‘Dad’s a really good cook,’ Robbie told Millie, ‘but he doesn’t get much time to do it.’
‘That’s right,’ Niall said. ‘Does it seem odd to want to spend more time in the kitchen?’
‘Not at all,’ Millie said. ‘Not if it’s what you love doing.’
‘Maybe I’ll try out some recipes on you,’ he said.
‘Sounds good to me,’ Millie said. ‘I’m afraid I don’t cook at all. My idea of breakfast is something out of a box. Lunch is usually a bought sandwich and dinner is something that is flung into a microwave.’
Niall frowned. ‘That all sounds rather–’ he paused.
‘Sad?’
He shook his head. ‘I wasn’t going to say that.’
‘But you were thinking it?’ Millie said. ‘It’s just that I always seem to be in a rush and I’m so tired when I get home and it’s just me and it doesn’t really seem worth thinking about a recipe with thirty different ingredients that will need washing or peeling or preparing for a meal that only lasts ten minutes.’
Millie was aware that both Niall and Robbie were staring at her.
‘But food isn’t just about filling a gap or nutrition,’ Niall said. ‘It’s the stuff of life and there are so many wonderful flavours and different ways to prepare something that could be fun too.’
‘Dad sometimes lets me make things,’ Robbie said.
‘What do you like to make?’ Millie asked.
‘A mess usually,’ Niall said.
Robbie pulled face at his dad. ‘I like making cakes,’ he said with great authority.
‘I like eating cakes,’ Millie said.
‘Well, that sounds like a plan,’ Niall said, and the three of them laughed.
Millie did the washing up after they’d all finished and made herself and Niall a cup of tea which they drank by the wood burner whilst Robbie amused himself with a Lego set.
‘How often does your aunt get down here?’ he asked Millie.
‘I can’t remember the last time she came,’ Millie said. I’ve offered to bring her but she doesn’t like being away from home these days.’
Niall nodded. ‘That’s understandable,’ he said.
Millie looked across at him and realised that he would probably know a lot more about her aunt’s health than she did but, of course, he wouldn’t be permitted to talk about it.
‘Her confidence has taken a real knock since the arthritis set in,’ Millie said, ‘and she’s in a lot of pain. I think she likes the comfort of her own home and being surrounded by people who are able to keep an eye on her.’
Niall nodded again. ‘So, the cottage is empty most of time?’
‘Oh, no. It’s let out during the holidays and it’s usually very popular. I can’t think why it wasn’t booked this week.’
‘I’m not surprised it’s popular. It’s the most beautiful location I’ve ever seen.’
‘Yes,’ Millie said. ‘It takes some beating, doesn’t it? Of course, growing up with this as our holiday retreat, I was totally spoilt. Only you don’t realise that when you’re a kid, do you? I remember my desperation to take holidays abroad as soon as I was able to and my intense disappointment to find that the coasts of Spain and Italy and France aren’t really any better. They might be a tad warmer but I’ve never really minded the English weather. It’s all part and parcel with our countryside, isn’t it? I mean, without the rain, it wouldn’t be so green and lush, would it?’
He grinned.
‘What?’ Millie asked.
‘That’s a very positive way of looking at bad weather,’ he said.
‘If you don’t like the English weather, you really shouldn’t be holidaying in December.’
‘That is true enough,’ he conceded. ‘You know, we always used to favour holidays abroad. When I first met Emma, we’d be jetting off to Sri Lanka or India or going on safari in some hot dusty part of Africa.’
‘And did you like it?’
‘I liked it well enough,’ he said, ‘but I’m really beginning to think that a pretty corner of the English countryside suits me very well these days. Does that make me sound horribly old?’
Millie smiled. ‘Not at all.’ She looked at his face and wondered if it would be rude to ask just how old he was. He didn’t look that much older than her. His hair was thick and dark but there were light lines around his eyes when he smiled which would place him in his mid-forties at least. It was a nice face, she thought – the kind of face that wouldn’t frighten patients when they entered his room at the surgery. It was a face that would help patients open up to him, she thought. A kind, compassionate and handsome face.
