Page 126 of The Christmas Invitation
I’d just sent the email to Fliss when I heard a scratching noise and yapping. I went down the turret stairs to find Pansy outside my bedroom door, bright eyed and wagging her tail.
‘How on earth did you know where I was?’ I exclaimed, scooping her up.
And I felt a horrible pang, knowing that after Christmas she would belong to strangers. I only hoped they’d love her as much as I’d grown to.
She lay on the rug and watched me as I brushed my hair and then rendered my eyelashes and brows a slightly more dramatic shade than their natural fawn.
A pale face framed in rose-pink hair, with eyes of a strangely light duck-egg blue, stared back at me from the mirror. With my high cheekbones and straight nose, I wondered how I could possibly have missed the Doome family features that I’d painted in Henry, and must have noted in Mark.
On impulse, I opened Mum’s tin trunk and Pansy sneezed as a wave of sandalwood and patchouli hit her.
I rummaged among the clothes. I had an urge to bring her close tonight by wearing something of hers, and chose a heavy silk top with bell sleeves, an embroidered yoke and tassel-tie front.
I wore it over a long, go-anywhere, dark green skirt with a hitched-up side that revealed a silk chiffon layer beneath. I’d found it in a charity shop years ago and it looked sort of Victorian.
Malachite drop earrings completed the look … whatever the look was.
I felt cheered by the spirit of my freewheeling mother and it suddenly struck me that Zelda’s style of mothering was very similar to hers.
I knew Mum loved me, but it had never stopped her going off on her own adventures.Iseemed to have assumed the maternal, worrying role … especially since she’d vanished.
Down in the hall I found a scene of activity. Henry and Teddy had upended the big canvas postbag on to the side table and were sorting the contents into heaps, while Den and River had got out the long stepladders and were hanging up the kissing bough.
‘I knew there was something missing in here,’ River explained.
‘Yeah, and ’ere’s one we prepared earlier, ain’t it?’ said the voice from above.
‘It’s lovely,’ I said admiringly, though this one wasn’t so much a bough as a large twig, wound with ivy and decorated with a few sprigs of berried holly. From it hung a large bunch of fake mistletoe, which they’d probably purloined from one of the swags.
‘Holly and ivy to represent the male/female yin/yang element of the season, of course,’ said River. ‘And mistletoe for obvious reasons.’
‘Kissing,’ said Den, starting to descend.
‘No, I meant the deeper magical significance, but kissing is good too,’ said River, and kissed my cheek.
I returned the salute and gave him a hug.
‘How lovely you look tonight, dear child,’ he said.
‘This is one of Mum’s tops, out of the trunk. I thought I’d wear it because she feels very close tonight, for some reason.’
‘Yes, I feel that too, and I’m sure she will come back to us soon.’
I hoped he was right and my worst fears weren’t true …
Tonight River wore the tunic with the runes. Around his neck hung a silver wire mandala and a chakra necklace of variously coloured stones.
‘You look very fine, too,’ I told him. ‘Did you manage to get into your room to change?’
‘Yes, though Piers was still flat out on my bed asleep. In fact, we might have to wake him for dinner.’
‘And we’d better get back and bleedin’ finish cooking it,’ Den suggested, and they went off, carrying the ladder between them, like a comedy act.
‘Do go in the drawing room and have a drink, my dear,’ suggested Henry. ‘Clara, Tottie and Sybil are already down – and we assumed Pansy must be with you when she vanished. Lex has gone to fetch in more wood and Zelda’s been holed up in Clara’s study for the last half-hour, having a long phone conversation with someone. We suspect it’s Mark.’ His eyes twinkled. ‘I’ve never seen such acoup de foudre.’
I laughed. ‘Nor me! They were both struck all of a heap, weren’t they?’
Teddy, who was clutching a large parcel, said, ‘Look, Meg! Uncle Henry forgot he’d left a bid in an auction for some more Christmas decorations ages ago and they’ve just arrived.’
