Cole nodded and smiled, turning back to his wife. ‘Ok, let's get you off the ice, then we’ll meet you there in thirty minutes or so.’
*
‘Hop in the front,’ said Anna, opening one of the rear doors one handed whilst gesturing to her eldest, her youngest clinging tightly to her neck. A moment later she started to laugh, covering her mouth as her eyes went wide with shame. ‘Oh fuck, that was so insensitive. I’m so sorry.’
‘You’re not allowed to say fuck, mummy. It’s naughty.’
‘Neither are you, pumpkin. Now get in your seat, arms up.’
‘It’s fine,’ laughed Elsie, smiling and shaking her head in amusement as she opened the passenger door. ‘This is very kind of you.’
‘It’s a pleasure,’ she said, smiling. ‘Honestly.’
With her eldest child secure, Anna stepped carefully through the snow and round to the far side where she opened the door and lowered her youngest into the second seat, clipping her in quickly and planting a cold kiss on her nose.
Elsie clambered up into the tall Land Rover, using her hands to pull her up and into the seat whilst keeping the weight off her foot. The inside was spacious and still warm from the journey out, and the cream leather seat felt welcoming as she settled down into it, marvelling at the bizarre turn of events.
‘Will your husband be okay walking back with my two?’
‘He’ll be fine, he makes friends as easily as he breathes. He’s one of those people that knows everyone. We can’t go shopping without breaking into a friendly chat with at least three different people. We stayed at a hotel in the south of France two years ago and he knew the bloody porter.’
‘You can’t say bloody either,’ said Anna’s eldest from the back as her mother smiled and feigned guilty eyes.
‘He seems like a great dad,’ said Elsie as Anna pulled away. On the other side of the carpark she could see Alice, Tom and Cole stepping over the stile that led away from the lake. Alice was grinning like a Cheshire Cat.
‘He’s brilliant,’ said Anna, as the four-by-four made swift progress over the mushy carpark. ‘Isn’t he girls?’
‘YES!’ they both shouted, the eldest one practically screaming whilst the youngest copied and giggled, rocking backwards and forwards excitedly in her seat.
‘How old are they?’
Anna looked up into the rear view mirror. ‘How old are you, Marlie?’
‘SIX.’
‘And Amabella is two.’
‘Such lovely names.’
‘They’re pretty good girls too, when they’re not being tiny terrorists.’
‘Do you have treats at your house?’ said Marlie, leaning forward as she kicked the back of Elsie’s chair.
‘Marlie,’ admonished Anna from the front, shooting her a look in the rear view mirror.
‘I might have some chocolate somewhere,’ smiled Elsie, turning back and winking.
‘You’re such a cheek,’ said her mother, shaking her head.
‘How long have you been married?’ asked Elsie.
‘Eight years,’ she said, turning to glance and smile at the stranger in her front seat whilst tucking a loose strand of her blonde bob behind her ear. ‘Hold tight for a second.’
The road ahead was bumpy and Anna did her best to navigate the potholes and mounds of snow in an effort to keep Elsie’s ankle as still as possible.
‘What about you and your husband?’ she said, relaxing as the road smoothed out. ‘I never caught his name amongst all the chaos.’
‘Cole, and we’ve been married almost four years now, it’s our anniversary next week.’
‘Congratulations. Where did you guys meet?’
Elsie laughed, shaking her head. ‘I would love to tell you, but perhaps when there’s a few less curious little ears around.’
‘Ooh, interesting,’ laughed Anna, turning to meet Elsie’s gaze with wide eyes and a curious frown.
‘What’s interesting?’ said Marlie from the back.
‘Nothing sweetie,’ laughed her mother, innocently raising her eyebrows.
‘Can we play I Spy?’
‘Not right now.’
‘Turn left up here,’ said Elsie as they slowly approached a junction. ‘It’s so kind of you to do this.’
‘Honestly, it’s no trouble, and I feel just as guilty as I know Tom does - I asked him to take the photograph of the three of us.’
‘It was just an accident, I’ll be fine.’
‘Is your leg going to fall off?’ asked Marlie from the back.
