by Heidi Swain
‘So did Archie make you shut things down before because he thought the hall, and the family, was vulnerable with no insurance?’ I asked, curious to hear the whole story.
‘It looked that way for a while,’ said Jamie evasively, ‘but his real motives for enforcing the changes have come to light now. But they don’t really matter,’ he quickly added.
I wished they did because I was itching to find out the back story of what was sounding more and more like an intriguing family feud.
‘But as you’ve decided to go against what he wants, Mum and Dad, please tell me you have something sorted and aren’t going to give him the satisfaction of seeing us sued for the final few pennies we have in the bank?’
It was obvious to me, even though I didn’t know the details, that Jamie had left home to travel the world with more of a justification than wanderlust and that he had come back now for a very specific reason. I hoped I wouldn’t have to wait too long before I found out what it was.
I fiddled with my napkin and sat quietly wondering if this intimate conversation would have been happening were it not for the tongue-loosening effects of the fizz, then I remembered we were at Wynthorpe Hall and realised yes, it probably would. Jamie, not unlike his parents, clearly viewed those around the table as his extended family, even the new-girl party planner sitting opposite him.
‘No,’ said Angus. ‘We don’t need it.’
‘Yes,’ shot back Catherine. ‘We do.’
Angus shook his head.
‘No one who’s going to be coming here would sue us,’ he said firmly. ‘Everyone will be local and grateful that we’re opening our doors again. This place has always been inclusive and generous; you know that better than anyone, my dear. Look at the parties your grandparents used to give.’
‘But the world is a different place now,’ said Catherine.
‘Where there’s blame, there’s a claim,’ Hayley added helpfully.
‘And besides,’ said Catherine, ‘we do have a policy.’
‘Since when?’ frowned Angus.
‘Since I insisted that you should have one,’ I chipped in. ‘The day you suggested inviting people back to celebrate the Solstice I set one up.’
‘And at my behest,’ said Catherine firmly.
Jamie looked from his parents to me and smiled.
‘Not bad,’ he said, ‘not bad at all, Miss Woodruff.’
‘Not bad for a party planner,’ I shot back.
Fortunately Angus didn’t appear to have heard.
‘So much for trying to save money!’ he grunted. ‘What a waste.’
‘You should talk to Mr Brooke, Angus,’ said Mick sternly. ‘You’d soon change your mind on that score then.’
‘What’s Mr Brooke got to do with our dwindling bank balance?’ asked Angus.
Mick then went on to explain how Mr Brooke, who sounded like a local nuisance by all accounts, had been awarded over five thousand pounds for injuries incurred while he was trespassing on a neighbouring farmer’s land. Angus went very quiet after that.
‘Come on,’ said Dorothy, trying to lighten the mood. ‘Let’s see who gets to open the Advent calendar today.’
‘I’m guessing this is one of your finds, Dad?’ said Jamie, looking over at the wall. ‘Who kicked things off yesterday?’
‘I had that particular honour,’ I said.
‘Because we didn’t know if she was staying or not,’ Hayley unhelpfully butted in. ‘So your dad made sure she got in early.’
The girl really was a liability.
‘But why would you employ someone to organise Christmas if they weren’t going to be here for Christmas?’ frowned Jamie.
‘She’s not here to organise Christmas,’ Hayley’s dulcet tones rang out again.
‘What?’
‘Looks like you’re up today,’ I quickly cut in before disaster struck. ‘Your dad has gone to so much trouble. I can’t wait to see what he’s found for you.’
Jamie looked at his mother for a moment and his stern expression suggested that he was going to get to the bottom of whatever it was that Hayley was talking about just as soon as he could.
‘I had a music box,’ I babbled on. ‘It plays the tune my mum always used to sing when she was baking at Christmas. Silver Bells was her absolute favourite.’
‘Used to sing,’ said Dorothy, picking up on what I had said in my panic to bail Catherine out. ‘Was her favourite, my dear – isn’t it any more?’
‘She died,’ I said quietly, amazed that I could share something so private, so monumental in such an informal moment.
