The Snow Baby

by Chrissie Manby

  Gabriel nodded along. ‘We’re all just a pay check away from the street, mate.’

  ‘Now, we’ve really got to work out what’s to be done with the pair of you,’ Kate interrupted. ‘We’ve got a hotel full of guests for the holidays. Even if you don’t venture outside this barn, there’s no way you’ll be able to go undetected until Boxing Day. It’s inevitable that one of the guests will wander down this way. And there’s no way I can carry on with my job, knowing that you’re out here. If my boss, Dave, gets an inkling of what’s going on, he’ll call the police right away and then it won’t just be you two who get into trouble.’

  ‘She’s right,’ said Gabriel. ‘Dave is a total…’

  Gabriel uttered a word that made everyone’s eyes widen.

  ‘We don’t want to get you into trouble. We just want to be together,’ said Mandy. ‘And we want to stay together when the baby comes.’

  ‘After the baby’s born, when everyone’s back from the Christmas holidays, I’ll be able to find another job,’ said Jack. ‘And maybe our dole will have come through and then we can get another flat. But I can’t leave Mandy on her own at the moment.’

  ‘I still think you should go into hospital,’ said Kate.

  Mandy’s expression told Kate that she would never agree to that. Not yet. Perhaps when it got a little nearer to the big moment, she would be more easily persuaded. For now, Kate decided not to press the matter. Though she wasn’t about to tell Mandy why, Kate understood some of her fears.

  Kate helped Jack make a sort of bed with the blankets, while Gabriel tried to make sure the fire was as safe as possible by enclosing it with loose bricks.

  ‘Well, this is a right pickle,’ said Kate as she and Jack tucked Mandy in. ‘But at least your contractions have stopped for now, right? It must have been those Braxton Hicks things, eh?’

  Kate spoke too soon. Mandy’s eyes widened as she felt another squeeze.

  ‘I don’t think these are the fake ones,’ Mandy panted.

  Jack, Kate and Gabriel shared worried glances.

  ‘No need to panic,’ said Kate, to break the awkward silence that followed. ‘If they are the real thing, you’ve still got hours, I’m sure. Isn’t that right, Gabriel?’

  Gabriel nodded. ‘My mum was in labour for three days with me.’

  ‘There you go then,’ said Kate. ‘Absolutely no need to panic.’

  Chapter Nine

  But Kate was starting to panic. Where was her good deed going to take her? For the time being, she had to leave Mandy and Jack in the barn, wrapped up in blankets and eating Bombay Mix. Both she and Gabriel had work to do. Someone on the staff was bound to notice that Gabriel hadn’t been round the front of the building in a while. He had to be seen to check the spa building too. At least Gabriel could get his jacket back now Mandy had the blankets.

  ‘We’d better carry on as if nothing out of the ordinary is happening,’ Kate told Gabriel as they stood outside the barn. ‘You do your usual round of checks and I’ll go back into the hotel. I can’t risk leaving Clare in charge for too long.’

  Indeed, Kate had left Clare for too long already. When Kate got back to the hotel lobby, Clare was waiting for her. She stood behind the reception desk, flicking through Kate’s diary. Kate liked to keep a real, handwritten diary, as well as her official diary on the computer system.

  ‘Some of the guests have been asking for you,’ Clare said. ‘The King Sisters. They wanted you to sit down and have a glass of champagne with them.’

  ‘I’ll be right in there,’ said Kate.

  ‘Where were you coming from?’ Clare asked suspiciously. ‘I thought you said you were going to be sorting out the Shergar Suite, but you just came in from outside.’

  ‘I was in the Shergar Suite,’ said Kate. ‘But as I was passing through the lobby, I thought I could smell something burning – something other than a cigarette – so I went outside to check. It was just Mr Shepherd’s cigar.’

  Clare narrowed her eyes again. Kate wondered how long Clare had been in the lobby. Maybe she had already been up to the Shergar Suite in search of her. Kate decided it was best not to elaborate any further.

  ‘I had better go and toast the Kings,’ she said.

  ‘Yeah,’ said Clare. ‘And if you don’t mind, I’d like to take a break of my own at some point this evening too.’