‘Yes it is, sweetie,’ said Anna with a straight face. ‘We’re just going back to their house to find an axe. Do you want to do the chopping?’
‘Yeah! Chop! Chop!’
‘Chop! Chop!’ joined in Amabella.
Elsie burst into giggles in the front, smiling and shaking her head.
The roads were beginning to clear now and Anna started to speed up as the white covering turned slushy and then grey, the tarmac resurfacing as a few other cars began to appear, their lights twinkling in the flurries.
‘Take a right at the roundabout,’ said Elsie as it came into view. ‘We’re about a mile up the lane.’
‘You’re not that far from us,’ said Anna, smiling as she indicated, a force of habit despite the lack of other cars around. ‘We live another few minutes that way.’
‘It’s beautiful round here, isn’t it?’
Anna turned right onto the single track lane, the four by four doing its job as she crept up the hill a few metres at a time.
‘I’ve always wondered what’s up here,’ she grinned.
Elsie glanced across at her as she looked back and for a moment their eyes met, and lingered for a moment too long.
She had such a beautiful smile. It was her eyes that did it, they shone with such an overwhelming innocence and sense of honesty that you couldn’t help but be enchanted by her.
It was dizzying, and for a moment Elsie felt her chest warming. She smiled and looked away, shy and embarrassed.
‘I think we’re here,’ said Anna pulling up into the driveway of their cottage, ploughing through the snow and then slowing to a halt behind Alice’s buried car. ‘Is this you? Fern Cottage?’
‘This is me,’ said Elsie, as she took a deep breath. Her chest was fluttering and she did her best to hide her rising embarrassment and widening grin as Anna flicked off the ignition.
‘Then let’s get you inside.’
*
A thin layer of snow was falling from the sky again, settling on the windscreen and quickly melting against the heat of the four-by-four’s interior as the engine cooled.
‘So, is that your friend’s car?’ she said, glancing sideways as she peered at Alice’s buried vehicle. ‘How long has she been here?’
Elsie nodded and then blushed. ‘She came over for dinner on Saturday night and got snowed in.’
‘But the snow didn’t start until Sunday morning.’
‘Oh. Yes, I know,’ she bit her lip and then turned awkwardly to look at Anna. ‘She got a little drunk and slept on the couch, by the time she woke up the next morning it was eight inches deep.’
‘So she’s been staying with you since then?’
Elsie nodded as she popped the interior door handle open and swung her good leg out into the cold.
‘Wait for me,’ said Anna, jumping out and wading through the packed drifts around the front of the Land Rover, its engine ticking quietly in the subdued ambience of the midday air.
She reached into the front seat for Elsie’s hands and then helped her stand upright, wavering in the deep snow as she regained her balance.
‘Can you get to the door?’
Elsie laughed. ‘I’m not sure I can.’
‘Ok, let me get the girls inside first. Give me your keys, and then I’ll come back for you.’
Elsie dug into her zipped pocket and handed over the front door key and then sat back down sideways on the passenger seat, resting her leg and feel
ing more than a little silly as Anna plucked Amabella up and released Marlie who leapt out and star-fished into the fresh deep snow of the driveway, waving her arms around to make an angel imprint.
‘Get up, you’re going to get soaked,’ shouted Anna from the other side of the car, wading round as Marlie shuffled upright, following dutifully as the three of them headed towards the door.
‘Push as you turn the key, it get’s stuck sometimes,’ shouted Elsie after her.
It struck her for a moment that all of this could be some elaborate robbery. Knock down the oblivious woman on the icy lake, incapacitate her, separate her from her husband and then rob her blind whilst she sits helpless in her own driveway.
She laughed at the sudden bout of paranoia, shaking her head at her own imagination. What kind of crazy thieves would bring their own unpredictable children along for the ride?
‘Stand there and don’t move, it’s not your house remember?’ she heard from just inside the porch.
As Anna made her way back over toward the Land Rover, Elsie smiled and waved at little Marlie’s face as she peered toward her from the wooden frame.
‘She’s cute,’ said Elsie.
‘She’s a terror,’ laughed Anna, nodding. ‘Right, come on then. Let’s get you standing.’
