Christmas for Beginners: Fall in love with the ultimate festive read from the Sunday Times bestseller

by Carole Matthews

  ‘No, but I’m sure I can find you some more to do afterwards. If you’re planning to stay around.’

  ‘I’m yours for the day,’ he says.

  ‘Thank you, Matt.’ I look at this laid-back man, earnestly. ‘That was like the cavalry arriving.’ Or a knight in shining armour.

  ‘All in a day’s work, ma’am.’ He tips a non-existent hat.

  We walk towards the tea room. Before I open the door, I pause and put my hand on his arm. ‘I have to warn you that Bev’s in a bad mood,’ I say. ‘And she might not be as easy to handle as the chickens.’

  Chapter Forty

  Bev is crashing pots and pans. Thankfully, Jack isn’t helping her today or he’d be terrified. As it is, she’s crashing about purely for her own entertainment.

  ‘We have company,’ I say to Bev and, for a moment, she lays down her weapons and beams widely at the mayor.

  ‘Well, hello,’ she says. ‘This is an unexpected pleasure.’

  ‘I have a rare day off and just dropped by to see how the plans are going for the open day.’

  ‘Brilliantly,’ Bev says. ‘All under control. Tea?’

  ‘That would be great.’

  She sploshes tea into two mugs for us while I strip off my muddy coat and wash my hands. I put some antiseptic on my scratches and vow to sit the two girls down and finish my talk with them. I’m not letting that drop.

  When I’m relatively clean, I slice us some banana bread – still warm – and we take it over to the table. When I sit down I realise that my bottom is still very damp and muddy.

  ‘It’s not going well,’ I whisper to Matt. ‘Lucas hasn’t written his poem yet and some of the students are refusing to take part. We’re a few short weeks away and I can see no progress. The tree, however, is looking wonderful.’

  ‘It’ll come good,’ he says. ‘These things have a way of doing that.’

  I wish I had Matt’s optimism. As if I haven’t already got enough to do. Christmas does feel like a pain in the bum this year. I’ve bought no presents, nothing. I haven’t had a discussion yet with Shelby about what he wants to do. I’m assuming Lucas will be with us, but what if he wants to spend Christmas with Aurora? When it was simply me and the animals, I never had these dilemmas.

  ‘I’m quite busy in the run-up to Christmas with official commitments, but I’ll do all that I can to help. I can stay for the rest of the day if that’s any use to you?’

  ‘I have lots of jobs that you could do, if you don’t mind.’

  ‘I’ll enjoy it. I like getting my hands dirty and have little chance to do it now.’

  ‘Oh, I can definitely make sure you’re covered in mud by the time you leave.’ I hold out my hands to indicate the state of me and we both laugh.

  ‘You have a lot on here,’ he says. ‘I admire what you do.’

  ‘Keep telling me that,’ I urge. ‘This is one of those days when I could easily jack it all in.’

  ‘There aren’t enough places like this. If we’re not careful, children like this fall through the cracks. This is a very valuable service you perform.’

  ‘I like to think so, but I’m not sure all of the kids would agree with you. We try our best, but I worry that some of the students are unreachable.’

  ‘You can’t save the world, but if you can save some of it that’s a very good start.’

  ‘Thank you for your enthusiasm,’ I say. ‘That will keep me going until lunchtime.’

  ‘Come on.’ Matt nods towards the door. ‘Let’s get out there. It sounds like the rain has stopped for now.’

  I glance out of the window and I think that he’s right.

  ‘I’d like to do some more preparation in the yard for the open day, if that’s all right with you? There are lights to be strung for a start, if you don’t mind getting up a ladder.’

  ‘No problem. I should go and move my car. It’s blocking the gate and I need to make a few phone calls, then I’m all yours.’ He pushes away from the table.

  ‘Before I join you, I’ll have a quick word with Bev.’

  The mayor goes outside and I take our mugs and plates back to the kitchen. ‘Are you going to tell me why you and Alan have fallen out?’ I ask.

  She bangs her ladle into the pan of whatever she’s making for lunch. ‘Silly old sod only mentioned the M word,’ she huffs.

  Looking at her wide-eyed, I gasp out, ‘Marriage? That M word? How exciting!’

