Page 120 of The Christmas Invitation
‘No, that’s all right, the walk will do me good.’
‘If the road through Starstone Edge is clear tomorrow, then perhaps I could come over and see what you’re doing with the place?’ suggested Zelda. ‘I’d love to and I’ll help, if you like?’
‘That would be great,’ he assured her warmly. ‘Why don’t you come for the day?’
‘I’ll do that,’ she promised.
‘I suppose Meg and I could help out for a couple of hours in the morning too,’ volunteered Lex, without consulting me.
‘Every extra pair of hands welcome,’ Mark said.
‘Let’s see what it’s like tomorrow,’ suggested Clara, ‘then we can all make our plans accordingly.’
‘Wasn’t Flora going to go to Underhill this afternoon? I’m sure she said so at the Gathering,’ Lex said.
Mark looked a bit uncomfortable. ‘Yes, she did mean to, but then she rang me this morning to say her visitor was stuck there. She’s got a Mini and it’s not built for these road conditions.’
‘Flora took pity on a rather persistent young man who wants to interview Henry,’ Clara explained to Zelda. ‘He was a boyfriend of Meg’s years ago.’
‘We all make mistakes,’ Lex said to me gravely and I gave him a look.
‘If Flora’s stuck with him till the road is clear, she really might as well have Piers too,’ reiterated Tottie.
‘I don’t think anyone will make it over to Thorstane tomorrow if it snows again tonight and then freezes hard,’ said Lex.
‘If not, you may just have to put up with me over Christmas, after all,’ Piers said. ‘I’m sure with a little goodwill and rearrangement—’
‘I’ll ring Flora,’ interrupted Clara decidedly, getting up. Just at that moment, the doorknocker thumped heavily. ‘Now, what fresh hell is this?’ she muttered.
‘It’s not,’ Lex said, going to pull back the curtain and look out. ‘I think it’s the woman of the hour: Flora.’
32
Star-Crossed Others
The knock was clearly a token gesture, for the inner door to the hall opened and a light voice trilled, ‘Coo-ee!’
‘In the drawing room, Flora,’ called Clara, and a moment later, having divested herself of boots and coat, she came in as one sure of her welcome.
Her chestnut curls were feathery with damp, her brown eyes shone and her cheeks were rosy from the cold. She looked very pretty, in a slightly marmoset kind of way.
‘Hi, everyone!’ she said, looking round. ‘Zelda, you made it, then? Oh, and Mark, I didn’t expect to findyouhere.’
She gave him a very special smile and he shifted uneasily on the window seat, but didn’t get up.
‘I came over with Mum, but I’m going back in a minute.’
‘I’m so glad you did come, Mark, because it’s wonderful to see you again,’ Zelda said, turning to smile dazzlingly at him and he gave her a besotted look.
Flora’s eyes narrowed and she looked uncertainly from the pair on the window seat to where I was sitting, evidently puzzled and unsure who her main rival now was. And I couldn’t blame her, because Mark seemed to change direction like aweathercock. First it was Flora, then me and now he only had eyes for Zelda.
I became aware that Lex was now standing so close behind my chair that we could have been posed for one of those Victorian photographic patriarch-and-wife combos, which couldn’t have helped poor Flora figure it all out, either.
Baffled, she smiled largely on the assembly and, with a sudden change of tack, said reproachfully, ‘Teddy, darling! Don’t you have a kiss for your old nanny?’
Teddy got up rather reluctantly and allowed her to embrace him, then released himself politely and went back to sitting on the floor next to River’s chair, where they’d been poring over a large book about dragons.
‘We didn’t think anyone would come to call on a day like this, Flora, but cometh the hour, cometh the woman,’ Lex said.