Anna reached around Elsie’s back and hooked one arm underneath her shoulder, supporting her as she stood up, her boots sinking deep into the snow.
As they slowly waded along the route of the covered path, a second Land Rover pulled up behind them, stopping just behind Anna’s and the two of them turned to look.
‘Who this?’ said Anna.
‘I’m guessing this is Alice’s sister?’ she shrugged.
The beautiful woman who stepped out of the vehicle was the spitting image of her best friend, but with long blonde hair that she’d tied back in a very organised and neat ponytail instead of the graduated bob that Alice had rocked for several years now.
It occurred to Elsie, as the younger and somehow even more beautiful version of Alice walked rather anxiously across the driveway, that it seemed odd that Alice had never introduced them before.
‘Hi, I’m Emilia,’ she said, beaming with the disarming friendliness of a nurse that instantly put both of them at ease. ‘I’m guessing you’re Elsie?’
’Thank you for coming so quickly,’ she nodded.
‘It’s not often my sister asks for my help, it’s usually the other way around so you must be very important to her. Can I help?’
Elsie blushed as Emilia hooked her arm around her other side, walking awkwardly as her two new acquaintances half carried and half supported her over to the two waiting children tucked inside the porch.
‘Speaking of my sister,’ said Emilia. ‘Where is she? Wait. Don’t tell me, she’s been whisked away to Moscow on a helicopter at short notice? Or is it Bahrain this time?’
Elsie laughed as the two of them helped her over the threshold and into the warmth.
‘I’ll see where they’ve got to,’ said Anna, taking her phone out of her pocket. ‘GPS tracking my husband comes in handy more often than you think.’
Emilia laughed as she helped Elsie hop into the lounge. ‘You have a beautiful home,’ she said as she set her down on the closest armchair.
‘Thank you,’ she smiled. ‘You have an amazing sister.’
Emilia grinned as she propped Elsie’s boot up on a stool. A moment later she began to unlace them as Anna followed them in.
‘They’re about five minutes away I think,’ she said. ‘Maybe less. Also, I hope you don’t mind, but I’ve put the kettle on.’
Elsie shook her head and then grimaced as Emilia gently turned her ankle and slid the boot away. ‘Can you put the other one up beside it for me?’
Side by side it was obvious, even to Elsie, that her ankle was comically swollen, but Emilia didn’t react at all.
‘Can you walk me through what happened?’ she glanced up.
‘I was ice skating with my husband and Alice - we were trying to teach her,’ she began.
‘I have so many questions already, but carry on,’ she laughed.
‘I was skating back toward her, when that lady’s husband crashed into me and knocked me down.’
‘How did you land?’
‘I think I twisted the ankle under me as the man fell on top.’
She nodded and smiled. ‘Rice.’
Elsie looked at her confused. ‘There’s… some in the kitchen?’
Anna laughed. ‘Rest, Ice, Compression, Elevation.’
‘Oh,’ grinned Elsie. ‘I should know that.’
‘Your friend is right, sorry, in the all the rush I didn’t get your name,’ said Emilia turning to look back up.
‘I’m Anna.’
‘I’m Emilia, Alice’s sister.’
Elsie looked up for the first time in a few minutes and saw that Anna had taken off her coat, her scarf and her hat leaving her in a polo neck woollen sweater, a tight pair of jeans and an even tighter pair of fuck me boots.
She was hot.
For too long her breath caught in her throat as she stared. If Marlie hadn’t chosen the sudden lull in conversation to leap into the room shouting ‘BOO!’ at the top of her voice, it might have become an awkward moment.
‘I regret that Elsie and I barely know one another,’ said Anna, grabbing hold of her crazed daughter and restraining her as she struggled to get away. ‘So I assume Alice is the stupendously attractive woman who’s walking back with both of our husbands?’
‘That sounds like her,’ grinned Emilia as Marlie broke free and began to tear around the living room pretending to be a horse. ‘So how did you end up here?’
‘Guilt,’ she laughed.
