Page 70 of The Christmas Retreat
‘The sound system’s playing up again, Vicar. That’s Dad,’ Angelo called, in a resigned kind of way.
The vicar looked rather helplessly at the microphone, but Max Prynne slid out of his aisle seat and went to switch it off.
‘Er, thank you,’ said the vicar as peace was restored, and then wound up his sermon in a somewhat distracted manner.
With an air of relief he announced the final carol, and the opening notes were just wheezing from the organ when the third interruption of the evening occurred. A tall, white-haired and wild-eyed elderly man, looking like a disreputable prophet, arose from behind the hay bales.
He stared wildly around, blinking, and then seemed to focus on Walter.
‘Ish a donkey,’ he said. Then, his eye moving on to the life-sized angel standing next to him: ‘I’ve died ansh gone t’Heavensh.’
‘No, you haven’t then,’ said a small, stocky, middle-aged woman, marching up and grabbing the man by the arm. ‘It’ll be the other place for you, you old reprobate.’
‘Thash no way to talk to your grandfasher,’ said the man, sounding hurt.
‘We’ve spent hours searching for you, thinking you were out in the cold somewhere and all the time, you were here, sleeping it off in the church!’
She took his arm and propelled him towards the door, saying over her shoulder, distractedly, ‘I’m so sorry, Vicar!’
‘That’s all right, Mona. God loves a sinner,’ he assured her. Then, as the door closed behind them, he said, generally, ‘Well, that was a most stirring end to our service, wasn’t it?’
Then he wished us all a blessed and happy Christmas, and the organist, who was hidden behind a faded red velvet curtain, played us out with ‘Unto Us a Child Is Born’.
‘That was even more entertaining than usual,’ said Nerys as we climbed back into our minibus.
‘Yes, I don’t see how they can top that next year,’ Timon agreed.
‘Perhaps they’ll finally fix the sound system at least, although, actually, I look forward to Tony at the pizzeria joining in every year,’ Noel said. ‘Luckily, I don’t think many of the congregation can understand fast and idiomatic Italian.’
‘Idiomatic is one word for it,’ Evie said, grinning.
*
Cariad was tired enough to fall asleep on the way back, but then woke up in a sort of feverish excitement and didn’t want to go to bed. Nerys took her off there firmly and Rhys promised to go up in a bit and readThe Night Before Christmasto her, which apparently he did every Christmas Eve.
Tudor and Bronwen had gone straight home to their flat over the garage, but Noel had come back with us, because he always stayed for a couple of nights at Christmas to be, as he put it, in the heart of the family festivities.
When we all went into the sitting room and I caught a good look at Opal in the light, I thought she, like Cariad, looked feverish – although surely not with excitement, in her case? She was quiet and shivery too, and her small face was even more pinched and pale than usual.
Nerys, returning, noticed it too. ‘I hope you haven’t caught a chill, Opal,’ she said, scrutinizing her.
‘That’s whatIsaid,’ Pearl told her twin. ‘You really don’t look quite yourself, Opal. Youwouldstay out earlier when it was so freezing!’
‘Nonsense. I don’t feel the cold and you know I’m never ill!’ Opal said crossly. ‘I’m just tired, that’s all – and I’m going to bed.’
‘Famous last words,’ said Verity, when the door had closedbehind her. ‘She looks as if she might be about to get flu or something like that.’
Toby said, ‘I agree, Pearl, I really don’t think your sister looks well.’
‘I know, but she’ll never admit it! And shewouldhave us pose without our coats on earlier, so she probably has caught a chill, at least. And she does get colds and flu, but usually she just says she’s fine and tries to carry on as if nothing is happening.’
‘I know the type, but if it turns out to be flu, she’s not sitting around sniffling and sneezing among the rest of us,’ Nerys said firmly. ‘We don’t want to catch it!’
‘It would be a shame if the poor girl had to miss Christmas Day, though,’ said Noel.
‘It would be even more of a shame if she didn’t and we all came down with some horrible bug,’ pointed out Evie. ‘Anyway, let’s not count our viruses before they hatch. We can see what she’s like in the morning.’
While Rhys went up to read to Cariad, Timon handed out the drinks and Nerys went off to the kitchen and came back with hot mince pies.
