Page 78 of The Secret Christmas Library
‘Thank you,’ said Mirren, meaning it. ‘That was a lot of fun.’
‘Did it make up for the fact that there aren’t going to be any presents apart from the books?’
‘The books are enough. Plus, that was a gift,’ said Mirren, quite seriously.
He grinned. ‘Not everyone thought so.’ Although Theo, it appeared, was much recovered after his spew and was marching on happily. They went to catch them up. About two hundred metres due north of the loch was a gate that led out to the clifftop, the sea far below them on the right. And there, beyond the gate, was the twisting, turning, white-fringed deep green of a hedge maze.
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‘This is amazing,’ breathed Mirren.
‘It’s just likeThe Shining,’ said Theo, looking concerned. ‘Oh, my God – it has icicles and everything.’
‘Who looks after it?’ Esme looked at Jamie. ‘You?’
‘No, I . . . well, I try and keep it trimmed.’
‘So you’ll know it back to front?’
‘I don’t,’ said Jamie. ‘I just trim the outside, keep my fingers crossed for inside.’
The blue sky was clouding over and the temperature dropping by the minute. Now that she was no longer whizzing round the ice, Mirren started to feel cold, and found herself wishing profoundly that her hand were still in Jamie’s.
Jamie tried the gate; it was locked.
‘You lock the maze?’
Both the McKinnons looked faintly embarrassed.
‘Have you got the key?’ Esme said to Jamie.
Jamie pulled out the ring of jingling keys he’d had before but it was obvious none was nearly big enough for the large gate. ‘Nope,’ he said.
The hedge walls around the gate were far too high to climb, and Mirren started to feel like the prince inSleeping Beauty, expected to fight his way through one hundred years of growing brambles.
‘Huh,’ said Esme. She pushed at the rusty old gate, but, although it made a creaking noise, it didn’t give.
‘There must be a way in,’ said Theo, starting to push his thin torso against the hedge walls. ‘There must be a gap.’
They followed the perimeter round. The square of the hedge reminded Mirren of the maze of the house itself, with its four points and long corridors.
Finally, two-thirds of the way round, they halted when Roger vanished, disappeared and then could be heard, barking furiously, from the inside.
‘Roger!’ shouted Jamie.
‘Yeah, Roger, open the gate,’ shouted Esme, then, to the others, ‘What?’
‘How did he get in?’ Jamie felt along the hedge until, almost imperceptibly, he came across a small gap in the hedge at the bottom. ‘Well,’ he said, ducking down and disappearing. Two seconds later he threw his hat in the air from the inside. ‘Yeah, that works!’
‘Why is there a gate, though?’ asked Mirren, as Theo got down on his hands and knees and pushed his way through.
‘Don’t spew again, Theo . . . ’ Esme was calling, and then, to Mirren, ‘Oh, we tried at one point to charge admission. You can imagine how well that went down with the locals.’
‘So badly that they made a tunnel into it?’
Esme smiled tightly. ‘Jamie has really been trying, I think. When the National Trust didn’t want it, and the hotel groups didn’t want it and the army didn’t want it . . . he has tried. To save the place. That’s why you’re here.’
Mirren glanced back at the big house. ‘Doyouwant to save it?’
