Home for Christmas

Chapter 10

‘I don’t suppose I’ll see all that much of you this week, will I?’ said Jude on the walk back to the house from the pub.

I had paired him up with Bear again as soon as I had been able in The Mermaid, and as the temperature had risen a little during the evening and the paths weren’t anywhere near as slippery as earlier, we hadn’t linked arms on the way back home. I had charge of Tink’s lead, too, and used her as a buffer to ensure that there were more than a few inches of distance between us as we walked.

‘No,’ I said, feeling grateful that I had a packed schedule to contend with. ‘I’ll be keeping my head down and getting on with my work, as well as also planning the quiz now.’

Was it my imagination or did Jude’s shoulders tense up a little at the mention of that festive event?

‘And I’m going to be working hard, too,’ he said, sounding equally keen to tell me about his own unavailability. ‘I’ll be splitting my time now, writing at the house some days as well as travelling to Wynthorpe to talk to the family about anything further they can tell me about the history of the hall. I really want to get my head down and be properly bedded into writing the book before I leave on the first of December.’

It was still stirring to hear him talk of his commitment to recording the Connellys’ knowledge of their home as well as chronicling the building’s development and the subsequent use of the hall, but it was nowhere near rousing enough to make me forget what he’d said earlier about loathing Christmas. I could easily imagine the disapproving look and headshake that Grandad would have inflicted on him had he been around to hear Jude’s opinion. Goodness knows what he would have made of having the man living in his beloved home.

‘As we’re both going to be so busy, it’s a good thing we made the most of today and took the opportunity to relax,’ I said as casually as possible, even though I could already feel the wall between us rebuilding itself.

Clearly, Jude didn’t want to become further acquainted with someone who threw themselves into the festive season with as much enthusiasm as Santa himself, and I didn’t want to spend my time with someone who went around with ‘bah humbug’ on their lips. No matter how luscious those lips were or how often their owner had managed to make my heart unexpectedly flutter.

‘Here we are, then,’ I said as we turned off the pavement and walked up the drive to the house.

‘Yes,’ said Jude, rocking back on his heels with his hands thrust deep into his coat pockets. ‘Here we are.’

With nothing more to say, I fumbled in my bag for the key to unlock the apartment door at the side of the house, while he ducked under the pretty brick-built porch.

‘Night, then,’ I muttered.

I had to give Tink’s lead a bit of a tug, because she looked as though she was expecting to go into the house with Jude.

‘Night, Bella,’ said Jude. ‘Night, Tink. Thank you for today.’

‘No problem,’ I said. ‘Thank you, too. And for helping out yesterday.’

‘Any time,’ he said, nodding, but I think we both knew that there’d be no helping each other out from then on.

With so much to get on with, there wasn’t much opportunity for me to ponder the strange workings of my heart or wonder if Jude was working downstairs or at the hall. However, when I went out to my car on Wednesday afternoon and noticed that his wasn’t there, I did consider putting my imminent trip to the hall off on the off-chance that we might run into each other.

Unfortunately, however, when I looked at the diary on my phone, I knew it would be a while before I had an opportunity to see Molly again and decided I just needed to bite the bullet and get on with it.

‘Oh, Bella!’ Molly gasped gratifyingly as she lifted the lid first on Demelza’s fairy and then Anna’s. ‘These are even more beautiful than I hoped they would be.’

As always when presenting a commission to a client who loved it, I felt a mix of both pride and relief. These feelings were increased tenfold with Molly, because she was such a dear friend rather than someone I’d never met and whom I was Zooming to witness their fairy’s unboxing.

‘I’m so pleased you like them,’ I sighed happily.

‘ Love them,’ she corrected as she stroked the skirt of Demelza’s fairy. ‘And the name “Hope” for Anna’s is inspired.’

‘Given what she’s been going through and how far she’s already come, it did feel fitting,’ I agreed. ‘And I’ve attached thread to the wings on both of them as you requested, so they’re easy to hang,’ I pointed out. ‘They’re both quite heavy, but the thread will easily bear their weight.’

‘Perfect,’ Molly said, smiling. ‘I can’t wait to show Catherine. I’m going to give her a sneak preview.’

‘I hope she’ll love them as much as you do.’

‘I’m sure she will,’ Molly said, carefully putting the lids back on the boxes and laying her hands lightly on them.

I’d decorated the boxes to match the colours each fairy and their outfits favoured, so they were very pretty, too.

‘I told Catherine you’d pop into the hall after you’d seen me,’ Molly said, looking at me enquiringly. Given that I’d spotted Jude’s car on the drive, that was the last thing I wanted to do, and the expression on Molly’s face suggested she knew it.

