Page 23 of Meet Me Under the Mistletoe
“I’ve been developing a hybrid plant for the last couple of years. It’s not something I would have expected a layman to recognize, though.”
It was Nory’s turn to give a quizzical look. “Haveyou metmy family? I knew about perennials, annuals, and evergreens before I could say the alphabet!”
Isaac laughed. “I thought you said you weren’t a flower nerd.”
“I think we both know I am a total flower nerd.”
“There we are similar, at least,” he said.
They finished their cocoa to the gentle sounds of Lettuce snoring and the popping of logs on the fire.
“Do you miss it?” Isaac asked. “The quiet of the countryside?”
“The countryside isn’t quiet! It’s just a different set of noises. I guess you learn to tune them out. In London I’m used to theconstant hum of traffic, and here I’m used to the incessant music of the wildlife. I find them both soothing in their own way. Although maybe not so much in the summer; London noise can feel oppressive at three a.m. when it’s twenty-eight degrees.”
“Ha, yeah, but the payoff is that you don’t get eaten alive by midges the second you open a window!” said Isaac.
“This is true.”
They were quiet for a long moment. After being so cold, warming up was making Nory’s limbs feel soft and relaxed. She began to think about visiting home tomorrow.
“Do you ever see my brother?” she asked.
“Yeah, quite a bit. He’s a good mate.”
Nory mentally scrubbed out one of the ticks she’d given Isaac earlier for his bookshelf. If he was good friends with her brother, did that mean they shared the same attitude?
“How is he?” she asked.
“Don’t you know?”
“We don’t talk much. And I doubt I’d be the person he’d turn to if he ever wasn’t okay. I thought maybe you could give me a heads-up before I go down there tomorrow. I like to know what I’m walking into.”
“As your brother’s friend, it wouldn’t really be my place to divulge things he might have shared with me. But since I can think of nothing to cause you worry or to make me feel disloyal, I can tell you that he’s fine. You probably know your dad is taking a bit of a step back at the nursery, and that seems to suit Thom. He likes being in charge.”
“Don’t I know it!”
Isaac laughed. “I mean, it suits him, the extra responsibility. I suppose we’re alike in that way, both taking over where our fathers left off.”
“I’d like to think I’ll have someone to leave my bookshop to one day. Maybe I’ll start training up my nephews now.”
“Ha, good luck with that. Thom’s already got them earmarked for the nursery.”
Of course he has. Thom was like her dad, all about keeping the family business going. Nory couldn’t help feeling that she had somehow betrayed them by not sticking around to play her part.
The clock on the fireplace read 1:00 a.m., and Nory could see Isaac struggling to stifle his yawns. If she didn’t move soon, she was liable to nod off on his sofa.
“I’m going to head back up to the castle,” she said, forcing herself to get up. “If they’re not all in bed, they’ll at least be too drunk to notice me.”
Isaac stretched and stood. “I’ll drive you round.”
“There’s no need, it’s not that far.”
“It’s far enough in the cold and the pitch-dark. The castle staff will have turned off the outside lights by now. I’d rather not find you tomorrow frozen in the maze, like Jack Nicholson at the end ofThe Shining.”
“Well, when you put it like that...” Nory smiled.
She was grateful that Isaac had ignored her polite protestations and even more grateful for the fur-lined Wellington boots he loaned her. The temperature seemed to have dropped even further, and the sky had the eerie yellow glow it got when it was holding on to snow. It only took five or six minutes in the car to get back to the castle, but Nory knew it would have taken her three times as long on foot in the dark. The old Range Roverwas comfortable but definitely a working vehicle; the backseat was strewn with work gloves and jackets for varying weather. It smelled of earth after the rain with an undercurrent of damp dog.
