Page 125 of The Christmas Invitation
‘Oh, nonsense, Sybil!’ declared Clara roundly. ‘You’re too kind-hearted for your own good. Just because he was your father’s best friend, it doesn’t mean that he’s entitled to hang around your neck like an albatross for the rest of his life.’
‘But … I mean, I’ve known him since I was a little girl,’ she protested. ‘And I do feel sorry for him, because he says his family don’t really want him for Christmas.’
‘He probably makes himself such an odious nuisance that it’s not surprising,’ Henry said.
‘But Piers isn’t all bad,’ she insisted.
‘Sybil, we know he and George used to drink themselves senseless every night after dinner when he was staying at Underhill, not to mention the gambling … and the other things that they got up to when they went off on one of their jaunts to the South of France,’ said Clara. ‘We heard the rumours.’
Sybil didn’t try to deny this.
‘Don’t worry about him, Sybil,’ Lex told her kindly. ‘He’ll be more comfortable at the guesthouse than he would have been at Underhill with all the work going on, and Flora will look after him.’
‘As long as she doesn’t find him too much trouble, because heisa little set in his ways,’ said Sybil. ‘But then, perhaps the road will thaw tomorrow and he can get away,’ she added optimistically.
‘I doubt it, Syb,’ said Tottie. ‘Den told me the Met Office forecast said there wouldn’t be a thaw for a few days. So it looks like he could well be here on Christmas Day, with his feet in the trough.’
‘In which case, I’d better keep the key of the drinks cabinet on me, when he’s in the house,’ Henry said thoughtfully. ‘And tell Den to keep the larder door locked, too, though we don’t stock a large supply of alcohol, other than Tottie’s mead and fruit wines.’
‘There’s whisky and sherry, but I think that’s it,’ agreed Clara.
‘Andseveral bottles of elderflower champagne for the Boxing Day morning party,’ Tottie reminded them.
‘Oh, I adore elderflower champagne!’ I said. ‘Maj at the Farm makes it, too.’
‘Indeed she does,’ said River. ‘They’ll all be drinking it now at the feasting …’
He looked slightly pensive, probably remembering that this time he had abdicated his role in the proceedings to Oshan.
I was right, for he added, ‘Oshan poured a libation of mead over the stone cairn on the hill behind the Farm at the Solstice, as usual.’
‘I expect Den has a crate or two of Guinness in the flat,’ Henry said. ‘But he’s not going to share with Piers. They’ve never taken to each other.’
‘That’s because Piers is a snob and tries to treat Den like some kind of servant,’ Clara said.
Sybil made a token protest, but her heart wasn’t in it.
‘I expect Den puts him right,’ Henry said.
The phone rang. It was Flora to say Deirdre had agreed that Flora could take in Piers as a paying guest on full board terms, but at double the usual rate.
‘Pretty much what I thought she’d say,’ said Clara. ‘So that’s that sorted.’
‘I’ll take him down there in the pick-up after dinner,’ Lex offered. ‘It’s probably started to freeze, but I can put the chains on.’
‘I think I might lie down till dinner, once I’ve fed the dogs,’ Sybil said. ‘I have a bit of a headache.’
I felt no urge to lie down, but I did want to get away to my own little Rapunzel turret for a bit and once I was there, dashed off a quick email to Fliss.
Lex being very kind to me, to make up for thinking I was an evil seductress. I’ve just watched Mark, the only romantic hero material, fall head over heels for Lex’s sister on sight. Ex-nanny furious, had designs on him herself. Ghastly old gent arrived earlier, but he’s going to stay somewhere else. Rollo still in Starstone Edge too – he has caught a chill, the roads are blocked and we’re snowed in. The thick plottens.
Meg x x
I hadn’t mentioned that I thought someone had tried to push me off a precipice because in retrospect I could see how silly the idea was.
Lexwasstill being almost unbearably kind to me: before I came upstairs, he’d caught me up and asked me if I was sure Iwasn’t hurt by Mark’s sudden defection and I’d told him not to be daft.
Henry was right, it was all just like one of Shakespeare’s more confusing romances. I only hoped it would be all’s well that ends well.