‘Come on then, lad,’ said Mick quickly before anyone had a chance to comment or sympathise. ‘Let’s see what you’ve got.’
Personally, the vintage black and mother of pearl Conway Stewart pen Jamie unwrapped didn’t mean anything to me, but he nodded, with something akin to resignation, when he saw it and Catherine looked extremely bright-eyed.
‘I thought it would be just the thing,’ said Angus. ‘It’s not all that dissimilar to the one your mother used, is it, dear?’
‘No,’ she sniffed, ‘it isn’t.’
‘Well, in that case, Mum,’ Jamie sighed, ‘you better make that call.’
Chapter 10
As soon as the kitchen was set to rights – well, as right as the kitchen at Wynthorpe Hall ever was – I asked to have a moment with Catherine on the pretence of looking through the Christmas planning schedule.
‘I know what you’re going to say,’ she said, the second I closed the morning room door. ‘I know exactly what you’re going to say.’
‘Well,’ I said, smoothing down my skirt and feeling determined to stop my professional persona from slipping again. ‘Let me say it anyway, just to make sure we really are on the same wavelength.’
Catherine nodded.
‘Why does Jamie think I’m here to organise Christmas?’ I demanded of her. ‘Especially now you know full well that my real reason, my sole motive in fact, for coming here was to avoid anything to do with tinsel and turkey.’
Catherine sat down heavily on the sofa.
‘Jamie doesn’t know I’ve had an operation,’ she said quietly, with a surreptitious glance towards the closed door. ‘He knows nothing about the fact that I’ve been in hospital at all.’
‘But why ever not?’ I frowned, bumping down next to her. Her surprising admission had knocked the air right out of my annoyance. ‘Surely he would want to know about something like that, even if he was on the other side of the world when it was happening?’
‘Of course he would,’ she continued, ‘which is the very reason why we decided not to tell him.’
‘I don’t understand.’
‘If he knew,’ she said in a furtive whisper, ‘that either Angus or I was unwell he would have been home on the first available flight.’
‘And that would have been a problem because?’
‘Because,’ she sighed, ‘it was important that he stayed away until he was ready to come back.’
‘Even though you were sick?’
‘I wasn’t exactly sick.’
I looked at her and raised my eyebrows.
‘When Jamie left,’ she went on, having guessed that I was in no way satisfied with the unfathomable explanation she had made so far, ‘he left in a rush, under something of a cloud and with a huge decision to make. I can’t talk about what that decision was just yet, but it was paramount that he was left to his own devices to make it, and the last thing Angus or I wanted was to put our boy under any pressure or obligation to come back until he was absolutely ready to do so.’
‘I hardly think he would have felt an obligation,’ I interrupted. ‘If he had come back, it would have been out of concern. Surely, he had a right to know? What if something had gone wrong and he wasn’t here?’
What I felt about the situation hardly mattered, but the fact that I had been drawn into the deception did. There was no way I was going to be able to play the part of the festive pa
rty planner Jamie was expecting. I wouldn’t do it, I actually couldn’t do it, and as fond as I already was of Catherine and Angus, the hall and everyone else, I was not prepared to put myself through the stresses and strains of trying to bluff my way through the next few weeks playing a part I hadn’t even auditioned for.
I had only just come to terms with the idea that Mum was trying to let me know that it was all right to let Christmas back into my life. I had only just come round to the idea of staying on at the hall and trying to dig up my festive feelings and lay my ghosts to rest. I certainly didn’t need to try and fit someone else’s notion of what I was supposed to be.
‘But nothing did go wrong,’ shrugged Catherine. ‘And besides, he’s home now. His decision has been made and we can share the news when everyone arrives and hopefully enjoy spending the holidays together.’
I couldn’t fail to notice the edge of uncertainty that seemed to slip into her voice whenever ‘getting everyone together’ cropped up in conversation or the fact that she had included the word ‘hopefully’ in her sentence. Whatever this decision was that Jamie had made it sounded gargantuan – life-changing possibly – and not only for him.
