I looked at my feet, which I now realised were clad in the dancing elves again.
‘Oh, for goodness’ sake. I should give these to the charity shop. They were a present, by the way, from one of the children at school, not a personal choice.’
‘Oh, please don’t give them away, they’re too good. So, what can I do for you?’
I sipped my hot tea and tried to gather my thoughts. Now I was actually sitting here, Lando in front of me, it was difficult to know where to begin. Some of my new-found confidence and determination was backing down in the face of reality.
‘Um, well, we had talked a bit about our plans for the future, and I suppose I wanted to say some more about that.’
Way to go to make perfect sense, Penny.
‘I see. Or, rather, I don’t see. Sorry, go on…’
‘Well, I have decided not to go to India. Probably.’
‘Right.’
He drummed his fingers on his workbench, but his face was expressionless, and I couldn’t tell if he was pleased about my announcement or bored, and keen to get back to his work.
‘So, er, I’ve realised that I do want a change in my life, but that won’t involve haring off halfway across the world. I don’t think. Not immediately, anyway.’
He stood up abruptly, startling Hepburn who had been lying at his feet, and strode towards the window, where he stared into the dark and frozen garden for a moment. I had obviously annoyed him, but I wasn’t quite sure why. I started to make a move to leave, since coming here had obviously been a mistake. But then Lando turned around. When he spoke, his voice was thick, and dull.
‘So when will the wedding be?’
My head spun. Wedding? What wedding? Washeproposing? It seemed an odd way to go about it, so dour, but then my idea of a proposal had already been somewhat challenged recently. I sat back down in my chair.
‘Sorry, I don’t think there’s going to be a wedding…’
He turned to resume his gaze out of the window.
‘Oh. Well, congratulations, anyway. I assume you will both stay on here for Christmas?’
‘Both? I’m sorry, Lando, I haven’t got the faintest idea what you’re talking about.’
He sat down at his workbench again and stared at me intently.
‘I thought you said you weren’t going to India.’
‘Yes, that’s right.’
‘I assumed that meant that you had accepted Timothy’s rather watery proposal and you were off with him to live happily ever after.’
I gasped.
‘Oh! No! Gosh, sorry, no, that’s not what I meant at all.’
Now I started giggling, the nerves and adrenaline getting the better of me. Lando was marginally less stony, slightly more confused. I managed to pull myself together and continued.
‘Sorry, it’s so completely the opposite of what I was trying to say. I spoke to Timothy earlier this evening, told him that I wasn’t going to accept his proposal – if that’s really what it was, because I’m still not convinced it was entirely genuine – and that he should leave in the morning. I’m still rather embarrassed that he gate-crashed at all.’
Lando waved his hand in the air.
‘Oh, don’t worry about that, I’m used to people coming and going at this time of year. The family seems to think my house is some sort of B&B for waifs and strays. Last year Bunny invited some lunatic she’d met at a bus stop, and we spent the whole of Christmas lunch hiding the sherry and defending our decision not to have a turkey.’
‘How funny. Do you think she really expected them to turn up?’
‘Oh, who knows with Bunny? Actually, I think she forgot all about it, but when this woman arrived at the door, asking for her new best friend, Bunny threw her arms around her and professed her delight at seeing her. Then she spent the next half an hour trying to get us all to find out this dear friend’s name.’
