Home for Christmas

Chapter 14

‘You all set, then?’ asked Holly when she arrived to pick me up ahead of the school fair on Friday. ‘Actually, are you okay, Bella? You look a bit pale.’

‘I’m fine,’ I said. ‘I didn’t sleep well last night and I’m feeling it a bit today, that’s all. And talking of being a bit off-colour, how’s Jasper?’

I had, of course, messaged before to find out, but this was the first time I’d seen Holly in person since the emergency dash to the vets on the night of the switch-on. I hoped shifting focus to her canine calamity would stop Holly worrying about my peaky complexion or asking why I hadn’t slept.

‘Oh, he’s all right,’ she told me, but she sounded exasperated. ‘Though still feeling a bit sorry for himself, which is hardly surprising. I’ve left him in Bear’s care today.’

‘And Queenie’s,’ I said, naming Bear’s placid bull terrier who also featured in Holly’s storytelling and illustrations.

‘Yes,’ Holly nodded, ‘and Queenie’s. Nothing much gets by her, so they should be all right left to their own devices for a few hours. What about Tink?’

‘Oh,’ I said lightly, ‘she’s hanging out with Jude for the afternoon.’

Holly looked at me and raised her eyebrows.

‘He offered,’ I told her with a shrug, ‘and he’s going to the hall later, so Tink can go with him and have a play date with her pack mates there. That’s got to be better than staying home alone shut up in the apartment, hasn’t it?’

‘Absolutely,’ Holly agreed. ‘Heaps better. I do still think it’s a shame you and Jude haven’t hooked up, though, you know.’

‘Oh, don’t you start,’ I groaned, rolling my eyes. ‘You sound like Tim. And besides, how could I possibly get together with someone who doesn’t celebrate Christmas? You should know me better than that.’

‘Yes,’ she said, ‘I do, of course I do. I hope Jude at least believes in fairies, though. He does, doesn’t he?’

‘I’ve been too scared to ask him,’ I grimaced, making her laugh. ‘But talking of fairies, I’ve just realized I’ve forgotten my wings.’

I’d thought it would be fun to wear the pair I’d made for myself at the school fair. They were bound to go down well with the children, especially as I was wearing regular clothes rather than my beautiful bespoke fairy outfit. Adding wings to a casual Converse-and-jeans outfit would doubtless convince them that I was a real fairy. If I had wings even when I wasn’t all dressed up, then it might be assumed – by the youngsters, at least – that they must be anatomically attached.

‘Go and grab them, then,’ said Holly, her mind successfully taken off Jude, ‘and I’ll finish packing the car.’

As Holly and I had a combined stall that afternoon and Holly needed extra space to sign the books she was selling, we had the largest table at the fair – and for much of the time, the longest queue, too.

I didn’t think we had sold any more than the rest of the stallholders, but some of the pre-school children, and a lot of the adults, wanted to talk to Holly about her Tall Tales from Small Dogs and the inspiration behind them, and that slowed movement away from us down a bit. I knew it would be even busier once the school day had ended, and I kept a constant eye on my stock, making sure I replaced every fairy sold in preparation for the post-bell rush.

As well as piles of books, Holly had wonderful banners featuring photos of the real-life Queenie and Monty and lots of her time was spent posing for pics in front of those.

‘Are you still up for our collab?’ she asked me just as the bell rang to signal the end of the school day and we braced ourselves for the post-pick-up throng.

‘Absolutely!’ I told her. ‘Like I said before, as soon as you’ve given me a brief, I’ll start creating.’

‘I thought that’s what you were going to say, but I just wanted to be completely sure.’

‘Any particular reason why?’ I asked, as I set out a couple more fairies and a few of the trial run kits. ‘You weren’t doubting me, were you?’

I’d produced a laminated sheet to go with the kits, explaining that they were slightly discounted because they were a new product and that anyone who emailed me feedback and pics of their finished results would qualify for money off their next purchase from a certain range of my winged friends. There was also a small extra discount for any images shared online which tagged me, too.