  ‘Take one now,’ said Kate. ‘Take as long as you like. I promise I won’t leave my post again for the rest of the evening,’ she added, cursing herself as she said it. It was a promise she would not be able to keep.

  ‘Thanks. I think I’ll go outside for a breath of fresh air,’ said Clare. ‘Like you did.’

  There was nothing Kate could do but tell Clare to wrap up warm and hope that the cold kept her from straying too far from the main building. She half-wished that she hadn’t mentioned smoke. She imagined Clare’s nose twitching as the scent of wood-smoke drifted towards the hotel from Jack and Mandy’s hideout. She prayed that Clare would believe the story about Mr Shepherd’s cigar. Perhaps the smell of it would actually work in Kate’s favour, covering up the fire in the barn.

  Kate hesitated in the lobby, watching Clare standing in the car park. Was she going to just stand there? No. After a moment or two, Clare turned towards the staff quarters and set off at a clip. It was too cold for her to hang around.

  Kate turned back towards the restaurant and her paying guests.

  The King Sisters were having a wonderful evening. By the time Kate joined them, they were leading their table in a round of Christmas carols. Kate gamely sang along to ‘Silent Night’ and ‘Away in a Manger’ before she excused herself again.

  She met Gabriel in the car park. He reported that everything in the barn was as they had left it. Jack had promised to keep an eye on the fire while Mandy slept.

  ‘Good,’ said Kate. ‘And here’s hoping that after a night in that draughty old place, they’ll be ready to see sense and go to the hospital in the morning.’

  Gabriel agreed.

  ‘It would be good if we could get them some proper food soon,’ he reminded her.

  ‘It’s the very next thing on my to-do list.’

  Coffee had been served in the dining room and several of the guests had already retired for the evening. Kate felt a little twinge of guilt as she weaved her way between the tables, noticing how many people had barely touched their desserts. So much extravagance and waste! There were whole plates of petit fours that had been entirely ignored. Kate swiped a couple of wrapped chocolate truffles and put them into her jacket pocket.

  The kitchen was in chaos, as it always was after such a big dinner. The washing-up team was working double fast. The chef was still shouting instructions. Everything had to be cleaned away and then preparations for breakfast needed to begin.

  Kate asked Remi, the chef, who was half from Paris, half from Wolverhampton, how he felt the evening had gone.

  ‘Pretty good,’ Remi said. ‘Hardly anything came back of the first two courses.’

  Rats, thought Kate. She had been hoping it would be easy to swipe some leftovers.

  As it was, she managed to get just a few bread rolls into a makeshift carrier fashioned from a couple of napkins. It wasn’t the nutritious meal a mother-to-be needed, that was for sure, but Remi was very hot on his staff swiping food without permission. Kate would have to wait until the kitchen staff had all gone home. That would be a couple of hours yet.

  In the restaurant, the Shepherds had joined the Kings at their table. They had ordered a bottle of port from the bar and were settling in for the night.

  ‘Join us for a digestif?’ Mr Shepherd asked Kate as she tried to sneak by.

  ‘I haven’t actually had anything to digest yet,’ Kate joked. Her stomach rumbled though she had eaten a perfectly big meal at lunchtime. Unlike Mandy and Jack. She had to get back to them soon.

  ‘I’d love to join you all,’ she said to her favourite guests. ‘But I’m on duty for another six hours.
Got to keep my head clear.’

  ‘Message received and understood,’ nodded Mr Shepherd.

  By the time Kate made her escape to the lobby, Clare was by the desk.

  ‘So, is that VIP guest coming to stay in the Shergar Suite or what?’ Clare asked.

  Kate had forgotten her own story.

  ‘Gosh. I, er, I don’t know…’ she said. ‘Have there been any messages?’

  ‘No,’ said Clare with narrowed eyes. ‘But Dave texted me to ask how everything was going,’ she said then, with a hint of glee, ‘I said I thought it was going well though you were a bit distracted by… whatever’s going on.’

  Great, thought Kate. That was all she needed.

  ‘I’m not distracted,’ said Kate. ‘I’m just multi-tasking like mad. It’s always so crazy at Christmas, isn’t it? You set off to do one thing but you can’t get from one side of the restaurant to the other without picking up another three jobs.’

