There won’t be any cheap decorations of the type that Lena likes. Catherine has an aversion to tinsel and multicoloured lights. Instead, everything is beautifully coordinated in silver and gold, and sprigs of natural holly and fir adorn the mantlepieces. And around the festive table there’ll be Daisy and her mother, and Catherine’s parents and brother and sister-in-law and the two nieces. There’ll be a turkey so large it would barely fit through Lena’s doorway, let alone into her oven. And not just a Christmas pudding, or a pavlova – as Daisy has always favoured – but apudding buffet.For Catherine, Christmas prep kicks off in early October and by 25 December, everything is perfect.
As for Tommy, it’ll be him and his mum and dad, cramped around Lena’s little table with the wobbly extendable leaf. As he and Daisy sip their delicious hot chocolates and eat their mince pies, he tries to reassure himself that this will be perfectly okay. It’s only a day after all. But still, he makes a point of savouring the last fragment of buttery pastry, just as he wants to savour every last moment of Christmas Eve with his daughter. And now the cafe is about to close, but they still sit there.
Daisy looks across the table at her father. She seems hesitant as she twirls the teaspoon in the empty hot chocolate mug. Tommy can sense that she’s building up to something, but he can’t figure out what that might be. ‘Dad, I just want to say,’ she starts. ‘About tomorrow… about Christmas Day…’
‘It’ll be fine, darling,’ he says firmly, but she shakes her head.
‘I’m sure it will be. I know you’ll be brilliant at doing it all.’ The young waitress comes over and he pays the bill. Tommy is grateful for the small distraction because he doesn’t really want to think about Christmas Day in Hackney and how bizarre it’s going to feel without Lena being there. When he said it would be fine, he was lying.
They leave the cafe and make their way along the quiet street. There are few people out now, and less traffic than usual around here.That’s because people like to be home and cosy on Christmas Eve,Tommy reminds himself,with the people they love.
Now he senses Daisy about to say something else. And then she does, just as they turn off the main street. ‘Dad,’ she starts, ‘what if we ask Mum if you and Grandma and Grandpa can come over to ours tomorrow?’
‘Oh, I don’t think so,’ he blusters.
She looks at him, eyes round and bright. ‘Wouldn’t that be lovely, though? All of us together?’
He exhales forcefully as they turn into the even quieter residential road, where Catherine and Daisy live. Catherine will invite him in, he’s sure of it. Just for a glass of wine before he takes an Uber home to Hackney. ‘No, Daisy,’ he says. ‘It’s a lovely thought but it’s far too short notice for Mum. We couldn’t just descend on her like that. And anyway, I have everything in at the flat, all ready?—’
‘But you could bring it all over to us tomorrow.’ She smiles hopefully. ‘We could blend our Christmases?—’
‘Blendour Christmases?’ He can’t help smiling at that.
‘Yes! Wouldn’t Grandma and Grandpa love that? Being with me?’ She grins cheekily.
‘Yes but?—’
‘I’m not saying I’m theirfavouritegrandchild,’ she teases. But she is. Of course she is, because she’s charming and clever and she knows exactly how to handle them. And Catherine is their favourite daughter-in-law, and Tommy knows that they would have a far better time at her beautiful apartment tomorrow than in a little flat in Hackney.
Why had they insisted on coming to Lena’s anyway? To check her out, he suspects. To see her under duress, struggling to make Christmas Day run as smoothly as possible and then watching her fail. Lena has already mentioned to his parents that cooking isn’t exactly her forte. Yet Tommy’s mother has already asked, ‘D’you prefer the brining method for your turkey, Lena? Are you Team Delia or Nigella?’
‘Oh, Tommy takes charge of all that,’ Lena replied cheerfully.
‘Lena isTeam Lena, Mum,’ Tommy added tightly. Now he can picture his parents heading home after Christmas, with mission accomplished – agreeing that he really is marrying beneath himself.
Realising all of this causes fury to fizzle like a firework in Tommy’s gut. Not just towards his parents but towards himselftoo, for allowing his parents to run roughshod over their lives. What must Lena think of him? Well, their plans have been upended now, Tommy tells himself as they arrive at Catherine’s apartment. Their little game – his mother’s game really – has been scuppered by extreme weather in Scotland. Because without Lena there, is there any point in them coming to Hackney after all?
Daisy goes to ring the doorbell, but Tommy stops her with his hand. ‘If Mum’s okay about this,’ he starts, ‘and I do think it’s an awfully big ask?—’
‘It’s not. Of course it’s not!’ Her face brightens.
‘Will there be room, though, for three extras?’
‘“Extras”?’ Daisy laughs, showing her perfectly even white teeth. ‘Are you crazy? We’re all family, Dad.’
He beams then, filled with happiness. ‘Then I think that spending Christmas all together is an excellent idea.’
36
CHRISTMAS DAY
Perhaps it’s the way the sun shines brightly onto the snow, making everything sparkle. Or just being here all together in Shore cottage, on Christmas Day; unexpected, yes, but surely there are worse places to be. Pearl looks around the table laden with a vast breakfast, and what she sees gives her a little jolt of surprise.
Everyone, she realises – even Frida! – looks happy. Niall is topping up coffees and Lena is making Buck’s Fizz and a lemonade version for Theo. The kitchen is filled with chatter and there’s something else in the air, Pearl realises. A sort of charge, like static. She keeps catching Niall’s eye and is enjoying the frisson between them. It’s so liberating, Pearl decides, being 500 miles from home. Of course she misses her son but this is something just for her: a flirtation at least. ‘You deserve some fun,’ Lena said firmly when Pearl told her friends about the kiss last night. They’d made hot chocolates and whispered and giggled at the fireside like the young women they once were.
However, now they are firmly in practical mode, clearing the breakfast table as Theo lays out the spoils from his Christmas stocking. ‘Look at all this!’ he commands, and everyone coosover the gifts that were hastily assembled and stuffed into one of Niall’s thick red walking socks. There’s a paper ‘fortune teller’, of the type Shelley used to make for Martha, when Martha was perpetually glued to her side. Pearl made a little story book, entitledStan of the Highlands, in the way that she’d made books for Brandon when he was little. Shelley had found paper in a box stashed under the coffee table, plus felt tips, a kid’s paint set and glittery snowflake stickers, presumably a rainy-day kit for young guests. Her heart snagged at the thought of Michael putting this together. When Lena was shovelling away snow at the front door she found a toy racing car, presumably left by a previous guest. Niall made a little garage for it from a cookie box and Roger’s offering was a whittled stick to be used for toasting marshmallows, should the opportunity arise. And Frida’s contribution had been to pick out Theo’s favourites from the Celebrations tub.
‘I’m so glad you like your stocking,’ Shelley says now.