‘Oh dear,’ I said, making a great show of checking the time and doing my best to sound disappointed, ‘I don’t think I can. I’ve still got so much to do. I’m supposed to be working on the list of questions for the festive pub quiz on Friday night and I’ve barely started it.’

Unfortunately, Molly was thrilled to hear my excuse.

‘In that case, you definitely need to talk to Angus,’ she said cleverly. ‘He’s always in charge of the family quiz night and knows some great websites you can use in the hunt for more challenging questions than you might be able to come up with yourself. He’s in the hall.’

Given that I was the fount of all knowledge where Christmas was concerned, I’d already come up with some crackers, but I supposed having a few more to draw on wouldn’t hurt. Therefore I dutifully (although still rather reluctantly) followed Molly back through the woods and into the hall.

‘I suppose you could smell these scones warming in the Aga,’ Dorothy chuckled, and I realized we’d arrived exactly at tea time.

How anyone managed to eat afternoon tea at the hall on a daily basis and then enjoy Dorothy’s delicious dinners a few hours later without piling on the pounds was beyond me. Tink made a beeline for the canine Connelly pack, and I knew then that we were going to be visiting for the duration.

‘Cheese, fruit or both?’ Dorothy asked, offering me a plate.

‘Cheese, please,’ I said, taking a seat as everyone else piled in, including Jude.

Anna was carrying Alby, and Jamie had Demelza. The little girl stretched out of her uncle’s arms towards her mother, and Molly settled her on her hip and then moved to sit next to Anna.

‘So, how are you two getting on?’ Catherine asked, looking between me and Jude after she’d said hello.

We both began to answer at the same time and everyone’s gaze tracked from one of us to the other. Jamie gave me a wink along with a loaded look which, under the circumstances, I didn’t appreciate at all.

‘You go,’ said Jude, his cheeks burning every bit as brightly as the colour of Dorothy’s strawberry jam.

‘I was just going to say that we’ve hardly seen each other.’ Given Jamie’s wink and knowing look, I wasn’t going to share that we’d spent much of the previous weekend together. ‘Because we’re both so busy.’

‘That’s true,’ Jude agreed. ‘That’s what I was going to say, too.’

‘Well,’ said Catherine, ‘I’m pleased that you still living in the apartment isn’t an issue, Bella.’ I hadn’t quite put it like that. ‘Or interfering with your work. But as you’re both living under the same roof, I do hope you’ll have time to get to know each other a bit before you head off, Jude.’

‘Plenty of time for that yet,’ he responded, stirring his tea and keeping his head down.

‘Maybe you could go to the pub quiz together,’ suggested Jamie, playing devil’s advocate whether he knew it or not. ‘It’s festive-themed on Friday, isn’t it?’

‘Oh yes,’ said Molly. ‘Bella wanted to talk to you about that, Angus. She’s been put in charge of coming up with the questions.’

He was messily wiping up a blob of jam that had dropped off his scone and slid down the front of his shirt on its short journey from his plate to his mouth.

‘What’s the theme?’ he asked, in spite of the fact that Jamie had just said what the theme was, as he gave up on the shirt and roughly wiped his mouth.

‘Christmas,’ Jude and I said together but in rather different tones.

‘Oh, that will be a fun night,’ Angus said, beaming at me. ‘Have you picked out your Christmas jumper already?’

‘Not yet,’ I told him. ‘I’m still trying to get the questions together. In fact,’ I said, looking pointedly at the clock on the wall, ‘that’s what I’m supposed to be doing now. I did tell Molly that—’

Angus didn’t seem to hear me.

‘What about you, Jude?’ he asked, talking over me. ‘Did you pack a Christmas jumper ahead of your trip here?’

‘No,’ Jude said rather rudely.

‘Well, never mind,’ Angus bowled on. ‘I don’t suppose you thought you were going to need one, did you? You can borrow one of mine.’

‘Yes, Angus has at least two dozen now,’ said Dorothy, shaking her head.

‘Thank you for the offer,’ Jude said to Angus, ‘but I’ll pass.’

‘You sure?’

‘Yes,’ he said, clearing his throat. ‘I’m not keen, you see.’

‘On Christmas jumpers?’ gasped Angus, sounding astonished.

‘On Christmas,’ Jude and I both said together again.

This admission was met with a stunned silence. Aside from myself, I didn’t think there was anyone in Wynbridge who was as festively obsessed as the Connelly clan. The seconds stretched on, and no one said a word. The only sound was the ticking of the clock and light snores from the dog basket.

