Page 39 of The Christmas Invitation
As we all set off into the teeth of an icy wind – or in Teddy’s case, ran off – I wished I was back in there with him.
Once among the ranks of trees it was more sheltered and I got interested in the different kinds and the way, as we moved from section to section, they ranged in size from cute tiny ones to huge monsters.
Among the latter were apparently some of the desired Norwegian variety and I stopped to see if I could spot the difference. Perhaps they were the ones with a rather beautiful blueish-green tint.
I looked up to ask Henry, only to discover that everyone else had moved on and vanished up the next row. There was no one in sight except Lex, who was standing watching me with his hands in his jeans pockets and a somewhat Grim Reaper expression on his face, though luckily there wasn’t a scythe to hand.
Before I could stop myself, I said, ‘Of all the rows of trees in all the world, you had to pick this one.’
Unfortunately, my mouth often tosses out a flip remark at entirely the wrong moment, especially variations on this linefromCasablanca, and I could see this one hadn’t gone down that well.
‘I want a word with you,’ he said flatly.
It was clearly show time, and if he was forcing the issue then maybe this was the moment when we could finally get things clear between us. I let go of the branch I’d been inspecting and straightened up to face him.
‘Well?’ I said shortly. ‘I’ve already grasped that my arrival was a shock – and not a good one – but you can’t have imaginedI’dhave agreed to come to the Red House if I’d known you lived up here.’
‘You were the last person I expected to see when I brought Teddy back from school on Wednesday,’ he said. His eyes darkened. ‘It was like the past had come right back to haunt me.’
‘Well, ditto,’ I snapped.
‘Then there was nothing to stop you turning round and leaving again, was there?’
‘Don’t imagine I didn’t want to, because that was my first impulse,’ I told him. ‘But I’m a professional and I’d accepted the commission to paint Clara, and Henry, too.’
‘She told me all about the portraits and she was really excited that you’d agreed to come, but she didn’t mention your name.’
‘No, well, she didn’t happen to mention that you were her nephew either, until I got here and discovered it for myself. But when I found out you actually lived a few miles away, I thought it would be OK. I didn’t realize you’d be around so much.’ I shrugged, with a nonchalance I wasn’t feeling. ‘Now we have met it doesn’t seem to matter so much, but I’m sorry if it’s brought the past back. It’s not a time I want to remember either.’
‘What happened between us wasn’t reallyyourfault. I don’t blame you for anything,’ he said wearily.
‘Big of you, considering I didn’t do anything you could blame mefor,’ I said, though as always that small flicker of guilt stirred and I felt my face colour.
An unbidden memory of that fateful night came back at this inopportune moment and I could hear Al’s voice, when I’d answered Lex’s phone, demanding to know if he was there with me.
‘Yes, but he’s asleep and—’ I’d begun.
‘Then wake him up and tell him Lisa’s taken a sudden turn for the worse. Her parents have been trying to get hold of him the last two hours. Give me your address and I’ll be there in ten minutes.’
Numbly I’d obeyed and then said stupidly, ‘But you’re at work.’ He’d had to leave the wine bar where we’d all met up quite early that evening, for his job at a hotel as night porter.
‘Not any longer,’ he’d said tersely and rang off.
Lex’s voice dragged me back to the present, marooned in a sea of bristly green with a tall, dark, handsome and conflicted man, like the start to a low-budget movie.
‘There’s nothing to be gained by going over the past now, that’s for sure,’ he was saying. ‘You’re here and we’ll have to deal with it, for Clara and Henry’s sake.’
‘You won’t have to strain your civility for long because I’m clearing out the day after the Starstone Solstice ceremony.’
‘Clara told me your grandfather was coming up for the ceremony, butyouwere staying on till the New Year.’
‘Clara keeps tellingmethat, too, but I’m not. I have no idea how anyone ever gets through to her: she’s like a human steamroller.’
‘It’s not just Clara who thinks you’re staying, everyone else does, too. And if you’re painting Henry’s portrait as well as Clara’s you can’t do that by the twenty-first, can you?’
‘Actually, I can, as long as they both give me a few sittings. I’ve already started Clara’s portrait and it’s coming together fast.’
I didn’t mention how I now longed to paint the other inhabitants of the Red House, too – Den and Tottie, and even the slightly desiccated Sybil from Underhill – because that was a dream destined never to be fulfilled.
