*
They left Carlisle on the 23rd of December, travelling down the M6 to Penrith and then wending their way from Keswick to Cockermouth and on down to the wild west of the county to a landscape that boasted England’s highest mountain and its deepest lake. They’d done a big shop before their journey. Although Paul insisted that there wouldn’t be snow, he was still paranoid about getting trapped at the cottage and so had bought enough food to feed a family of eight, a stack of candles and two extra bags of logs.
As he’d been making sure they didn’t freeze or go hungry, Rachel had been making sure that Christmas would be as sparkly as usual with a three-foot Christmas tree in a pot, baubles to decorate it and star-shaped lights to thread around the cottage, as well as the collection of presents she’d been sneakily wrapping for weeks.
As they’d left the city behind them, the sky had turned a peculiar sepia colour and Rachel could see that Paul was worried. Truth be told, so was she, but she didn’t dare voice her concerns for fear of Paul calling the whole trip off. The fact was during the summer months, when the sun was shining and the blue skies kissed the mountain tops, the cottage could be a little Eden but, in winter, it was a wild and desolate place.
‘This could be a huge mistake,’ Paul said as they turned off the road onto the track which would lead them to the cottage. ‘If it snows and we get stuck, they could be digging us out dead come spring.’
‘Don’t be silly,’ Rachel said. ‘As much as I want it to, it never snows at Christmas except in films and books.’
‘I’m just terrified of getting stranded in the middle of nowhere,’ Paul said.
‘We’re not going to get stranded,’ she told him, but he didn’t look convinced.
It was then that the cottage came into view. White-washed stone with a slate roof and five pretty windows around its front door, it sat snugly in its valley, cosy and inviting.
‘Anyway, if we do get stranded, we’ve got the wood burner,’ she continued. ‘Just think how cosy we’ll be. Just you and me-’ she stopped.
‘Rach?’ Paul said, but he soon realised why Rachel was looking so surprised as he saw the car parked to the side of the cottage. ‘Isn’t that your sister’s car?’
‘Yes, it is.’
‘What on earth is she doing here?’
Rachel shook her head. ‘I have absolutely no idea.’
CHAPTER 2
It was a red-faced Rowan who met them at the door a moment later.
‘How did you know I was here?’ she asked them, her long dark hair blowing back in the breeze.
‘What do you mean? We didn’t,’ Rachel said.
‘Then what are you doing here?’
‘We’ve come to spend Christmas. What do you think we’re doing?’
‘But I’ve come to spend Christmas here!’ Rowan told her.
For a moment, the two sisters just stood staring at each other.
‘Look, come in. It’s freezing,’ Rowan said.
‘Well, of course we’re coming in,’ Rachel said. ‘We’re not going back now, are we?’
Once everybody was inside and Paul had closed the door on the cold day, the two sisters embraced.
‘I can’t believe you’re here,’ Rachel confessed. ‘You never use the cottage.’
‘Neither do you!’ Rowan said.
‘And now, here we both are!’ Rachel gave a little laugh.
Paul came forward and gave his sister-in-law a kiss on the cheek. ‘How are you?’
‘I’m good, Paul. You okay?’
‘Can’t complain. Apart from being absolutely freezing!’
‘He’s forever complaining about the cold,’ Rachel said, rolling her eyes.
‘Yes, I’ve only been here an hour so I haven’t got the wood burner going yet.’
‘I’ll get onto it,’ Paul said.
‘Which room are you in?’ Rachel asked.
‘The double – but I can move to one of the twins if you want.’
‘Would you mind?’ Rachel asked.
‘Of course not. I’m just a lowly spinster.’
‘Oh, Rowan!’
‘I’m joking,’ Rowan said quickly as she turned to go upstairs, but there was something in her tone that Rachel caught and couldn’t quite work out.
Paul soon came back with a bag of logs and got to work by the wood burner.
‘Where’s Rowan?’ he asked.
‘Moving rooms so we can have the double.’
