Then they were coming into Calais, popping up into the daylight as everyone did up their seatbelts and the minibus rolled off.
‘Hooray! We’re in France! Isn’t it weird to suddenly be in another country?’ shouted Emily in her high, excited teen-girl voice. ‘Oh. It doesn’t look much different to England.’
Lily agreed, except for vehicles driving on the right and the French language on signposts. They were staring out at countryside that looked a lot like what they were used to in Cambridgeshire. Mainly flat. Some industry. Some fields. Lots of roads.
Lily fell asleep again after the next pit stop and more codeine. Whenever she surfaced she blearily hoped she hadn’t dribbled or snored, but, though her arm was getting cramped and uncomfortable in the sling, she just couldn’t keep her eyelids open.
She finally woke up properly, trying to stretch her legs and her un-slung arm. ‘Where are we?’
‘Chalons en Champagne,’ Isaac said, swinging the big vehicle onto a small road off a larger one. He drove the minibus into a car park and parked, taking up two spaces. He looked at her with laughing eyes. ‘We’re at the hotel, Sleeping Beauty.’
Then she noticed it was dark outside and looked at her watch. It was after five. ‘Oops,’ she said sheepishly. ‘It’s the codeine.’
Everyone laughed, getting out of the minibus stretching and groaning, glancing around at the very ordinary-looking hotel, dragging on their backpacks and regarding Lily expectantly. Oh, yes, she was heading up the trip. ‘Let’s check in,’ she said, trying to wake up sufficiently to get with the programme.
Emily had appeared beside Carola, giving her mum a hug. ‘Look at all those bird nests in the trees, Mum. Some of them are enormous.’
Isaac gave her ponytail a tweak. ‘It’s mistletoe.’
‘Really?’ Everyone stood and stared at the great clumps of leaves at the forks of trees. They did look like haphazard, messy nests. Mistletoe made Lily think of kisses. Isaac’s kisses. As if he read her mind, his fingers tangled with hers for a moment and she blushed.
When the teens had taken loads of photos of the mistletoe phenomenon where the halo from the car park lights made it possible and then put them on Instagram or SnapChat the party traipsed into the hotel and were soon checked in. Arranging to meet for dinner at seven, they dispersed to their various abodes. The teens were noticeably less boisterous than they had been at the beginning of the day, having used all their energy for singing and talking on the bus.
Once in their room, which was decorated in shades of beige, Franciszka flopped on her bed and switched on the TV.
Lily had done little but struggle out of her coat and kick her boots off when she received a text from Isaac. Taking Doggo for a walk. Fancy coming with? xx
Her stomach skipped. Maybe they’d get under some of that mistletoe … Yes, sounds great. xx she typed in briskly.
Meet us in the foyer in five minutes. xx
As Franciszka’s eyes had already closed, after quickly cleaning her teeth Lily shoved her feet back into her boots and got one arm into her coat, wrapping the other side of the garment around her. Pocketing her key card, feeling suddenly alive and awake, she quietly let herself out of the room and hurried down the brown-carpeted corridor.
Doggo did a tail-waving happy dance to see her and Isaac planted his foot on the end of the lead so the energetic canine couldn’t stray. ‘You can’t go outside without your coat on properly. The wind’s freezing.’ Gently, he unthreaded Lily’s arm from her sling, manoeuvring her sleeve carefully to inch it up her arm without hurting her.
‘Ow, my elbow feels like a creaky gate,’ she complained, though it wasn’t stopping her from enjoying his gentle but assured touch, his body’s proximity. ‘I’d never realised that being in a sling makes you feel so cramped.’
Slowly, he zipped up her coat. He didn’t touch anything except for the tag on the zip fastener but a slow rush of desire followed his hand as it whispered past her breasts. He met her eyes and smiled as if sharing the moment before helping her back into her sling, then pulling a blue knitted hat out of his pocket and putting it on. It had an odd plastic square on the front. ‘Ready?’ At her nod, he held the door open, shortening Doggo’s lead when the excited dog began plunging on the spot.
‘Poor Doggo must be ready to shake the kinks out of his joints too.’ She laughed as Isaac was almost pulled off his feet.