‘And anyway,’ she asked, ‘how did you find out that that’s what Jamie thinks you’re here to do?’
‘I overheard him and Angus arguing early this morning,’ I said truthfully, ‘and I saw the two of you panic when you thought either Hayley or I were going to let the cat out of the bag just now.’
‘I see,’ she said. ‘Well, I’m sorry.’
‘It’s all right,’ I said, ‘I sort of understand why you didn’t want to tell him the truth at first, but if you would like me to stay here for the next few weeks I really do need you to set the record straight.’
Catherine looked aghast.
‘I don’t want to go anywhere else now,’ I told her. ‘And I really do want to be here to help out with Christmas and I know I have absolutely no right to make demands, but I can’t have Jamie thinking organising everything is down to me. The pressure would be too much. I’m sorry. I just can’t do it.’
‘No,’ said Catherine, shaking her head. ‘I’m sorry. We should never have put you in this position. I’ll talk to him. I promise.’
‘Good,’ I said, breathing a sigh of relief.
‘But not yet.’
‘What?’
‘I’m sorry, Anna,’ she said. ‘I really am, but if you could just give us a couple of days. Give Jamie time to get over his journey and then I’m sure he would take the news better. I promise we’ll talk to him in a day or so.’
Personally I couldn’t see how waiting was going to make the situation any better, but what choice did I have? Having only just decided I was going to stay I had nowhere else to go, nowhere to hide.
‘And what am I supposed to do in the meantime?’ I asked.
‘Just play along,’ she begged. ‘He probably won’t be out of his room much and he certainly won’t be scrutinising what you’re doing.’
Had either of us known just how wrong her prediction was we would have come up with a very different plan. One that would most probably have involved me running for the hills.
That afternoon Dorothy went back to baking, Mick and Angus to stacking the log pile and Hayley the vacuuming, although how in those jeans of hers, I have absolutely no idea. Jamie had disappeared in the direction of the stable block for a while, but came back muttering darkly about needing to talk to his mother and that he wasn’t sure it was all going to work out after all.
Sitting at the kitchen table, ostensibly working with Dorothy (who along with Hayley and Mick was now very much in the know about my party planner facade) on the endless to-do lists that would make life easier and the whole Christmas extravaganza a success, our eyes followed Jamie’s broad back as he headed through the kitchen in search of Catherine.
‘So,’ said Dorothy, with a nod to where he had disappeared. ‘What do you think?’
‘I think,’ I thought about saying, ‘that he’s the most delicious hunk of manhood I have ever clapped eyes on. That I wish I had Hayley’s ability to flirt, the guts to ask him out and a peephole between our rooms so I could watch him sleeping.’
What I actually said was, ‘About what?’
‘Jamie, of course,’ Dorothy winked. ‘Isn’t he a sight for sore eyes?’
‘Dorothy!’ I laughed. ‘My goodness me.’
‘Well, I’m sorry, dear, but any woman, or man for that matter, with eyes in their head, whatever their age, would be lying if they said otherwise.’
She wasn’t wrong, but I had no intention of encouraging her.
‘I’ve known the boys since they were little,’ she continued, ‘and they’re all handsome lads, but young James is definitely the pick of the bunch.’
I could hardly believe my ears. She was no doubt completely right of course, but it was a shock to hear straight-laced, apron-toting, grey-haired Dorothy say as much.
‘And I daresay beautiful women everywhere just fall at his feet, don’t they?’ I sighed.
‘Of course,’ she said wistfully, ‘but he isn’t much interested in them and the kind of women he does like always seem to find him a bit intimidating. They fully expect him to know how handsome he is and therefore assume he’ll be an arrogant bugger as a result.’
From what I’d seen and heard so far, I didn’t think he was particularly arrogant but I did think his attitude would be improved by a night or two in his own bed.
‘And of course, when they find out how down to earth he really is and then about this place . . .’
Her voice trailed off as footsteps approached along the corridor.
