What Happens at Christmas

by Evonne Wareham

  ‘Oh.’ It was less an exclamation, more a long exhale.

  ‘Do you understand?’ He turned fully towards her, searching her face, saw the moment when she did. ‘I can’t talk much about it, and I’m praying it will be over quickly, but whatever happens in court, it’s going to be messy and there will be stuff in the media and some of that probably won’t be pleasant. And if we’re known to be together, some of it will come your way, not because of Christmas, but simply because you’re involved with me.’ He clenched his fist. ‘I know the kidnapping brought us together.’ He tried a wobbly smile. It felt like crap. It probably looked worse. ‘I don’t want us, or the start of your career to be tainted by it. I think we need to stay apart, until it’s over.’

  He couldn’t read her expression, but she hadn’t burst into tears, or thumped him, or yelled for her brother-in-law. Yet. ‘After that …’ he said tentatively. ‘Well, people saw us meeting today, when Jessmayne introduced us. Maybe we can meet again at some other event, and take it from there?’

  The silence was long and thoughtful. Not because she was trying to torment him, but because she was working things through. He could see it in her face. At last she nodded. ‘If that’s how you want it.’ Her eyes were intent, holding his. ‘I’d like to be there for you, and I’m not afraid of standing beside you, but I get that you would feel better if I didn’t, and that you want to be free and clear before we …’ There was a deliciously delicate flush slowly working up from her collar. ‘… take this any further.’ He watched the colour climb, enchanted and really turned on. Hell!

  She gave him a tremulous smile. ‘If you hadn’t been kidnapped and we really had met for the first time today, we might still have liked the look of each other.’

  ‘If I’d had a grain of sense.’ Relief eased the tension in a dozen muscles. ‘Although I have to warn you that there is a commonly held belief that I don’t. You know that I do dangerous stuff.’ Might as well get the whole thing on the table. ‘It’s part of who I am.’

  ‘Cross that bridge when we come to it.’ She reached out and brushed his hair from his face. He wanted to turn his face into her palm and purr like Griff and then hold on to her and never let her go. ‘Just take care, Drew, please. And I’ll see you on the other side.’

  ‘Oh.’ Nevada emerged from the back of the house, as Lori shut the front door. ‘He’s gone?’

  Lori paused, until she heard the car. ‘Yes.’ Nevada looked disappointed. Not half as disappointed as I am. ‘It’s complicated.’

  ‘Oh, sweetie.’ Nevada gathered her into a hug. ‘You know what I say – the good ones always are.’ Her face had turned inwards and Lori knew she was thinking back to when Dan had been trying hard to stand by his newborn daughter and a wife who’d decided she no longer loved him. ‘Is it the trial thing?’ Smart cookie.

  ‘Yes.’ Lori inhaled Nevada’s expensive perfume and felt comforted. ‘He doesn’t want me to be involved.’

  ‘Then he’s a gentleman,’ Nevada decided. ‘Old school, but still sweet when you can find one. You don’t need to say any more now. You can tell us all about it when it’s finished.’ She stepped away. ‘Now come and reassure Dan that he doesn’t have to play the heavy brother-in-law.’ Nevada turned her mouth down in a comical grimace. ‘I think he was rather looking forward to it.’

  The parcel arrived the next day, by special delivery. Puzzled, Lori opened the packing box. Inside was another box, the kind that held printer paper. It was heavy and there was a card. ‘But it’s still not everything.’

  There was no signature, but Lori didn’t really need one. She lifted the lid.

  His name was on the cover page, under the title.

  Stren’s Story

  Chapter Forty-Four

  3 September

  Drew was emerging from Green Park Station when his phone began to ring. He ducked on to a convenient bench inside the park gates to answer it. The espresso shot he’d just drunk seethed queasily in his stomach as he recognised the lawyer’s number.

  ‘Andrew. Good news.’ The seething got worse. What constitutes good news from a lawyer?

  ‘You’ve got final confirmation of the trial date.’ Drew was afraid he was going to disgrace himself by heaving his heart up in a public place.

  ‘No, far from it. Just got the word. All three of them have changed their plea to guilty.’