‘Absolutely not,’ Holly confided, ‘but I do have a reason for double-checking with you today.’

‘Go on.’

‘I was wondering how you’d feel about me dropping a few hints about us teaming up next year to some of the parents. I have it on good authority that the mums’ network around here works faster than the best fibre optic broadband.’

‘Sounds good to me,’ I laughed. ‘And I know for a fact that The Laurels care home has an impressive network of info-sharing, too, so if you whisper in a few ears there you’ll have pretty much covered the entire community.’

‘Brilliant!’ Holly beamed as the doors opened and the hall began to fill up with pushchairs, parents and dozens of children, all noisily ecstatic to have the weekend ahead of them.

At least, I initially assumed that that was what the noise was about, but it soon became obvious that there was more of a reason behind the commotion than the fact that it was three-fifteen on a Friday in November.

‘May!’ Holly gasped as the crowd parted and a striking woman dressed in a vibrant poncho and heeled boots, and with a dachshund tucked under her arm, strode towards us.

‘It’s May Madison,’ I heard a teacher next to me say breathlessly. ‘It’s May Madison!’

‘And Monty!’ squeaked the closest child. ‘It’s Monty from the books!’

‘What on earth are you doing here?’ Holly laughed, warmly embracing Bear’s mum and kissing Monty’s head.

‘I thought it might be fun,’ May said, a twinkle in her eye. ‘I telephoned the headteacher to check it would be okay, and after promising that I wouldn’t let Monty lick the pupils to death and would keep him on a tight leash, they agreed.’

‘I don’t believe it,’ Holly said, shaking her head. ‘I’m so thrilled to see you. I would have called the local press if I’d known,’ she added mischievously.

‘All in hand,’ May said smoothly, then turned to me. ‘Now, who is this delightful winged creature?’

Holly introduced us, but only very quickly, as there were already so many children waiting to meet Monty and adults hoping for an autograph and photos with both May and Holly.

‘Right,’ May said regally, ‘form an orderly queue and we’ll make a start, shall we? We’ve got plenty of time for everyone.’

‘Oh, I love your wings!’ said a young boy in uniform a few minutes later. He hadn’t yet spotted Monty, but I knew that when he did, I’d immediately lose his attention, so I quickly turned to the side so he could see them properly. ‘Mum!’ he shouted. ‘Come and look at this fairy. She’s got proper wings!’

His mum turned out to be Kirsty, someone I had gone to school with and someone I knew couldn’t keep a secret to herself for more than five seconds. Thankfully she hadn’t been part of the fairy fallout fiasco, but she would be the ideal candidate to share my and Holly’s exciting news and trigger the word spreading throughout the Fens.

‘Hello, Kirsty,’ I smiled. The boy looked amazed that I knew her name. ‘How are you?’

‘I’m good,’ she said, as she picked up one of the fairy kits. ‘Oh, you’re right, Tommy,’ she loudly whispered and winked at me. ‘She does have wings, so she’s definitely a genuine fairy.’

Tommy looked thrilled and began earnestly looking at everything on the stall.

‘How about you, Bella?’ Kirsty asked me. ‘How are you?’

‘Great.’ I smiled. ‘Brilliant, actually, and I’m about to embark on a new venture with someone very special, aren’t I, Holly?’

‘It’s the Tall Tales lady!’ Tommy hollered. ‘Mum, I told you she was going to be here.’

‘It’s his favourite book,’ Kirsty told me, even though I’d already guessed as much. ‘He won’t go to sleep until I’ve read at least one story from it.’

Tommy was looking at Holly with just as much admiration as he’d previously bestowed upon me. I had a feeling he was going to be thrilled about our announcement.

‘I’m really pleased you like my stories,’ Holly said to him, ‘and next year, they’re going to be even better. Can you guess why?’

Tommy shook his head.

‘Because the dogs are going to be joined by one of Bella’s fairies!’

‘No way!’ Tommy gasped, looking between us. ‘That’s awesome.’