‘It won’t be the same with her here,’ Paul whispered. ‘We won’t be able to – you know – cuddle up, and I won’t be able to walk around in the altogether.’
Rachel giggled. ‘Thank goodness!’
‘Is she staying?’
‘I should think so.’
Paul shook his head.
‘What do you expect me to do?’ Rachel said. ‘Throw her out at Christmas? She’s as much right to be here as we do if not more – she got here first.’
‘Yes, I did,’ Rowan said, causing Rachel to turn around in surprise.
‘Ro – we didn’t mean-’ Rachel sighed, glaring back at her husband as her sister left the room.
‘What? I only said-’
Rachel followed her sister through to the kitchen. ‘Rowan! Don’t be like this. I want you to stay. It’s just a bit of a surprise for us both to find you here – that’s all.’
‘I know when I’m not wanted,’ Rowan said.
‘You’re very much wanted so stop being all sulky. Ro? Look at me!’
Rowan turned around.
‘Hey,’ Rachel said. ‘You okay?’
Rowan nodded. ‘I’m sorry. I should have checked with you.’
‘It’s okay. It was a spur of the moment thing. Well, I’ve been wanting to spend Christmas here for ages, but Paul needed a bit of persuading.’
‘I’ll get out of your way,’ Rowan said. ‘You won’t want my long face spoiling your Christmas.’
‘Don’t be silly!’ Rachel said, motioning to stop Rowan as she made to leave the room. ‘Now, tell me what’s going on because something’s going on, isn’t it?’
Rowan sighed. ‘I don’t know where to begin.’
‘The beginning’s usually a good place,’ Rachel said.
Rowan nodded. ‘I’ve just broken up with somebody.’
‘Who?’
‘Someone from work at the bank. You don’t know him. His name’s Chris.’
‘How long were you seeing him for?’
‘Five months, but I’ve known him for years. We’ve always got on well, but he’s been involved with someone for ages. Lucy. So I’ve never thought of him as a potential...’ she paused, ‘as a potential anything. But then they broke up. The news was all over the bank. Everyone thought they’d be together forever. Chris and Lucy. They were this glorious golden couple. The perfect couple.’ Rowan sighed.
‘So, how did you two end up together?’
‘We were on one of those silly training weekends where you have to build a raft and stuff. It was fun, actually. Anyway, I was on Chris’s team and we were getting on so well. We’d stay up late at night just talking. He really needed to talk about the whole Lucy thing and he said I was a good listener. I liked listening to him. He was sweet and gentle. There was no bitterness in him about the break-up – just this huge sadness that it had come to an end. And then, somewhere along the line, he stopped talking about Lucy and started talking about me.’
Rachel waited for her sister to continue, not wanting to prod her for fear she might clam up. She had a habit of doing that – giving just a little bit of information and then withdrawing.
‘Then he kissed me. It was just a friendly little kiss at first,’ Rowan said, smiling as she remembered. ‘And then it wasn’t.’
Rachel blinked hard. ‘It wasn’t?’
‘It was – you know – a bit more...’ she paused as if searching for the right word, ‘intense.’
‘Got you.’
Rowan walked over to the window, staring out
at the misty valley.
‘We had five great months together,’ she told Rachel. ‘I really thought we had a good chance of going the distance.’
‘He went back to her, didn’t he?’ Rachel said, guessing the ending to this particular story and yet dreading hearing it all the same.
Rowan nodded. ‘I saw all the signals, but he told me – he told me over and over again – that he’d never get back together with her and I believed him.’
Rachel could see tears sparkling in her sister’s eyes now and joined her at the window, hugging her close.
‘I’m so sorry, sweetie,’ she said. ‘That’s a rotten thing to happen. It really is. You should have called me. Why didn’t you call me?’
Rowan gave a big sniff. ‘I didn’t want to bother you with my problems.’
‘But I’m your big sister – that’s what I’m here for!’
‘I just thought I’d come here to get away from everything.’