Handsome? Where had that word come from, she wondered? Suddenly, she was up on her feet. She cleared her throat.
‘I’m erm–’
‘Going out? We were actually going to head into Tarlsford for some supplies today and you’re welcome to join us if you like. It might be the last chance for a while.’
‘What – is snow forecast?’ Millie asked. ‘We’re not going to get snowed in, are we?’
‘I meant that it’s Christmas Eve,’ he said.
‘So it is,’ Millie said. ‘I’d forgotten.’
‘How could you forget that?’ Robbie demanded as he entered the room with his coat already on.
She grinned. ‘I have absolutely no idea,’ she said.
*
The pretty market town of Tarlsford was the sort of place that holidaymakers who were lucky enough to discover it would return to time and time again. Set in a picturesque valley amongst the Devon hills, it boasted a bakery, a florist’s, a grocery store, two pubs and a post office. There was even a tiny secondhand bookshop where all were welcome even if you were soaked to the skin after walking across Exmoor or sporting a pair of muddy boots.
‘Tourist shopping first?’ Niall suggested and Millie nodded. There then followed a very pleasant hour of poking around the bookshop. Millie had always adored secondhand books. She adored new ones too but there was something rather special about owning a pre-loved novel especially if it came with a few dog-eared pages or pencil notes in the margins. Her little flat in Bath had books in every room from the latest bestselling novel to hardback volumes of poetry from the early part of the last century with silk-like pages which felt so smooth to the touch. Today, she found a pretty edition of a Thomas Hardy novel. Niall found a curious book on herbal medicines from Tudor England and Robbie found a basket of old comics and had chosen three rather tatty ones.
‘Are you sure you want those?’ Niall asked him.
‘Yeah!’ Robbie said. ‘Why?’
‘Because they look as though they’ve been devoured by a mad dog.’
Robbie shook his head and took them to the counter where an old man in a big overcoat and a pair of orange fingerless gloves popped them in a brown paper bag for him.
‘Here,’ Niall said to Millie, taking her book from her. Allow me.’
‘Oh, there’s no need.’
‘It’s just a tiny way of saying thank you for letting us stay,’ he said.
‘You don’t need to say thank you.’
‘But I shall anyway,’ he told her with great authority.
As they left the shop with their bags of books and comics, Millie thought about ringing her aunt because she was sure to be able to get a signal in town but what would be the point? She’d been going to cross question Aunt Louise to find out what was going on but, watching Niall and Robbie filling a basket in the local grocery store a few minutes later, she realised how lucky she was to be spending Christmas with them.
Millie nipped out of the shop to call her aunt to let her know everything was okay at the cottage but there was no answer. After leaving a message, she realised that she had a few messages of her own and she was just listening to them when Niall and Robbie came out of the shop. The messages were all from James. He was sorry. He’d made a mistake and he wanted her back.
Don’t let a few silly affairs come between us! he had t
he nerve to say. They meant nothing to me!
Well, he’d made Millie feel as if she meant nothing to him and so she deleted all seven of his messages one after the other.
‘Everything okay?’ Niall asked as Millie returned her phone to her bag.
‘Everything’s fine,’ she said but she couldn’t help feeling a great weight of sadness in her heart at that moment. She’d thought that coming to Devon would help her put James out of her mind – that he couldn’t follow her to her special place – but he was still able to reach out and upset her no matter how many miles of wild countryside lay between them.
‘Let’s get back, shall we?’ she said, looking forward to returning to the coast where the bad mobile phone reception would help to block James’s calls.
It was one of those magical days where sunshine and frost played happily together and the moors looked beautiful. The tawny-coloured bracken had been turned silver and great puddles and little streams had frozen over.
‘It’s getting pretty cold now,’ Niall said.
‘Cold enough for snow?’ Robbie asked.
‘You know, it just might be,’ Niall said. ‘I’ve not listened to the forecast but we might be in for a white Christmas. You never know.’
Millie smiled from her place on the backseat. A white Christmas, she thought. She couldn’t remember the last time she’d experienced that.
