Page 76 of The Christmas Retreat
‘Good idea,’ said Evie. ‘Even I have found myself mindlessly watching inane TV series when recovering from something like that.’
But after that, I’m afraid we quickly forgot about poor Opal as we pulled crackers, put on gold paper crowns and read silly jokes to each other. We gave the little plastic figures inside the crackers to Cariad. They made up a whole Nativity scene and you could construct the stable from the box they came in.
Nerys had explained that Bronwen and Tudor wouldn’t dine with us, because immediately we’d finished, they would go to their daughter’s house for the rest of the day and have their Christmas dinner there.
‘So we make do for ourselves later, with sandwiches and mince pies,’ Timon said. ‘And you’ll have seen from the brochures in your rooms that we have an expedition to the Welsh Mountain Zoo in Colwyn Bay tomorrow, so breakfast is the usual time, and then we can set off early.’
‘We have lunch at the zoo, but Bronwen and Tudor will leave soup and sandwiches for anyone not coming on the trip to help themselves to,’ explained Nerys. ‘We’ll be back for tea. But now,’ she added as Timon, who was carving the turkey, began to pass plates along the table, and Tudor came in with the roast potatoes and parsnips to add to the dishes of chipolata sausages, buttered peas and sprouts already on the table, ‘let’s tuck in!’
It was the sort of sumptuous Christmas feast of a kind I’d only previously seen in recipe books and films, with not only great boats of thick gravy to accompany it, but cranberry jelly and bread sauce, too.
Pearl had a little savoury bake to herself and a boat of vegetarian gravy.
We had Prosecco to wash it all down with, and even Kate got rather merry after a while, while Verity’s sweet Madonna face became a little pinker.
Finally, when we’d helped clear the main course off the table, the lights were put out and Tudor carried in a huge cannonball of a Christmas pudding, the top alight with an unearthly blue flame. There was a big cut-glass bowl of trifle too, with jugs of custard and thick cream.
I don’t think I’ve ever eaten so much in my life. Maybe Evie had had a point about it being the season of conspicuous consumption, but then, itwasonly once a year!
The bubbles in the Prosecco had gone to my head, and I was probably not the only one, for everyone looked a little flushed after that, even Pearl, who had eaten what was probably her own body weight in roast potatoes and almost all the nut roast intended for two. She looked pretty with pink cheeks and bright eyes and I could tell Toby thought so too. Romance might be in the air, and perhaps Opal would wake up from her flu-induced slumber to find the prince had snatched away her sister!
‘Here’s to many more happy Christmases just like this one,’ said Noel, raising his glass for the final toast. ‘Perhaps some of you will come back again next year.’
‘I’ll drink to that,’ said Rhys, and, catching my eye, raised his glass to me and smiled. I found I couldn’t look away.
Tyger, tyger, burning bright …
Verity broke the spell. She leaned forward and said to me, across Rhys, ‘I suppose this is quite a sad time for you, Ginny, remembering past Christmases with your boyfriend, Will. After all, you broke up quite recently, didn’t you?’
I stared at her blankly for a moment, then said, surprised, ‘No, we broke up ages ago and I haven’t given him a single thought all day!’
‘So brave,’ she murmured. ‘But Christmas does alwaysremind us of our lost loved ones, doesn’t it? I’m sure Rhys must think of poor Annie at this time of the year, too.’ She cast him a sweet, understanding smile. ‘And Cariad too, poor motherless child.’
She made her sound like Little Orphan Annie and I saw that Cariad was looking across at her with her clear, critical gaze.
‘If you mean Mummy, I don’t remember ever seeing her at Christmas, and she just sent me an Amazon token.’
‘I don’t see why you’ve decided to cast yourself in the role of Scrooge and summon all the ghosts of Christmas Past to join us, Verity,’ said Nerys tartly. ‘You have a propensity for saying exactly the wrong thing!’
‘I’m sure I didn’t mean to upset anyone,’ faltered Verity, looking stricken.
‘Good, because you haven’t managed it,’ said Rhys, brusquely.
But Verity’s wordshadsummoned not only Will’s ghost, which I had no trouble in banishing, but also that of the mercurially beautiful and bewitching Annie, which was less easy to banish.
Evie leaned forward, her beady dark blue eyes sparkling. ‘Well, now we’ve got the Spirit of Christmas Past out of the way, perhaps we can have a little spirit of another kind to follow our feast with?’
‘Of course,’ agreed Timon. ‘Here’s Tudor with the coffee, so anyone who wants it can take it through to the sitting room. Noel can be bartender for those who want something stronger while I help clear up here.’
‘Certainly, dear boy,’ said Noel.
I noticed that Tudor managed to whisk Verity’s plate, from which she was still consuming minute teaspoons of trifle, out from under her nose while her attention was distracted.
Toby, Rhys, Pearl and I volunteered to help clear up, so Timon could take up the small TV set to Opal’s room.
Bronwen was obviously a cook who liked the kitchen tidied and things washed up as she went along, for there wasn’t much left to do in there, other than hand wash the champagne glasses, and Rhys did that while I dried.
Pearl followed Timon upstairs with some soup and a hot whisky toddy for the invalid, and reported back that she didn’t seem any worse and still just wanted to be left alone.