  There had been more, about legal formalities and sentencing, but Drew wasn’t listening. Once the lawyer had rung off he sat for a while, staring at the phone.

  It’s over. Just like that, it’s over.

  ‘You all right, luv?’ An elderly woman in a checked coat and dark green fluffy hat sat down on the other end of the bench. She was clutching a packet of bird seed. ‘Only you look a bit out of it, like. Not on any of those drugs are you?’

  ‘No.’ He shook his head, starting to laugh. ‘I’m fine and I’m not taking any drugs.’

  The woman gave him a wide grin. ‘Pity, I was going to ask for a share.’

  Cackling, she opened the packet of seed and began to scatter it. There was a whirling and a flurry of wings. Drew got out, before he was engulfed. He was going to be late for the meeting at his publishers.

  ‘The new book. It’s different.’ Alyssa, his editor, wasn’t giving anything away. Drew sat in her comfortable visitor’s chair, trying to look relaxed.

  ‘Too different?’ he tried, tentatively.

  ‘No.’ Suddenly Alyssa’s face broke into a wide smile. ‘It’s wonderful, Andrew.’ She leaned forward, dropping her voice. ‘I cried.’ Wow, if you can make Alyssa Jones cry. And admit to it! ‘The readers are going to love it. It’s the story they’ve been waiting years for. I wasn’t sure you were ever going to write it.’ She stood up, looking at her watch. ‘Is it too early for lunch? No.’ She walked him towards her office door. ‘Let’s go and celebrate.’

  They went to a hotel on the South Bank that had just re-opened after some costly renovations. Before the work, the restaurant had been modelled on the dining room of an old style country house. It had been one of Drew’s favourite places to eat lunch in restful surroundings. Last time he’d been here he’d run into up-and-coming agent Tanya Trevelyan, he remembered. She’d been saying goodbye to a client in the foyer. She’d followed him into the dining room and they’d shared a lunch table and professional gossip. Now the place was sleek and high-tech, all shiny surfaces and stark black and white décor. Looking round, Drew decided he preferred the old look, but Alyssa was clearly thrilled with the updating. ‘Isn’t this awesome? And I’m told the food’s amazing.’ She settled into her black leather chair, nodding to the waiter. ‘Champagne, please.’

  Drew managed to keep to two small glasses of champagne. The food had been amazing, and he’d got used to the décor. Luckily, after they’d eaten, some friends joined Alyssa, to help finish the bottle, and he was able to slip away. He was later than he’d expected to be, crossing London to his agent’s office. In the back of the taxi, stop-starting along the Embankment, he checked his watch, then felt for his phone. He’d tried Geri a couple of times, only to get her answering service. This time she picked up. ‘Sorry darling, lots of stuff going on here. Piles of paper for you to sign, plus the draft contract for the new book.’

  ‘Already?’ Alyssa’s assistant had been busy when they were at lunch.

  ‘Not sure I’m happy with it. We’ll talk. Get here when you can. Oh, and congratulations on the trial folding.’

  ‘You heard about that?’

  ‘News travels, darling. You must be feeling pleased with yourself. See you soon.’ Geri disconnected.

  Drew leaned forward to look out the window of the taxi. There was a hold-up ahead, what appeared to be some sort of march was winding its way across the road. He subsided back into the seat. The journey was going to take a while. He stared unseeing at the traffic, inching forward alongside them, and the pedestrians clogging the pavements.

  For the first time in a crowded day he was alon
e, with time to process. The weight he’d been carrying, and only been half aware of, was gone. He tasted the sensation of finally being free of it, after all these months. It felt …

  He wasn’t quite sure yet how it felt. The congratulations on the guilty pleas, and Geri’s last remark, sat uneasily in his mind. He hadn’t wanted to go through the trial. The thought still made him nauseous. But he’d done nothing to deserve congratulations.

  Just got lucky.

  He shut his eyes as the taxi jerked forward a few feet. Now he could shake off the memory and the weight. It was a new start. A new start … and Lori.

