by Emma Davies
‘I don’t think I realised how tense I was,’ she said. ‘I was longing to be home, but this is…’ She broke off and inhaled a deep cleansing breath. ‘Perfect,’ she finished.
Kit smiled. ‘I find it helps,’ he said. ‘Being somewhere where everyone else isn’t – where there is room for me, and I can be as big as I want instead of feeling incredibly small.’
She stared at him. ‘Yes,’ she breathed. ‘That’s exactly it! That’s how I feel most of the time. Some people, they just delight in making you feel small.’
Kit slid her a sideways glance. ‘Are we talking about my brother here by any chance?’
‘Yes,’ whispered Daisy. ‘But don’t say his name, not out here.’
‘Where did he take you?’
Daisy pulled a face. ‘Harrods…’
Kit burst out laughing. ‘Oh, dear God, that’s priceless.’
‘Yes, most of it was actually, although that didn’t seem to stop him from buying half the shop.’ She paused to reflect on the day which already seemed to be receding further and further into her memory. ‘It wasn’t all bad. I met Monique, who I think you probably know. And that was fun at least. Plus, she has Lawrence well and truly sussed. I don’t think he’s going to find his quest to rule Buchanans quite as easy as he thought he would.’ She broke off then, realising that if she were not careful she could reveal what she had learned about the competition. And that wasn’t her information to share.
‘He’ll get by, he always does,’ replied Kit, studying her face. ‘Do you know the fact that he always got what he wanted used to drive me mad when I was younger. It seemed so unfair and I strove to get the better of him, to have whatever he wanted just so that he didn’t win. But then, I realised that all I was doing was hurting myself because I didn’t actually want any of the things he did. As soon as I worked that out it freed me from the stupid pattern of behaviour that I’d got myself locked into. Now I don’t care what he does. It has no bearing on the way I live my life.’
‘But what about the shop then?’ asked Daisy. ‘I didn’t think you cared about it but yet you entered the competition.’
He gave her another searching look. ‘I can see how you’d think that. And on the outside I think perhaps that’s the message I’ve been giving.’ He gave a rueful smile. ‘But actually I care about it a great deal, just not in the way Lawrence does.’
He acknowledged her smile, knowing that he was right. ‘Buchanans doesn’t interest me the way it is now but, if Lawrence wins, what I think will be immaterial as far as the shop goes. I need to put my energy into making sure he doesn’t gain control, but I learned a long time ago that becoming fixated with what my brother does is a sure-fire way to lose out yourself. It’s too distracting, and nothing saps your focus quicker.’
Daisy nodded. It was true. She had spent most of the day fighting against Lawrence’s points of view, almost out of necessity in case she became tainted by his opinions and the sheer dominance of his personality. There was no room for it in the way she lived her life, and nor, by the sounds of it, in Kit’s.
‘But you do know Lawrence isn’t going to give you a job,’ she said, looking across at Kit, whose face was turned to the sky.
‘No, I know…’ He stopped and smiled at her. ‘I wouldn’t want him to.’
‘But there’s only two weeks to go before it’s all decided, Kit. What will you do?’
His face fell. ‘More time would be useful certainly, but… I’ll get by. I have… other options.’ He smiled again. ‘But more to the point, Daisy, what about you?’ He paused for a moment. ‘I’m not going to be so insensitive as to ask you who you would like to see run Buchanans, but I’m guessing things could become quite difficult for you if it’s Lawrence.’
Daisy sighed. ‘After today, it most definitely would. I seemed to spend most of the day arguing with him, and he didn’t like that one little bit. I didn’t think I wanted to work with Lawrence before, but now I’m certain of it. I guess that just leaves me with two weeks as well. But I’m hopeful I may have other options.’
He held her look. ‘Good,’ he said simply.
‘It’s not that I don’t want to tell you.’ She ground to a halt. ‘It’s just that I can’t say what they are right now, not until I know what’s happening with Buchanans. It will make a difference, you see…’
They had been walking across a field, making for a stand of trees at the other side, and now, as they followed their dark line, Daisy was intrigued to see glimpses of light shining between the shadowy trunks. She stopped to peer a little closer.
