Page 29 of One More Christmas at the Castle
‘Xan and I’ve had a quick catch-up,’ said Henry. ‘I’ve told him that we knew all about the marine archaeology stuff, because we googled Sabine Powys. Xan’s going to write a biography of Asa. He’s been trying to get Sabine to agree to it for ages.’
‘I wanted to make it a joint biography, but Sabine wouldn’t hear of it. She’ll come into it a lot, though, because they worked on everything together, even if she does always cast herself as Asa’s assistant.’
‘She did tell me when we were discussing the booking that someone would be staying all of December, to collect material for a biography,’ Henry said. ‘I just hadn’t expected it would be you.’
Nor me! I thought. If I’d only known, I might have tried to get Henry to turn the booking down. But at least there still wasn’t even a flicker of recognition in Xan’s eyes when he looked at me, so if I didn’t say anything to jog his memory, it should all stay hunky-dory … sort of.
Henry was now putting the bacon into rolls and I suddenly remembered I’d been going to go to the morning room to check that Lucy had everything she needed: duty first, even before bacon rolls.
But I found her sitting at the table, toast crumbs on a plate, squeezing out a final cup of tea from the pot. She declined a fresh pot, hot water, or anything else.
‘I’m sure Xan intended to join me for breakfast, but perhapshe overslept,’ she fluted like a mournful bird, looking disgruntled. ‘I don’t suppose you’ve seen him?’
I had a moment’s temptation, but then realized that if I shopped him,shewas quite likely to come and infest my kitchen, too, so I lied through my teeth.
‘I’m afraid not, but I expect he’ll come down soon. There’s no rush, is there? He probably had an even longer drive yesterday than we did.’
‘Perhaps, but surely he must have had to take his dear little doggy out first thing?’
‘I didn’t hear anything,’ I said truthfully. ‘Well, I’d better get back to the kitchen, if there’s nothing more you want, because Maria’s calling in later, in case there’s anything she’s forgotten to tell us about.’
‘Oh, good, though you can always call on me if any difficulties arise.’
‘That’s very kind of you,’ I said, though actually, asking Plum for advice would probably prove more useful. You only had to take one glance at Lucy to get her dithering and ineffectual measure. But still, she seemed well meaning and entirely harmless, so I didn’t expect she’d give us any trouble.
‘We want to take the cares offyourshoulders too, over Christmas,’ I said gravely.
Lucy sighed long-sufferingly. ‘I’ll still have to fetch the newspapers from the shop in Wallstone, the nearest village, after breakfast – they simply won’t deliver any more. And Cousin Sabine wants fresh flowers, because I forgot to top up the water in the vases yesterday, though they perked up again once I’d realized. But no … such a long drive, just for flowers.’
She sighed again in a martyred way and drifted out of the room, and I put everything together on a tray and took it back to the kitchen.
Xan and Henry had almost finished their rolls, but Henry fetched mine from the hotplate where it was keeping warm and poured me a cup of coffee.
‘Eat it, before I do – I’m still hungry,’ he said. ‘What took you so long?’
‘Lucy was wittering on. She was disappointed not to see you at breakfast, Mr Fellowes.’
‘Xan,’ he corrected.
‘But she’s going out shortly to fetch the newspapers and buy flowers, so you’re safe for a while.’
‘I should be safe most of the time, once Sabine opens up Asa’s study and lets me loose in there,’ he said. ‘I’ll be working, so Sabine won’t let her disturb me. I’m looking forward to it, and to recording Sabine as she fleshes out the past for me, though Grandpa did tell me some stories about that time …’
A cloud suddenly seemed to cross his face, but vanished as quickly, and he began feeding his bacon rinds to Plum, who was now sitting at his feet, looking hopeful.
But when no more were forthcoming from his master, Plum switched his attention and his melting dark gaze to me.
‘He’s very cute,’ I said, immediately losing both my heart and my bacon rinds. ‘He looks just like one of those little spaniels in portraits of Cavaliers and their ladies, though he isn’t a Cavalier spaniel at all, is he?’
‘No, but he is a direct descendant of those little dogs in old portraits. His breed is simply called King Charles, without the Cavalier bit – they’re smaller, with a domed head and broad nose,’ Xan explained. ‘They usually have a bit of an undershot jaw, like Plum, too.’
I gave Plum my last bit of rind and then stroked his silky head. Looking up, my eyes met Xan’s strangely light, lilac-greyones and saw his straight, dark brows drawn together in a slightly puzzled way.
‘You know, I keep having the feeling we’ve met before, though I’m sure if we had I’d remember you!’
My heart stopped and restarted again with a thud. I’d been so sure he wouldn’t realize who I was that for a moment I couldn’t speak, but then I said quickly, ‘I don’t think so, because I’d probably remember you, too.’
‘There’s only one Dido walking around looking like an escaped Greek caryatid,’ Henry said with a grin. ‘So there’s no way you could forget her!’
