Page 45 of I’ll Be Home for Christmas

‘Divorced. Quite some time ago. Amicably, that’s what they say, isn’t it?’

‘And was it really amicable?’

‘Heck no. She cheated on me with one of my customers. She came after my pension in the settlement. It was the opposite of amicable.’

‘Are you in touch?’

‘Again, heck no. It was a clean break, thankfully.’

‘Nobody since?’

‘Nobody serious, no.’ He finished his drink.

She finished hers too, for a bit more courage, and told him about what happened at the wake. With Anthony’s close friend and best man. ‘That about sealed it for Chrissie.’

He didn’t give an opinion, he just picked up the blanket from his lap. ‘Come on, let’s go inside. We’ll freeze if we’re out here much longer.’

‘You must think I’m a terrible person.’ She followed him into the chalet.

He closed the door behind them and started folding each of the blankets properly. ‘I don’t think that at all.’

‘I wouldn’t blame you.’

‘People change.’

She felt like she had, but perhaps Chrissie hadn’t. ‘I should be getting back. Hopefully Chrissie has gone to bed. I’ll take the box room and a camp bed so at least she can’t be angry with me for not being comfortable.’

He set the last of the blankets down on top of the pile of the rest of them. ‘Why don’t you get your things and bring them here? You’ve got five people next door in a three-bedroom chalet. I’ve got one person in a three-bedroom. You do the maths.’

She smiled. ‘I couldn’t. I don’t want to impose. You don’t even know me. And what you do know now are the awful things I did.’

‘I also know that you like hot buttered rum. I know you’re Earl and Astrid’s daughter and no matter what you have or haven’t done they’ve never made it known you’re so terrible I can’t offer up a spare bed. And it’s a double, not a camp bed.’

‘I suppose it would be nice to get away from the tension.’

‘Come on.’ He led the way out of the room, up the stairs and into the room at the back. ‘The décor is a bit tired – haven’t quite got around to sprucing it up in here yet – but I’ll make up the bed, bring up a lamp. There are some drawers for your clothes, bookshelves. You can make yourself at home.’

She felt relief for the first time since Chrissie had arrived. ‘You know, I think I would like that very much. I don’t know what to say, except thank you.’

‘You’re very welcome.’

She’d managed to get back inside her parents’ chalet, gather her things, and sneak back out with only a quick word to her dad as he emerged from the bathroom. It was for the best and hopefully would make things easier all round. And she was only next door, after all.

She’d slept well in Jonathan’s spare room right until she heard voices downstairs this morning and she realised her niece was there. She’d wanted to say hello to Sarah, see whether Sarah would still talk to her if Chrissie had told her the truth about their falling out, and she’d got a winning smile from her niece as she hovered at the top of the stairs that suggested she still knew nothing about the way her auntie had almost ruined her mum and dad’s wedding.

The only bad thing about this morning had been coming face to face with Chrissie again on Jonathan’s doorstep, and the things she’d said.

Meg had planned to go for a walk anyway, but after the confrontation with Chrissie, she’d paced away from the chalet so quickly that it had taken her quite some time to register she hadn’t eaten and she was feeling so much colder than usual.

She turned on the spot. How had she got all the way down to the town and onto one of the hiking trails before she even noticed the weather closing in? The wind had picked up, and the snow was coming down even more.

Unexpectedly, a walk to clear her head had now become a battle to get through what had turned into a blizzard. The conditions had taken Winterbruck and its surrounds from pretty to threatening.

She’d told Jonathan she would be fine. She’d thought he’d been fussing when he warned her about the weather before she left.

Now, she wished she’d listened to him.

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