by Karen King
‘I was going to pop home and get her in a few minutes as Lloyd’s having her this afternoon for me, so it would be great if you could take her round there for me. Would you mind? Then I can carry on here – it gets dark so early, we need to make the most of the daylight.’
‘Happy to help,’ she assured him.
He shoved his hand in his pocket and took out a bunch of keys, searched through them, then took one off the ring. ‘This is for the front door. I’ve got another one, so just pop it through the letter box when you’ve finished.’
‘Will do.’ She waved and set off.
She parked her car outside Joel’s house and listened. She couldn’t hear Sweetie barking. Maybe she’d settled down now, she thought. That would make life easier for Joel. She opened the door, shouting the little dog’s name, expecting her to come running. She didn’t.
‘Sweetie! Where are you, Sweetie?’ she called.
She expected the Maltese to appear at any moment, but there was no sign of her.
How strange. She checked the kitchen – noting that Joel had left the radio on, probably for company – and the lounge. The back door was safely shut, so the dog couldn’t have escaped, but she wasn’t anywhere to be seen. What had happened?
Chapter Nineteen
‘Sweetie!’ Lexi called again, listening for an answering bark. None came. She frowned worriedly. Could Sweetie be trapped somewhere? Maybe upstairs? She paused at the bottom of the stairs; it didn’t seem right to go up there, but she had to find Sweetie. She could be ill or injured. And she couldn’t phone Joel to ask his permission to go up the stairs, he wouldn’t hear his phone ring over the noise of that chainsaw and the wood-cutting machine. Surely he wouldn’t mind, he would want Sweetie to be safe.
‘Sweetie!’ She shouted loudly as she started to walk up the stairs. ‘Sweetie! Are you up here?’
‘Yap! Yap! Yap!’
Thank goodness! Relief flooded through her. She’d reached the top of the landing now and could tell that the yapping was coming from the door in front of her. Was that Joel’s bedroom? And how had Sweetie got trapped in there?
‘Sweetie, it’s only me, girl,’ she said softly as she slowly opened the door. Sweetie squeezed through the gap in the door and ran out, yapping and wagging her tail happily. Lexi picked up the little dog and cradled her in her arms. ‘Have you been scared, locked in here?’ she asked softly.
Her eyes widened as she noticed some feathers on the floor by the door. Oh no, what had Sweetie done? She pushed the door open wider and looked in dismay at the feathers all over the bed, the curtains, the carpet, and oozing out of a very-chewed-up pillow on the bottom of the bed. The poor little dog must have got really distressed when she realised she was trapped. Joel had said she’d chewed a couple of cushions up when he’d left her before. She glanced around the room to see if there was any more damage.
She could see a pair of jeans sprawled over the back of a chair – feathers were scattered over them too – the door to the en suite was open, and a feather-covered towel lay on the floor. Joel had obviously left in a hurry this morning.
It looked like Sweetie had been on the bed, she had probably fallen asleep on it after finally exhausting herself with barking and pacing around her, which is why she hadn’t heard Lexi come in. How had she got trapped in here, though?
Sweetie nestled into her and whimpered softly.
‘You’re okay now, girl. Were you frightened?’ Lexi murmured, stroking her. She wondered how long she’d been trapped in here. Had Joel left the bedroom door open, and Sweetie had come up to look for him, then somehow knocked it shut behind her?
She turned around and gave the door a slight push. It immediately slammed shut. Yes, that’s what must have happened. She glanced around the room. Apart from the chewed-up pillow, Sweetie doesn’t seem to have done any damage. She walked over to the bed to check that the little dog hadn’t done anything there – after all, she’d been trapped in there all morning. She guessed that the Maltese had gone upstairs looking for Joel then got trapped in his room.
It all looked fine. Her eyes rested on the other pillow, where she could still see the slight indent left by Joel’s head. An image of him lying there, naked, flashed across her mind and she batted it away immediately. Where had that come from? She had no romantic interest in Joel at all.
Sweetie yapped and squirmed in her arms. She must need to go to the loo, Lexi thought. She went out of the room, pulled the door closed, and went downstairs into the garden. As soon as she put Sweetie down, the little Maltese terrier hurried over to a patch of soil and crouched down to do her business.