Niall’s Range Rover bumped down the track to Cove Cottage and Millie couldn’t help thinking how much more suited it was to the terrain than her own little car. As they came round the final bend, she sighed with pleasure as she saw the great waves of the sea.
‘I never tire of that view,’ she said.
‘I’m kind of getting used to it myself,’ Niall said.
‘Me too,’ Robbie agreed and they pulled up alongside the wood store.
‘At least we’ve got enough logs to see us through if the worst comes to the worst,’ Niall said.
‘You mean if we’re snowed in until spring?’ Millie said.
‘Cool!’ Robbie said.
Niall laughed and watched as Robbie leapt out of the car and tore across the grass towards the brook.
‘Don’t be too long!’ he called after him and then his attention turned to Millie. ‘Are you all right?’ he asked as he grabbed the shopping bags out of the car.
‘Yes, why?’ Millie asked, conscious of his gaze upon her.
‘You were a bit quiet on the way back,’ he said. ‘You–’ he paused, ‘looked thoughtful.’
‘Did I?’ she said.
‘It’s part of my job to read faces, he said. ‘I’m sorry if I pried. I didn’t mean to.’
‘No, no,’ she said quickly. ‘It’s just – well – there’s a bit to be thoughtful about at the moment.’
He held her gaze for a moment longer. ‘I’m a pretty good listener,’ he said. ‘If you ever want to talk.’
‘Thanks,’ she said, ‘but it’s nothing. Nothing that time and space can’t cure anyway.’
CHAPTER 5
It was good to be back at the cottage. Niall soon had the wood burner lit and roaring, and Millie and Robbie put the shopping away. She watched as the young boy then settled down on the floor by the fire with his nose deep inside one of his comics. Millie smiled as she remembered doing just the same thing when she’d been his age only it had been novels about ponies rather than comics about superheroes which had obsessed her.
Leaving the room, she climbed the stairs to her bedroom to find her slippers. She felt at ease enough with Niall and Robbie to wear her furry pink and white slippers. But, as she was slipping her feet into their warm depths, something strange and quite unexpected happened. Millie found she was crying and not just a few casual tears either but great chest-racking sobs. What on earth was happening? Where had all these tears come from? But she knew where. It had been listening to James’s voice on her phone. Message after message. It had stirred up all the old memories again. Memories she’d hoped had been fading and which she’d been bottling up on the drive back to the cottage.
She wasn’t sure how long she had been crying for but, when she heard the knock on her bedroom door, she realised that she must have been making quite a noise.
‘Millie?’
She cursed herself silently and quickly pulled a tissue from her pocket but it didn’t stand a chance of mopping up her tears quickly enough.
‘Are you okay?’ Niall said, entering the room even though she hadn’t invited him to do so.
‘I’m fine,’ she said, not daring to look up at him.
‘Well, you don’t look or sound fine. Here – come and sit down.’ He guided her towards the bed and they sat down next to each other without speaking. Millie mopped her eyes with her tissue and took a deep breath.
‘I – erm –,’ she stopped and blew her nose. ‘I recently broke up with my boyfriend,’ she said and then gave a strange sort of laugh. ‘Boyfriend! That’s such a ridiculous word for a woman in her thirties to use, isn’t it? But he wasn’t ever going to be anything more as it turns out. We’d been together for about six years and I really thought we were going to go the distance.’
‘I’m sorry,’ Niall said.
She shook her head. ‘It’s silly to get upset about it.’
‘No it isn’t,’ he said. ‘You’ve obviously invested a lot of time and energy and love into this relationship.’
‘But it’s nothing compared to what you’ve been through,’ she said.
‘It’s different – that’s all,’ he told her.
‘I thought I’d done all my crying,’ she said. ‘I’m so mad at myself.’
‘Don’t be mad,’ he said. ‘It’s a perfectly normal way of coping with things. “Better out than in” – that’s what we doctors are meant to say, isn’t it?’
Millie couldn’t help smiling at that. ‘So, have you got a quick cure for me, doctor?’ she asked.