‘Is that a house?’ she asked, looking around her as she tried to orientate herself. ‘It’s in the middle of nowhere.’
Kit nodded. ‘Mmm, you can see it better from the other side. Looks lovely, doesn’t it, all lit up against the snowy night?’
It looked beautiful. The moon cast a silvery glow over everything in the field but the trees were flecked by patches of golden light which grew brighter towards the centre of the woods. She followed Kit as he began to walk along the line of trees.
‘I probably shouldn’t say it,’ Daisy added, picking up her previous train of thought. ‘But I’ll be glad when all this is over, even if it does mean I’m out of a job. I feel like I’m keeping far too many secrets at the moment. I know I can’t tell any of you about the days out I’ve had with the others, but it’s almost impossible to be impartial. In fact, how can I be when this affects me too? And you haven’t even had your day out with me yet. Neither have you mentioned it, Kit. You probably ought to get a move on.’
‘I’m getting to know you now, aren’t I?’
‘I suppose, but it’s hardly the same, and certainly not the same opportunity that Bertie and Lawrence have had. That hardly seems fair, given what you’ve just said.’
‘I know…’ Kit broke off, squinting at her. ‘I just haven’t been sure where to take you, but I guess we are running out of time. We decided originally that I should take you out on Monday, so how about we just go for a meal somewhere, in the evening? It doesn’t have to be anywhere fancy.’
Daisy could feel her heart sinking. ‘I’m not really a big eater,’ she said.
‘Then eat small,’ said Kit, smiling.
She hesitated. It was hardly fair to refuse when she was the one who had prompted his suggestion.
‘A drink then?’ said Kit, looking at her, an amused expression on her face. ‘Cup of tea? Glass of water?’
She laughed. ‘Okay, okay, I’ll come out for dinner.’
He grinned. ‘Great, I’ll pick you up at seven.’
‘I could meet you in town if you like, save you the bother?’
After a couple more steps, Daisy realised she was walking by herself. She turned to see Kit, feet planted in the snow, his hands on his hips. ‘Daisy, I’m walking you home, do you not think I already know where you live?’
‘Oh…’ She swallowed. ‘Do you?’
A smile grew on Kit’s face, a smile which widened with a warmth that was plain to see even by moonlight. ‘Of course I do. Daisy who lives among the trees, hidden away in her tiny cottage, with only the rustle of grass, the gleam of a blackbird’s wing, and the silver on the water for company. I often walk past and see your lights glowing from the windows, with you tucked up warm and safe inside.’
Daisy could feel herself blushing. It seemed such an intimate thing to say and yet strangely it didn’t make her feel anxious at all.
‘I didn’t know that,’ she said. ‘You’ve never mentioned it.’
‘No,’ he said. ‘I’ve often wondered why I haven’t. Weird really, when you think about it. We work together most days and yet we never really talk, do we?’
Daisy knew why that was. It was her fault. Because she had never even bothered to get to know Kit, thinking him lazy and uncaring, when in reality that was far from the truth. He was simply misplaced at Buchanans, that was all. Out of his natural habitat, she could see that now. And she of all people should kno
w how that felt. She was just about to say so when, turning to look at him, her eyes were drawn to the scene beyond. Her hand went to her mouth.
‘Oh, look at that!’ she exclaimed. ‘How beautiful.’ A break in the line of trees allowed Daisy to see through to a small clearing where a log cabin sat huddled in the snow. ‘It’s like a gingerbread house,’ she added, and she wouldn’t have been at all surprised to see Hansel and Gretel come walking towards them.
The cabin windows glowed with light, casting a golden halo that glimmered across the drifts of snow banked against the side of the cottage. She was too far away to see inside clearly, but there was the impression of warm cosiness and, through one of the windows, the outline of a Christmas tree could be seen, its lights twinkling into the night.
