Page 143 of The Christmas Invitation
‘Yes. So I was sure you’d want to know that I feel much better.’
‘I already knew, because Flora’s kept us up to date. It was just a chill, anyway, wasn’t it?’
‘Just a chill?When youknowhow weak my lungs are? It could have carried me off.’
There had never seemed anything wrong with his chest or lungs that I’d ever noticed. I thought the only thing likely to carry him off in the near future was Flora herself.
‘You could come and visit me,’ he suggested.
‘I’m too busy working and, anyway, I’ll see you tomorrow, won’t I?’
‘But I’m feeling cooped up and bored, because that dreadful old man is always in the guest sitting room, drinking and complaining.’
‘He’s another uninvited visitor, but never mind, at least Flora seems to likeyou.’
His voice stopped being die-away and warmed to enthusiasm. ‘She’s been quite wonderful! Mother is very grateful to her for looking after me so well. They talk on the phone every day.’
‘How nice,’ I said, thinking that perhaps a nanny was really what he’d needed all along.
‘Well, see you tomorrow,’ I said briskly, preparing to ring off, but I wasn’t to get away quite that easily.
‘That’s another thing,’ he said. ‘You told me a whole lot of lies about Henry. All that guff about only wearing green and his being a recluse.’
‘Just joking. And he loves being surrounded with people – he just likes to choose them himself.’
I hoped Rollo would behave himself tomorrow at dinner. But Flora would have her eye on him, and also I didn’t think he was so stupid as to forget that Henry still had many influential contacts in the world of literature.
After this I felt like some fresh air and thought I’d walk down to Preciousss and visit Flower.
The house was quite quiet, though I thought I could hear Clara’s voice through her study door.
I got my coat and boots on and, while I was scrunching down the drive and on to the ice-rutted road, I did a mental tally of my Christmas presents. I had made lots of little sketches of everyone, including the dogs, and I already had one or two gifts I’d got at Preciousss, but I could do with a few extras … like something for Den.
Flower, carrying Grace-Galadriel on her hip, opened the shop door to me and was delighted I’d come to visit – and even more so to hear that I wanted a few small gifts in case I had forgotten anyone.
‘I don’t know what, though.’
‘Sweets?’ suggested Flower. ‘Everyone likes sweets.’
‘I didn’t know you sold them, Flower!’
‘I have my own range,’ she said proudly, leading the way over to a dim and distant shelf that had previously escaped my notice. Flower’s range had been created by filling old jam jars of various sizes and shapes with bought sweets and then covering the lids with miniature bath caps in shiny purple. Handwritten paper labels gave a new slant to the contents.
‘Wizard’s Wands’ were just liquorice sticks, the soft, twisted sort with one end dipped in little coloured granules. ‘Tasty Spells’ were old-fashioned humbugs and ‘Magical Mints’ were the soft kind covered in chocolate and individually wrapped in foil.
Den liked liquorice; I remembered Teddy saying he was going to save him some liquorice allsorts the first time we collected him from school.
I bought several jars and Flower’s eyes shone so much she looked quite beautiful for a moment, in a slightly Drowned Ophelia kind of way.
‘As long as my card doesn’t spontaneously combust when you put it in the machine,’ I said glumly. The rent for the flat would have gone out of my account, and now I was paying it all on my own it was quite a burden. I really must start cottage hunting as soon as I got back after Christmas.
Flower made me coffee in the kitchen and left me minding Grace-Galadriel while she was packing my purchases. I just had time to whip out my sketchpad and do a quick drawing ofthe baby before she came back. I still had a few mounts left and even if I couldn’t give the drawing to Flower for Christmas, I’d see her on Boxing Day.
When we’d drunk our coffee and eaten some home-made biscuits that looked like perforated cardboard and tasted much the same, I said I’d better get back.
‘I’ve just remembered there’s a letter for the Red House here,’ she said, getting up and fetching a battered envelope from the dresser. ‘Here we are! It must have been damp in the post bag, because this was stuck to the bottom of a parcel. We had to peel it off.’
‘The snow probably got in, while they were dragging it through the drifts,’ I said. ‘But at least you can still read the address label.’