‘Well, that’s what’s good about this place – it’s certainly away from everything.’
It was typical of Rowan to keep something like this to herself, Rachel thought, to hide herself away with her heartbreak and not want to burden anybody else with it.
‘But now I’ve gone and ruined your time with Paul,’ Rowan said.
‘You haven’t ruined anything,’ Rachel promised her. ‘We’re going to have a brilliant Christmas – the best ever! It’ll be just like all those wonderful summer holidays we used to have here only slightly colder.’
Rowan gave a tiny smile. ‘Yes, this place was a bit different in the summer, wasn’t it?’
‘We’ll get the wood burner going, go for long bracing walks and cook lots of warming food. Of course, I haven’t got you a Christmas present because I didn’t know you were going to be here.’
‘That’s okay,’ Rowan said, ‘because I haven’t got you one either!’
Rachel laughed.
‘Are you sure – I mean really sure – about me staying?’
‘Of course I am, silly! I wouldn’t want it any other way!’ Rachel said, pulling her sister into a hug.
*
After a light lunch of soup and baguette, Rachel and Rowan pulled on their boots, coats, hats and scarves and ventured outside, leaving Paul to read the hardback novel his parents had given him last Christmas and which he still hadn’t got around to reading.
‘You know, I’d forgotten how beautiful this place was,’ Rowan said as they headed up the track behind the cottage.
‘I hadn’t,’ Rachel said, ‘but I’d forgotten to make time to enjoy it.’
‘Both terrible offences,’ Rowan said.
‘Mum and Dad would be appalled.’
‘Yes.’
They walked in silence for a while, each thinking about the parents they’d lost far too early – Mum to cancer and their father to a heart attack. The cottage had been their pride and joy and, however tempting it might have been to sell it for a quick buck, the sisters had instinctively known that it was far more valuable than any price they could have got for it. Even though they rarely got a chance to use it, they knew it was there all the same – a safe and beautiful refuge waiting to welcome them.
They continued up the track, passing through a wood, both knowing where they were heading without the need for words. The Lake District was famous for its enormous lakes, but the majority of tourists never ever found their way to the many beautiful tarns. Rachel was pretty sure that, if you stopped the average tourist in Windermere and asked them what a tarn was, they wouldn’t have a clue. But Rachel and Rowan had come to love their very own mountain lake. As tiny as it was compared to the likes of Windermere and Ullswater, it was still enormous to the girls who’d only ever swam in the school pool. And it had belonged to them. Well, it had seemed that way all those summers ago.
Today, great icicles as fat as organ pipes hung from the jut of rock at the far side of the tarn. The bracken was brittle with frost and the boulders sparkled under the faint glances from the sun.
‘Remember the summer we swam in there with Michael and Sara?’ Rowan said, nodding out to the icy grey water.
‘The summer you stole my boyfriend?’ Rachel said.
‘He wasn’t your boyfriend!’
‘He would have been if you’d given me a chance to be alone with him.’
Rowan giggled. ‘He wanted to be alone with me.’
‘Nonsense! You were way too young for him.’
They grinned at each other. If there’d been any bad feeling between them about the summer romance, it had long been forgiven.
‘Those were the best summers in the world. We used to have the tarn to ourselves most of the time,’ Rachel said.
‘Yes. Nobody but us was foolish enough to swim in it.’
‘I wouldn’t fancy it today!’
‘I wouldn’t fancy it even if it was the hottest summer day,’ Rowan said.
‘Wouldn’t you?’
‘I think there are certain things you leave in your childhood.’
‘Do you?’ Rachel sounded disappointed.
‘You mean, you would swim in there?’ Rowan said. ‘Seriously?’
Rachel looked out across the silver expanse of water and ice. ‘Probably not!’ They both laughed and then sat in silence for a while on a great boulder as the winter wind pummelled them.
‘I thought I’d be married by now,’ Rowan suddenly confessed. ‘I thought I’d be coming here with my husband and children just as we came with our parents.’
