Page 47 of I’ll Be Home for Christmas

He had a gorgeous smile. She thought he had to be about her age or perhaps a little older. He was tall and stubble grazed his jaw, though she wasn’t sure if it was always there or whether it was a side-effect of being busy moving house and not having time to shave.

His attention on Chrissie, he held out his hand. ‘I’m Nolan, by the way.’

‘Chrissie.’ He had a firm handshake, one she didn’t mind at all. ‘And this is obviously Tessa. Just us two living next door now.’ In case he thought she was telling him that she was single, she added, ‘My daughter, Sarah, moved out recently.’ Not that that really clarified her relationship status, she realised. ‘We’ll let you get on. Once again, very sorry Tessa invaded your space.’

They waved at each other after that day, called out the odd hello as each of them went about their business, but slowly a hello had turned to a cup of coffee at one of their houses, then that coffee had turned into a dog walk, and their friendship had blossomed. They shared casual lunches; he took Tessa on walks sometimes when Chrissie was at work. She’d helped him dig up the flowerbeds after his new fence went in; he’d come and fixed her washing machine when it sprang a leak. And then a week ago he’d suggested they went out properly to the local Italian, and although he hadn’t said it was a date as such, that was what it would be. There would be no dog at their side, no messy boots from the garden, no distractions that came when you were in your home, and she’d said yes, she would like that very much. But then the situation with Sarah had escalated and before they had a chance to do it, all of a sudden, she was coming here.

When Sarah handed Chrissie back her phone, Chrissie mentioned the Jungfraujoch again and it worked, it got Sarah talking.

‘It was an amazing experience. All the way up there, at high altitude, looking down on the towns and the landscape.’

‘I went with Mum and Dad when I was a bit younger than you are now, but when I went up there with your dad it gave me a whole new appreciation of its beauty. The stillness, the sheer vastness of the mountains.’

‘Is it okay… being here in winter?’

‘You mean without your dad?’ She smiled. ‘It’s actually better, and easier, than I expected. I had a distraction when I first got here, seeing Meg and you together, but then once I took in the Christmas decorations and the warmth of this place, it wasn’t so bad. Your dad loved Winterbruck, especially when the snow fell and cocooned us all inside, and remembering that felt comforting.’

‘That’s how I feel when I’m here.’

‘As the taxi drove through town, I could almost hear your dad berating me for not coming here again in the winter until now. Winter was his favourite season. He loved the cold, having an open fire. He was an old romantic, really.’ She smiled. ‘And your dad proposed to me here in Winterbruck.’

Sarah sat up straighter. ‘How come you never told me that?’

‘I’m not sure exactly. I thought I had once, but perhaps that was when you were really little.’

‘How did it happen?’

‘We came to Switzerland one winter right before Christmas. We’d already spent a couple of nights in Geneva, two in Zurich. We saw the dramatic scenery and waterfalls in Lauterbrunnen, and then we came here.’ It felt good to tell Sarah, to share the romance, the happiness she’d felt with Anthony. ‘I was head over heels in love. I knew your dad was the man I wanted to spend the rest of my life with. I didn’t expect a proposal so early on in our relationship, but one day as we walked back here to the chalet he stopped at the end of the road and got down on one knee in the snow. He’d picked a ring already, he’d planned it.’

‘It sounds so romantic.’

‘It really was. And it was completely your dad. No fancy dinner, no ring at the bottom of a champagne glass – just me and him in the snow.’ She looked down in her lap. ‘After your dad died… I hated it when it snowed. It took me years not to moan about it.’

‘Well, it is kind of a pain.’ Sarah smiled; she was trying to make her feel better by saying, ‘Everything grinds to a halt, the roads have all that horrible grey slush once the cars get at it, and it makes travelling anywhere a nightmare.’

‘After a while I wasn’t quite as negative,’ said Chrissie. ‘Your dad saw the beauty of the snow and eventually I could stand to watch it falling outside the window at home. You know he would’ve wanted to relocate here to Switzerland eventually. He loved it that much.’

‘I’m not surprised.’

‘Our last family Christmas here was so wonderfully special.’

‘It really was. And I’ve always known you didn’t want to come here for Christmas again because of those memories.’

‘It wasn’t just that. I also never wanted to be away from home. My home.’

‘But this is home too, in a way.’

‘It is, but I remembered all the Christmases we hadn’t had with my dad. I remembered how some Christmases we were consumed with worry about him and missing him so much it hurt. Home was safe, Sarah. Home was where you and I had settled and found happiness again. I clung on to the stability of a routine, the familiarity. Hearing the heartbreaking news about your dad at Christmas, here, knocked me sideways. I needed an anchor, and that anchor became you and our house, our little family of two.’

‘We will always be that, Mum. Even if we don’t agree on something.’

Her voice caught and she looked upwards to stem the tears. She and Meg had made a similar promise to each other as young girls, that the moving around, the never having a proper home, would never drive them apart. And then look what had happened.

Chrissie sniffed. ‘May I see your photographs from Jungfraujoch?’ She didn’t miss the hesitation before Sarah went to get her phone from her coat pocket. She came back to the sofa. ‘I expect to see Meg in them, don’t worry.’

Sarah passed her unlocked phone to her mum. Chrissie went through the pictures. The scenery was jaw-dropping, thrilling, and she remembered some of it. What she had totally forgotten was Meg’s smile. Meg, her sister, the woman she’d all but lost from her life, staring back at her in this picture with a smile Chrissie hadn’t seen in years. Meg’s whole face had come alive, and Chrissie realised she looked happy.

A howling wind had them both look up.