She turned to Kit. ‘Isn’t that the most perfect thing you’ve ever seen? There’s even smoke coming from the chimney, look!’
‘And perfect if you don’t want any neighbours,’ said Kit.
Daisy walked a few steps to the side. ‘I’m just trying to work out where we are,’ she added. ‘But if I’m right, there are no roads across here. How do you get to the place?’
Kit shrugged. ‘On foot?’ he suggested. ‘I should imagine that’s part of its charm, the fact that it’s hidden away among the trees and the only way to get to it is by walking.’ He smiled. ‘But then I guess you know all about that.’
‘I do… but my cottage is slightly closer to civilisation than this place. Oh, but still, isn’t it gorgeous?’ She was still staring at the cabin, trying to imagine what it must look like inside. ‘You said you come out walking this way quite a bit, didn’t you? What does it look like in the daytime?’
‘Erm… a log cabin…?’ He was teasing her, she could tell. ‘But you’re right, it’s quite something and without the benefit of lights to show its presence during the day, you could easily walk right by and miss it entirely; it blends in almost perfectly among the trees.’
Daisy gave a sigh and turned away. ‘Probably owned by a huge bear-like woodcutter, who wears checked shirts and spends his evening polishing his axe collection…’
Kit laughed. ‘Let’s hope not!’
They carried on walking, striking out straight through the middle of the field, heading for its opposite corner.
‘Are you warm enough?’ asked Kit as they turned into the wind.
Daisy nodded. ‘I am actually, this walk is blowing the cobwebs away too, which was just what I needed. There is something so utterly peaceful about walking in the moonlight.’
Kit pointed at a line of animal tracks in the snow that stretched away in a curve in front of them. They looked fresh. ‘Monsieur Reynard is out on his nightly rounds, I see.’
She scanned the countryside ahead of them, but the fox was nowhere to be seen. ‘I have one too. She crosses the bottom of my garden most nights. And the year before last, she raised cubs. I used to see them playing on the lawn.’
‘So sad that most folks never get to see a sight like that,’ added Kit.
‘Or don’t want to… The most amazing set of tracks I ever saw came from the outline of an owl in the snow. It had come in to land to take some prey, a rabbit I think from the prints. You could almost see every feather on the massive arc of its wings imprinted into the snow as it took off in flight. It was the most breathtaking and heartbreaking thing I’ve ever seen.’
Kit’s face was lit up in wonder. ‘I would have felt blessed to have seen something like that. Maybe one day I will.’
Daisy turned to look at him, meeting the wistful expression in his eyes. ‘I hope so,’ she said.
They fell silent for a while after that, reaching the end of the field a few minutes later. Kit led them through a small thicket of trees and across a lane that looked like a farm track before cutting sharply away to his left through another dense stand of trees.
‘Watch your footing here,’ he said. ‘It’s pretty dark in the middle.’ He held out his hand as she scrambled over a large log and she instantly felt the reassurance of his grip as she stepped back onto flatter ground. She looked around her but she still had no real idea where she was.
Within another couple of minutes, however, she could see a line of lights through the trees, getting brighter and brighter with every step. Soon it would be time to leave the silvery twilight world behind and she felt strangely disappointed.
‘You’ll see where we are in a minute,’ said Kit, as they emerged back into open space, but Daisy had already spotted the face of the clock-tower at the far end of the market square, which towered above all else.
‘We’re at the back of the park!’ she exclaimed, looking around her to see the trajectory of their walk. They had travelled in the opposite direction to the road that Daisy had been following and yet she’d been amazed how quickly they had reached the town.
‘You would have found your way,’ said Kit, as if reading her thoughts. ‘But it’s much easier when everything is not covered in snow, the landmarks are so much harder to read.’
‘Even so, it was very kind of you, Kit. I’ve hijacked your walk.’
He stopped to look at her. ‘And yet we’ve still been walking?’ His lips curved upward into a grin. ‘So maybe you haven’t… maybe, I’ve just had the pleasure of your company on my walk.’
His eyebrows were raised in amusement, but there was something more than just merriment in his eyes, something she couldn’t quite fathom.
