Escape for Christmas

Chapter Twenty-Three

CHAPTER TWENTY-THREE

In the end Brody returned to the farm alone because the Nowak children were fast asleep on the sofas in the guest lounge. After so much disruption and excitement, Pete decided to leave it until morning to bring them over to Felltop.

In one way Brody was a bit relieved, because it meant he had time to prepare Tegan for the fact that ten extra people would be arriving for lunch that day.

Harold bounded up to him, barking for joy, and licked his face.

‘OK, boy! I haven’t been to the North Pole.’ Brody fussed him, crouching down to stroke the dog in the hall. ‘At least you love me, Harold,’ he joked, soothed by the normality of being back in his own home, with the usual Harold response.

A moment later Brody was reminded of how un-normal his life was, when Tegan walked into the hall from the snug. ‘Brody!’ she called.

He got up.

‘What’s happened?’ she asked.’ Is everyone OK? I heard the helicopter.’

‘Mother and baby are doing well,’ Brody said. ‘Thank goodness.’

She gasped. ‘Oh. My. God. You didn’t have actually have to …’

‘I had no choice. The baby wasn’t going to wait for anyone. I had the emergency services on the phone and a retired nurse and Sophie to help, but really Anna – the mother – obviously did all the hard graft.’

‘B-but you actually delivered a baby ?’

‘Well, yes. A little girl. The mountain-rescue medics arrived straight after she was born, and mum and baby are now on their way to hospital to be checked over.’

She flew to him and hugged him tightly. ‘You are a hero. You really are.’

Brody cringed.

‘Come and sit down,’ she said, leading him by the hand to the armchair. ‘I’ll make you a drink and find some food. No wonder you look shell-shocked.’

‘Thanks, but I’m OK, really,’ Brody insisted, desperate to downplay his part in the proceedings. He’d already begged Kev not to mention his name in the incident report they’d be sure to post on the rescue team’s website. The fewer people who knew about it, the better. He just wanted a hot drink, dry clothes and to go to bed. However, he had some news to break to Tegan first and he was pretty sure she wasn’t going to like it.

He sat down heavily in his dad’s chair, soothed by the hollow that both father and son had created. Very softly he murmured, ‘Between us, that was a close one, Dad.’ He seriously needed a shower and longed simply to close his eyes and decompress after the past few tense hours, but he owed Tegan some time first.

She came back in, with a tray of hot drinks and mince pies. Even though it was half-past midnight, Brody was starving and very grateful.

‘Thanks,’ he said, devouring two pies while he answered Tegan’s many questions about what had happened.

‘You’ve earned a break tomorrow. You can sleep in late, and then it’ll be just the two of us together. I’ll cook dinner. It might not be turkey, but I noticed that your fridge and freezer are well stocked.’

‘Thank God for mum’s over-ordering, plus all the leftovers from the party we had the other night,’ he said. A well-stocked freezer was a tradition going back to his parents’ time. They’d had too many times when storms and snow had cut off the house. Now he thanked his lucky stars that his mother had badgered him into topping up the diesel to the generator the other day too.

Tegan tucked her knees under her on the sofa and pulled a blanket over her. ‘I’ll miss Mum and Dad, but it’s going to be quite cosy here with only the two of us.’

Brody put down his plate to broach the subject.

‘Well, it actually isn’t going to be only us for Christmas Day. The power in the village isn’t likely to be on until Boxing Day, so I invited Sophie and her guests to come here. It seemed wrong to make them stay in a dark house when I’ve got so much space.’

Tegan’s mouth fell open. ‘What? All of them?

‘Yes, plus the rest of the Nowaks – Pete and the two children.

‘B-but so many of them?’ Tegan spluttered. ‘Can’t they go to the pub or something?’

‘It will be closed on Christmas Day. It’ll be a difficult Christmas for all the villagers after this heavy snow has knocked out the power and blocked the roads.’

‘Oh, why don’t you ask the whole village then!’ Tegan said, flopping back against the sofa in a huff.

‘I’m not leaving Sophie and her guests to freeze, when we have power and light. I’d invited the Nowaks to stay with us tonight, but the kids were already asleep, so we decided not to disturb them and bring them out in the cold. They’ll be here in the morning, however,’ Brody said firmly, surprised to see that Tegan was being so selfish about this.

‘Right. Well, I suppose we’ve no choice.’

‘I do have a choice. And I’ve made it.’

It was, he thought, the first time he’d seen her taken aback by something he’d said. Perhaps the first time he’d truly surprised her because he’d not let her have her own way.

Tegan looked very annoyed and he half expected her to flounce off to her room in disgust, but instead her frown melted into a smile.

‘Wow! Is this the new Brody? Decisive, determined, stubborn.’

‘I’m only interested in doing the right thing by people. The practical thing.’

She shook her head and sighed, with another smile. ‘You know your problem, Brody McKenna? You’re too damn nice.’ She pushed off the blanket, came over to his chair and planted a kiss on his cheek. Then she yawned and stretched her arms above her head. ‘I suppose I’d better go and get some sleep if I’m going to have to play hostess.’

Brody watched her go, but her words chimed in his head like the midnight church bells: ‘ Too damn nice .’

He didn’t think of himself as ‘nice’, just an ordinary man doing his best. A best that hadn’t been good enough for Tegan, and certainly not for Sophie. While he cared about the children and the guests, he had to admit he’d mainly invited them for Sophie’s sake. He was determined to make amends to her, in any way he could.