Fraser gave her a look as he strode past. He was difficult to read. ‘Sorry, I need to go and cut down a Christmas tree, but I’m fine.’
‘Just get my car back safe,’ said Charlotte.
‘Love you too. Bye.’
Liv went through to the boot room and put on the now familiar borrowed coat and wellies before sullenly following the others outside. Effie was almost skipping and Fraser was carrying a large rucksack on his back like he was going camping. The wind had whipped up and it was snowing again. ‘Come on, seriously?’
‘It’s a wee bit oorlich,’ said Fraser.
‘It’s a wee bit nothing. It’s a whole huge great snowy… Nobody else is bothered, are they?’ She looked at the other two who simply pulled on their hoods, shrugged and marched out into the weather. ‘They’re all blinking nuts,’ she said pulling the door closed behind her as she followed them out into the cold. They passed Ginger who today was listening to Alexander Armstrong – she clearly had varied taste. It didn’t seem quite as far to the woodland, but once there time seemed to drag as the first section was full of ridiculously large trees, so they had to keep walking.
‘We could have a Griswold Christmas and get this one,’ said Liv stopping and pointing at one of the monster trees. Effie and Fraser viewed her with blank faces. ‘From the film,’ she added. They both shook their heads. ‘National Lampoon’s Christmas Vacation?’ More shaking. ‘Blimey, I might as well be at the North Pole.’
‘Hey, don’t disrespect my homeland just because I’ve not watched some stupid cult English film,’ snapped Fraser.
‘I’m not disrespecting anything. I’m sure it’s lovely here when it’s not minus twelve and trying to bury me alive in snow. But who hasn’t heard of that film?’ Effie unhelpfully put her hand up. ‘Apart from you two, hardly anyone, because it’s massively famous and for your information it’s an American film.’ Fraser’s snowy eyebrow twitched. ‘Now you know it’s American you might even enjoy it.’ She went to walk away.
‘What do you mean by that?’
Liv turned to look but the ruddy hood stayed still and she ended up looking inside it, which was infuriating. She had to turn around an almost full circle to face Fraser again. ‘You hate the English.’
He looked taken aback but that might have been because she was twirling around like a Scottish dancer. ‘I’ve never said that. It’s not personal. It’s in our history.’ He clenched his jaw.
‘That has nothing to do with me. No ancestor of mine has ever picked up a long spiky pole, let alone marched all the way up the sodding country with it to prod one of your family tree in the arse. You can’t take it out on every English person. You had no right to—’ A little voice in her head willed her not to show her hand now. She still needed somewhere to stay. This was not the right time to bring up the ghosting, although the fire in her gut said otherwise. Liv took a breath. ‘You didn’t need to be mean to me. It is not my problem that your ex-girlfriend turned out to be a cheat. I’m not related to her either!’
Liv was so cross she turned around and stomped off, almost walking straight into a large tree trunk. She skirted around it and carried on tramping ahead, hoping very much that the others were following her because she really didn’t want to get lost and freeze to death like poor old Aunt Tilda with too many greats to mention.
A few paces deeper into the woods, she was aware that Fraser was walking alongside her. ‘It was hundreds of years of persecution—’ Liv shot him daggers. ‘But I get your point. I’m glad this one’s not on the end of a pike.’ She carried on walking. ‘That was a joke. Point of a pike. Probably not a good joke if it needs signposting.’ They walked along in time and Liv had to slow her pace because the anger that was fuelling her was abating and the snow made it hard going, even if there was less under the trees. ‘Sorry,’ added Fraser.
Liv stopped and looked back. Effie was a few metres behind them still checking trees for their suitability. ‘Sorry for what?’ For a moment she wondered if he was going to confess all.
‘I’m sorry that I made you feel that I was pissed off at you because you were English.’
‘IfIfeel?’ She stared him down. That was not an apology if he was putting it back on her.
‘Okay. I was pissed off,’ said Fraser. ‘But I was pissed off with everyone. You sort of took the brunt of it. I don’t know why. Maybe because you turned up out of the blue and stirred up all these feelings. Everything. You stirred everything up.’ He glanced down at his wellies before looking her in the eye. ‘I’m sorry. Can I stop saying sorry now?’ Those Nordic blue eyes held her gaze as snowflakes caught in his eyelashes.
‘You can.’ Nowshefelt bad. ‘I’m sorry if I’ve overreacted. It’s been a tense time with… everything.’ They stared at each other for a moment longer than was comfortable. The tension was broken by a large snowball whizzing between the two of them. They turned to see another one coming and Liv just managed to dodge out of the way. Fraser balled up some snow and hurled it back at Effie, who squealed and ran off. The tension broken they put the quarrel behind them and began looking properly for a suitable tree.
‘I think this one,’ called Effie and they went to see.
‘Nice tree but it’s a bit too big,’ said Fraser.
Liv was craning her neck to try to see the top of it as snow was blown into her face, making her cheeks sting. Liv had her head so far back she started to topple. She staggered a bit before strong arms grabbed her and kept her upright.
‘You okay?’ asked Fraser looking concerned.
‘She does that,’ said Effie. ‘She’s just checking that gravity still works.’ She nodded wisely.
Fraser was still waiting for a reply. ‘I’m fine thanks,’ said Liv. She was glad she’d not fallen over and there was something lovely about being held by strong arms. Self-consciously Liv pulled herself free.
‘This one?’ shouted Effie pointing at another fir tree.
‘I bloody well hope so,’ said Liv and a smile tweaked at Fraser’s lips.
‘That’s perfect, Effie. Let’s chop it down,’ he said.
Liv was relieved but she had to admit the tiny tree was somewhat of a disappointment, so dwarfed by all its fellow firs, but she was far too cold to argue.
