‘Fives,’ Lissy said. ‘I took a sneaky look in her shoes just now after she took them off in the hall when she came in. Janey wears a five so I’m certain there’ll be something of mine that will fit. She’s only got the loafers she came in, I think.’

  ‘What a team we are!’ Bobbie said.

  ‘Yeah, but just wondering how I’m going to broach this. I feel sure Janey would like to dress up but I don’t want to appear like a charity.’

  ‘I shouldn’t worry about that,’ Bobbie said. ‘We’re all here for Christmas on your charity.’

  ‘Don’t say that. You’re my guests. My friends. People I’ve chosen to spend time with …’

  ‘Oh God, me and my big mouth again,’ Bobbie said. ‘But why not leave Janey to me? We were getting on really well in town. I felt she was relaxing more than I thought she would given the events of yesterday and what she’s got coming ahead over her once we’ve all packed away the tinsel and the mince pie tins and the rest of it. I think she’s getting use to my, um, forthright ways.’

  Yes, and I need to get used to those as well because I’m being a bit thin-skinned here, Janey thought. The nervous hostess maybe? Or the nearness of Xander? That little bit of shared past almost-naughtiness?

  Lissy felt herself flush at the thought of hi
m and how she’d have liked to have stayed leaned against him when the lorry had rocked and rolled on the track at the Christmas tree farm.

  ‘Yes,’ she said. ‘You might be the better person to offer the clothes to Janey.’ She put hands to her cheeks which seemed to be glowing now. ‘Gosh, but it’s a bit warm in here. You can turn the central heating down if it’s too hot for you.’

  ‘Ha ha,’ Bobbie said. ‘I might be cabbage-looking but I’m not green. Those rosy crab-apples of yours have nothing to do with the central heating and everything to do with something you were thinking about. Something naughty. I could tell. You had a faraway look in your eyes then. Hmm?’

  ‘Golly, Bobbie,’ Lissy said, grinning at her. ‘What a vivid imagination you have!’ She walked to the door, then turned around and said, ‘I’ll send Janey up, shall I?’

  She didn’t wait for a response but hurried on down the stairs.

  Chapter 18

  Bobbie

  ‘Lissy did say we could help ourselves to drinks, didn’t she?’ Bobbie said.

  She came into the sitting room and closed the door behind her. Xander was winding a string of lights around the sitting room Christmas tree. He’d finished the one for the landing because that had been outside when she and Janey had sorted what clothes Janey wanted to borrow. Well, not wanted exactly, but Bobbie had been able to persuade her that she was on the cusp of a new life so why shouldn’t clothes she’d never have considered wearing before be part of that life? Janey had taken them to her room and was now helping Lissy in the kitchen. Janey had probably seen enough of her for now which was why Bobbie had decided to join Xander in the sitting room. Besides, she’d not spent much time with him alone.

  ‘That was yesterday,’ Xander laughed. ‘But I don’t think for a minute she’ll throw you out if you do.’

  ‘I don’t suppose she will. She needs us here, I think, as much as we – well I – need her. She’d rattle around in here on her own. Some of the rooms have got an echo they’re so big.’