As she started explaining, Alexander, Coco and I all stood up and reached for the teapot. Coco got there first.
‘It’s empty,’ she said. ‘I thought I’d get a top up.’
‘Me too,’ Alexander and I replied together, and we all grinned.
‘Come on,’ said Coco, ‘let’s go and sort it out.’
We scuttled off to the kitchen like naughty children and shut the door behind us before dissolving into laughter.
‘Oh, my goodness, my mother’sface!’ I said. ‘Sorry, Coco, Estelle is lovely, but Mum looked like a trapped rabbit! Why didn’t either of you tell us who your mother was?’
Alexander and Coco looked at each other, grinning.
‘Sorry, Fallon,’ said Coco, ‘we couldn’t resist the surprise. And anyway, you know what it’s like having a famous parent, there’s no good time to casually mention it.’
‘It was a good surprise,’ I agreed, ‘but I thought you said she liked a quiet domestic life?’
‘That is true,’ said Coco, filling the kettle. ‘Bake for Britainis filmed up here and she goes home every night. She does do the odd appearance or event in London, but they’re few and far between. She prefers opening country shows and judging local cake competitions. She’s been a genius at working out balance for herself that way.’
‘Let’s get this tea in before it stews,’ said Alexander. ‘I guess your mum and Maurice’s arrival means we’d better get on with the Christmas decorations?’
‘You bet,’ said Coco, then turned to me. ‘They love Christmas a bittoomuch, those two. Just you wait, she’ll have you teetering on a stepladder hanging tinsel swags before you know what’s happened.’
I smiled as I followed them back to the Hall. Despite Mum’s nose being put out of joint, I couldn’t help feeling that Estelle and Maurice had brought a great deal of fun with them.
NINETEEN
The large breakfast table was quite full now, with nine of us there the next morning. Douglas had gone to help Coco in the kitchen, and they had waved the rest of us away, so we sat and drank coffee – or in Theo’s case, orange juice – and talked about what we were going to do that day.
‘It’s the dress rehearsal for the Nativity this afternoon,’ said Alexander, ‘so Dad and Theo are going to be tied up doing that. Fallon, I wondered if you’d like to come and see the place the Christmas Fayre’s being held? I promised the man organising it that I’d pop by so that we could decide exactly where the van would go.’
‘Good idea,’ I said.
Secretly I was excited that Alexander and I would finally have some time together, just the two of us, and by the way he was smiling at me, I could guess that he was of the same opinion.
‘I’m cracking on with the book,’ said Constance, ‘but I don’t mind taking you and my laptop up to the sanctuary this morning if you like, Theo? As long as Sadie doesn’t expect me to mop the brows of sickly little mice, I’m happy to do that.’
Giggling at the image, Theo agreed enthusiastically. Douglas and Coco came in then, with heaving trays of food, and there wasthe usual bustle as we jumped up to help them put it all out. I was just trying not to dive into the heavily buttered toast with indecent haste when my phone rang. Sam again. I tapped the green button and ran out of the room.
‘Sam, hello, everything okay?’
Of course, it turned out that everything was not okay, and I went back to join the others with a heavy heart.
‘Are you all right?’ asked Coco as I sat down.
‘Sort of,’ I answered. ‘That was Sam. Another problem, but this time with a client. I’m afraid I’m going to have to go back to London and sort it out.’
A silence descended over the table, eventually broken by Alexander.
‘It’s funny,’ he said. ‘I’d almost forgotten about London. You can’t deal with it from here?’
‘Unfortunately not. It’s a regular but tricky client who is all but threatening to pull her business from us if I don’t go and coordinate the event in person. She had plenty of notice that I wasn’t going to be there, and was fine with it a few weeks ago, but she isn’t now.’ I shrugged. ‘Keeping people happy is part of my job description.’
‘Poor you,’ said Estelle. ‘I suppose you can’t just dump them?’
‘Not really,’ I replied. ‘Although I’ve been tempted more than once.’ I sighed. This was the last thing I wanted or needed, but there was no question over whether I should go or not. ‘I’m sorry about this afternoon, Alexander, I was looking forward to it.’
‘When will you be back?’ asked Theo, the faintest tremor in his voice. ‘It’s the Nativity tomorrow evening.’