  He’d get the paperwork done with Geri as fast as possible and then, to hell with it, he was going out to Gerard’s Cross. He’d howl at the gate, if he had to, until someone let him in.

  Lori pushed her way through the swing doors into the hospital corridor. Dan was standing at the other end, with Misty on his hip.

  ‘Hello, pet.’ Lori held out her arms. Misty climbed into them and clung like a monkey. Her lower lip was trembling a little. ‘Nevada is poorly.’

  ‘Not poorly.’ Lori hitched her into a more comfortable position. ‘The baby is coming, that’s all.’ Over her niece’s head she met Dan’s eyes.

  He grimaced. ‘When Misty got out of school we came into town. Nevada wanted a new pair of shoes – like she doesn’t have a wardrobe full of them already. They have their own cupboards!’ He paused for minute to marvel. ‘We were going to the Hard Rock for hamburgers. Her waters broke in the shoe department of Harvey Nicholls.’

  Lori had an irresistible urge to laugh, and maybe that was no bad thing if it would reassure Misty. ‘This baby already has style.’ She jiggled Misty up and down, smiling. ‘It’s nothing to worry about, sweetie. By the morning you’ll have a baby brother.’ Please God. She shot Dan a questioning glance.

  ‘Everything is fine. The doctor says that everything is as it should be.’

  ‘There you go.’ Lori dropped a kiss on Misty’s hair, cuddling her in. ‘Now we must let Daddy go back to help Nevada have the baby. You and I will go home and see Griff and Polly, and we can come back tomorrow and visit. Okay?’

  After a moment’s thought, Misty nodded and wriggled to be let down. With a hurried kiss for both of them Dan disappeared back into the maternity suite.

  Lori negotiated their way out of the building, remembering that she’d seen an ice cream parlour on the corner as she came in. Over two scoops of vanilla with raspberry sauce, Misty cheered up considerably. Lori sucked her own rum and raisin off the spoon and flipped casually through a copy of the Evening Standard that someone had left in the booth.

  Her teeth bit hard on the metal as she came face-to-face with a picture of Drew.

  Kidnap trial plans halted. Defendants change plea.

  Her heart started to thump and for a moment she felt dizzy. Automatically she reached for her phone to ring Drew, stopping with her hand halfway to her bag. You don’t have his number and he doesn’t have yours.

  For a moment her stomach, and the rum and raisin, did a nosedive. But he knows where you’re staying. Blessing Nevada’s insistence that she remain with them until the birth of the baby, Lori looked at her watch. Dan’s driver would be bringing the car any time now, to take them back to Gerard’s Cross.

  Then she would simply wait.

  Chapter Forty-Five

  3 September, Early Evening

  He’d been in the office for hours, signing things.

  Well, at least one hour.

  The sound of voices, door slamming and feet on the stairs had died away some time ago. Geraldine had gone into the next room to take a call from another client, raising perfectly arched brows at the slightly hysterical-sounding male voice, audible on the other end of the line. He’d finished skimming the paperwork she’d insisted he read. He got up and wandered over to his favourite place in the office, the old-fashioned multi-pane window. It was getting dark, long shadows creeping across the courtyard below. He traced a shape on the pane of glass – a heart, he realised – September already, and soon it would be Christmas again.

  And this year …

  He turned at the sound of a door closing in the corridor, hoping it was Geraldine coming back, but the door to the office remained shut. He leaned on the window ledge, looking into the courtyard. There were pigeons roosting on one of the window-sills on the adjacent building, which reminded him of the old lady with the bird seed. This morning. It seemed longer.

  He really wanted to get out of here. He still had to pick up the car before he could get on the road, or perhaps a taxi would be better considering the champagne? Could he just leave Geri a note and go? He rejected the thought immediately. He wasn’t scared of Geraldine, even in her best Bette Davis mode – well, not much – but he did owe her gratitude and good manners. She’d always done well by him.

  With a sigh he went back to the desk and flopped into the visitor’s chair as the door opened.

  For this relief …

  ‘Sorry about that.’ Geraldine crossed to the desk. ‘You’ve been very patient.’ She scooped up another wad of papers and pushed them towards him. ‘Now that the trial has resolved itself – have you thought about that tour of Australia? The publishers are keen. I can get someone on to it straight away – not someone who wants your heart, this time.’