Rubbing her arms to keep warm, Lexi stood outside for a few minutes to let Sweetie have a bit of exercise, then took her back inside. The kitchen showed more signs of Joel having left in a hurry that morning: two plates and a couple of mugs were in a bowl in the sink – she guessed the larger plate was left from last night – and an opened loaf of bread was on the side, beside a toaster.
Sweetie ran over to her dog bowl at the side of the fridge and eagerly lapped up some water, then grabbed a biscuit bone from out of her food dish and trotted out with it dangling from her mouth. Lexi followed her out into the lounge where the little dog climbed into her basket, lay down and continued chewing her bone.
The room looked bare without any Christmas decorations or a tree, she thought. There weren’t even any Christmas cards. She wondered if Joel would be sitting here, all alone, on Christmas Day, whether he would even bother with a turkey dinner, or any of the festive traditions.
He might be having dinner with a friend. Andy, perhaps.
Her eyes rested on a small table beside the chair in the corner. Just the right size for the remaining Christmas tree in the attic. And there were plenty of baubles left, too.
Should she? She had enough time to do it before she went shopping.
She pondered over it. Joel seemed to have enjoyed putting up the lights for Lloyd and she had the feeling he wasn’t as anti- Christmas as she’d first thought. He might not want the fuss of putting up a Christmas tree, but if he came home and found one already up he couldn’t fail to be delighted, could he? She’d do it.
She crouched down and patted Sweetie on the head.
‘Let’s feed you, then take you around to Lloyd. Then, I’ve got a surprise to do for when your daddy comes home.’
Sweetie obviously recognised the word ‘feed’ and trotted over to her food dish, wagging her tail happily.
Lexi phoned Lloyd to check that he was home now. He was, and said to bring Sweetie straight around. ‘I’ll leave the door on the latch and put the kettle on. You will stop for a cuppa, won’t you?’
‘Of course,’ Lexi told him. She didn’t want to spend too much time chatting, though, she had plans for this afternoon.
Lloyd was all smiles when Lexi and Sweetie arrived. Christmas carols were playing in the background, and the lights of the Christmas tree were already on.
‘Hello, lass,’ he said, bending down to fuss Sweetie. ‘Have you been a good girl this morning?’
‘She got trapped in Joel’s bedroom and chewed up a pillow,’ Lexi told him. ‘I guess that’s not really her fault.’
‘Oh dear. Joel said that he wanted to leave her on her own this morning, so she would get used to it, and I had to go to the doctor’s. Only a check-up,’ he added hastily. ‘I’m very healthy for my age, the doctor said.’ He handed Lexi a mug of tea. ‘Your gran was there, too. We had a nice chat. She’s quite a character, isn’t she?’
‘She didn’t say she was going to the doctor’s,’ Lexi said worriedly.
‘Looking at the worry on your face, that’s probably why. The doctors like to keep a check on us old folks, you know. It doesn’t mean anything is wrong, but we all seem to be on some medication when you get to our age and it needs to be monitored.’
Granny Mabe was on medication? That was the first Lexi had heard of it.
‘Blood-pressure pills, that kind of thi
ng,’ Lloyd said as he sat down. ‘You know, there’s a lot of social clubs in this village that I had no idea about. Mabe’s been telling me all about them. I think I’ll join a few in the new year. It’ll get me out and about a bit.’
‘That sounds a great idea. We were worried about granny when Grandpa died, but luckily she’d always had an active social life, they both had, and I’m sure that’s really helped her.’ She liked the thought of Lloyd getting out and about with Granny Mabe and her friends. It would be good for them both. Maybe Lloyd might even be a calming effect on her gran.
Or Gran might be a bad influence on him.
She smiled at her thoughts. She knew what her mother meant by saying that having Granny Mabe around was like having a teenager in the house! Lexi hoped she was as outgoing and adventurous as her gran when she got to that age, though.
‘Thanks for the tea. I need to get going now.’ She said when she’d finished her tea. She got up and fussed the little dog who was now lying on Lloyd’s lap. ‘Be good for Lloyd.’
