Emmy was genuinely delighted with her present, which apparently appealed to her artistic talents as well as to her ideas ofpresentationas a student. Aleksey did not disabuse her of this fallacy by telling her the cost of the dozens of metres of hand-embroidered cotton, silks and linens which now occupied all the shelves.
He was beginning to feel it was time for Ben to have his present, mainly because he wanted to see his face when he received it. He’d been tempted to give it to him when they were alone in Kittiwake, but something had held him back, mainly, he admitted to himself, because now Molly could find it for him and hand it over and then swing from Ben’s arm, waiting to see what was inside forDaddy. Ben held it out of her reach and told her to fetchhispresent, which was most acceptable. It was odd though, when they had the small parcels, one each, they seemed remarkably similar in size. Ben appeared to notice this as well and considered them, checking to see Molly had read them right. She had. He began to open his. Aleksey carefully peeled away his paper.
Everyone stopped what they were doing and regarded the two identical small black boxes that had emerged from the wrapping. Exactly the same—and not easy to mistake as different, as the boxes were both fastened with the same metal and leather clasps. Ben groaned a little. Aleksey snorted, and they opened them at the same time. He’d bought Ben the only watch any pilot should aspire to own: theOmega Speedmasterfrom theDark Side of the Mooncollection. It was black ceramic with brown features on the dial, with a matching brown leather strap. And Ben had bought him exactly the same watch, same collection, except his was the stealth version. Or, as Ben pointed out vaguely, trying his on his wrist next to his various other leather and metal adornments, just a matt black ceramic case, matt black dial, and a black leather strap. Stealth indeed. You couldn’t really see the hands to tell the time, but they were there. What you saw, therefore, was not necessarily what you got.
It would have been embarrassing for them and for the family if Aleksey had shown Ben just how much these matching gifts meant to him. But he saw the knowledge of their significance shining from Ben’s green eyes. Twins: bodies, souls, and now minds.
It was hard to concentrate on much else after he’d strapped his beautiful new watch to his wrist, but he couldn’t help but be curious when Miles gave Molly a present and told her to open it carefully. When she did as he requested, he excitedly pointed out that it was a floating thermometer for measuring sea temperature and it was linked to an app on his laptop—and, most importantly, he’d designed and built it all himself. Aleksey clenched his jaw a little and watched Molly for her reaction to this slightly odd gift for a four-year-old girl. Although he understood only too well its provenance. Molly and Miles had a permanent ongoing dispute about the chill factor of the waters around Scilly, Molly stoutly refusing to put even a toe into the sea during the winter, claiming it would drop off from the cold, but Miles asserting equally forcibly, from his irrefutable scientific research, that the temperature of Scilly waters did not, in fact, vary significantly between summer and winter. Aleksey suspected the truth lay somewhere between these two steadfastly held beliefs, or that Miles’s use of the wordsignificantwas the key. Significant scientifically or significant to a four-year-old in a bathing suit…?
He saw Ben about to intervene, do his by now familiar cheery explanation of a present to his daughter to encourage her to like it, when Molly squealed, ‘Can we go put it in now! Please! I want to float the thermomeytery. Can we? Now?’
Smiling happily at this genuine enthusiasm, Miles promised they could after he’d calibrated everything, and clearly not understanding a word of this, Molly skipped to Enid who was holding out another present for her. It turned out to be a little purple wetsuit—just so she could help Miles place the device without getting chilly. Neither Miles nor Molly seemed to see anything disingenuous in this gift, but Aleksey thought it was almost as good as Phillipa’s to Jennifer. His ex had cleverly managed to make a chauffeur-driven visit to Buckingham Palace for afternoon tea with The Queen of England seem like a favour toherso she could save on postage, and she’d efficiently circumvented Jennifer inevitably spending the next couple of weeks in an utter paroxysm of anxiety about what to wear by declaring anything old and stout to do. She was good his ex.
Finally, all that was left under the tree was one tiny package, one slightly larger parcel and the one absolutely huge cube, which Molly had apparently assumed was for someone else. Ben was frowning deeply. The best present Molly had ever received had been from him, and it was currently stretched out upside down and unconscious from excitement in Enid’s lap. Ben clearly didn’t see how the huge cube could measure up.
Aleksey got Molly to open the middle-sized parcel first. She appeared genuinely pleased to get twenty rolls of extra-strong parcel tape. She tried a couple on as bracelets. As with sticking plasters, she liked tape.
The tiny present held a Stanley knife—a box cutter with a razor blade already fixed and ready to go. Ben’s, ‘Whoa!’ and removal of it from her tiny fingers came with a glare to him. He shrugged it off. He’d been given a pop rivet tool at about the same age, and other than a few stitches, he’d survived.