Rachel turned to face her. ‘I think you’ve still got time. You’re only twenty-six.’
Rowan shrugged. ‘I guess I’m getting bored of waiting. Or jealous of seeing you getting it so right.’
Rachel smiled. ‘Hey, I had to wait my time. Don’t forget I’ve got three years of bad dating on you. But I guess I did get lucky meeting Paul. But you’ll be lucky too. Just wait and see.’
‘I thought I’d got lucky with Chris. You know, I pictured us coming here together. I told him about the cottage and how special it was. I’m glad I didn’t bring him here now. I would never have been able to come here again if I had.’
Rachel looked at her sister. ‘You’ve taken a bit of a beating with him, haven’t you?’
Rowan sighed deeply. ‘I built up all these crazy ideas about our future together. I told myself not to do that, but I couldn’t help it. I thought he was the one.’
‘But he was Lucy’s one. Yours is somewhere out there.’
‘I sometimes wonder,’ Rowan said. ‘Maybe I’m destined to be alone. Maybe I should move into the cottage with a horde of cats and learn to knit jam or something.’
Rachel laughed. ‘Don’t do that! Don’t write yourself off. You’re just in a fug, that’s all. But it’ll lift.’
‘I hope so,’ Rowan said. ‘I really do.’
Rachel gave her shoulder a little squeeze. ‘Shall we get back?’ she said. ‘My bum’s gone numb with the cold.’
*
‘How did it go?’ Paul asked Rachel in the privacy of their bedroom after they’d got back from their walk.
‘Well, we talked,’ Rachel said. ‘She’s pretty upset about this guy who broke up with her and I was wondering if any of your friends would be suitable for Rowan.’
‘No way!’ Paul said. ‘Don’t even think about matchmaking her with any of my pals. Remember what happened at the wedding with Nick?’
Rachel’s eyes widened as she remembered. ‘Oh, yeah. I remember.’
‘And we thought the two of them would get on so well together. How wrong can you get?’
‘Yeah, well maybe if your friend hadn’t drunk so much champagne-’
‘Don’t blame Nick. He’d been having a rough time at work. He needed to cut lose a bit.’
‘Not at our wedding, he didn’t. And not with my sister.’
Paul shook his head. ‘You’ll never forgive him for that, will you?’
‘Nope!’
‘And that’s exactly wh
y I’d never suggest any of my friends for your sister. You’re too demanding, Rachel.’
‘No I’m not. You just need to get a better calibre of friend,’ she said with a naughty grin.
CHAPTER 3
Nick Madden loved the hills and often wondered how he’d ended up working in London, but the offer of a job at a prestigious advertising company had been too hard to turn down and so he’d left his native Cumbria after graduating and headed south. But oh, how he missed the hills. He’d grown up in a little village near Keswick and would spend every hour he could hiking with his father. They must have clocked up thousands of miles between them over the years, walking in companionable silence with some kind of dog trotting alongside them.
Nick’s mother had left the family home two days after Nick’s fifth birthday. His father had raised him alone. It hadn’t been an easy life, but it had been a pretty good one with the two of them doing all the things that a father and son should do in the great outdoors from camping to climbing, from fishing to rafting. It had been a great childhood even without the presence of his mother. It was one of the reasons it was so hard to see his father as he was now.
Bryan Madden had suffered a stroke three months ago. Luckily, it had been a mild one, but he’d broken his ankle at the same time and his recovery had proved slow. Nick had taken a leave of absence, helping his father as much as he could, but he’d had to return to work and felt quite helpless knowing that his father was on his own. But now that the Christmas holidays were here, Nick was back in the Lake District.
‘And he misses you, Harley,’ he said now to the ginormous German Shepherd who was walking beside him up the mountain.
Nick stopped to take in the splendour that was Wasdale in winter. The air was crisp and clear, the hills were a silvery-grey and the great lake of Wastwater was almost black in the fading light. It was probably time to head for home and that, tonight, would be the cottage.
The Christmas Collection Page 14