‘I know.’
‘I’m only saying it for your own good, Kirsty. You asked me to help keep you on the straight and narrow.’ Jon glanced at the kitchen clock. ‘I’d better get going,’ he said. ‘This is one appointment I don’t want to miss.’
Kirsty went to give him a cuddle but Jon held her at arm’s length, telling her he didn’t want to get creases in his suit. She tried to kiss him from that arm’s-length distance. As she puckered up and moved in on his lips, Jon turned his head so that she hit his cheek instead. It was a subtle reminder that while he was washed and dressed and had spent five minutes cleaning his teeth with his Sonicare toothbrush, Kirsty had on her pyjamas, her hair was in full bed-head style and she still had morning breath. Kirsty tried not to be offended. She stepped back and smiled.
‘I hope you have a great time after the interview,’ she told him.
‘Yeah. It’ll be good to catch up with some of the old gang afterwards. You enjoy your day with the cotton-tops.’
Then he put on his coat and left. Leaving the packed lunch on the kitchen table.
‘Ah well,’ said Kirsty. She waited a couple of minutes to see if Jon would realise he’d forgotten the box and come back to retrieve it. He didn’t. So Kirsty put the box in the fridge to have as her own lunch later. Then, remembering how pained Jon had looked when she went to kiss him with her unbrushed hair and teeth, she opened the fridge, opened the box, pulled out the Penguin and had that for breakfast instead of the boiled egg (no soldiers) she had planned.
‘F-ing fast days,’ she muttered.
Chapter Forty-Four
Because Jon had taken the car to drive to the station, Kirsty needed a lift to the old people’s home. Ben turned up a couple of minutes early. Thea was in the back of the car wearing her new party dress. Ben sent her to ring the bell. Thea was delighted, as it gave her the chance to twirl and whirl and get Kirsty’s opinion on the froufrou extravaganza Ben had agreed to buy in Debenhams the previous weekend. Ben was surprised when Thea asked for the dress. Something so pink and princessy was not her usual style. But then Thea seemed to be changing in many ways since she had joined the NEWTS children’s group. She was blossoming before his eyes. If that meant she was suddenly taking more interest in fashion, then Ben was fine with that.
Kirsty too had made an effort. Ben’s mother hadn’t mentioned anything about a dress code – she was just over the moon that Kirsty and Ben would be singing – but Ben knew Judy would be pleased to see that Kirsty had dressed up. She was wearing a red wrap dress beneath her puffa coat. The red was very festive. On her feet, she wore a pair of satin heels that matched the dress exactly.
‘They’re surprisingly comfortable,’ she assured him. ‘Though I’m very glad to be getting a lift.’
Ben was in a suit. He didn’t often wear a suit now that he worked for himself, but he had to admit he enjoyed putting it on again. And now he’d seen how lovely Kirsty looked, he was glad he’d changed out of his jeans. It would have looked strange had he been dressed so casually when she was so beautiful. Now they would look like a pair.
Not that it mattered. They weren’t a pair, full stop.
As Kirsty and Thea chatted happily about the day ahead, Ben hoped Jon Manley knew how lucky he was.
The old people’s home – The Bella Vista – was not far from the centre of town. It was set high on a ridge with a fabulous view of the sea. As they drove there, Ben explained to Kirsty that it had once been a very fashionable hotel. During the 1920s, everyone who was anyone wanted to stay there. It stayed popular right through the seventies. But, like many British coastal towns, Newbay had been hammered by the rise of cheap flights and bargain bucket trips to the Med. The English Riviera would never be able to compete with the Costa Del Sol when it came to the weather and, really, who could blame people for wanting guaranteed sunshine on their two precious weeks off a year?
So the Bella Vista struggled to find customers, fell into disrepair and was eventually closed. It was the hotel owner’s grandson who reopened the place as an old people’s home, finding a rich seam of residents among the people who had stayed there as children and had fond memories of the hotel and the town.
The home still retained some of the grandeur it had in its glorious prime. The lobby was not at all as you might expect – sterile and full of mobility scooters – it was like walking into the 1920s. The reception desk and the staircase had been lovingly restored. You expected to see a glamorous debutante posing against the shiny brass rail.
‘Though not many people go up that staircase these days,’ said Ben. ‘There are lifts down the corridor, there.’
Judy met them in reception.
‘You’re here! And don’t you all look wonderful.’
Thea gave her grandmother a twirl.
‘Everybody is waiting for you in the salle de bal.’
‘That’s the ballroom,’ said Thea for Kirsty’s benefit.
‘Oh, how lovely,’ Kirsty said. ‘Where did you learn to speak French?’
‘Grandma told me,’ Thea said proudly.
‘I’ve arranged for one of the empty guest rooms on the same floor to be your changing room,’ Judy continued. ‘In case you want to gather yourself before you go on.’
‘Thank you,’ said Kirsty. ‘But I just need somewhere to hang my coat. I’m not Céline Dion.’
‘You wouldn’t guess that from the excitement your coming has generated,’ Judy assured her. ‘I’ll go in and tell them you’re here.’