‘Fair enough,’ Emilia turned back to Elsie. ‘I don’t think you’ve broken it. If I did, I’d happily take you down to A&E for an X-Ray but I’m ninety-nine percent sure they’d tell you it was a sprain and send you back home for some rest. My recommendation is that you sit tight for a few days, get some ice on it for twenty minutes at a time every two to three hours and don’t put any weight on it. I’ll bandage you up before I go - I’ve got a first aid kit in the car - and then just keep it elevated on a stool for as long as you’re comfortable. Got any good books?’
‘Plenty.’
‘Then you won’t get bored,’ she nodded sweetly and Elsie saw that Emilia had the same smile lines as her sister.
‘Thank you. I feel really silly now.’
The front door burst open a moment later and a blast of cold air flushed through the house and into the living room making Anna shiver.
‘I’ll go make the tea,’ she said as the other three piled into the corridor.
‘Daddy!’ shouted Amabella, tottering over towards her father with her arms outstretched. ‘Up, please.’
Elsie watched as Tom plucked her up and cuddled her tight, kissing her rosy red cheeks as he looked around, smiling at his wife as she passed him in the corridor, her hand affectionately squeezing his arm. ‘Nice walk?’
‘Brisk,’ he laughed, struggling to undo his scarf one handed. ‘How’s the patient?’
‘In recovery. Tea, coffee?’ said Anna.
‘She’s doing fine,’ said Emilia amongst the commotion. As she stood up, the others began placing their hot drink orders in quick succession just as Marlie leapt back up, following her mother to the kitchen and pleading for juice only to be immediately rebuffed.
‘You got here fast,’ said Alice to her sister. ‘Did you turn on the blue’s and two’s?’
‘The roads are almost empty,’ she replied, embracing her.
Elsie looked between them, amazed at how similar they were in appearance and both achingly beautiful. She watched with some dismay as the two of them peeled away toward the kitchen.
‘Where’s my girl?’ said Cole, finally coming in from the cold, throwing his coat onto the couch as he made his way through, just as Anna reappeared with a tray full of brewing cups and a jug of m
ilk.
‘This is amazing,’ said Elsie, starting to feel a little overwhelmed. ‘Thank you all so much.’
‘I’m so sorry, again,’ said Tom, with Amabella clinging to his neck. ‘If there’s anything I can do or we can do to help, just say.’
‘Honestly, you’ve done more than enough.’
‘Tom’s a senior cryptanalyst at CHB,’ said Cole suddenly as Elsie frowned in surprise.
‘Oh, really?’
‘Don’t tell me you’re a maths nerd too?’ laughed Anna as she handed Elsie a warm mug of coffee. ‘Threateningly beautiful and smart.’
‘Something like that,’ she blushed, hiding her cheeks behind her mug and relishing the aroma as the steamy brew drifted and curled in front of her.
‘Where did you study?’ asked Elsie, focusing on the strikingly handsome man, gradually unwrapping himself in front of her.
Hot didn’t quite cut it.
‘MIT. You?’
‘Oxford.’
‘What do you do Cole?’ said Anna.
‘I’m an astrophysicist.’
‘Of course you are,’ she laughed. ‘Normally when I tell people I’m an accountant I feel like the smartest person in the room, but apparently amongst you lot I’m a dunce.’
‘There’s a joke there somewhere,’ laughed Cole, smiling warmly at her.
‘Mummy?’ said Marlie, appearing suddenly at her mothers knee. ‘Can me and Ama go play in the garden?’
‘Ama and I,’ she corrected. ‘If Mr and Mrs... oh gosh, sorry.’
‘Winters,’ helped Cole.
Anna grinned appreciatively. ‘If Mr and Mrs Winters say that it’s okay, then it’s fine by me.’
‘Please do,’ said Cole. ‘It’s secure, just be careful on the decking.’
‘We will!’ shouted Marlie as she tugged Amabella along behind her. ‘We’re going to make more snow angels!’
As Cole turned back to Anna, he found to his surprise that she was looking at him in a way that made him feel hot under the collar of his jumper. As soon as they made eye contact, she blushed and turned away, an awkward smile flashing across her face.
‘So, have you, erm,’ she laughed, composing herself as she sat down. ‘Have you lived here long?’
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