Page 112 of The Christmas Invitation
‘A Christmas quacker,’ Den answered, spooning loose leaf tea into the pot with a generous hand. ‘That one fell out of crackers in the Dark Ages, didn’t it?’
I put two slices of wholemeal bread into the toaster while Clara poured me a mug of coffee and pushed it towards me.
‘Flora rang first thing to see if we knew how the roads were,’ she said. ‘I told her the Thorstane road was blocked, but perhaps they might clear it later.’
‘So shedidn’ttake Rollo back to the pub last night?’ I asked.
‘No, he’s still at the guesthouse and she says his chill is much worse, so he’s staying in bed at the moment.’
‘He’s such a hypochondriac that if he’s really got something wrong with him it’ll send him into a panic without Mummy to hold his hand. He’ll be the patient from hell and have Flora running round after him.’
‘Oh, Flora’s adept at doing only what Flora wants,’ Tottie said, entering the kitchen in time to hear this. ‘The hens didn’t really want to come out,’ she added.
‘Not bleedin’ surprised. Even an ’en’s got more sense than to be out in this weather,’ said Den, opening a tin of digestive biscuits and dunking one in his mug of tea, which was a dark, rich mahogany colour. Half of the biscuit fell into the cup and vanished.
‘Bugger,’ he said.
Teddy, who was picking the last bits of his cereal out of the bowl with his fingers, looked up and said thoughtfully, ‘Bugger’s one of the special Den words I’m not allowed to use till I’m grown up, isn’t it?’
Tottie agreed that it was.
‘But Sybil said it too, when that Shetland pony she borrowed for me in the summer holidays bit her on the bum.’
‘I’m not surprised,’ said Clara. ‘We’re going to fetch Sybil and the dogs right after an early lunch and bring them here for Christmas. That’ll be fun, won’t it? Lex will run me and Henry there in my car with the snow chains on, if we need them.’
‘I should be on my way home by now,’ said River. His tunic today was the clear deep blue of his eyes and I now easily recognized the lettering around the bottom as cuneiform. ‘Perhaps the roadwillreopen later.’
‘I doubt it, and I don’t think you should try it today. Do stay until at least tomorrow,’ urged Clara. ‘We like having you.’
‘You’re very kind,’ he said, with one of his warm, serene smiles. ‘I’m enjoying being here immensely.’
Lex came to report that Henry had gone back to his study, because being so near the completion of his epic work was too tantalizing to resist, even at Christmas. Then heasked what the rest of us meant to do for what was left of the morning.
‘I’m carrying on with my memoirs,’ said Clara. ‘I feel much the same as Henry: I can’t leave them alone for long. But now I know what happened to Nessa’s baby, I’ll have to resist the urge to jump ahead of the timeline.’
Tottie said, ‘Olive was coming over to make up the bed in Sybil’s room and then give all the bathrooms a once-over, but in this weather—’
‘That’s Olive now – or the Abominable bleedin’ Snowman,’ said Den.
Lex suggested he and I and Teddy clear the steps at the front of the house, but first, Teddy insisted we make a snowman and Den provided a carrot and lumps of charred wood from the embers of last night’s drawing-room fire for nose and eyes.
Lex and I began shovelling the snow from the steps after that, while Teddy went round the house to help Den clear the path to the garage.
We didn’t talk, but the silence was thick with unspoken words, possibly in one of Clara’s ancient languages, because I had no idea what they were.
‘That’s it, then,’ Lex said finally, as he sprinkled grit on the cleared steps. He smiled at me in a tentative way that I found somehow heart-wrenching, so I returned it warmly.
The cold air had whipped some colour into his cheeks and tangled his mop of dark curls. I suspect in my case it had just given me a cherry nose.
‘Shall we go and help the others now?’ I suggested.
‘OK,’ he agreed, shouldering his shovel and heading for the corner of the house … but suddenly the sight of that broad back was justwaytoo tempting. I scooped up a handful of snow and threw it, hard. It splattered right on target.
He turned slowly, regarded me with a serious expression that made me feel nervous, then dropped the shovel, grabbed a handful of snow and threw it right back.
A battle ensued until I admitted defeat by running off round the side of the house, though wading through snow required a lot of effort and Lex got me with one last snowball.
River, bundled up in layers and with the rainbow pixie hat pulled firmly over his pointy little ears, was gritting the part of the path already cleared in front of the kitchen door, while Henry had now joined the party and was helping Teddy and Den shovel snow from the rest of it.