‘He’s a really good boy on long journeys but it’s only fair to give him plenty of exercise too,’ Isaac said. ‘We seem to be in the midst of a lot of fields and a little industry. I’ve looked on Google Earth and there are tracks between the fields so Doggo can stretch his legs.’
Outside, the air was cold enough to nip at Lily as they crossed the car park and she pulled up her hood. Isaac took her uninjured hand once they were out of sight of the hotel, tucking it in his pocket with his. Doggo’s lead made a soft zzzz each time it extended or retracted as Doggo investigated whether French dogs left the same scents as their English counterparts. Periodically, he looked back as if to check up on the humans following his lead – literally – and acknowledged their good behaviour with a wave of his tail.
Isaac took a big lungful of the frigid air. ‘This is great.’
Lily glanced at him in surprise at his tone of great contentment. ‘Really?’
His grin glinted in the small amount of light coming from the moon and stars that was all they had now they’d walked away from the hotel and turned away from the main road that had been running parallel with them. ‘I love to travel but I haven’t had a holiday this year because of the Juno. Now I’m out of the bar, in the country, sharing the evening with a beautiful woman. And about to embark on an adventure.’
She felt her face heat up, pretty sure she knew what he was referring to but said casually, ‘Driving to Switzerland?’
‘That,’ he agreed. Then he paused to turn to face her, dropping her hand in order to pull her in to him. ‘But the beautiful woman once offered to share a Christmas adventure with me and I’m really hoping it’s going to be soon.’ His voice was low, his arm tightening around her as he brushed his warm lips over her cheek, then her mouth. ‘The more I think about this trip, the more I like it. Not just because while you guys are doing your own thing I’m pretty much getting a free holiday and can be walking or snowshoeing but—’ he paused to kiss her again, his lips warm despite the crispness of the evening ‘—because I get to spend a lot of time with you.’
Her heart redoubled its rhythm. ‘But we’re kind of …’ She hesitated, trying to envisage beginning something while the others were in such close proximity.
‘Our style is being cramped?’ he asked, kissing her lightly again. ‘I’d noticed. Don’t worry. I don’t expect to conduct our sex life in the public gaze.’
It wasn’t possible for Lily’s face to feel any hotter. ‘You’re a pretty straightforward guy, talking so matter-of-factly about a sex life that hasn’t even begun.’
Isaac grinned lazily. ‘I’m not shy with a woman I’m involved with, if that’s what you mean. If I thought I could take you back to my room and make love to you now without embarrassing you in front of your friends, I’d be desperate to make it happen. I want very much to go to bed with you.’
She giggled at the note of frustration in his voice and Doggo’s lead went zzzz as he came back to bark at them, obviously not impressed by standing still when there was a perfectly good walk to be had. It was an odd, snuffling bark: ‘Hnuh, nhuh, WOAH! Hnuh, nhuh, WOAH!’ He pricked his ears and tipped his head on one side. ‘Hnuh, nhuh, WOAH!’
Isaac regarded him balefully. ‘Trying to train your human, Doggo?’ Reluctantly he dropped a last kiss on the end of Lily’s nose and they returned to their walk, Isaac showing Lily that the square of plastic she’d noticed on the front of his hat was actually a lamp, which lit their way as the track took them deeper between the fields and away from lamp posts or lighted windows.
Although her injured hand seemed to
ache more in the cold Lily enjoyed the icy, starlit walk, the sharp smell of frost on soil, Doggo patrolling in and out of the wavering light from Isaac’s hat, happy again now they were keeping moving. When, half an hour later, they felt they’d walked far enough, they retraced their steps.
Before they got within proper range of the car park lights they paused again. They were close to the main road here and aware of a constant whoosh of traffic. Lily snuggled against Isaac – after he’d turned off the headlamp in his hat so as not to blind her – and pressed kisses against his neck, his five-o’clock shadow brushing her cheek.
‘Mm,’ he breathed, stroking her back through her coat. ‘I’ll be glad when—’
‘Oh! Sorry!’ And suddenly Carola was there, a hat with side flaps over her blonde hair, hands dug in her pockets.
