Page 41 of The Start of the Story
‘I’m glad you said that.’ Chess began rewinding the scarf again. ‘Only if you’re going out you can’t mind if I head into town and finish the last bits of present buying, can you?’
‘I suppose not. But back here by twelve. I’ve got a Zoom call with the grants people who want to know how the book is getting on, and I want you to be bustling around in the background looking busy.’
‘Oh, the usual.’ She sighed. ‘You want me to interrupt with a phone call from…’
‘Wales. Wales is good. No, outside the brief for the book. Um, how about Northallerton? That’s in my area, they might fall for that one.’
‘Okay, phone call from Northallerton, what, half an hour in?’
‘Please. We should have gone over everything by then, and I can offer to send them the manuscript so far, if they’re really desperate. But I should think they’ll all be wanting to go home for Christmas too, and it might all be over in ten minutes.’
I pulled my coat back on and grabbed my car keys, then Chess and I shared a smile of complicity and went off into York.
I was back within an hour, having elbowed my way around the hell that was a supermarket in the run-up to Christmas, leaving the food in the freezing confines of the car, where I reasoned nothing could possibly go off, as it was basically a metal box in sub-zero temperatures.
Chess hadn’t returned yet, and I still had time to kill before I had to appear frantically busy in front of the grants people, so I sat at my desk with another coffee, and flipped pages. Someone had written to me wanting some information on an old story that I’d covered. It was about a ghost at a well possibly being a hangover from tales of water spirits, and I had to reacquaint myself with the story before I replied. So, when I heard the outer door bang, I assumed Chess was back and called out to her to bring some coffee through.
A few minutes later, Connor put his head around the door, carrying two cups of hot chocolate from the market just down the road. ‘Thought these might be more appropriate.’
‘Thank you.’ I glanced at my screen, set up for the Zoom call and waiting for the other parties to join. ‘Are you off, then?’
‘Sorry? Off where?’
‘I thought you were flying tomorrow. I thought you’d be heading to the airport tonight, what with snow forecast and everything.’
He sipped his chocolate. ‘Ah, no. I’ll head over tomorrow, plenty of time. I’ve got a late afternoon flight – I’m not really up to spending more time than I have to surrounded by the budding sisters-in-law all asking when I’m going to get myself partnered up and start reproducing, and the brothers slapping my back and telling me that I don’t know how lucky I am not to be.’
‘And Eamonn, who presumably won’t be doing either.’
‘No, no, true. He’ll be asking me when I last went to confession.’
‘Tough crowd, then.’
‘Yep.’
‘Look, I have to do this Zoom thing, then I’ll wait for Chess to get back and tell her we’re closing the office early. Is that all right?’
‘Grand.’ Connor went and sat in the corner of the room, flipping casually through some notes, while I spoke to the grants people, who all seemed to be very happy and smiley today. I put it down to the proximity of Christmas, and, since they all seemed happy with the progress of the potential book, I finished the call without needing any intervention of the ‘emergency phone call’ kind.
When I’d disconnected, Connor stood up. ‘Well, they all seemed very jolly,’ I said.
‘Probably because you’ve got chocolate all over your mouth,’ he replied.
‘Shit, no, I haven’t, have I?’ My camera wasn’t particularly good and the lighting in the office was dreadful, and I hadn’t been looking at my own face, assessing the mood of the grant board. But when I checked, Connor was absolutely right and I had a noticeable ring of hot chocolate across my top lip. ‘Oh, bugger. Now they’re going to think I’ve got the mental acuity of a five-year-old.’
‘No, no, you sounded very professional.’ He grinned at me, and then Chess came banging in.
‘Sorry, sorry! Meant to be back earlier but there was a hell of a queue in Seasalt and – did you know you’ve got chocolate all over your face?’
She began unwinding the scarf again, raising her eyebrows at me under cover of the enormous woolly beanie hat she waswearing and jerking her head towards Connor in a ‘I see you’ve brought a friend’ kind of way.
‘Yes, thank you, Chess, twenty minutes ago that would have been great advice.’
‘Oh. Did I miss the Zoom?’
‘Yes, you did, but it was all right, I had Connor there squatting in the corner to make the office look occupied. Don’t take your scarf off, I’ve decided it’s home time.’
Chess made a moue of surprise, and the eyebrows went up again. ‘Really? Wow, Rowan, that’s decent. You’re really…’ Then she stopped and began making a huge performance out of rewinding the scarf and adjusting her hat.