‘I’m going to run Hayley home in a bit,’ Jamie said, his face suddenly appearing around the door.
‘All right, dear,’ smiled Dorothy, completely unfazed by the fact that we had almost been caught red-handed. ‘She’s still Hoovering somewhere, I think.’
‘OK,’ he nodded. ‘In that case this is probably the perfect opportunity for you and me to have a chat, Anna,’ he surprised me by saying. ‘I think we need to get a few things sorted.’
‘All right,’ I squeaked as Dorothy winked. ‘Absolutely.’
‘And you might want to bring your paperwork with you,’ he said with a nod to the scrappy lists on the table. ‘The sooner we get organising this mad Christmas Dad’s so keen on, the better.’
Had I realised just how wrong Catherine was going to be about how much interest Jamie was going take in my clumsy efforts to organise Christmas I would have repacked my bags and resigned with immediate effect. However, my loyalty towards both her and Angus meant that I struggled on as best as I could but by the end of the second day I was ready to throttle their youngest son.
‘You know,’ he said, shaking his head and throwing my hastily cobbled-together Christmas folder on the table, ‘I can’t make you out.’
‘Oh,’ I said, trying my best to smile as I gathered up the papers and magazine clippings yet again.
‘Mm,’ he mused. ‘For a so-called party planner who specialises in Christmas you are woefully lacking in contacts and ideas.’
I bit my lip and threw Catherine another exasperated look. My expression had been nothing other than pleading when turned in her direction all day, but she still hadn’t taken the bait.
‘You aren’t what I thought you’d be at all.’
‘And what did you think I was going to be?’ I asked through gritted teeth.
‘Well to be honest, when I first clapped eyes on you, what with your designer outfit and professional image, I thought you’d be as much substance as you were style, but from what I’ve seen so far you seem to be bluffing it.’
If only he knew!
‘My initial assumption was that you’d have this family Christmas competently sewn up within hours – although thinking about it,’ he went on, fixing me with his hypnotic emerald gaze, ‘I don’t know why Mum thought Dorothy wouldn’t be able to handle things.’
&nbs
p; ‘Perhaps you should ask her?’ I suggested, wanting to put an end to his soliloquy and get back to some sort of normality.
I’d seen enough boxes of posh Christmas crackers and personalised cards to last me a lifetime and for someone who for so long had hated the season with such a passion I was fast reaching my limit. I twisted around in my chair but Catherine had made a hasty exit.
‘But why trouble her,’ Jamie said, following my gaze, ‘when I can just ask you? How have you really wheedled your way in here?’
I turned my attention back to my notepad.
‘What are your real intentions, Anna Woodruff?’ he pushed on, his face thrust closer to mine. ‘Are you here for the family jewels or have you somehow secured yourself a too-good-to-be-true salary in return for blowing up a few balloons?’
I licked my lips but kept them buttoned. Not a bad effort for someone under such provocation.
‘You’re no party planner, are you?’ he demanded, louder this time. ‘You don’t know one end of a Merry Christmas from another.’
He’d certainly got that right. I blinked away my tears as his words hit their mark. Deep down I knew he was only trying to protect his family but his way of going about it had a very keen sting. It was ironic that we were both running along the same rails and both had the Connelly family interests at heart. I hoped it wouldn’t be too much longer before he was made aware of that.
‘Jamie,’ Catherine suddenly called from the hallway, ‘I think you’d better come with me. And Anna dear, take the rest of the day off.’
Her words were music to my assaulted ears.
Later that day Jamie insisted that I join him when it was time to drive Hayley back to town. She didn’t say much during the journey. Relegated to the back of the Land Rover while I sat in the passenger seat, I daresay she was feeling rather put out that I had hijacked her spot and her one opportunity to have Jamie to herself in such a confined space.
‘Mick said he’ll come and get you in the morning,’ said Jamie as he jumped out to open her door on the stretch of road where I had picked her up before.
‘OK,’ she said, ‘thanks for the lift. I’ll see you tomorrow – and Anna,’ she called out to me, ‘watch your step.’