  My friend glares at me in return. ‘Not you too!’

  I hold up my hands in surrender. ‘Is it not a good thing? I thought you two were getting on famously.’

  ‘We are!’

  ‘So why is Alan wanting to marry you a problem? I thought you were planning on moving in together before Christmas?’

  ‘We are!’

  I look at her blankly.

  Bev sighs and she genuinely looks troubled. ‘There’s a whole world of difference between living together and getting married. When you get married it all goes tits up. They take you for granted and then bugger off with someone younger.’

  That does make me smile. ‘I can’t see Alan doing that.’

  Then Bev starts to cry – something that she rarely does.

  ‘Hey, hey,’ I say and go to put my arms around her. ‘Just because that happened with your first husband, doesn’t mean it’ll happen again. You’re at a different stage in your life, Alan is a completely different person. He adores you.’

  ‘It’s going so well that I don’t want anything to make it go wrong,’ she sobs.

  ‘I’m sure that’s not his intention. Far from it.’

  ‘What do you think I should do?’

  ‘Stick to your plan. Move in together. See how it goes from there. There’s no rush to get married, take your time.’

  ‘I’m being stupid, aren’t I?’

  ‘Yes.’ I put my hands on her shoulders. ‘Relax. Enjoy this.’ She sags beneath my touch. ‘Stop damaging all the pots and go up to the barn. Take Alan some cake. Kiss and make up.’

  She sniffs. ‘I like the sound of the kissing bit.’

  I hug her tightly. ‘You silly sausage.’

  ‘You’d better go, too.’ She pulls off a bit of kitchen roll and wipes her nose. ‘Don’t keep that Hot Mayor waiting.’

  Then Jack puts his head round the door. ‘The alpacas have escaped and have tipped over the food bins.’

  ‘Right. I’m coming.’

  Bev and I exchange a weary glance. I think there must be something in the air today as everyone’s having a crisis.

  Chapter Forty-One

  Once the alpacas are secured and admonished, I go up to the workshop and find the mayor. He turns out to be a whizz with a hammer. Together we spend the rest of the day repairing broken bits of barn so it looks smart for the open day. It’s late afternoon when we’re finishing stringing up the lights together and it feels like a job well done.

  The students have calmed down too and they’ve had their lessons this afternoon with no reports of mass hysteria, brawls or refusals. I can rest easy tonight. I say goodbye to them all and it seems as if Erin and Lottie are the best of friends again. For now. I show Lottie the deep scratches to my hand and she looks suitably chastened.

  Their guardians come to collect them all and I wait with Asha until his taxi arrives. Tomorrow is another day. Thank goodness.

  Alan shuffles across the yard and leaves without saying goodbye. A few minutes later Bev comes out of the tea room. ‘See you in the morning, Mols,’ she shouts.

  ‘Is Alan OK?’

  ‘He’s having a sulk. Says he’s not feeling well. Attention-seeker!’

  She waves and jumps in her car.

  ‘Small domestic,’ I explain to Matt. ‘Alan has started to mention marriage and Bev’s less than keen to jump into a white frock and race down the aisle again.’

  ‘Ah. They seem well-suited.’

  ‘They’re perfect together. Bev’s just got the collywobbles.’

  Matt hooks up the l
ast set of lights and climbs down the ladder. When we try them out, suddenly the yard is transformed. Just that little thing gives the place more of a Christmassy air.

  ‘That looks great. So much better.’

  Lucas appears as Matt and I are standing admiring the lights. He slopes into the yard and comes to stand with us.

  ‘Hi, Lucas.’ The mayor high-fives him and Lucas doesn’t look at him as if he’s a loser.

  ‘Hey,’ Lucas says. ‘The lights look good.’

  I risk putting my arm round his shoulders. ‘Where have you been all day?’

  ‘I had a long walk round the fields,’ he says with a shrug.

  He does really well with the kids that come here, but perhaps we all need time to ourselves and he gets very little of that.

  ‘You missed lunch.’ I’d called his phone, but he wasn’t answering.

  ‘I’ll get something now.’

  ‘I could do an early supper. What do you fancy?’

  ‘I’m going out with Aurora tonight,’ he says. ‘She’s picking me up soon.’

  ‘Oh.’

