“She said that they bumped into each other at the airport and Will offered to drive her.”
“That’s kind. And he’s a good driver.”
“So’s Becky. She has always been good at driving in snow.”
“True. Still, you’re probably disappointed there isn’t another romance in the air. Come on.” He levered himself off the sofa. “I’ll get dressed and help you haul the spoils of your forest trip in from the car.”
She was relieved to see him finally display some energy.
“Great. I’ll call Audrey while you’re getting dressed, justin case Will hasn’t had the chance because he’s driving.” She waited for him to leave the room and then called her friend. “It’s me! Guess what?”
“What? Why are you talking in a hushed voice? Have they arrived? Do you like her? Has Jamie confirmed he is engaged?”
“I haven’t heard from Jamie. They haven’t arrived yet, but they’re only coming from Edinburgh and I think he hoped to stop and show Hayley Holy Island and a few other places on the way as she hasn’t visited these parts before. They should be here for dinner. No, I had a message from Becky.” She glanced at the door, checking there was no sign of Martin. “She and Will are driving up together from London.”
“Ooh. Hold on while I go somewhere quiet.” In other words, her husband was within earshot. There was the sound of a door closing and then footsteps as Audrey walked to a different room. “Tell me all.”
“He hasn’t messaged you?”
“Not yet. Why?”
“Because he and Becky are stuck in traffic and they are checking into a hotel for the night.” She heard Audrey’s muffled shriek of excitement.
“What do you think that means?”
Jenny checked the door again. “Well, the ever-practical Martin would say it means they need somewhere to sleep.”
“I hope it’s more than that. We’ve waited long enough, Jen. If ever two people were made for each other it’s those two. Let’s hope there is no room at the inn, or at least so little room that they have to share a bed. Do you know the name of the hotel? I could call them and reserve every available room but the honeymoon suite.”
She could just imagine how Becky would respond to that, and it wouldn’t be good.
“You’re a wicked, interfering woman, Audrey Patterson.”But she was smiling because even though she was reluctant to admit it, the same thought had crossed her mind.
“I’m not interfering. But sometimes you have to give life a nudge, that’s all. And talking of nudges, how is Martin?”
Audrey was the only person she’d confided in.
“Oh, you know—not great—” She let her voice trail off and heard Audrey sigh.
“We’re going to have a proper catch-up in the New Year. Walk on the beach. Heart-to-heart and a hot chocolate in that gorgeous new café.”
“I’ll look forward to it. You’ll be at the party tomorrow?”
“Of course, but we won’t be able to talk properly there. And we definitely shouldn’t talk about you-know-what because Paul would kill me if he knew about our plotting. Will would probably kill me too.”
“We’ve been plotting forever and they’ve never found out. We should offer our services to MI5. No one would ever suspect us of misdeeds.”
“We haven’t actually committed a misdeed yet. How are your Christmas preparations going? Are you ready?”
Jenny thought about everything waiting in her car. All the things she still had to do. “I’d be closer to ready if I stopped talking to you.” And as she said that, Martin appeared in the doorway with his coat on. “I’ll talk to you later, Audrey. I need to help Martin unload the car. Just wanted to let you know about Will.” She ended the call and Martin looked at her.
“Where are all these trees going? Do we have enough rooms in the house?”
“In the bedrooms. And if you could string some fairy lights around the room, that would be great.”
“Since when did we have trees and fairy lights in the bedrooms?”
“Since my mother gave me a list of all the key elements ofChristmas movies. Lights are key. You can never have too many twinkly lights.”
