Page 18 of I’ll Be Home for Christmas

‘We don’t have it as often any more,’ said Nanna. ‘It’s not great for my heart, but a little bit of what you love in life is good for you.’

Sarah smiled. ‘You’re so right. And your fondue is the best.’

‘It sure is,’ said Meg, a connection, albeit a tentative one, forming with her agreement and casual glance in Sarah’s direction. ‘Are we having it the naughty or not-so-naughty way?’

When Nanna laughed, Sarah asked what she meant by that.

Meg explained, ‘Mum would always make me and Chrissie have veggies first before we really got stuck in with the cheese. These days she’s not such a stickler for those rules.’

Sarah revealed, ‘Nanna always lets me have the bread straight away.’

‘She’s relaxed in her old age,’ said Grumps. ‘I’ve done us each a garden salad to start with though, don’t worry.’

‘You have not,’ said Meg with more than a hint of amusement in her voice.

Grumps looked serious until he found it impossible. ‘Of course I haven’t. Give me the naughty version.’ He rubbed his hands together. ‘I’m already looking forward to it.’

Less than an hour later Meg and Sarah were both trying to help, but in the galley kitchen there wasn’t enough room. In the end, Sarah insisted she be the one to stay there. ‘You’ve been travelling today, Meg. Let me do this.’

‘Fair enough,’ said Meg. ‘I’ll go chat with dad and keep him company.’ But she was hovering.

Without looking at her daughter, Astrid picked up a piece of Emmental and held it in Meg’s direction. ‘Now off you go, leave us to get on. You could lay out the fondue set on the table if you like.’

‘Will do.’ Satisfied, Meg whisked up her glass of wine and left them to it.

Sarah took out the day-old bread and cut it into cubes while Nanna rubbed garlic around the pan on the stove. Being here at the chalet, especially in the kitchen, Sarah felt more relaxed than she had been in a long while as she grated the cheeses – Emmental, Gruyère, plus Appenzeller, which had a fruity, nutty flavour according to Nanna. Nanna had already added white wine and lemon juice to her pan, and she waited for it to simmer. In went the cheeses. The smell was incredible as the mixture thickened nicely and Nanna removed it from the heat before stirring through a splash of cherry brandy.

The fondue was out of this world. It tasted just as good as its intense smell with the garlic and boozy aroma. Fondue was a sociable meal with each of them dipping their speared pieces of bread on the end of their long-handled forks into the cheesy, smooth, slightly bubbling mixture in the pot in the centre of the table.

Meg seemed lovely. As Sarah ate, she tried to think what could have gone so wrong between her and Chrissie. The Meg here now, enjoying fondue and chatting, was relaxed. She seemed fun, she was friendly, and not at all the way Sarah had expected. All these years she’d thought Meg must be awful, rude, perhaps a woman with a mean streak, but as far as Sarah could see, she was none of those things.

‘I feel like I’m really in Switzerland now I’ve had your fondue,’ said Sarah as she sat back, satiated. Did Rhys like fondue? She’d never asked him. There were a lot of people who didn’t. Some thought it too cheesy or not a proper meal, and others panicked about the hygiene of sharing a dish. But there was no double-dipping here; they’d joked about that already, Meg telling them a tale of her high-school boyfriend whose little brother had done it constantly.

‘The family didn’t bat an eyelid,’ she told them. ‘I said I had a tummy ache and stopped eating. He had a runny nose⁠—’

‘Meg.’ Grumps’s reprimand made Meg grin and Sarah laugh.

Nanna confided in Sarah, ‘When Meg was younger, she was obsessed with watching these hospital shows. She’d tell us all about them in graphic detail at the dinner table.’

Meg laughed the criticism away. ‘Do you still live at home, Sarah?’

Sarah shook her head. ‘I live with my boyfriend – fiancé,’ she corrected.

‘Mum said you were engaged and getting married on New Year’s Eve. Congratulations.’

‘Thank you.’ She took a mouthful of water, hoping she wasn’t going to get umpteen questions about the wedding.

‘You don’t have long now,’ said Meg.

She smiled. ‘I wanted to come here and see Grumps and Nanna as they won’t be able to make it.’ She didn’t want to talk about it any more and she definitely didn’t want to make her grandparents feel any worse, so when she zoomed in on the boxes of chocolates from The Cocoa Cupboard on top of the sideboard, she changed the focus. ‘What about you? What brings you here for Christmas? Nanna says you’re always really busy at the chocolaterie this time of year.’

‘We are. But Grant can look after things. I’ve done much of the chocolate-making already, so he and the other staff will be fine. I don’t normally take time off at this time of the year, but to be honest I had the urge to see my parents too.’ She looked across at Grumps and Nanna, whose hearts looked full in this moment. ‘It also has the added pleasure that I get to try Swiss chocolate again. I’ve already visited a chocolate shop in Bern, and I’ll do it again here in town.’

‘So, research?’ Sarah poured water from the carafe on the table into a glass for her and another for Grumps when he nodded her way. ‘That sounds like it would be a total pleasure.’

‘You could take Sarah with you,’ Nanna suggested and Sarah definitely didn’t mistake the panic on Meg’s face.

‘I don’t want to be a tag-along and in the way,’ said Sarah.