‘I’d better get on,’ said Jude, scraping his chair in his haste to stand up and making us all jump. ‘Thank you for the tea, Dorothy.’

He took his cup and saucer with him, the cup rattling in his rush to leave.

‘Well, I never,’ said Angus once Jude had gone. ‘I had no idea.’

‘About what?’ Anna asked.

‘His feelings about Christmas, of course.’

‘But why should you?’ Dorothy shrugged. ‘I can’t imagine you made it a stipulation that whoever was appointed to write your book about the hall would have to love Christmas? It’s hardly relevant to Jude being able to do his job, is it?’

‘Well, no…’ Angus began hesitantly, his words trailing off.

‘Poor Bella, though,’ said Catherine. ‘I never would have asked you to put him up if I’d known you had such different beliefs.’

Given how she put it, I thought she was joking, but her expression was serious.

‘It’s fine,’ I said, waving her words away. ‘It’s not as if we’re going to go to war over it. As I said earlier, we’ve hardly seen one another. And besides, he’ll be gone soon, won’t he?’

‘Maybe you could convert him before he leaves?’ Jamie grinned.

‘I wasn’t a fan of Christmas myself when I first arrived here,’ Anna said soberly.

‘And with good reason,’ said Jamie, leaning over and kissing her cheek. ‘But I still managed to bring you around.’

‘My point is,’ Anna tutted, because her best beloved had missed the point, ‘that Jude might have a very good reason himself for not liking Christmas, so don’t go judging him.’

I had briefly considered that, but it hadn’t made me feel any better about his dislike of the season or his venomous and vehement comments about it.

‘So,’ interjected Molly, the self-appointed keeper of the peace, ‘where do you suggest Bella should look for some really challenging questions for the quiz, Angus?’

‘Number eight,’ I said, the words magnificently amplified by the microphone Jim had handed me when it was obvious my voice wouldn’t carry as far as the crowd in The Mermaid stretched that Friday night. ‘How many weeks was “I Wish It Could Be Christmas Every Day” by Wizzard number one in the UK charts?’

There was a low hum of chatter as the teams conferred, and I took another sip of mulled wine to clear my throat.

‘Don’t finish all that,’ Jeanie laughed, ‘otherwise you’ll be slurring the questions.’

She had a point; it was heady stuff. The alcohol definitely hadn’t evaporated in the warming process, and this was my third top-up.

‘Number nine,’ I started, and the familiar requests to have a bit longer came pouring in. ‘Number nine,’ I said again, determined to stick to the schedule, ‘what year was A Christmas Carol published? And a bonus point if you can tell me what colour the scarf is that Beaker gifts Mr Scrooge in the Muppets film version of the book?’

After the next question, it was time for a break and the answer sheets were collected in and marked so there could be no sneaky phone-checking. I was having the best time and hadn’t felt nervous at all about putting myself in front of the large crowd that had turned out to take part. This lion had definitely found her courage and turned a corner.

‘Here,’ said Holly as I began quickly setting the sheets out to mark them all at once. ‘I’ll help.’

Given her request for me to create a fairy for her to incorporate into her next books, Holly was giving the Scarecrow’s brain a workout. Adding to her cast of characters was bound to be good for her sales. Assuming I hit the spot with the fairy creation, of course.

‘Thank you,’ I said, having glanced at Jeanie and wondered if she had yet oiled the cogs in the Tin Man’s heart, ‘but it’ll probably be quicker if I do it myself.’

‘I bet you’ve got the answers memorized, haven’t you?’ Holly laughed.

‘Of course I have,’ I said, smiling in response.

It turned out that a couple of the teams were neck and neck, but a few were way behind. I was delighted that the questions were making everyone think.

‘Have you thought anymore about our possible collaboration?’ I asked Holly once I’d handed the sheets back to Jeanie and had made sure that no one could overhear us.

‘Not yet,’ she said, grimacing. ‘With Bear just back, I’ve been a bit… preoccupied.’

‘Of course,’ I laughed, clinking my glass against hers. ‘You’re in the honeymoon phase again, aren’t you? I daresay it’s the same every time he comes back after a stint away.’

‘Something like that,’ she laughed along with me, ‘but I’ll definitely be back to work next week. I was rather hoping you might be enjoying some romance yourself once I’d clocked your lodger, but Jude and you are completely incompatible, aren’t you? The difference in Christmas thing is too wide a gap to bridge, even for the briefest winter fling.’

I looked down at the lights flashing on my Christmas jumper and the sleigh bell-embellished boots I’d teamed with my jeans.