‘It is,’ Kirsty said with a nod. ‘Congratulations, Bella.’

‘Thank you,’ I said, and smiled, suddenly realising the impact that Holly’s collab offer might potentially have on my business.

‘And in that case,’ said Kirsty, picking up one of the kits as well as a couple of the other fairies, including one Tommy had had his eye on, ‘we’d better get in here quick, Tommy, before word gets round and Bella sells out.’

‘And when you’re sorted here,’ Holly took great pleasure in saying, ‘there’s someone extra special I’d like you to meet, Tommy.’

Just at that moment, a family stepped away from the stall and Tommy spotted Holly’s VIP guests.

‘Is that Monty ?’ his little voice trembled.

‘It is,’ Holly said, nodding.

‘The real one?’

‘The one and only.’

Holly’s tactic to share our plan was a good one, and May turning up with no fuss or fanfare proved to be a masterstroke, too. By the end of the afternoon, the whole school was buzzing with our news, folk had come in from town to see May and Monty and our stall was practically empty. Holly only had three books left, which she was planning to donate to the school library, and most of my crates were completely empty.

With the Wynthorpe Hall Festive Fair happening in just over a week, I was going to have another busy few days replenishing my stock. At least, I supposed, that would go some way to taking my mind off Jude not being around anymore. Damn. I’d almost made it through the afternoon without thinking about him.

Once he’d squeezed his way back into my head, I couldn’t think of anything or anyone else. I’d been a fool to invite him to be my plus-one at the Brambles party, but it was too late to do anything about that now. Uninviting him might potentially make him resent the season even more, so I wasn’t about to do that, and I couldn’t feign a bug because it would look like an unbelievably speedy recovery the next day when I got stuck into decorating the house after Jude left. And at least one of my friends would be bound to pick me up on that.

Jeanie definitely would, and she could be like a dog with a bone when it came to sniffing out secrets. It was lucky for me that she’d been able to accept that not even Jude’s beautiful blue eyes and long, dark lashes could make up for his lack of festive cheer, making him a brief-fling non-starter. She’d be shocked for life if she could see the genuine truth I currently carried within my heart.

As far as the party was concerned, I supposed my best bet to avoid falling further for Jude in the brief time we’d still got before he left, and which I’d stupidly ensured we’d be spending together, was to get him paired off talking with someone else and avoid all alcohol. And mistletoe. And to simply carry on pretending. How hard could that be? And it would only be for a few hours…

‘Earth to Bella.’

But it would be hard, even if I only had to maintain the pretence for a few minutes. Perhaps the bug option wasn’t such a bad idea. After all, I’d spent the afternoon in a primary school, surrounded by under-twelves, and the air must be full of bugs and germs…

‘Bella?’

‘Sorry,’ I said, zoning back in.

‘Are you sure you’re okay?’ Holly frowned, clapping the back of her hand against my forehead. ‘You do feel a bit warm, and I said when I picked you up that you looked pale.’

She didn’t know it, but she was handing me the excuse to bow out of attending the party on a plate.

‘Shall I get you a chair?’

‘Here,’ May said kindly as she quickly jumped up and put Monty down on the hall floor. ‘Have this one.’

All I had to do was pretend just the tiniest bit and the problem would be solved, but when it came to the crunch, I couldn’t bring myself to do it. For a start, I’d been looking forward to the party for weeks, and had even picked up a new dress for it. And more importantly than that, Jude had agreed to come. Given that he’d now told me why Christmas was something he struggled with celebrating, that felt like a huge concession. He’d said he’d come because it was me who had asked him, too, so I couldn’t really let him down, could I?

‘No, no,’ I therefore said, waving Holly’s kind concern and May’s generous offer of a chair away. ‘I’m good, but you’re both loves for worrying. I’m only feeling hot because it’s so warm in here.’

‘But you really zoned out there, Bella,’ Holly said, still sounding worried, while May nodded in agreement.

‘Well, of course I did,’ I laughed. ‘You know me, I’m always away with the fairies.’