‘She’ll be fine.’ Lloyd assured her. ‘Mabe said your brother is arriving from Canada today. You must all be excited to see him.’
‘We are. I’m going to do some last-minute Christmas shopping later, so let me know if you need anything.’ She paused, wondering whether to tell Lloyd what she had planned that afternoon, then decided to, as she wasn’t sure whether to go ahead with it or not. ‘But first, I want to put a Christmas tree up in Joel’s house, as a surprise for him when he comes home. What do you think?’
‘I think that’s a splendid idea. My Christmas tree has cheered me up no end.’
‘I was a bit worried that he might not like it, but his house seems so bare. And we’ve got another one in the loft, I can decorate it in half an hour or so. I want to clear up all the feathers from the ripped pillow, too. Joel’s working so hard cutting the branches off the tree that I don’t want him to come home to that mess.’
‘That’s very kind of you, I’m sure Joel will appreciate it. I love my Christmas tree, it really brightens up the lounge.’
Lexi was so pleased to hear him say that. Saying her goodbyes again, she set off home to pick up the Christmas tree.
The house was empty, so her gran was still out. No surprise there! Lexi went straight up to the loft, picked up the little tree and some red and gold baubles, then stopped off at the kitchen to grab the smaller cottage pie from the fridge, before going back out again.
Less than an hour later, the cottage pie was in Joel’s fridge, with a sticky note on the door telling him it was there and how to heat it up, and the tree was in place on the small coffee table, adorned with its baubles and with a gold angel on the top. It looked so pretty. Joel couldn’t help but love it, surely. She would tell him it was a thank you for saving the Christmas tree on the green.
She looked around for the vacuum, found it at the back of the cupboard under the stairs, and carried it up to Joel’s bedroom to clear up the feathers, taking a plastic bag to put the torn pillow in. When she’d done that, she sent Joel a text to say that she’d found Sweetie trapped in his bedroom, but she was fine. She explained about Sweetie ripping up the pillow, that she’d cleaned it up and that the dog was now with Lloyd. Then she closed the door and popped the key through the letter box. Now she needed to get to the shops.
Chapter Twenty
When she drove home later that afternoon, Lexi was surprised to find the green lit up by floodlights, and Joel still on the platform. He had a head torch on his helmet that lit up the branches he was cutting with his chainsaw. Andy was on the ground, a light on his helmet too, illuminating the machine he was feeding them into. A chipper, Joel had said it was called. She felt guilty that they were working so late. It was dangerous, surely, to work in the dark.
She pulled up and got out. She walked across the green, calling to them, but of course they couldn’t hear her, not with the noise of the equipment and the ear protection they both wore. She moved closer to the tree.
Then, she was aware that the chipper had stopped and she heard Andy yell. ‘Lexi, get out of the way!’
Horrified, she looked up and saw a branch heading towards her. She stepped back just in time as it crashed to the ground centimetres away from her. God, that could have landed on her.
‘Are you okay?’ Andy was beside her in instant.
She was literally shaking, so could only nod.
Joel was down now and running over to her. ‘What the hell do you think you’re doing? You could have got killed! What do you think all those bloody cones and signs are for?’
Lexi backed away. ‘Sorry.’
Joel pulled off his helmet, his face furious. ‘“Sorry!” Bloody hell, Lexi! If that branch had hit you . . .’
She bristled at the tone of his voice, but knew that he was right to be angry. It had been stupid of her. So, she simply apologised again and turned to walk back to her car.
‘Lexi!’
She turned around.
‘I’m sorry. I shouldn’t have yelled like that but . . .’ Joel thrust his hand through his hair.
‘I know. It was stupid of me. I should have been more careful.’ She looked at Andy. ‘Thank you for warning me.’
‘What are you doing here, anyway?’ Joel asked.
What, indeed? How could she explain that she had been so worried about him up there cutting branches when it was so dark – even if they did have floodlights – that she had come to tell him to leave it until tomorrow?
‘I wanted to make sure everything was okay. You’re both working so late and it’s been a long day.’
‘She’s right. We should wrap it up for tonight, mate, it’s almost six,’ Andy said. ‘We’ll come back first thing tomorrow.’