  ‘We’re going to work on some poetry together. Hang out.’

  I guess that’s a good thing, though I’d rather he was doing it at the caravan where I can see him. ‘Tell Matt of your triumph.’

  ‘Molly,’ Lucas huffs. ‘Do you always have to be embarrassing?’

  ‘Yes. I’m very proud of you. I want to show off.’

  Lucas sighs and, as if it’s no big deal, mutters, ‘I won a poetry slam competition last night. At the King’s Arms in Stony Stratford.’

  The mayor looks suitably impressed. ‘Brilliant. Well done.’

  I go all showy-offy. ‘He got a hundred quid and a slot at the Green Scene Literary Festival.’

  ‘Fantastic,’ Matt says. ‘I always try to get to that. We should all go and make a day of it.’

  ‘Sounds like a plan,’ Lucas says, trying to appear as if none of this matters to him when I know how much it does.

  I realise that he’s yet to tell his dad about his triumph and I wonder whether Shelby will manage to find time to call today. I’d love to hear how his opening night and party went.

  ‘I’m going to get a shower,’ he says. ‘See you later, Matt.’

  ‘See you. And well done again.’

  Lucas lopes away.

  ‘Don’t use all the hot water,’ I shout after him.

  ‘He’s a good kid,’ Matt says.

  ‘Yes. I think so.’ Then I look away from Lucas and turn towards the mayor. ‘You’ve been brilliant today. Thank you for your help.’

  ‘I’ve enjoyed it.’

  ‘I feel a little less anxious for our Christmas preparations now that I can see something happening. But I should let you go. I’m sure you have things to do.’

  ‘Not really,’ Matt says. ‘In fact, I was just planning to go to the local pub for something to eat. If you’re going to be home alone, do you fancy joining me? My treat.’

  And, for once in my life, the appeal of being by myself in the caravan with just the dogs for company doesn’t seem all that great.

  ‘I’ll need some time to scrub up.’

  ‘Fine by me. I can come back in an hour?’

  I don’t really like to say that my ablutions generally take me roughly five minutes, but an hour will give me time to try and catch Shelby before tonight’s performance.

  ‘An hour it is.’

  I watch the mayor drive away and then go to hurry Lucas out of the shower.

  Chapter Forty-Two

  Shelby picks up on first ring. ‘Hi,’ he says. ‘I’m missing you.’

  It’s good to hear his voice. I don’t know if it’s true that absence makes the heart grow fonder, but it certainly makes mine grow more anxious.

  ‘I’ve meant to call all day,’ he says apologetically. ‘But it’s been mad here with meetings.’

  ‘Oh. What about?’

  ‘This and that,’ Shelby says. ‘Work stuff. I won’t bore you with the details.’

  ‘How did last night go?’

  ‘Wonderful. I got a standing ovation. I really think that I make a good baddie!’

  ‘That’s great to hear. And the party?’

  ‘Went on far too long. I didn’t get to bed until the wee hours. Too many cocktails drunk. I had to have a nap this afternoon or I wouldn’t get through tonight’s performance.’

  ‘It must be exhausting.’

  ‘I found it all very invigorating,’ he says. ‘There’s nothing like sparking off a live audience, but ask me again at the end of the run. I might not be so sanguine. This is definitely a young man’s game. What kind of day have you had?’

  ‘Everything that could have gone wrong has gone wrong,’ I admit. ‘But it all came good in the end. The mayor rode in to rescue me.’

  ‘Oh.’ Shelby sounds put out by that.

  ‘I just mean that he’s good at rounding up chickens.’ And putting up lights and fixing broken stuff, but I don’t labour the point. ‘They were all running amok in the yard after someone left the door to the coop open.’

  ‘Another day on the happy farm.’ His tone is right, but the words feel off and I can’t tell what’s underlying it.

  ‘Something like that.’

  ‘At least you can put your feet up this evening.’

  I decide not to tell him that the mayor’s taking me to the pub for dinner.

  ‘Is Lucas OK?’

  ‘Yes. He’s out going out with Aurora tonight. I’m just waiting for him to come out of the shower.’

  ‘It must be love if he’s having a shower.’

