Page 104 of The Day After Christmas
His tone was not reassuring.
‘You can of course, but…’ Felicity’s voice tailed off. She seemed to be making things worse. She resolved to try again later and they ate in strained silence for a few agonising moments. Then to her great relief, James spoke.
‘I was wondering if you might like to go away for Christmas this year,’ he said, suddenly. He sounded a little nervous, but at least he was planning ahead. You didn’t plan ahead if you were planning to dump someone, did you? A whisper of relief ran down Felicity’s spine.Don’t be paranoid. Everything’s fine,she told herself.
‘That could be really nice,’ she said. ‘Who would look after the cats though, it might be difficult for Sophie on Christmas Day?’
‘I’ve sorted that already,’ said James, and he went back to eating his pie in silence.
‘Okay… And where did you have in mind exactly?’
His turn to wave a fork. ‘Wherever you want. I was thinking somewhere lovely and festive. You know, really get us in the mood for Crimbo.’
He paused, then gave a grin and she burst out laughing. ‘You know I hate that word,’ she said, with a giggle.
‘Crimbo? It’s a classic. Right up there with holibobs, surely?’
Felicity made a horrified face and it was James’s turn to laugh. ‘No? You don’t like holibobs?’
She shook her head furiously. ‘People who say holibobs wear socks with crocs. It’s a known fact.’
He grimaced. ‘That should be a crime.’
‘I’m fairly sure it is in about thirty countries.’
‘Rightly so.’
‘Yup.’
Felicity allowed herself a small sigh of relief. Here was the James she knew and loved.
‘So not somewhere too Christmassy then,’ said James, trying to get the conversation back on track.
‘No. I don’t mind a little bit festive but I need to feel like I can opt out if I need to.’
‘Fair enough,’ said James with a nod. ‘Will you allow me to surprise you if I stick to those rules?’
‘If you like.’ A little rush of excitement went through her.
‘Okay, that’s settled.’ James went back to eating his food but she could have sworn his shoulders had dropped by a good eight inches. It wasn’t like James to be nervous about anything. This was all very peculiar but Felicity did the only thing she could do under the circumstances. She went back to eating a Yorkshire pudding the size of her own head and pretended everything was absolutely fine.
CHAPTER 50
It was four weeks to Christmas. Everywhere there were decorations going up, trees being heaved into place in town squares, lights being switched on by barely celebrities. James and Felicity had vaguely thought about going to get a tree instead of the tiny selection of branches they’d gone for last year, and that was definite progress. It even snowed a little in late November. Only a little, not enough to cause any – shock, horror – disruption but enough to make things look wintry, which was just the perfect amount for Britain. It had had the result of leaving everyone feeling even more festive than usual.
James and Felicity were booked to go away… somewhere… on Christmas Eve, the anniversary of their meeting and rapidly becoming Felicity The Reformed Grinch’s favourite part of the Christmas season. She still had no clue where they were actually going though, and it hadn’t helped when he’d told her to bring a mixture of clothes because the climate was “unpredictable”.
‘It’s not Scotland, is it?’ she said a little nervously.
‘Nope,’ was all he said in reply.
‘No offence to Scotland of course, but, you know.’
‘I know.’
Andrea and Harry were busy making the last-minute preparations for their move to Guernsey which was all booked for the second weekend of December. This included navigating some very complex repatriation rules regarding Harry’s long absence from the island but he seemed to be taking it all in his stride. In fact, they seemed very keen to have this semi-famous novelist back. There had been no further mention of James and Felicity going over to join them, which was weird, but Felicity just assumed they’d all decided she hated the idea. Which she didn’t entirely. But she’d made such a fuss it was a bit awkward to mention it now. Perhaps they’d go and visit at some point and she could casually slip it into conversation.
Andrea was all of a flutter. It was a situation Felicity was finding highly amusing.