‘Well… thank you, anyway…’ She trailed off, a little embarrassed. ‘And enjoy your day off,’ she added as an afterthought. She took two steps forward. ‘Bye then…’
Kit laughed. ‘I said I’d walk you home, and walk you home I shall.’ He waggled a finger at her. ‘And don’t argue. I’m not great at a lot of things but rescuing damsels in distress is a particular forte of mine. My success rate is currently one hundred per cent and I should hate to ruin my score by abandoning you here.’
‘So how many damsels have you rescued then?’
She grinned as Kit made a show of scratching at his head, thinking hard as he counted on his fingers. He beamed at her. ‘One!’ he announced.
‘Then how could I possibly let you down. Lead on, Sir.’
He bowed and, laughing, caught hold of her arm. ‘I’ll race you to the swings,’ he said, taking off and running across the field.
‘You swine!’ Daisy raced after him but her wellies were not really made for running in the thick snow and he beat her easily.
‘Oh, my gosh,’ she panted. ‘I can’t breathe!’ She swept a pile of snow off the top of the swing seat next to Kit and collapsed onto it, grinning. ‘I used to come here all the time as a child. My dad used to—’ She stopped suddenly. ‘It was a long time ago, it doesn’t really matter now.’ She stood back up, annoyed with herself for breaking the mood, but no longer wanting to swing. ‘Shall I push you?’ she asked Kit, anxious not to make him feel awkward.
‘Go on then,’ he replied. ‘I think my masculinity can take it.’
And just like that the mood changed again, and Daisy found herself grinning at the ridiculous notion of two adults playing on the swings in the snow.
‘Higher, higher,’ yelled Kit as she shoved him as hard as she could. He was heavier than he looked, but soon he was soaring into the air and Daisy stood back watching him. His grin was infectious and before she knew what she was doing she had climbed back on her own swing, working her legs furiously to get herself to move.
It had been years since she’d been on a swing and the edges of the seat rubbed painfully at the sides of her thighs, but the sensation was one she remembered keenly. And she was almost there…
And then, without even thinking about it, her swing dropped in line with Kit’s and for several seconds they swung together. It seemed for a moment as if time everywhere else stood still and there was just the two of them, their swings carving an arc through the cold still air in perfect harmony. It didn’t last of course, Kit had a distinct weight advantage and they pu
lled apart, but something else had aligned in those few moments and Daisy would have sworn from the expression on Kit’s face that he had felt it too.
Daisy automatically allowed her swing to slow, knowing that Kit would do the same. It was getting late and they should probably get moving again. She risked a glance at him, feeling a little awkward, and was relieved to see that he didn’t look uncomfortable at all, he looked just the same. He smiled at her.
‘Childish,’ he said, ‘but incredibly good fun.’
She nodded and returned his smile. How had she never noticed before how easy Kit made everything feel? They fell into step once more as they carried on walking across the park and within minutes were passing through the market square.
Daisy turned her head automatically to look at Buchanans. Like all the other shops, it was still twinkling with festive lights, but she didn’t want to think about it any more today. Tomorrow would be soon enough.
The town was quiet for a Friday night, apart from a large bunch of people obviously headed for a night out. An office party perhaps, but they seemed to belong to a different world from the one that Daisy was in and she exchanged a look with Kit. It wasn’t his cup of tea either by the look of things. They walked the rest of the way in near silence and, almost immediately it seemed, they had left the lights of the town behind them again and the quiet stillness of the canal beckoned.
The moon was still full, but there were more trees here and it was darker than out in the open expanse of the fields. However, Kit walked confidently beside her, navigating the towpath by night just as well as she did.
She breathed in deeply as her hand unhitched the gate into her garden. The cottage was in darkness but it still looked inviting, and she was glad to be home, albeit sad that their walk was coming to an end. She laughed as Kit followed her up the path.
‘You really did mean to the door, didn’t you?’
He bowed slightly. ‘I hope you consider yourself rescued, my lady,’ he said.