Page 97 of One More Christmas at the Castle
They both agreed that that sounded good. Afterwards, Xan and Plum returned to the study, while Henry vanished into his green bower.
I put everything I’d used for the icing away and then made a few preparations for later, before joining Xan in the study. I passed the open cloakroom door on the way, but Henry was so engrossed in what he was doing that he didn’t notice me.
Entirely appropriately, he was quietly whistling ‘The Holly and the Ivy’.
Xan was absorbed in his work, too, sorting out yet more letters he’d found in one of the desk drawers, but he looked up and smiled at me when I went in.
‘These are from Tommy, with carbons of Asa’s answers attached.’
‘That makes more to read through,’ I said, ‘though at least you get both sides of the story, as it were.’
I left him to it and set to work on another shelf … and the room fell silent, apart from the rustle of papers, the click of Xan’s fingers on the keyboard and Plum’s soft, snuffling snores from the small sofa.
I thought how much I enjoyed these quiet times together, when we often barely spoke for an hour, yet the silence between us was so comfortable.
I’d just replaced all the books on the newly polished shelf when the door to the library swung open.
Nancy’s voice said, ‘There you are, Xan! You were so quiet, I wasn’t sure anyone was in here. And Dido, too,’ she added, beaming at me. ‘You both look very busy and I don’t want to disturb you, just let you know that we’re home and Lucy’s back, too.’
But I’d caught sight of the clock and exclaimed, ‘Look at the time! It’s lucky you did come in, Nancy, or tea would be late.’
‘There’s nearly half an hour before it,’ she said, ‘and what does it matter if it’s a little later?’
But I knew it mattered to Mrs Powys, and I hurried off to wash and change into a clean tunic.
Henry hadn’t noticed the time either and was still wrestling with his greenery in the cloakroom.
He’d already wrought miraculous garlands, which were looped around the room on the coat hooks, and was now threading ivy through the frame of the Mistletoe Bough.
‘You carry on and finish what you’re doing,’ I told him. ‘I can take tea through, for once.’
‘Well, thank you, darling,’ he said gratefully. ‘I really don’t want to stop now that my creative juices are fully flowing.’
‘Sap,’ I said, hurrying off.
‘And the same to you!’ he called after me.
28
Upside Down
When I pushed the tea trolley into the sitting room, Mrs Powys looked up.
‘Where is Henry?’ she demanded.
‘He’s in the middle of creating all the swags and garlands and the Mistletoe Bough, Mrs Powys. It seemed silly for him to stop when I could bring tea in just as easily.’
‘Hmmph!’ she said.
‘He found the frame for the Mistletoe Bough in the attic, Sabine,’ Xan told her.
‘I thought it seemed a pity to disturb you and Xan in the library earlier, too, just to remind you we were back for tea,’ Nancy said, twinkling. ‘Such a cosy, quietly domestic scene, with both of you working away in perfect harmony, and old Plum snoring away in the corner, as usual! You two young people are obviously kindred spirits.’
‘Oh – but …’ I began to stammer, going pink with embarrassment, though I noticed that Xan, pouring himself some coffee, merely looked amused at Nancy’s assumptions.
My employer, on the other hand, did not. She was wearingan arrested expression and her glacial blue eyes looked me over assessingly.
‘Nothing of the sort, Nancy!’ she said shortly. ‘Dido is merely helping with the cleaning in the study, that’s all. You forget that she already has a young man of her own – Henry.’