‘Is there a problem?’ Lexi looked from one to the other of them worriedly.
Joel’s face relaxed a little. ‘The ivy has been tougher to cut off than I initially thought. It’s wound itself like tight tendrils around the tree trunk and several of the lower branches and I haven’t made as much progress as I’d hoped,’ he admitted.
‘We’ll come back early tomorrow morning. We’ll get it done,’ Andy said.
‘I’m not so sure we’ll do it in time. I have to email the assurance that the work has been completed, and the tree is safe, to Martin by midday tomorrow. And I’ve no way of knowing how tight this ivy is around the lower branches of the tree until I start tackling it.’
He looked exhausted, Lexi thought. And the shock of the branch almost landing on her hadn’t helped. She dreaded to think what would have happened if it had hit her. Why had she got so obsessed over saving the tree? She knew that the other villagers were upset about it, too, but she was the one who had started the petition, who had almost forced Joel into taking on the job. He’d even cut his rates. And for what? To work himself to exhaustion.
‘I don’t want one of you getting hurt, just to save this tree. You’ve both tried your best. I’m sure everyone will understand that.’ Joel had got sawdust in his eye that morning, what if that happened again and he couldn’t see clearly, then he cut his hand instead of the branch. She shuddered. She remembered Joel’s words that some things were more important than Christmas traditions. She had been so annoyed with him, but he was right.
‘The villagers will be disappointed,’ Joel told her. ‘We’ve got their hopes up now. And what about your gran and her mates?’
‘You were the one who told me that safety was more important than Christmas traditions,’ she reminded him. ‘And you were right.’ Her gaze swept earnestly over them both. ‘If you can’t make the tree safe in time then it doesn’t matter. At least you’ve saved it from being cut down.’ Her gaze swept from Joel to Andy then back to Joel again. ‘Thank you both. I’m sorry for being stupid enough to walk over here and almost cause an accident. I won’t do it again.’
She turned and walked off, tears springing to her eyes at the shock of her near-accident and Joel’s rebuke.
Joel stared afte
r her. He felt like a right heel. But she could have been killed. He turned to Andy, who was standing silently beside him.
‘Was I a bit over the top then?’
‘Yep. But you had a point, mate, she could have been badly injured or worse. It was stupid of her to come here, in the dark, and with no protection. We’ve both seen enough bad accidents to know how dangerous this job is.’
Even so, he could have been a bit kinder. Fear had made him react so angrily.
‘I know. Let’s call it a day now, and be here at six tomorrow to see if we can get this finished.’ He was sure he would feel a lot better once he’d got over the shock of that branch heading for Lexi and had a shower and something hot to eat.
‘We’ll get it finished, even if it takes a bit longer than midday. I know that we have to have the paperwork over to Martin by then, and we’ll do that. If it takes another couple of hours to actually make the tree safe, then that’s fine.’
‘You’d be okay with that?’ It was both their reputations at stake.
‘Joel, if you assure me that you can make that tree safe in time for the carol service to go ahead on Friday, then I believe you.’
Joel considered this for a moment. ‘I can do it. I promise. And I’ll try to make it for midday. Now, let’s clear up here and get home.’
Right now, all he wanted was to collect Sweetie from Lloyd, go home and have a shower. Or maybe he should have a shower first, rather than turn up on the doorstep like this. Lloyd was bound to ask him if he wanted to stay for a cup of tea, and it would be rude of him to refuse when he’d looked after Sweetie all afternoon. So, he sent Lloyd a quick text to say he’d be there shortly.
As he opened the door, he saw a big black bag in the hall. He peered inside and saw the ripped pillow. Sweetie had certainly shredded that. The bedroom must have been a right mess; it was good of Lexi to clean it all up. He’d hoped Sweetie would be all right this morning, she’d seemed so much more settled. He’d left the radio on in the kitchen, and taken her for a walk to tire her out before he went to work. He should have made sure that he closed the bedroom door, though. Goodness knows what damage she could have done, and the mess he would have come home to, if Lexi hadn’t popped in to check on her. He always kept a litter tray in the kitchen in case Sweetie needed it, but she couldn’t use it if she was trapped upstairs, could she?