‘I wish I had,’ he said, ‘but broken hearts take their time to heal, I’m afraid.’
She took a deep breath and then sighed it out. ‘I don’t think it’s completely broken,’ she said. ‘But it is very bruised.’
He nodded. ‘That’s only to be expected.’
They sat quietly together on the bed, the sound of a robin’s song outside the window. It felt strangely intimate and Millie suddenly remembered that, although they were sharing the cottage and she’d just told him something very personal, this man was still essentially a stranger to her but, before she could do or say anything, he had leapt up from the bed.
‘Listen,’ he said gently, ‘come downstairs and help us with the tree. We’re going to decorate it and it would probably be a good idea to have a woman’s eye.’ He cocked his head to one side in a pleading manner that completely won her over.
‘I’d be delighted to help,’ she said, mopping her eyes again and giving her nose a thoroughly good blow after Niall had left the room.
When Millie entered the living room, Robbie was on the floor surrounded by tinsel and boxes of baubles which shone like jewels from a fairytale.
‘Come on, Dad!’ he said. ‘Get the lights on.’
‘Yes, sir!’ Niall said as he picked up the box which contained a long rope of golden fairy lights. Millie and Robbie watched as Niall threaded them expertly through the tree.
‘You’ve done that before,’ Millie said.
‘Oh, yes,’ he said, switching them on a moment later so that the deep gold sparkled in the green depths of the tree.
‘Now tinsel!’ Robbie said, leaping to his feet with the long snakes of silver and gold.
‘Give Millie some,’ Niall said and Robbie handed a length of silver tinsel to her.
It didn’t take long before the tree was garlanded in silver and golden splendour.
‘Baubles now!’ Robbie declared.
‘Each of us chooses a colour for the tree, don’t we?’ Niall said. ‘Emma chose gold. There might be fifty million colours in the world and she’d always choose gold, wouldn’t
she, Robbie?’
Robbie nodded silently and Millie felt her heart ache for him.
‘Of course there was that year you cheated,’ Niall said to his son, moving forward to ruffle his dark hair.
‘I didn’t cheat!’ Robbie said.
Niall grinned. ‘Robbie found the most outrageous stripy baubles. How many coloured stripes on each one?’
‘About eighty,’ Robbie said.
Niall and Millie laughed.
‘What colour have you chosen this year, Robbie?’ she asked.
‘Blue,’ he said.
‘And I’ve chosen silver,’ Niall said.
‘Silver, blue and gold,’ Millie said. ‘Sounds lovely and very wintery. It’s a brilliant idea to choose a colour each.’
‘What colour would you choose, Millie?’ Robbie asked.
‘Oh!’ Millie said, caught off-guard. ‘Probably something girly like pink.’
Robbie wrinkled his nose in disgust.
‘Or purple,’ she added quickly.
‘Purple’s better,’ he said and Millie smiled. ‘Is that what you’ve got on your tree?’
‘I don’t have a tree,’ she said.
‘You don’t have a tree?’ Robbie said in astonishment.
‘Nope!’ she said. ‘There doesn’t really seem much point when it’s just me who’ll see it.’
‘What decorations do you have, then?’ Robbie asked.
‘I don’t really do Christmas,’ she said.
‘You don’t do Christmas?’ Niall asked, looking perplexed.
Millie blushed. ‘Well, it’s just me on my own most years, you see. It doesn’t really seem worth all the effort other than putting up a few Christmas cards.’
Robbie looked at his dad as if to ask if this was normal adult behaviour but Niall looked as nonplussed as his son.
‘Really,’ Millie said, ‘it’s so much fuss and bother.’
The expression on Robbie’s face told Millie he’d have been less shocked if she’d sworn really badly so she thought she’d better shut up.
Silently and carefully, the three of them worked their way around the tree with the coloured baubles placing a gold one here, a silver one there and a dazzling blue one in between. Then came the other decorations which were kept in a round sweetie tin. There were gold stars, little wooden reindeer, cheery red Santas and delicate silver angels.
The Christmas Collection Page 3