Page 65 of All Wrapped Up
‘And now I can’t wait for the feast at Fenview Farm,’ I eventually said, when it was obvious that he, for some reason, was lost for words.
The feast was happening on Thursday evening and then Lizzie was running more craft workshops on Saturday. There were going to be a few autumn stalls set up on the market, too, but there was nothing really full-on happening. It was a slow lead in to October which I was grateful for because that was going to be an extremely busy month and hopefully by then I’d be well enough acclimatised to consistently keep up with it all.
‘I’m looking forward to that, too,’ Ash finally said. ‘Events at the farm are always brilliant and I know you liked the venue when you visited.’
‘I loved it and Fliss was great. And she promised to have the barn dressed for autumn by Thursday, so it’s really going to look the part.’
The mention of dressing the barn made my heart skip. I was going to be decorating the cottage the next day, whichwas the equinox. It looked autumnal already, but with my many seasonal additions festooned and arranged about the place right up until Yule, it was going to look even better.
‘Talking of autumn…’
‘Do we ever talk of anything else?’ I laughed.
‘It’s beginning to feel that way, isn’t it?’ Ash laughed, too. ‘It’s the equinox tomorrow.’
‘I know.’
‘Of course you do.’
‘I’m going to be dressing the cottage and I can’t wait.’
‘Will it take you all day?’
‘Probably, given the amount of stuff I’ve got, and into the evening, too.’
There were as many boxes of autumn decorations as Christmas things stowed in the loft. I wondered what Pixie was going to make of them all. I hoped she wasn’t the sort of pooch who had a penchant for wrecking decs!
‘Oh,’ Ash then sighed, ‘that’s a shame.’
‘Why?’
‘Because I was going to suggest we take a walk. Jake and Amber at Skylark Farm have set up a nature trail around the farm and through the woods attached to the land that Moses used to own that abuts theirs and I wondered if you might fancy checking it out.’
I was tempted, but I had my plan for the day in place and really wanted to stick to it.
‘On any other day,’ I told him, ‘I’d be there like a shot, but dressing the cottage for autumn is an equinox tradition with me now and I want to spend some quality time with Pixie, too.’
‘Well,’ said Ash, and I could hear his smile was back, ‘I can hardly object to that, can I?’
‘You don’t mind?’
‘Of course not. I still might go, but we can definitely do it together another time.’
‘Okay.’
‘You really are all right, aren’t you?’ Ash asked.
I could hear the concern in his tone and it made my heart melt a little.
‘Yes,’ I promised. ‘I’m fine. And Pixie is, too. I’m just pacing myself a bit before October lands and the festival really gets underway. You’ve seen the schedule, so you know how busy it’s going to be.’
‘Well, that’s all right then,’ he said, sounding reassured. ‘You’re very sensible, Clemmie.’
I groaned at that.
‘What?’ he laughed.
‘Does that mean boring?’ I grimaced.