Lily sprang away from Isaac as if she’d been caught snogging a boy behind the bike sheds at school and Doggo gave her a puzzled look as if to say, ‘Didn’t you hear her coming? I did,’ then wagged his tail at Carola and flattened his ears.
Carola regarded Lily with a discomfited expression. ‘I didn’t realise,’ she said stiffly. ‘Excuse me.’ She turned and hurried away.
‘Don’t worry—!’ began Lily, but Carola was already scurrying out of earshot. Lily said sadly, ‘That was awkward. I suppose when you’re feeling a bit broken-hearted you don’t want to see your friends getting together. Poor Carola. I think she really fell for Owen. If he’s ghosted her he’s a cowardly bastard. How could anyone be so horrible to such a nice person?’
Isaac’s jaw had set grimly. ‘I wish I knew. Judging from Flora’s experience some people seem to feel that as soon as a dating site is involved then the rules of normal life don’t apply.’
The moment spoilt, they disengaged and returned to their respective rooms until they met up again at dinner.
When dinnertime rolled around Isaac left Doggo in their room and arrived in the bar in time to grab a beer. The apparently inexhaustible teens were playing an uproarious game of table football. While Isaac drank he texted Hayley to explain about Doggo being on his holidays. She’d never replied to his text yesterday and he didn’t want her to find out by turning up at The Three Fishes to walk Doggo on her day off.
Duty done, idly he watched a little table football. Emily, the youngest, seemed to lose every time. Charlotte, Eddie and Alfie were inclined to laugh at her but Warwick was kind enough to give her some tips, reaching around her to show her how to cheat a bit by spinning the controls.
Emily, managing a savage spin, succeeded in scoring a goal against Charlotte. Punching the air victoriously she nearly thumped Warwick in the face and Eddie and Alfie almost cried laughing.
Isaac grinned as he watched Emily giving Warwick an apologetic hug and Charlotte taking the chance to score a retaliatory goal, bringing howls of protest.
His attention was swiftly redirected when Lily walked in laughing at something Franciszka and Neil were saying, her plait looped over her shoulder and her arm cradled by its sling. Many of those in the dining area were men and Lily received several interested glances. Isaac rose to join them as Carola arrived. They sat down, the same man who’d checked them in earlier passing out the menus and saying he’d come back for their order. His English was better than their French.
The teens chattered and laughed and Franciszka talked to Neil about her childhood in Poland, which left Isaac with Lily and Carola. With an obvious effort, Carola smiled. ‘Sorry about barging in earlier. I didn’t realise anything was …’
Lily instantly went the kind of scarlet only very fair people could. ‘It’s kind of new,’ she murmured.
Isaac just smiled and asked about the Middletones’ musical programme for the trip, deliberately picking a subject that would include Carola yet gave him plenty of opportunities to listen to Lily, watch Lily and talk to Lily.
At the end of the meal the teens got up. Carola paused in her conversation about what time they might arrive in Schützenberg tomorrow to call out to Charlotte and Emily. ‘You won’t wander too far, will you? We need to leave at eight tomorrow.’
‘Yeah,’ they called back over their shoulders.
Franciszka and Neil drifted off too. Carola was saying, ‘Probably going for an early night,’ when her phone chirped and she all but yanked it from her pocket, only to sigh and stuff it back again.
‘Not Owen?’ Lily asked sympathetically.
‘Nope.’ Carola rolled her eyes. ‘Just me being pathetic.’
‘I don’t know if Lily told you,’ Isaac ventured, ‘but my sister was involved in a problem concerning dating sites. I’m afraid the bad ones draw a certain kind of people. If something’s gone wrong then you’re not the only one.’
Carola turned a wistful gaze on him. ‘Did the guy just stop contacting your sister?’
‘No,’ he admitted. ‘It was her husband who was one of the—’ he’d meant to say ‘predators’ but judged that term wouldn’t make Carola feel any better ‘—people who abuse dating sites for extra-marital affairs.’
