Page 62 of The Cornish Cream Tea Bookshop
‘You mean chocolate-covered cakes in the shape of tree stumps: the things you have pennants of strung up above your café counter?’
‘Sort of,’ he said, ‘but I don’t mean the chocolate ones. I mean the real ones: their origins.’
Ollie shook her head.
‘They were originally a Germanic pagan tradition,’ he explained. ‘People would go out into the forest on Christmas Eve, find a large log and drag it back to their house, adorn it with ribbons and paper decorations and then light it, in the hopes that it would burn throughout the twelve days of Christmas.’
‘Huge fire risk,’ Ollie pointed out.
Max rolled his eyes. ‘Back in theolden days, when fires were the only way of heating houses, and the fireplaces were huge and made of stone and surrounded by less flammable material than we have now, fires often stayed alight for days.’
‘Aren’t you the history scholar with all yourolden daysknowledge?’
‘Do you want to hear this, or not?’
‘Of course I do. Sorry. Please, go on.’
‘Right. Well, over the years, as with all these things, variations of the tradition have emerged, but the one that stuck in my head is that, while the Yule log burned, the household respected the fact that it was a holiday, and didn’t do any work.’
Ollie narrowed her eyes. ‘I see what you’re getting at, but I’m dismissing it instantly.’
Max laughed. ‘Which bit?’
‘The bit where families stopped working while the log was alight. There issomuch to do at Christmas: buying and wrapping presents; days of food preparation; carol singing and cleaning the house in anticipation of visitors.’ She tried not to fixate on the fact that the only people she’d be cleaning her barn for were her and Henry. Still, theydeserved to have the best on Christmas Day, even if it was just the two of them.
‘But if the log’s lit on Christmas Eve,’ Max said, ‘then your presents should already be bought and wrapped, you can have all the food prepped so it’s straightforward the following day, and I’m pretty sure carol singing doesn’t count as work. We could get Meredith to do the singing anyway, and bring all her choir friends.’
‘It sounds like you’re turning this from a hypothetical into an actual,’ Ollie said.
Max looked alarmed. ‘Oh no, I didn’t mean—’
‘It’s OK, I was joking. I’m sure you have plans for Christmas. But,’ she leaned forward, ‘youhavegiven me an idea. We could introduce some kind of Yule log related offer at A New Chapter. I could find an appropriate-sized log, put it next to the coffee machine – not light it or anything, because we’ve already established that fires in a bookshop are arecipe for disaster– do you think Marcus would like that pun?’ She shook her head. ‘Anyway, I could make a sign telling people to take the Yule log challenge: half an hour away from their busy, pre-Christmas schedules to read a book. We could put some of our most tempting titles upstairs, near the sofa, and lure people into having a rest. If they started reading a book they loved, they’d probably buy it. What do you think?’
Max didn’t reply. Instead, she watched, confused, as he wiped his hands on the kitchen towel she’d put out, then stood up and walked around the island, until he was standing in front of her stool. Ollie swivelled to face him. He tapped her knee, and she widened her legs so he couldstep in between them. He was centimetres away, staring down at her, trying – and failing – to look solemn.
‘Ollie Spencer,’ he said, putting his hands on her shoulders. ‘Do you know why I told you that story?’
Ollie stared at him. ‘Uhm … because you’re concerned that I’m working too hard, making everything an item on my to-do list, and not chilling out enough?’
‘Correct,’ he said, smiling. ‘And what was the first thing you did when I told you about it?’
‘I questioned your credentials as a history professor?’
‘Aside from that.’
‘I … uh. Oh!’ She laughed. ‘I came up with a way to use it at A New Chapter.’
‘You did,’ he said. ‘You took my suggestion that this might be a good way for you to slow down, and instead, you used it as a way to add something else to your never-ending list of things you need to get done.’
‘I did, didn’t I?’ She bit her lip, the action unapologetically flirtatious, and watched his eyes darken.
‘You’re going to be trouble,’ he murmured. ‘I can tell already.’
Then he lifted her off her stool and carried her to the sofa, his strong arms making her feel almost weightless. By the time he’d thrown her on the cushions and bent his head to kiss her, tickling her sides at the same time, she was laughing uncontrollably, Henry barking from his spot on the rug.
It wasn’t, she thought, as she gave into his kiss, quite cold enough for her to light her own fire yet, but she loved the idea of striding into the forest, harvesting a Yule log,setting it aflame in the fireplace. She would watch the ribbons smoulder and disappear while she committed to a few hours of relaxation. And when she imagined it, of course Max was by her side, always close enough to touch.
Chapter Twenty-Five