  ‘Who needs what?’ Clare asked.

  ‘Mr Shepherd wants his Gaviscon.’

  ‘I’ll take it to him.’

  Hopefully, he was already so drunk that he wouldn’t remember whether he had asked for it or not.

  Chapter Ten

  While Clare was occupied again, Kate made another dash to the barn.

  Gabriel was back there. He had brought his own duvet out from the staff quarters to make Mandy more comfortable. He had also brought some of his own clothes for Jack, who was so skinny that he would have been able to wear a pair of Gabriel’s jeans over the top of his old pair. Gabriel wouldn’t let him do that, though. He had Jack take off his own filthy clothes first.

  ‘I’ll wash them in the staff laundry,’ he said. ‘If that’s all right?’ he turned to Kate. ‘I mean, if you don’t think it will get us into trouble.’

  It was something that Kate herself was planning to do. She’d already decided that if she could ever get to her own room, she would find something for Mandy to wear. Clean clothes would make such a difference. It was typical of Gabriel to have thought of it too and to have offered his own stuff to this boy he hardly knew. Kate wanted to hug him for his generosity, which came so easy and naturally to him. When Kate tried to tell him how kind she thought his gesture, he just shrugged it off. Not many people would have thought to be so openhearted to a pair of strangers.

  ‘Could be any of us,’ he pointed out.

  ‘How are the contractions?’ Kate asked Mandy.

  ‘Getting them about every ten minutes,’ Mandy said.

  Kate wasn’t sure what that meant but she had her phone with her this time so she Googled ‘contractions, ten minutes apart’. There was so much conflicting advice that Kate was none the wiser.

  She handed over the bread rolls and chocolates she had been able to lift from the kitchen.

  Mandy stuffed two of the chocolates into her mouth at once and properly smiled for the first time since Kate and Gabriel had discovered her and Jack in the barn two hours before.

  ‘These are lush,’ she said.

  ‘Pure cocoa and double cream,’ said Kate. She wished she’d pinched a few more. She could use a sugar rush herself.

  Mandy’s grin soon turned upside down however. Her eyes glittered with tears. ‘These are the nicest thing I’ve had to eat since I was a kid,’ she said.

  You still are a kid, thought Kate. A kid, having a kid of your own.

  ‘I’m going to get you something proper to eat as soon as the kitchen’s closed,’ Kate promised. ‘Unfortunately, I can’t just go in there and bring something out without explaining myself.’

  ‘I can go in and get something,’ said Gabriel. ‘Remi sometimes makes me a bacon sandwich at the end of the night. I could get one now. Don’t have to tell him who it’s really for.’

  ‘I think you’ll find he’s a bit busy right now,’ Kate pointed out.

  While Mandy and Jack were eating chocolates, Gabriel took Kate to one side.

  ‘It’s going to get cold in here,’ said Gabriel. ‘Even with the fire, I don’t think those blankets are going to be enough. We’ve got to get them under a proper roof for the night. They could go in my room in the staff quarters. I’m working all night anyway. I don’t mind.’

  Kate shook her head. ‘Oh, Gabriel. You’re such a sweetheart. But there’s no way we’d keep that quiet.’ Someone would object. By someone, Kate meant Clare.

  ‘Then how about I drive them into town?’ asked Gabriel. ‘Get them a room at The Gloucester.’ Gabriel named the shabbiest budget hotel in town. ‘They might have space.’

  ‘That sounds like a better idea. Could you call them to find out?’

  ‘Sure. They’ll need some cash. I don’t have any. Running a bit short until the end of the month,’ Gabriel said.

  ‘Aren’t we all?’ said Kate. ‘How much do you think they need?’

  ‘For the room and some food? A hundred and fifty quid?’

  ‘I’ll sort that out. You just get them to gather their things together. You can take my car.’

  It seemed like the perfect solution.

  Chapter Eleven

  Kate ran back to the hotel. Gabriel was right. It was getting even colder as the night deepened. Finding a room in the The Gloucester or some other budget hotel was a great idea. She wondered why she hadn’t thought of it before. She would just get the money they needed from her bag and…

  Kate suddenly remembered that her purse was empty because she’d been too embarrassed to take cash out while Mandy and Jack were watching. She could call The Gloucester and give the hotel her credit card number but that was risky. Though she very much wanted to help Jack and Mandy, she really didn’t know them.