‘“Online shopping”,’ Carola grunted. ‘Common, I’m afraid. I’ve researched it all in the past week or so. A profile stating “not looking for anything serious” translates into “I expect sex on the first date” or even “no date, just looking for booty calls”. Confusingly, “looking for someone to love and trust” can mean the opposite. Fake profiles are everywhere.’ Tears glistened in her eyes. ‘But there are happy stories too. Plenty of people meet their life partners via online dating. I thought if I followed the rules and used only a respectable site … but from what I’ve read I should even have been wary of all his lovely messages and presents. I didn’t know it had become a red flag for a guy to send flowers to the woman he’s sleeping with though.’ She snatched up a paper napkin and blew her nose. Lily used her good hand to pat Carola’s arm comfortingly.
‘It hasn’t for decent people,’ Isaac said, feeling the mixture of compassion and anger he’d felt when Billy had messed Flora about. ‘“Love bombing” is only a bad thing if the sender’s doing it cynically, to get something out of you. You didn’t lend him money, did you?’
Blowing her nose harder, Carola shook her head. ‘No. But that love bombing thing’s done as a kind of shield too, isn’t it? It makes them seem so nice that you don’t look closely enough at what lurks behind. He fits the profile: personable, good-looking. Has a good excuse for long absences.’
‘Were his kids that excuse?’ Isaac asked tentatively.
Carola groaned. ‘A mother on her own and suffering from arthritis. He’s supposed to be divorced, no kids.’ She fidgeted with her napkin. ‘I’ve done pitiful things like sending a message through the dating site app, even though we always communicated via text. I looked for him on social media even though he said he doesn’t do it.’
‘Not at all?’ Lily asked, screwing up her forehead at the idea that someone might completely eschew Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and all the rest.
‘He told me he’s an intensely private person and just didn’t put himself online more than he had to. He didn’t like exposing his life to things he couldn’t see, administered by people he didn’t know.’ Carola groaned. ‘And I believed it! I’ve been ghosted, haven’t I?’
Isaac passed her a clean napkin from a nearby table because she’d soaked the one she held. ‘If that’s what’s happened, it’s nothing you’ve done. People who ghost are manipulative cowards who use others.’
‘And he did seem like a nice guy,’ commiserated Lily. ‘What do you know about his ex-wife?’
Carola pulled a grumpy face. ‘She could be gun-toting, pregnant and pissed off – and not ex! – for all I know.’ A tiny sob escaped her. ‘It’s not just that I feel stupid, although I do feel stupid. It’s that I really developed feelings for him. I’m hurt.’
‘I know.’ Lily slid her good arm around Carola’s shoulders but whatever else she’d been about to say was interrupted by Warwick hurrying in.
‘Um, Ca
rola,’ he began, out of breath. ‘Emily’s like, fallen out of a tree.’
Isaac stared at the younger guy. As interruptions went it was a floorer but Carola just jumped to her feet and said, ‘Where is she?’ Grabbing up more clean napkins on the way she raced out after Warwick.
‘For crying out loud,’ Lily muttered. ‘Better go and see if we can help.’
They charged outside, finding Emily coming the other way being cuddled by Carola and moaned at by Charlotte. Eddie and Alfie brought up the rear, looking as if the contretemps was nothing to do with them.
‘She’s scraped her face but she’s OK otherwise,’ Carola reported, clearly in mum mode, despite her own tears of only seconds ago. ‘Why on earth would you climb a big tree in the dark, Emily?’
Emily sniffed.
Charlotte spoke for her. ‘She wanted some freaking mistletoe, didn’t she? She thought if she had some then—’
‘Shut up!’ Emily hissed, turning to glare at her sister.
Charlotte gave her a supercilious smile. ‘I was just going to say perhaps you wanted someone to kiss you.’
Emily began to cry. ‘And, Mum, I landed in cow poo. I’ve got poo on my leggings and poo on my Converse. And my face really, really stings!’
By then they were back in the foyer of the hotel and Isaac winced when he saw the raw scrape on Emily’s cheek with smears of green lichen all around it. ‘It needs cleaning up. Let’s talk to the guy in the bar and see if there’s a First Aid kit.’
But Carola was evidently experienced with similar crises before. ‘I’ve got a mini kit in my backpack. Come on, Emily.’ Then, as an afterthought, she turned back to Charlotte. ‘You come to the room too, Charlotte. I want a word with you.’
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