A House to Mend a Broken Heart

by Sherlock, Alison

  Of course, the dining room was still crammed full with boxes that needed unpacking. The Aga was still playing up and she hadn’t even begun to dress the house in its traditional Christmas trimmings.

  Her mobile rang. It was Sam calling from London where, for once, he was staying at his flat.

  ‘Hi,’ he said. ‘I was just wondering if you’re dreaming of a white Christmas?’

  She laughed. ‘Most definitely not,’ she replied. ‘The last thing we need is snow here.’

  ‘Ah. Well, that’s too bad. Haven’t you seen it out there?’

  Annie rushed to the window and saw that heavy flakes of snow were drifting down from the sky to settle on the ground. ‘Oh no!’ she cried.

  ‘Come on,’ said Sam, sounding amused. ‘How can you not like snow? It’s Christmas!’

  ‘Exactly!’ she wailed. ‘The roads will be a nightmare. The trucks won’t be able to deliver all our new furniture in time. It’s going to hold up my perfect Christmas!’

  ‘Don’t panic,’ Sam told her. ‘I bet by the time I get there tomorrow it will all have disappeared as per usual.’

  Annie hoped so.

  But when she woke up the following day, she saw that there was about a foot of snow on the ground. The whole landscape had changed to a winter wonderland. The long branches of the willow tree were completely covered, almost touching the ground weighed low by the snow. The ground glittered and sparkled, as if a blank canvas had been laid everywhere. And it was still snowing.

  Annie quickly got dressed and headed outside.

  Standing in the middle of the driveway, she tried to get cross about the hold-ups that might be caused but it was so beautiful that she couldn’t help but smile. She opened her mouth to catch a fleck of snow on her tongue. Some thrills you never grew out of, she thought. Everything was so peaceful, the snow muffling nearly every sound. So when she heard the sound of a motor vehicle, she thought it was the first of the builders arriving, but it was Sam in his Range Rover.

  She stood in the cold air as he parked up, digging her hands into her coat pockets to keep warm.

  ‘Thank god I got rid of the Porsche,’ he said, climbing out. ‘It would never have coped with this.’

  Annie frowned. ‘You got rid of your Porsche? I thought it was just being mended.’

  ‘I don’t need it out here,’ he told her, the soles of his boots squeaking in the snow as he moved towards her.

  ‘But what about in London?’ she asked.

  ‘I think I’ll be spending more time down here,’ he said, with a smile. ‘So do you think the builders will still be able to get through?’

  Annie’s face dropped. ‘Oh no! What if they can’t? And the furniture truck is supposed to arrive today!’

  ‘I’m sure it will be fine,’ he told her.

  But although some of the tradesmen were able to get through, the decorators weren’t. The hallway walls would have to remain bare for a while longer. And the delivery of the furniture was also delayed, she was advised later in the morning.

  ‘But it’s fine,’ said Annie, stalking up and down outside the back door in frustration. ‘It’s only a little bit of snow. What’s the problem?’

  Sam had followed her outside. ‘It’s got to be a foot of snow already and more is forecast for later on.’

  ‘But we need beds!’ moaned Annie, waving her arms around in a panic. ‘What will your grandad sleep on? And Rose?’

  ‘Well, my bed was delivered at the end of last week so Grandad can use that. You’re also still sleeping on one of the old ones so Aunt Rose can use that.’

  Annie sighed. ‘And what are we going to sleep on?’

  ‘Well, those crates in the garage were quite comfortable,’ he told her with a wide grin.

  Infuriated at his lack of concern, and more than slightly embarrassed at the memory, Annie grabbed a handful of snow and lobbed a snowball at him.

  ‘Hey!’ he said, as it hit his chest. ‘Right, game on!’

  A furious snowball fight carried on until Annie complained that she couldn’t feel her hands anymore and they went inside to warm up.

  *

  Using the Range Rover, Sam was able to pick up Rose to bring her to the Hall for the afternoon.

  ‘You’re blonde!’ cried Annie before giving her a hug.

