Page 57 of One More Christmas at the Castle
She turned away towards a small wooden bridge that spanned the stream where it narrowed, and I took the opportunity to slip away. It was more than time I got back.
As I came up the final flight of steps that brought me out on to the lawn in front of the house, I noticed for the first time that the small shrubs in a bed at one side were grouped around a much larger fir tree – and I suddenly imagined how it would look at night, if it was covered in fairy lights … which would be so easy with big outdoor solar ones.
I was still thinking about this when I ran into Maria, who was emerging from the door of the Garden Hall.
‘Hello!’ I said. ‘Were you looking for me?’
‘It is all right, I find Henry instead. I bring more baklava for Xan, because I made a batch for Andy, but not enough for that greedy Lucy. Henry says he will slip it to Xan when he is having coffee in the study.’
‘I’m sure he’ll enjoy that,’ I said. ‘How is Andy doing?’
I’d texted to enquire, of course, but hadn’t actually seen her since the morning after we arrived.
‘Better for being home, he says, and he is doing all the exercises the physiotherapist told him to do.’
‘That’s good, Maria. But why don’t you come back and have some coffee with me?’ I suggested.
But she declined, saying she wanted to get home again, though before she went I asked her if they ever put lights on the ornamental fir tree at the front of the house. She looked at me as if I was mad and said no, they only decorated the tree indoors.
Suddenly I was determined that this year it would be lit up – a little surprise for my employer.
Since leeks and potatoes were now pretty much the only vegetables in the house till the delivery arrived, that was the kind of soup I made for lunch and then debated over whether to makecroque-monsieurorcroque-madameas the second course.Madame, I decided.
Henry took Xan his coffee and the baklava, and said he’d found him still sifting the material from the first cupboards and it looked like a very strange jumble sale in there with the varied contents spread along the tables.
I told him about my conversations with Mrs Powys in the garden, and how she seemed to keep forgetting I was there.
He was, predictably, delighted with the idea of an expedition in the Land Rover down a steep and probably very rough track through the woods, to chop down a Christmas tree or two.
‘You’ll have to come and help – maybe Xan too,’ he said. ‘We need areallybig one for the Great Hall!’
I’d definitely be going with him, but mainly to ensure he didn’t hurt himself with the axe, or pick some ludicrously giant conifer. I wouldn’t put a giant redwood past him.
‘We don’t need to do that till later next week, once the cleaners have been in again,’ I said, then added, ‘It was rather sad when Mrs Powys told me she’d been thinking about her mother a lot, since starting recording her memories for Xan, and the wonderful Christmases they had when she was a child.’
‘We’re going to incorporate all the traditions she can remember into this one, so it’s really special,’ Henry said. ‘It’s a pity she never had any children, isn’t it? There might have been grandchildren now, to share the magic with.’
‘I thought that, too, and I did wonder who would inherit the Castle.’
‘I think the only relatives left on her side are Lucy and her brother, Nigel, because the Mellings are related to her husband,’ Henry said.
‘How do you know?’
‘Well, from what Mrs Powys said about her guests and then, from Lucy, too. If you listen to the babble carefully enough, you can pick out the odd nugget of information.’
‘I think I’d be more likely to go into a coma of boredom,’ I said, then shrugged. ‘Oh, well, it’s none of our business anyway.’
‘True,’ he said, and went to lay the table for lunch, before saying he was going to fetch more firewood.
‘There’s still lots cut, but I might chop some more tomorrow, because the weather forecast says it’ll probably snow.’
‘It was trying to snow a bit when I went out, but we don’t want too much of it if it does, just a pretty sprinkling,’ I said. ‘It can snow heavily once the rest of the houseguests have arrived!’
It took me ages to put the huge supermarket delivery away, but once I had, I felt as happy as a squirrel with a huge hoard of nuts.
The fridge and freezers were groaning, and one of the small rooms off the corridor was stacked with all the bulky household items, like kitchen and loo rolls.
I ticked off the last things from the order: dried fruit and citrus peel, glacé cherries, flour, treacle, golden syrup, jars and jars of mincemeat, packets of gelatine and fruit jelly, trifle sponges, and my favourite quick cheats: frozen puff pastry and Yorkshire puddings – large ones, the size of soup bowls, and the small, traditional ones. Both these things are time-consuming to make and the frozen versions are just as good. I confess, I do pretend I made them myself and hide the packets well down in the kitchen bin, though.