Finally came the tearing of the paper covering the mysterious, enormous cube.
Ben had specified—demanded—inexpensive.
He’d obeyed. He’d worked out over the course of the year that it was sometimes best just to do as your boyfriend ordered.
It was a vast stack of flat-packed moving boxes and sandwiched between each one was an extendable cat tunnel.
Tape. Box cutter. Boxes. Tunnels.
Within ten minutes, Squeezy and Ben had a row of boxes assembled joined by tunnels. Emilia then suggested height, so they added two up to form a tower. Then Aleksey insisted on a stable for Angel Donkey, only as a joke, but this was seized on, and so kennels for the dogs and a special turret for Jenna had to be joined on as well. There were still many, many boxes left, but the room was vast, so while Ben left to start lunch, the rest of the family cut and stuck. And the whole time this activity was ongoing, Molly, the only one who could get through the tunnels besides Jenna, skittered from one new room to another, up, down, in, and then reappearing where no one expected her to. They fashioned some windows which could be opened and closed, and then Babushka suggested they cut a serving hatch, so Molly could run a little shop. By the time they’d finished, they’d created a vast construction that filled the room from end to end.
Jennifer silenced. Molly entirely absent in her city-state of cardboard.
It was a very peaceful Christmas lunch.
* * *
Chapter Twenty
After they’d all eaten, the grandparents and the kitten needed to snooze. Emilia wanted to start making one of her new outfits. Miles was still checking his invention, and Harry, his present under his arm, declared he’d make a start on repairing the lawn. Aleksey smiled at the way he idly patted his new book as he strode out—he’d bought him the anniversary illustrated history of Britannia Naval College, 1859-2009. He was fairly sure Harry was in these one hundred and fifty years somewhere, although he was equally certain that the old man would not make this fact public. So he and Ben and Molly, accompanied by the dogs, went to visit Billy and take him some of the Christmas treats they were all now too full to finish. Conscious of his frail state, and well aware that his preferred food was baked beans from dubiously out-of-date tins, they hadn’t insisted he join them for the vast turkey with all the trimmings they’d just enjoyed.
Molly, persuaded out from her new kingdom by being able to show Billy her camera, was equally delighted and fascinated to discover Father Christmas had bought him the exact same one. Hers was blue, his was white, but otherwise they were exactly the same. He had not known what it was, so she had the intense delight of showing someone, possibly for the first time, how something worked. Once he’d watched one of her photographs sliding out and slowly appearing like magic in front of his eyes, he’d become as enthusiastic a photographer of utterly useless things as she was. He had string and real pegs, so by the time they left him, the lighthouse was strung with photos of slippers and MacArthur, and anything else he felt ought to be immortalised.
Molly finally crashed unconscious, very like her cat, at the little table in the galley. Incredibly early start to the day, permanent pitch of excitement and too much food, she was done for. Ben slung her over his shoulder as they emerged into the darkening afternoon.
Alone at last, they sat side by side on the steps of the base, staring back over the island, watching as twilight enveloped the woods. The dogs were down splashing around on the beach, which Aleksey had privately named Revival Sands until he could come up with a better name. They could smell woodsmoke from Guillemot and from the log burner they’d stacked before leaving Kittiwake. Aleksey glanced down. Ben wore his watch on his left wrist; he wore his on his right, so they were lying next to each other on their thighs. He took Ben’s off and swapped it with his, and they admired them that way for a while, no words needed. It was a feature of their relationship that Aleksey had noticed more and more as the year had progressed from its devastating start: this quiet companionship that required no words.
Shifting Molly a little on his shoulder, Ben suddenly broke this silence, saying quietly but earnestly, ‘I need to tell you something. It’s not something I’ve ever told you before, and I don’t want you to worry.’ Aleksey felt the ground slipping away from him a little—his certainty that he was winning life’s battle, still such a fragile belief, now wobbling precariously. Watching his expression, still extremely solemn, Ben confessed,
‘I’ve eaten too much. I’m full.’
It took him a moment to process this, his mind still fixated on some terrible news Ben had to relate. When he got it and saw the mischievous smirk that accompanied it, he was outraged and immediately began to retaliate, but Ben only pointed out complacently, fending him off, ‘Sleeping child.’
They went back to contemplating their island as Christmas Day came to its inevitable end, the sun sinking behind them, casting a long shadow from the lighthouse down the slope to Ben’s Bottom. Suddenly, Aleksey was prompted to ask,
‘Have you ever been told that expression you can have too much of a good thing?’ Ben turned his head to regard his profile. ‘Even as a child, I did not understand it. How? If something is good then more of it seems better? I think people who say such things have never been truly happy.’
‘I remember asking you once if you were happy—in the early days when I used to throw in the occasional sir at the end of questions.’