  ‘Well, they do have more fun,’ said Rose, giving her a nudge. ‘You’ll have to tell me if that’s true or not.’

  Sam thought both his aunt’s hair and her overall well-being looked much better as he studied her under the twinkling lights of the chandelier.

  ‘Why do you both look so wet?’ asked Rose, looking at the both of them.

  ‘Snowball fight,’ Annie told her.

  ‘Which I won,’ said Sam with a grin.

  ‘You did not,’ Annie retorted before heading upstairs.

  Rose turned to look at her nephew. ‘What’s happened to you today?’

  Sam looked nonplussed. ‘What do you mean?’

  ‘Snowball fights,’ Rose told him. ‘You looking relaxed and happy. It’s like you’ve had a complete personality change.’

  Sam smiled. ‘No, this is still me. I’ve just been buried under a weight of suits and lack of fun for so long.’

  ‘I wonder what could possibly have caused this transformation?’ said Rose, with a wink before going upstairs.

  Although Rose had no bed to sleep on, thankfully the wardrobes had been delivered at the weekend before the snow had arrived. Sam found himself carrying many boxes of clothes across from the garage. It took all afternoon to fill them with Rose’s fashion collection.

  ‘How wonderful,’ said Rose, looking thrilled at the clothes hanging on the new rails. ‘I can now see every outfit.’

  Sam nodded, looking at the three huge wardrobes and wondering how many outfits Rose actually needed. But he thought his aunt seemed far happier than when he had first arrived all those weeks ago. She was taking care of her appearance again and was smiling an awful lot more.

  With the bad weather still holding up work and deliveries, Annie had decided to use the free time to bring the rest of the Christmas decorations across from the garage. Sam helped her with the heavier boxes. He then trudged through the heavy snow to cut some holly from a large bush near the house. On his way back, he also spotted some mistletoe and cut some of that down too. It was traditional, he told himself. That was all.

  It was lovely to be outside in the fresh, bitterly cold air. Carrying the branches back towards the house, he spotted a huge barn in the woods. It was smaller than the abandoned stable blocks and coaching house on the other side of the estate. In fact, there were quite a few dilapidated barns, but he had completely forgotten about this one and wondered what it was used for these days.

  ‘Nothing,’ said Annie, when he asked her about it later that day. ‘I don’t think anyone’s gone in there for years.’

  Sam went back outside to investigate. The barn was, unsurprisingly, in a state of disrepair. But it seemed a sturdy enough structure. It must have held livestock many years previously.

  He was still pondering outside when Tommy King called. His number one act was currently recording his next album but there was a problem.

  ‘They’ve accidentally double-booked the studio,’ said Tommy. ‘I only wanted to mess about with a few new lyrics but it’s a bit of a pain.’

  Sam agreed, but that was the problem with hiring recording studios. They were so expensive to use and always in the middle of London which meant he normally had to be in town as well. None of it was ideal.

  With Tommy still chatting on the phone, Sam stared back at the old barn deep in thought.

  *

  Annie found herself getting more and more stressed as Christmas Day drew nearer.

  Arthur was due to come home from hospital on Friday which was three days before Christmas. Rose had planned to move in before then but the beds had still not been delivered. The builders were shutting down for the holidays but managed to get the main bed
rooms and bathrooms finished, as well as the drawing room.

  So Annie concentrated on putting up the Christmas decorations in the main rooms. She wound hundreds of soft white fairy lights around the pillars outside of the front door, as well as all the way up the new bannister of the staircase.

  Beryl had suggested placing cloves and oranges around the rooms which began to mask the aroma of fresh paint and made the whole entrance hall to smell more festive.

  Bert the gardener had constructed a traditional wreath made with holly and branches from a fir tree. Megan added a red ribbon before it was hung on the front door.

  Holly had been placed on the shelf above every fireplace and picture frame and a six foot tree had been placed in the corner of the drawing room, next to the fire. That too had been decorated with tinsel, lights and baubles.

  ‘Mind my new plaster,’ Mr Reynolds had nagged but he had been smiling when he had said it.

  The oak flooring in the entrance hall and landing had been varnished until it shone.

