Page 49 of The Christmas Retreat
‘Where didyouspring from?’
‘These days I don’t spring from anywhere, especially going up steep paths,’ she said with dignity. ‘I took my time, and then one of the New Age Druids was a bit past rushing too, and kindly gave me his arm up the last bit. See, there he is with the others in a huddle. He’s the one with the longest beard.’
She waved and an elderly Druid waved back enthusiastically.
‘He told me they get to do their own little ritual round the fire when the mummers have done theirs: and that’s about to start.’
Indeed, Rhys was now leading his mummers, the boy still beating his drum at the rear, around the fire.
They circled it three times, the Druid declaiming something in what I took to be Welsh as they went.
‘The verse said by the Druid is believed to be part of a much earlier oral tradition when stories and verse were exchanged around the bonfire,’ Timon explained.
Rhys beckoned forward the New Age Druids and the mummers stood back while they, in turn, circled the fire, arms raised to the heavens and chanting.
‘Well, that concludes the whole ceremony,’ said Nerys. ‘We just all wander back down in our own time and gather on the green, where Bronwen and her helpers will be serving the hot punch and the slices of wassail cake.’
Everyone moved nearer to the warmth of the fire and the mummers mingled with the crowd, strangely bizarre in the firelight.
I, however, moved away into the shadow of the steep slope below Mab’s Grave, to look up at the dark star-studded sky.
‘That really bright one is the Winter Star,’ said a deep, mellow and familiar voice in my ear. Rhys was standing right next to me. ‘The tilt of Mab’s Grave echoes the slope of the mountain range over the estuary and they all seem to line up to point to the Winter Star.’
I caught the white gleam of his teeth as he grinned. ‘Actually, if you were here on any clear night, at some moment they would point to any star you wanted them to, I should think, like a stopped watch showing the right time twice a day.’
‘Don’t take the magic away,’ I said involuntarily. ‘I know Noel said the whole rite was a hotchpotch of various traditions, ancient and fairly recent, pagan and Christian, but somehow, the entire thing is imbued with magic and mystery.’
‘I feel that way too, and so do most of the other performers – and that’s why we go on doing it year after year.’
The crowd around the fire had begun to thin and I spotted Evie, linking arms with Old Winter, turn away from the dying embers to start the descent.
Opal and Pearl still stood on the edge of the firelight, like twin wraiths, pale as the undead. Opal appeared to be talking urgently to her sister, so perhaps the Solstice ceremony had inspired her with some ideas for their performance art. Pearl, however, was wistfully gazing beyond her sister to where Toby stood, talking to Megan.
‘Bronwen’s daughter makes a very beautiful St Melangell,’ I said, entirely forgetting for a moment who I was talking to.
‘I suppose she does, but Megan’s never been notably saintly,’ he said, sounding amused.
‘Verity said you’d always beenveryclose,’ I told him. I hadn’t meant to, it just slipped out.
The laughter seemed to go out of his voice. ‘Did she? Well, Megan and I grew up together here at Triskelion and we’re as close as a brother and sister. In fact, her husband is one of my best friends and I’m godfather to their baby, so if Verity implied anything closer between Megan and myself, it was all in her imagination.’
‘Oh, no … I mean, I expect I took what she said the wrong way,’ I said quickly. ‘Not that it matters, in any case.’
‘Doesn’t it?’ he asked softly. ‘Verity has a lot of imagination, so I’d take anything she says with a pinch of salt. I’m sure she imagines I’m some kind of shameless philanderer, but I’m really not that kind of man at all. She should have been a novelist, not a painter!’
I was thrown off balance, wondering who to believe.
My silence must have revealed what I was thinking as he said ruefully, ‘I suppose, given I never contacted you after our first meeting, it’s my own fault if you believe her anyway. Come on, everyone else has gone. As we walk down, I’ll explain the reason why I never called you.’
‘There’s no need to explain anything,’ I said stiffly as I followed the light cast on to the path by his torch, very conscious of his tall, cloaked figure by my side, the hood of his robe now pushed back.
‘I think there is, Ginny.’ He took my elbow to steady me as I slipped on a loose stone, then released me again quickly. ‘What I told you before was true: I never forgot meeting you at that party, or the instant feeling of connection between us. We just clicked, didn’t we?’
‘At the time Ithoughtwe did,’ I said coldly.
‘I hardly remember what I did at the party after I’d met you, except that I just wanted to get home and call you right away.’
‘Oh? And any reason why you didn’t? I mean, other than the fact you were married at the time?’
