Page 18 of The Cosy Travelling Christmas Shop

She had a day off tomorrow, so she’d take it to the garage to show willing, and when they told her how much it was going to cost, her dad would realise that he had no choice but to sell it. All she hoped was that he wouldn’t lose too much money. After all, who in their right mind wanted to buy an ice cream van at this time of year!

‘Leave Aunty Seren alone,’ Nicole told her daughter as Freya clambered onto Seren’s lap.

Seren was sitting in Nicole’s kitchen later that evening, feeling extremely bemused and more than a little shell-shocked. Nicole had taken one look at her face and had put the kettle on. Seren nuzzled the little girl’s hair and inhaled deeply. She loved the smell of the child’s fresh scent and her apple shampoo, and she cuddled her closer and gave her a kiss on the cheek.

‘Did you bring me a present?’ Freya asked.

Nicole gasped. ‘Freya! No, she did not. Your birthday was ages ago and Christmas is weeks away.’

‘It’s fifty-two days,’ Freya retorted, with a knowing look. Then she thought about it, and as she did so she became less sure of herself. ‘Is fifty-two days a long time?’

‘It’s seven weeks, more or less. Six more Mondays in school.’

‘I like school.’ Freya scrambled down off Seren’s lap.

‘I know you do, but you always complain on a Monday morning when you have to get out of bed,’ Nicole said.

The child wrinkled her nose. ‘I wish school could come to me.’

‘Well, it can’t; soyou, little Miss Bossy Boots, have to go toit.’ Her mother punctuated each word with a kiss on her daughter’s button nose.

Freya turned to Seren. ‘Mummy… I mean,Seren… tell her I don’t have to go to school.’

Nicole laughed. ‘She called her teacher Mummy the other day. Most of the little ones slip up at some point.’ She turned to Freya. ‘Seren will tell you no such thing.’

‘That’s right,’ Seren agreed. ‘School is important.’ She leant in to whisper in the little girl’s ear. ‘And it’s much more fun than being stuck at home with boring old Mummy every day.’

‘Go and play for five minutes before bed,’ Freya’s mum told her. ‘Let the boring old mummies talk.’

‘Seren isn’t a mummy,’ Freya said, with a frown.

‘She doesn’t have a little girl or boy of her own, but she is your godmother, so she’s a kind of a mummy.’

‘A god-mummy? OK.’ Her frown cleared and Freya skipped off into the living room, leaving the adults alone to chat.

‘What’s up?’ Nicole asked when they were finally able to speak freely.

‘You’re not going to believe what my dad’s done,’ Seren began with a huffed sigh.

‘Don’t tell me he’s found himself a girlfriend?’ Nicole’s eyes widened.

‘Fat chance! I wish he would, then maybe he’d stop dreaming up madcap ideas.’

Nicole placed a couple of mugs in front of them and slid into a seat. ‘This sounds intriguing. Pray tell.’ She put her elbows on the table, interlocked her fingers and rested her chin on them.

‘He’s only gone and bought an ice cream van, with a view to turning it into a travelling gift shop. And – this is where it gets even more bizarre – he intends for me to drive around the streets selling Christmassy stuff.’

‘Wow, I didn’t see that coming.’

‘He’s even gone and booked it into a place that will do it up for me. I’m supposed to take it there in the morning.’

‘Crumbs. Was this a planned thing?’

Seren shook her head. ‘I got home from work this afternoon, and he bundled me into the car, drove me to some guy’s house, and told me he’d bought me an ice cream van.’

‘Why would he do such a bizarre thing?’ Nicole’s eyes were wide with astonishment and became even wider when Seren told her the story behind it.

‘I blame Aunt Nelly. If she wasn’t so fussy and cantankerous, my dad would never have had such a ridiculous idea. Goodness knows what she’s going to say about it. She’ll probably think he’s gone mad.’ Seren bit her lip, not from concern about her aunt’s reaction, but because of how she’d begun to feel about the idea as she’d driven the van home.

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