  It was all so beautiful, thought Annie as she reached out to touch the new sweeping staircase. It felt so different but better, she realised. So much better. She hadn’t realised just how tatty and awful the house had become over time.

  A new red-striped carpet runner led up the stairs and gave the room some colour. The paintings of all the previous earls lined the stairwell, ensuring the history of the place still remained.

  Annie was able to clear the new sideboard and place the family nativity set on top, next to yet more fairy lights. Arthur had spoken about it specifically. It was so old that he had played with it when he had been a child.

  But not everything had survived the great upheaval. Annie had to ring Megan in a panic to say that they were missing one of the Three Wise Men. Thankfully her friend had rushed over that morning and handed over a figurine.

  ‘That’s Professor Dumbledore,’ hissed Annie.

  ‘No one will realise,’ Megan told her, placing the headmaster of Hogwarts at the back of the nativity scene.

  Expecting compliments from Sam about how pretty the entrance hall now looked, she had been upset by his lack of reaction.

  ‘It’s OK,’ he told her, with a shrug. ‘But it’s not finished yet.’

  ‘I think that’s everything,’ she told him, looking around and trying to think what she had left out.

  ‘How can it be finished when you’re missing the most important thing of all?’ he said, breaking into a wide smile. ‘But don’t worry. Will and I are chopping it down this afternoon.’

  True to his word, the two brothers dragged a massive fir tree into the entrance hall later that day. ‘We always had an enormous Christmas tree when we were growing up,’ Will told her, tugging at the large trunk.

  In fact, it was so big that the brothers had to use every bit of strength to push it upright whilst Annie stood on the first floor gallery to grab the very top. Secured by a few ropes and prayers, the scent of pine quickly filled the whole place.

  As the staircase curved around the tree, Annie was able to rush up and down the stairs and throw many sets of fairy lights at the branches.

  ‘What do you think?’ she called down from the gallery when she had finally finished lighting up the tree.

  ‘It looks great,’ shouted Sam, smiling.

  ‘Is it enough or do we need some more?’ asked Annie.

  Will grinned. ‘Sweetheart, you can see it from space.’

  They helped her hang the many ornaments and tinsel across the tree until it was declared the most beautiful tree that they had ever had at Willow Tree Hall.

  Chapter 28

  The day before Christmas Eve, Sam went to pick up Alex from the train station.

  ‘That tree is to die for,’ declared Alex, striding into the entrance hall.

  Most importantly, with a brief break between snow storms, the remainder of the bedroom furniture had finally been delivered. Alex had banned anyone from wandering around upstairs so that he could do his great reveal for them.

  ‘You’re already in big trouble for seeing the drawing room without me,’ he told Annie, in full diva mood. ‘But first I want to show you the staff quarters.’

  Sam was shocked. ‘It’s ready up there?’

  ‘Of course it is,’ said Alex, with a wink. ‘But I didn’t want you seeing it without me and spoil all my fun. You do know that it’s all about me, don’t you?’

  Annie glanced at Alex but realised he was poking fun at himself.

  ‘So are you ready for this?’ he asked, holding out his arm for her to put hers through.

  Annie nodded but was grateful that Sam was going to come with them as well. What if Alex had ruined her little bedroom? What if it didn’t feel like the same place anymore? And why had her room taken priority over everything else? But she reminded herself that she should be able to trust Alex. After all, he had decorated the drawing room with such good taste that surely he could do the same in the tiny attic as well.

  Except he didn’t lead her up the narrow stairwell to the top floor. Instead, he turned right and led her down the corridor of the east wing.

  ‘But my bedroom’s upstairs,’ she told him.

  But Alex kept walking until they were nearly at the end of the corridor. He then opened the last door on the left, a room that Annie had barely been into.

  It had once been a dingy disused spare room but no longer.

  ‘This can’t be mine,’ she murmured, as Alex nudged her inside. ‘My room is upstairs.’

  ‘Not anymore,’ said Sam from behind her. ‘I told Alex that you ought to be on this floor.’

