Page 56 of A December to Remember
“Yes. I even worked for him for a time.”
“Was that the marketing job that drove you to become a greengrocer?”
He laughed awkwardly. “It was.”
He looked like he wanted to say more. She could see he wassteeling himself for something, but then Star wandered back into the sitting room, yawning.
“Looks like it’s someone else’s bedtime too.” Maggie smiled.
Patrick exclaimed from the kitchen, and they all turned to see Duncan carrying in a flawless pomegranate costume, with little green leaves around the collar and the hoop wire sewn into the structure to create a perfect sphere.
“Oh my god! Duncan, it’s amazing. Verity is going to be thrilled! I can’t thank you enough. Can I give you some money for your time and expertise? Somehow freezer biscuits and hot chocolate doesn’t feel sufficient.”
Duncan smiled, looking down at the costume and not making eye contact with anyone as they each took turns to praise his sewing skills.
“Honestly, it was a pleasure,” he said awkwardly.
Star was smiling hard, and Maggie noticed a look in her sister’s eye, like she’d like to spread him on toast and eat him.
“Well, anyway, I’d better be off,” Duncan said, looking as though the weight of compliments was crushing him.
“Me too,” said Star a little too eagerly.
“I’ll walk you back,” Duncan offered.
“Thank you.” Star gazed up at him adoringly.
At last you’ve fallen for someone deserving of you, Maggie mused, smiling at the two of them.And it looks like he’s equally smitten.The idea made her feel deeply contented.
Patrick grabbed his coat and followed them out, headed to a party with a mate. “Don’t wait up!” he shouted before pulling the front door shut.
“And then there were two,” said Joe. He took Maggie by the hand and led her toward her bedroom and as always, she was powerless to resist.
24
The drizzle wasfreezing cold as Duncan walked Star home.
“Wouldn’t it be quicker to go through the shop?” he asked, when Star steered them toward the gate in the wall like she had the night before.
“I don’t really like walking through the shop by myself in the dark. I never did. I guess that sounds silly.”
“Not at all. Some of those Toby jugs are pretty menacing.” He grinned.
“I’m not keen on Dad’s collection of taxidermy either, they’re so creepy. He put a stoat in my room once to keep me company when my sisters were away. I was terrified all night! I was convinced I could see it snarling at me in the moonlight.”
“That actually sounds truly frightening.” Duncan chuckled. Unlike last night, this time he followed her through the gate and round to the door which led up to the flat. “It’s the stuff of all good horror movies,” he went on.
“Right!” She laughed too loudly to cover the beating of her heart. He was making it very hard for her to not kiss him. “I made Dad take it away, and he replaced it with some mangy oldbear called Steph, or something like that, who looked much more friendly. He said it had been made for a prince and was gifted to him as a farewell token by a royal clockmaker in Geneva. But that could have been one of his tall tales; there were plenty of them.”
“Could it have been called Steiff rather than Steph?” he asked.
He had a twinkle in his eye that Star had noticed he got whenever he found something really crusty looking in the shop. She loved seeing Duncan’s excitement. He could see magic where others saw trash. She had begun to hope he might look at her like that one day. She stuffed the feeling down.
“Yeah, that was it,” she said. “It was called Steiff bear. It was properly ancient.”
“Is it still here? In the flat?”
“It is. Do you think it might be worth something?”