  Kate chewed her lip as she struggled to think of a solution. The only one that came to her was possibly even more risky than handing out her credit card details. She decided to take the money they needed out of petty cash. She’d just have to make sure she replaced it before anyone noticed. Gabriel would use her car to drive Jack and Mandy into town. They would be safe and warm at least for the night. It was as much as Kate could do for them. She had already taken a huge risk by not just reporting them to the police.

  Kate decided to go for it. There was no one in the lobby to see Kate come in and make straight for the office she shared with Dave. Confident that she was about to solve all her problems with Gabriel’s plan, Kate hummed along to ‘We Wish You A Merry Christmas’. She unlocked the top drawer of Dave’s desk and lifted out the cash-box within.

  She pulled out seven crisp twenty pound notes and a single tenner. Folding the notes in half, she stuffed them into the pocket of her jacket. Still humming, she put the cash-box back into the drawer and made for the door but as she reached for the handle, it swung open, causing Kate to lose her balance.

  Dave Baron loomed in the doorway, big and angry-looking as a bear.

  Dave backed Kate into the office again. He was red-faced and slightly sweaty. He’d clearly been having a good night and he wasn’t pleased to find himself back in The Stables before the end of it.

  ‘Well, well, well,’ he said. ‘Helping ourselves to a little Christmas bonus, were we?’

  Kate was lost for words.

  ‘Hand it over.’

  Kate gave Dave the thin wedge of banknotes.

  ‘It’s a good job Clare decided to call me,’ Dave continued. ‘She told me you were acting suspiciously and she was right.’

  ‘We just needed some cash for the bar,’ said Kate.

  ‘Then why didn’t you sign it out?’ asked Clare, who had joined Dave in the doorway.

  There was a petty cash book in the same drawer as the cash box. No one was supposed to take any money out of the box without first making a note of the date, time, amount and reason. That was a rule to which Kate usually adhered. Strictly.

  ‘I forgot,’ she said simply.

  ‘That’s not like you, Kate,’ said Dave. ‘You’re usually so conscientious. And if you’re only taking that cash to the bar, how come you put it i
n your jacket pocket? And how come you looked around you to make sure no-one noticed you were coming in here in the first place?’

  ‘We were watching all the time,’ said Clare.

  ‘Whatever you’re doing, Kate, it doesn’t look very kosher to me.’

  ‘I’ll put the money back,’ said Kate. ‘Right now. No-one will be any the wiser.’

  ‘Too late,’ said Dave. ‘We saw you. Why were you really helping yourself to petty cash? What is it, Kate? Spit it out.’

  The real reason was on the tip of her tongue but if she told Dave and Clare the truth there was no guarantee they would treat the tale sympathetically. More likely, she would still be in trouble but she would have dragged Gabriel, Jack and Mandy into the mess with her. Dave would call the police for sure. Gabriel might face disciplinary action for not having done so himself. Kate decided in that instant that she would just have to talk her way out of the situation and, the moment Dave and Clare let her out of their sight, she would text Gabriel to warn him. He could still take Jack and Mandy to the The Gloucester. She’d just have to call and put the room on her credit card when she got back to her room. If only she’d gone with that option first.

  ‘The money wasn’t for me,’ Kate said.

  ‘Then what were you taking it for?’ Dave pressed. ‘Don’t say the bar. Tell me something more interesting. Because if you can’t come up with a reasonable, believable answer why you took one hundred and fifty pounds out of the cash box without writing it down then it’s starting to look like plain theft to me.’

  ‘That’s not all,’ said Clare. ‘I’ve just discovered she’s taken stuff from the housekeeping cupboard too. And I saw her pocketing chocolates from the tables in the restaurant. That’s theft and it breaches health and safety. All food left by guests has to be disposed of safely,’ Clare recited. She beamed when Dave nodded at her recall.

  ‘Oh, this is looking very bad,’ Dave shook his head. ‘Very bad indeed.’