  ‘And Sam will be right next door if you have any trouble sleeping,’ murmured Alex.

  But Annie barely registered what he said, overawed by the incredible transformation. The room was light and airy, helped by three walls painted a pale cream colour. The fourth wall, behind the bed, had been covered with the most beautiful cream wallpaper, decorated with tiny turquoise butterflies. The new furniture was also pale but the whole room was rendered modern and warm, thanks to the turquoise and gold accents dotted about.

  The new lamps and candlesticks. The ornate gold mirror above the fireplace. The crisp white linen on the bed was covered in soft blankets and cushions. The bed frame itself was wrought iron and beautifully ornate. It was young and modern but soft and girly too. She couldn’t believe she got to sleep in any place quite so gorgeous.

  She turned to face Alex and Sam who had been watching her from the doorway.

  ‘When did you do all this?’ she asked.

  ‘I love a good secret,’ said Alex, with a wink. ‘So? What do you think?’

  But he knew the answer from the tears glittering in her eyes.

  ‘It’s incredible,’ she stammered.

  ‘You deserve a lovely room,’ said Sam, his own voice a little husky with emotion.

  ‘For goodness sake,’ said Alex, with a sudden sniff beside them. ‘You two are likely to get me to cry and the last time I did that was when Zayn left One Direction. Lead the way, Samuel. I’m going to need a bloody big drink after this.’

  Annie took one more look around and gave a happy sigh. It still felt like home, just a beautiful, glamorous, amazing one.

  Once he had shown them both Arthur and Rose’s bedrooms, Annie turned to face Alex. ‘You did the house proud,’ she told him, her eyes shiny with tears once more. ‘Arthur will love it.’ Then, finding a tiny bit of courage deep within, she leaned forward and gave him a soft kiss on the cheek. ‘Thank you,’ she whispered.

  Sam, who had to witness the whole exchange, raised his eyebrows at his best friend.

  ‘Well, that confirms it,’ Alex told her, with a wink. ‘I really am fabulous!’

  ‘Yes, but you already knew that,’ said Sam. ‘Annie’s just finding out for herself.’

  *

  On Christmas Eve, it was snowing heavily once more and the whole country was in a panic about getting home for Christmas. Airports were closed. Tra
ins had been cancelled. People were stuck all round the country, including Eleanor.

  Annie could see how stressed she was when they Facetimed each other.

  ‘There are no trains!’ wailed Eleanor, tears running down her face. ‘I can’t get back!’

  Annie tried not to show how upset she was in front of her friend. Eleanor was the cool, calm one amongst the threesome. She had poise and elegance. But not now. Her blue eyes were red from crying, her pale face was blotchy and her normal immaculate dark bob was sticking out in all directions.

  ‘We can have our own Christmas catch-up later on,’ Annie told her.

  ‘But I want roast turkey and brussels sprouts tomorrow,’ said Eleanor, still sobbing.

  ‘You’re in London!’ said Annie, trying to look on the bright side. ‘You’ll be able to find a Christmas meal somewhere.’

  ‘But it won’t taste like mum’s,’ said Eleanor, sniffing. ‘And I have all these lovely presents for you all.’

  Annie tried to cheer her friend up even though she was sad that they wouldn’t see each other for a while longer yet. Having not been able to come down to Cranley in the summer, she realised it was almost ten months since they had last seen Eleanor.

  She glanced out of the window where the snow continued to fall. Many people’s plans for getting to their families for Christmas had been ruined

  But nothing was stopping Arthur from coming home that afternoon.

  *

  As Sam turned the Range Rover into the long driveway, he found that he was feeling nervous. Although Rose had already moved back that morning and approved of everything, what if his grandad didn’t like the changes and decoration? What if it didn’t feel like home to him anymore?

  As they pulled up in front of the house, Sam was glad that the scaffolders had managed to take away the large frame that had covered the house for so long. Now that the roof had been finished, the beauty of Willow Tree Hall could be revealed.

  The roof was complete and tidy. The chimney pots were straight. The new oak window frames were beautiful and the front door was a bright pillar box red.