Last Christmas

They made their way into the Hopesay Arms, the friendly local, which was cram-full of regulars and so busy it was three-deep at the bar.

‘I’ll get these,’ offered Gabriel. ‘What’s your poison?’

‘Half of lager,thanks,’said Marianne.‘I’ll look for a table.’

‘This is cosy,’ said Gabriel when he arrived eventually at the fireside table that Marianne had found.

‘Oh, I didn’t want you to think…’ Marianne blushed. ‘This was the only place I could find.’

‘Here’s fine,’ said Gabriel. He sipped at his beer, and there was a momentary awkward silence, before he said: ‘So, how does Hope Christmas compare to London, then?’

‘I love it,’ said Marianne. ‘Even though I grew up in London, I’ve never really felt like a city person. From the moment I came here I felt like I’d come home. Does that sound odd to you?’

‘Nope,’ said Gabriel. ‘I moved to London for work originally, then stayed for Eve’s sake, but my heart was never there. Not really. I always felt I was living in the wrong place, having the wrong life. Now…’ he paused for a moment.

‘Now?’ she prompted.

‘Well, even though Eve’s gone and everything,’ said Gabriel, ‘at least I feel I’m living the life I’m meant to be living. Does that make sense to you?’

‘Perfect sense,’ said Marianne.

The evening flew by, and, before Gabriel knew it, it was nearly eleven.

‘I’d better go,’ he said. ‘I’ve got the teenage daughter of my neighbour babysitting and she’s got school in the morning. I’d better let her get home.’

‘Oh, I assumed Pippa must be babysitting,’ said Marianne.

‘She couldn’t. She and Dan were meeting a possible new supplier tonight.’

‘I’d better be off too,’ said Marianne. ‘It’s way past my bedtime.’

‘I’ll walk you home,’ offered Gabriel.

‘There’s no need,’ protested Marianne. ‘Honestly, I’m a big girl.’

‘And I’m a gentleman,’ said Gabriel. ‘And, as your fellow Lonely Heart, I insist on walking you home whether you like it or not. I have to protect you from any potential lotharios out there intent on breaking your vow of chastity.’

‘All right then,’ said Marianne, ‘if you insist.’

They got their coats on and made their way down the High Street towards Marianne’s cottage. It was a bright starlit night and the moon was full, the kind of night that was made for lovers, Gabriel suddenly thought. And whereas in the pub the warmth of the fire had led to a kind of cosy intimacy with Marianne, out here in the cold he was suddenly pulled back into the reality of both their situations. They really were two Lonely Hearts offering one another companionship. That was all. They walked the short distance back to her cottage in near silence. The intimacy from the pub seemed to have vanished somehow.

When they got there, Gabriel felt suddenly awkward. Suppose she thought…?

‘Must get in, early start and all that,’ Marianne gabbled. ‘Thanks for a lovely evening.’

She almost dived into her cottage. Gabriel was relieved. She clearly hadn’t been expecting anything. Which was good. As he had nothing to offer her. Nothing at all.

Chapter Six (#ulink_09d2d853-6853-57a0-9a28-242d7b584f6f)

‘More wine, Angela?’ Catherine waved the bottle in front of her mother-in-law almost with bated breath. So far this was the first meal since her arrival that hadn’t been peppered with snide comments and sharp asides to Noel. It helped that Magda had gone out for the day, so Angela couldn’t harp on about why Catherine had to work and needed an au pair (especially such a lousy one) anyway. Thankfully, though Sergei had outstayed his welcome by two days, Catherine had managed to chuck him out before her mother-in-law’s arrival. Seeing as Angela had yet to forgive Cat and Noel for the year they’d lived in sin, she’d have been horrified to discover Magda cohabiting with her foreign boyfriend in the same house, corrupting her grandchildren, even if she appeared to heartily dislike said grandchildren.

‘No, thank you, Catherine,’ sniffed Angela. ‘I don’t like to overindulge in the middle of the day.’

But it doesn’t stop you knocking back a bottle of sherry in the evening, thought Catherine uncharitably, and shot Noel a knowing look. He raised his eyes to heaven in the helpless manner he always employed when his mother was around. Cat wished he’d stand up to her more.

‘I’ll have some more, thank you,’ said Cat’s mother, whom they’d invited over to help dilute the toxicity of Angela’s presence. ‘I think I’m past the age where I care about overindulging.’ She flashed an understanding smile at her daughter, as if to say, You’re doing fine. Cat smiled back. Not for the first time she felt incredibly grateful to have such an easygoing, wonderful and utterly generous mother.

The meal continued in silence until Ruby and Paige started kicking each other under the table.

‘Stop that you two!’ hissed Cat, trying not to draw Angela’s attention, whose views on children’s behaviour at the dinner table were more than a little Victorian. Luckily, Angela had chosen that moment to quiz James about which school he might be thinking about going to, a thorny subject as Noel and Cat were keen for him to try for a grammar school five miles away, which had a much better reputation than the local boys’ school, while James of course wanted to go where his friends were going. They’d already been through this once with Melanie, but her friends had roughly divided in half as to where they went, which had softened the pill of saying goodbye to her best friend somewhat.

‘She started it!’ said Paige, sticking her tongue out at Ruby.

‘Did not!’ said Ruby. ‘Paige, you’re a fucking shit!’

The silence at the other end of the table was so deafening Cat felt as though she’d entered some awful time capsule where things were frozen in perpetuity. Oh my God. Where on earth had Ruby learned language like that? She battled the urge to laugh. Really it wasn’t funny.

‘Ruby! You do not say words like that ever!’ Cat shouted as sternly as she could. Great, now Angela would have all her worst fears about how terribly her grandchildren were being brought up confirmed.

‘James does,’ whined Ruby.

‘Don’t tell tales,’ Cat and Noel said automatically. ‘Go to your room at once.’

Ruby stormed out of the room sobbing, while Cat and Noel scolded their son, who took himself off to the lounge, kicking the door as he went, complaining about how unfair the world was.

‘Angela, Mum, I’m so sorry about that.’ Cat tried and failed to recover her poise. ‘I had no idea they even knew words like that. It’s so difficult nowadays to stop them learning this stuff. I know it was different when we were young.’

‘I have to say I am a bit surprised,’ said Cat’s mum, with an asperity that was unusual for her.‘I thought rather better of your children.’

‘Oh, piffle. It’s not as if children have only just learnt to swear,’ said Angela. To Cat’s utter amazement, she was grinning. ‘I seem to remember being called in to Noel’s school because he’d been writing rude words in the boys’ loos. Do you remember, Noel?’

Noel looked as though his teeth were set on edge.

‘I don’t think you’ve ever let me forget it,’ he said.

Cat let out the breath she’d been holding without realising. That had been a close call but miraculously—presumably because the guilty party had been Ruby-Who-Could-Do-No-Wrong—Angela didn’t seem at all fazed by the incident. So much so that within minutes she was insisting that Ruby came back and sat down again, and even went into the lounge to try and persuade James to come back.

‘Wonders will never cease,’ Cat remarked to her mother later, as they were loading the dishwasher.

‘What’s that, dear?’ Her mother was looking a little distracted, looking at a teatowel as if she’d never seen one before.

‘Angela, earlier,’explained Cat.‘I thought she’d be apoplectic about Ruby swearing like that. I couldn’t believe she’d seen the funny side.’

Mum looked at her in a bemused fashion.

‘Sorry, when was that?’ she said.

Cat looked at her, puzzled.