  ‘Yes.’ Part of me wants to tell him about Lucas’s success at the poetry slam, but the other part of me is determined to stay loyal to Lucas. I hope that he will tell his father in his own good time.

  ‘Do you think you can persuade him to come to the show next week?’

  ‘Yes.’ That boy owes me big time. I’ll get him there come hell or high water.

  ‘I’m not going to make it back this weekend. Sorry, love.’ Shelby rushes on before I can express my disappointment. ‘The turnaround is too tight. I can get you tickets for next Wednesday’s performance. Does that work for you?’

  ‘I’ll check with Bev that she can babysit the animals, but I’m sure it will be fine. Will Ken bring us back?’

  ‘I was hoping you’d both stay over and come out to dinner with me. Wouldn’t that be nice?’

  ‘OK.’ I don’t feel that I can say no. And, of course, it will be nice to spend longer with Shelby. If we just go to the show, we’ll hardly see him except for on the stage. I was simply thinking of the amount of time I could reasonably anticipate Lucas remaining civil.

  ‘Let me know as soon as Bev agrees and then I can book the tickets.’

  ‘I will.’ Then we run out of words. I’m never at my easiest on the phone and am finding this long-distance chatting quite difficult.

  ‘I’d better go,’ Shelby says. ‘My make-up takes a long time.’

  ‘OK. Speak tomorrow?’

  ‘Sure,’ he says. ‘Think of me while you have your feet up in front of the telly.’

  I say bye and hang up. I don’t tell him that I won’t have my feet up or remind him that I don’t have a telly.

  Chapter Forty-Three

  Unlike Shelby, my make-up doesn’t take long. In fact, I don’t put any on at all. I do, however, spend a lovely long time in the shower, wash the mud out of my hair and use the conditioner that Bev bought me that makes me smell like a strawberry. Clean jeans and a jumper, then I’m ready to rock.

  ‘You look done up,’ Lucas says. ‘For you.’

  ‘I’m going to the pub with the mayor.’

  ‘Get you,’ he says. ‘Socialising and all that.’

  ‘I find the mayor easy to talk to,’ I tell him. ‘He seems like a nice bloke and he gets farming.’

  ‘Yeah,’ Lucas agrees. ‘I like him too.’

  And, as you know, Lucas doesn’t like anyone.
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  ‘By the way, your dad’s getting us tickets for his show next Wednesday.’

  Lucas pulls a face and goes to open his mouth.

  ‘You’re going,’ I say firmly. ‘You owe me and I’m calling it in.’

  ‘I could have been about to say that I was looking forward to it.’

  ‘But you weren’t.’

  ‘No.’ Lucas does a surly child pose. ‘Do we have to? Can’t you go by yourself?’

  ‘Do this one thing for me, Lucas. For your dad.’

  ‘I’d rather eat my own eyeballs with a spoon.’

  ‘You’re vegan and I’m sure your own eyeballs would be classed as meat.’

  That makes him smile. ‘You’re a difficult woman.’

  ‘And you’re a difficult teenager.’

  ‘OK, but I’m not going to any shitty, showbizzy after-party.’

  ‘There’s no party. It’s just you, me and your dad.’

  ‘Huh,’ he grunts, unconvinced.

  Then any further conversation is curtailed by the arrival of Aurora’s car.

  ‘I’m outta here,’ Lucas says. ‘Laters.’

  ‘Not too much “laters”,’ I warn. ‘One late night in a week is enough.’

  ‘Do I turn into a pumpkin at midnight?’

  ‘No, but I’ll give you the worst jobs to do tomorrow if you’re out half of the night.’

  He laughs in the face of my threat, bounds out of the door and runs across the yard. That boy is in love.

  Putting my coat on, I say goodbye to the dogs and do one last tour of the animals to check that they’re all right. I lean on the gate in the barn and look along the row of my charges. It’s lovely when they’re like this, all snuggled down and cosy, the scent of fresh hay and the clouds of their breath in the air.

  Then I hear Matt’s car and say, ‘I won’t be long. Be good without me,’ before heading to the gate. He flashes his headlights at me and, with only a small pang of anxiety about leaving the farm behind and going to dinner with a relative stranger, I climb into the car.

  ‘Hey.’ Matt is also freshly washed and groomed.

  ‘This is an unexpected treat.’