‘Hi, it’s me, sorry about that. I was doing research in the local village .?.?.’
‘I got your email. Did you find the book yet? Where is your report? It was to be filed last night. I need it. What have you found? This deal is ready to go through. We’re down to the wire. Friday is D-Day. Tomorrow is Friday!’ Frederick is really angry and I feel like a little school kid as Dan holds the door open for me.
‘It’s still pending in my outbox, the WIFI’s been sketchy,’ I say quietly, covering my mouth with my hand. I’m biding as much time as I can so the deadline will run out and Frederick can’t override my promotion, or send Salma over here.
‘Did you manage to get your hands on that book or not?’ he repeats himself like a broken record.
‘I’m afraid not, but I .?.?. have other stuff.’ I turn my back on the jeep as snow starts to fall again and the carol singers begin tosing ‘Jingle Bells’.
‘Not good enough. File what you have right now. Find an internet café, you aren’t in the outback!’ The line goes dead.
‘That sounded serious?’ Dan says as I climb back into the warmth of his jeep.
‘Work.’ I give a quick roll of my eyes. I need to tell him now. ‘Dan—’
‘You must be still hungry, you only had a fruit bowl and no dinner, so I took the liberty of stopping off at the Teapot Café and got us these. Betsy’s just taken them out of the oven.’ Dan climbs in the driver’s side and hands me a box before I can decide how to begin.
I open the brown box to reveal two small foil-wrapped parcels and two hot chocolates.
‘Turkey and cranberry mini puff pastry pies. She only does them for us at Christmas, they are out of this world,’ Dan tells me, with a lick of his lips.
‘This is so thoughtful of you and they sound delicious. I am famished.’ Carefully, I hand him a hot chocolate which he puts in his cup holder and I hand over a pie wrapped in tinfoil.
I unravel the tinfoil half way down and take a bite, ‘Oh, wow, oh yum!’ I concur, the flavours erupting in my mouth – it’s like Christmas dinner in pie.
‘Right?’ He’s driving with one hand, eating with the other. I can’t tell him now, I will wait until we pull up to the castle door and park the jeep. I’m one hundred percent telling him then. I’m not sure how he will react, but I need to be honest with him before I leave.
‘These are too good to keep to just the café! You need to get Betsy up to the castle and sell these. A Christmas market on the grounds would bring so much passing trade,’ I tell him, settling back into my seat as we drive through the cosy village.
‘Your ideas are unreal. Oh, look, that’s Heartwell primary,where I went to school, and there’s the secondary school right next door.’ Dan laughs pointing out the window. ‘Been there since 1908.’
‘That’s incredible. I went to twelve different schools.’ I twist my pie to bite up the edge.
Dan turns to me. ‘My God, Maggie, I bet that was tough. You didn’t have it easy.’ We are stopped at the crossing, the same one I stopped at just two nights ago. It feels like a lifetime ago. The snow is coming down heavier, I notice, almost a blizzard. Keep coming, I think, keep coming. Let’s see you, Faith. Ground my flight.
‘It was actually.’ I sip the warm chocolate. Dan’s phone beeps in the holder and he leans forward to read it. He doesn’t answer me but he pulls up outside Cosy Reads.
‘You said you wanted to browse the bookshop? I have to get back, I’m afraid, something else has just come up. Enjoy, maybe .?.?. maybe I’ll see you later? I’d like to?’ he says, but his eyes dart and he has that worried look on his face again.
‘Oh? Right .?.?. em, sure.’ I sit up. I wanted to talk to him but instead I unclick my seatbelt.
‘Sorry.’ His brown eyes linger on me.
‘Don’t be silly, you’ve work to do, I’ve taken up enough of your time today, that’s fine.’ I pick up my paper cup and open the door, ‘I’m very happy to spend an hour in here. Maybe we can talk later?’ He nods quickly and I get out as he speeds away fast. I pull my phone out and open the texts. Ten of them. All from Jill. All saying the same thing.
‘Maggie, can you call me back immediately!’ Followed by ten scared faced emojis.
‘W-what?’ I say to myself and immediately dial Jill’s number back, turning away from Cosy Reads and heading into the green area of the square across from the crowd gathered around the carol singers. I dry a bench with the most shelter from the snowwith a tissue from my pocket and plonk down on it.
Jill answers after the first ring.
‘There you are!’ Jill cries.
‘Are you alright?’ I pant.
‘Sorry! Yes, I need to see you, like now? Can you switch to FaceTime?’ Jill is panting also.
‘All those texts? All okay? Yes, but I’m outside in the square, it’s snowing. But—’ I flip to FaceTime as Jill’s face appears.