‘Yep.’ I nodded, making the bells adorning my deely bopper headband chime. ‘It certainly is an insurmountable gap. I’m just grateful I found out he’s a mean old Scrooge McFuck… I mean McDuck… in time.’

‘Who wants another mulled wine?’ Jeanie asked.

‘Me, please,’ I said, pushing my glass across the bar.

‘No,’ Holly laughed, pushing it back again. ‘You’ve had enough. Let’s get a bit of fresh air, and then you can feed her some carbs before it’s time for the second half of the quiz, Jeanie, otherwise things could go downhill fast.’

I felt fine after some bracing Wynbridge air and a cranberry and sausage-filled roll, and the quiz continued and the winners were announced without incident or further mispronunciation. So many people told me what a brilliant time they’d had that I was feeling tipsy again by the time they started to clear out, only this time on dopamine rather than wine. At least, I thought it was happy chemicals rather than alcohol units…

‘That was fantastic,’ said Evelyn. She wasn’t a woman who was free with her praise, so I appreciated her words all the more. ‘Well done, Bella, and thank you. I’ve just been talking to Jim, and we were wondering if you’d be up for doing another quiz nearer to Christmas.’

‘Absolutely!’ I said, without even stopping to think about it. ‘I would love to.’

‘That’s settled, then,’ Evelyn said happily. ‘I’ll get Jeanie to run some dates by you next week.’

‘Brilliant,’ I said, giving her a thumbs-up.

‘Are you sure you can fit it in with everything else you’ve got going on?’ Jeanie asked with concern once her aunt had gone.

‘Absolutely,’ I told her. ‘It didn’t take me all that long to organize this one, thanks to some direction from Angus, and I’ve got a back-up sheet with loads of other questions on that I didn’t use, so I’ll be able to include some of those.’

‘Well, that’s all right, then,’ Jeanie said, nodding. ‘How about a weak one for the road and then I’ll ask someone to drive you back home.’

‘I can walk,’ I insisted. ‘I’m fine to walk.’

‘I don’t think so,’ Jeanie laughed. ‘You’ll fall in a bush on the way, and we’ll never find you again.’

‘I’m merry,’ I said soberly, ‘not legless.’

‘You’re still getting a ride home,’ she shot back seriously. ‘In fact,’ she added, her eyes widening as she looked over my shoulder, ‘here’s the ideal chauffeur for you, if not perfect partner material. I know for a fact that he’ll be heading your way.’

‘Jude!’ I said, sliding off my stool. The wobble in my legs suggested that I wasn’t quite as sober as I’d thought. ‘Have you been here all evening?’

‘Hardly,’ he said disparagingly, catching me by the elbow. ‘I was just driving through town on my way back from a late night working at the hall and thought I’d see if you were still here and needed a lift home. It’s almost closing time, isn’t it?’

‘It is,’ Jeanie confirmed. ‘And she would.’

‘I can tell him,’ I tutted.

‘Go on, then.’ She nodded.

‘Thank you, Jude,’ I said graciously. ‘You’re a true gent, and I would very much appreciate a ride home, even if I can’t get to know you better… if you know what I mean… because you hate Christmas.’

Jeanie shook her head, and Jude looked taken aback.

‘What?’ I shrugged. ‘It’s true!’

‘Definitely time to go home, Bella,’ Jeanie said, still shaking her head. ‘Ignore her, Jude. She doesn’t usually drink as much as she’s had tonight.’

‘I can hear you,’ I tutted, feeling affronted but then immediately forgetting why.

‘Right,’ said Jude, sounding unamused. ‘Let’s find your coat, then, Bella.’

‘I’ll come with you on one condition,’ I said as Jeanie passed my coat over the bar and I struggled to put my arms in the right sleeves. Jude took it from me, shook it out and then helped me properly into it. ‘I’ll only come with you now if you agree to come to the town switch-on tomorrow. That way, I’ll be able to work out if you really are a lost cause; we still have a week left, you know.’

Jeanie shook her head again and squeezed her eyes shut.

‘What?’ I demanded. ‘That’s a reasonable request, isn’t it?’

At that moment, someone cranked the music up and Mariah Carey’s impossibly high note painfully filled the bar and our ears.

‘Thank goodness Tink isn’t here,’ I said, looking around. ‘Where is she?’ I panicked, then remembered I’d left her in the apartment. ‘I need to get home,’ I said, grabbing Jude’s arm. ‘Come on, we can’t hang around in here all night chatting.’

Jeanie began to laugh. And with that, I marched out of the pub, and by the time I was cocooned in Jude’s warm car, I had forgotten everything I’d just blurted out, along with the request I’d made. Time would tell whether that was a good thing or not.