  It was a tiny slip, an unguarded reference that he might not even have noticed.

  It was her sudden stillness that gave it away.

  A dark cloud chased across his vision.

  ‘Oh, God. You knew.’ He looked up at his agent’s face, which had suddenly frozen like a mask, everything inside him turning sickeningly to ice. ‘You knew what Aveline was going to do.’

  Barely realising that he was moving, he got to his feet. They faced each other across the desk

  ‘Of course I knew.’ Animation was coming back to Geraldine’s face and with it a flash of disdain. ‘You think there is anything going on in this office that I don’t know about?’

  ‘But …’ Drew tried to focus. ‘Why?’

  ‘You were seen.’

  ‘Seen?’ Drew echoed, blankly. Doing what, for God’s sake?

  ‘Having lunch with Tanya Trevelyan,’ she flicked the words at him like drops of acid.

  Drew put his hand to his head. ‘You were willing to see me dead because I had lunch with another agent! It was a coincidence, we were in the same restaurant and we shared a table.’ And you know that maybe it wasn’t such a coincidence on Trevelyan’s part, but in the event she never made a move and nothing happened.

  Except it almost got you killed.

  He shook his head, unable to find words.

  Geraldine leaned forward, bracing her hands on the desk. ‘You were just a snot-nosed kid with a scrappy manuscript and a dream when I took you on. I made you. And you were having lunch with Trevelyan.’ Geraldine’s face sparked back to full bitter life. ‘If I was losing my star client – but maybe not so star …’ She tilted her head. ‘The books aren’t so good now, are they, Andrew? Just a little tired? Same old, same old. I don’t have to bother to read them these days. I know what will be in them. And how much longer are you going to be able to keep up all that schoolboy daredevil stuff?’ Her eyes raked over him. ‘If I was losing you anyway, maybe it wasn’t such a bad thing to let that girl make it permanent, knowing you’d already passed your best?’

  Drew just stared, still unable to speak. Madness …

  ‘And of course there was that life insurance policy you took out three years ago, naming me as beneficiary.’ Her tone was almost meditative. ‘Never anticipated collecting on it in quite those circumstances, but what the hell …’ She flashed him a grin where the eyes didn’t match the mouth. ‘An unexpected bonus. Every little helps, as they say.’

  ‘But …’ Drew was struggling to keep up. ‘I remember we talked about insurance …’

  Three years ago – after the fall in Switzerland and before the trip to Indonesia. Geraldine had been u
ncharacteristically prickly about the risks he was taking.

  Which might have been influenced by the plaster casts on your wrist and ankle?

  He shook his head. ‘We talked, but we never took it any further.’ The conversation had raised a superstitious aversion that he hadn’t known he possessed. He hadn’t wanted to think about it.

  ‘Oh, but we did, darling. A modest nest egg, just in case one of your stunts finally did end in terminal damage. You never noticed the policy in amongst all those forms and contracts you sign so impatiently, without really reading them.’ Her chest heaved as she drew in a deep breath. ‘Bit of advice, Andrew. Always read the paperwork.’

  Abruptly something snapped inside his head. The ice in his chest travelled upwards, leaving his thoughts cold and clear. ‘I’ll take it, you can be sure of that. But whatever and wherever I sign next, it won’t be in this office.’

  Somehow he got to the door. He wondered if she’d come after him, try to block his passage on the stairs, call him back to her. When she comes to her senses.

  To his bone-melting relief, nothing happened. His footsteps sounded hollow on the narrow wooden treads and that was all.

  One set of stairs.

  And out of the door.

  He had to struggle to get it open. For a moment panic flared, then his stiff fingers closed on top and bottom locks and the door swung towards him.

  The shallow portico outside was blotted with shadows, although the sky, high above the buildings, still showed a vestige of pale grey. As Drew stepped out, a motion sensor activated a light beside the door. It wasn’t very powerful and it didn’t reach very far, but it was enough for him to see his way down the shallow steps.