Page 66 of The Christmas Retreat
When we got back, I felt tired out but still wired from the performance, and I think at least some of the others felt the same. We had a nightcap – cocoa, in my case – and then, apparently another family tradition at this time of year, Nerys got out the board games and I found myself playing Monopoly with Toby, Pearl and Rhys while Ma was engaged in a ferocious Scrabble battle with Kate and Noel.
I knew who I’d putmymoney on.
*
I woke on Christmas Eve with a feeling of excited anticipation.
It would be lovely to watch Cariad open her presents from under the tree, and perhaps watchElf, which was one of my favourite seasonal films. And last night I’d discovered I still enjoyed board games, so long as I wasn’t playing them with someone really competitive, like Kate or Evie!
I lay there savouring last night’s experience and thinking about the day ahead. My work ethic seemed suddenly to have loosened to the point where it was now practically falling off, and when I finally got up and looked out of the window, the dark mauve-grey sky had lifted on the horizon to reveal a steely blue beneath. There was no snow, just a light icy frosting again. A tall, dark shape was moving up the long slope of lawn towards the house – Rhys, I was sure, on his way back from an early commune with his muse – and I drew quickly back and closed the curtains again, hoping he hadn’t seen me.
Taking a cup of Earl Grey over to the desk, I opened my laptop and started, finally, to seriously search for a new home.
*
When I mentioned what I’d been doing at breakfast, Evie said it was about time!
‘Where have you been looking?’
‘I haven’t been searching by area but by the type of cottage I want and my price range, then seeing what comes up,’ I said. ‘I don’t want to stay in Bedfordshire, but to start again somewhere new.’
‘If you’ve already moved out of your old cottage, then you’ll need to find something to rent for a bit, while you find it, won’t you?’ suggested Timon, who, for once, was at breakfast. ‘We could probably find you somewhere locally to rent short term – and then you might find you like it so much, you’d want to live here permanently.’
‘Yes, why not?’ agreed Nerys, warmly. ‘After all, you have friends here now.’
‘Oh, but I’m sure Ginny would feel cut off here, so far from London,’ suggested Verity.
‘I hate London,’ I said. ‘I only go about once a year, to see my agent and editor.’
‘You can get to London quite easily by train anyway, from Llandudno Junction, or Aberystwyth,’ said Timon, getting up to go. ‘Right – I’m off. It’ll be a busy day at the pottery, but we close at noon today, and then the shop and cafe shut at four.’
‘About that idea that you rent somewhere locally,’ Rhys said to me as Timon went out. ‘Since the Prynne family own quite a lot of local properties, I can ask them if they’ve got anything suitable, if you like?’
‘Great idea,’ said Nerys. ‘They don’t do holiday lets and only usually rent to local people, but then, we hope you’re going to become local!’
‘That’s very kind of you, and I suppose it would make sense while I’m searching for something to buy. I do like what I’ve seen of North Wales so far.’
‘I’ll show you a bit more of the area after Christmas,’ Rhys promised, ‘and anyone else who’d like a couple of trips out.’
‘And we can have a little online search to see what kind of thing is for sale locally, as well,’ suggested Evie, who appeared suddenly keen to plant me miles away from her.
Most of the others didn’t seem to have been bitten by the Christmas bug yet and dispersed for work, but somehow Toby and I found ourselves roped in by Opal to help carry the equipment the twins needed up to the oak grove, where they intended filming some preliminary work.
There, despite the freezing cold, after setting up the camera near the pool, she and Pearl took off their warm outer clothing – Pearl reluctantly – to shiver in floaty green tunics over leggings.
Among all the moss, pebbles and light filtering magically through the branches, they didn’t look quite as out of place as usual, even when they put on the masks and started to gesticulate in mirror image to each other through the folding frame.
As I watched with Toby, it occurred to me that, when not wearing the masks, they were less identical than they had been before. Pearl’s face already seemed to have filled out a little and her cheeks, when not frozen by cold, held a healthy pink tint.
But just then, her little pointed face was steadily growing more pinched and pallid by the minute, with the cold, which Opal didn’t appear to feel!
I was shivering even in my padded jacket and when Opal suggested we move our activities up to the tomb on the hill, Toby vetoed it with surprising firmness, saying that at this rate they’d both catch pneumonia and they had much better just go back down and thaw out.
‘Oh, yes – let’s!’ pleaded Pearl, and eventually Opal had to capitulate.
‘I suppose we can evaluate what we’ve got … but I just need to take a look at the tomb before we go down,’ she insisted.
But Toby, seeing Pearl give a galvanic shiver, was already helping her into her anorak and then pulled his own warm beanie hat over her head before leading the way back down towards the house.