Ben and Kirsty had discussed a possible running order by text. They only had a couple of songs in Cinderella. Nowhere near enough to make a proper set. So they decided they would throw a few old favourites into the mix. Fortunately, Kirsty and Ben discovered they liked many of the same old standards. They’d had no time to practice them but Kirsty assured Ben she was certain they would do just fine. Their accompaniment was iTunes on a laptop, after all, not the London Symphony Orchestra. No one would mind if they weren’t absolutely perfect.
Ben had printed out the set-list three times. Once for Kirsty, once for himself and once for Judy, who would be in charge of music that day. Having let the residents know that the entertainment had arrived, Judy cued up the first song.
‘Are you ready for this?’ Ben asked his co-star.
Kirsty nodded and smiled as she tucked her arm through his, reminding him yet again of all that he was missing. Bloody Jon Manley.
‘Ladies and gentlemen,’ Judy announced. ‘Let’s have a warm welcome for Kirsty Watson and Ben Teesdale, or, as I prefer to call them, Cinderella and her real Prince Charming … Buttons.’
Thea held open the ballroom door and Kirsty and Ben entered to rapturous applause.
They opened their little show with ‘Baby, It’s Cold Outside’, to get everyone into the Christmas mood. The ballroom had been decorated in a manner befitting such a grand space. An enormous tree garlanded in silver and gold tinsel provided a backdrop for the entertainment. The fairy lights, reflected by the tinsel, scattered flattering light all over Kirsty and Ben.
After a slightly shaky start, they soon warmed up. They followed ‘Baby, It’s Cold Outside’ with two of their duets from Cinderella. Then Kirsty did a couple of solos. Songs she had sung on board The European Countess. After that, they were back on the Christmas theme. ‘Oh Little Town of Bethlehem’ went down well. They’d wondered about ‘A Fairytale of New York’, with its swearing, but it went down a storm. In fact, most of the residents seemed to know the words.
Thea joined Ben and Kirsty to sing ‘Silent Night’, her little voice hitting the perfect spot between them. The whole room joined in for ‘O Come All Ye Faithful’ before Ben and Kirsty gave a rocking finale of ‘Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer’.
The crowd insisted on an encore.
‘Do you do requests?’ a lady in the front row asked.
‘Do we?’ Kirsty asked Ben.
‘Depends on the request,’ said Ben. ‘What would you like to hear?’
‘All I
want For Christmas Is You?’ A murmur of approval went around the room.
‘We’ve got it,’ Judy confirmed.
‘Then we’re singing it,’ said Kirsty.
There was nothing to do but ham it up to the max. Ben and Kirsty crooned at each other. They gave it everything. They gazed deep into each other’s eyes as if there were no one else in the room. When the song finished, they burst into laughter. The audience burst into applause.
‘That was brilliant,’ said Thea.
Kirsty was still laughing.
‘You make a very good Mariah,’ said Ben.
The residents were howling for an encore.
‘One more time?’ Ben suggested.
‘Why not?’
Second time around was even better and, as they finished, Ben swung Kirsty backwards in a fancy ballroom dip. She wrapped her arms around his neck and kissed him on the cheek as he lifted her onto her feet again.
‘Thank you,’ he said to her.
‘No. Thank you,’ said Kirsty. ‘I don’t think I’ve ever had more fun.’
She was just saying that. Of course she was just saying that. But Ben couldn’t help wishing it were true.
Chapter Forty-Five
When the concert was finally finished, Judy set iTunes to play a medley of festive songs while the Bella Vista residents and their guests availed themselves of the sumptuous Christmas lunch buffet, which included those hundred mince pies baked by Judy and decorated by Thea. In fact, there were just ninety-nine mince pies because Thea had ‘accidentally’ dropped one that was quickly hoovered up by Buster the dog.
Ben and Kirsty split up to circulate among their audience. Ben had the advantage over Kirsty, having visited the home many times since his mother started work there. Now that he was settled in Newbay again, he was a regular visitor, often running errands for his mum and some of his favourite old ladies. They adored Ben. They were so proud of him for doing his best to parent his daughter without Jo by his side. And, naturally, everyone loved Thea. She could not cross the lobby of the home without having someone press sweets upon her. Judy sometimes joked that Thea had a hundred great-grandmas.
‘And if you eat all those sweets they give you, you’ll have a hundred fillings to match.’
One of Ben’s favourite residents at the Bella Vista was April. Though she was close to a hundred years old, April had the energy and joie de vivre of someone decades younger. With her youthful enthusiasm she sometimes made Ben feel quite ancient by comparison. April did not agree that getting old meant letting go. She liked to keep up with the times, not spend her days endlessly looking backwards as others were prone to do. She wholeheartedly embraced the digital age and was an avid reader of fashion blogs on her tablet. She dressed in the latest styles and was never seen without red lipstick. She very much approved of Kirsty’s dress. She told Ben.
‘She is beautiful. We’re so glad you’ve got yourself a new young lady, Ben,’ said April. ‘We’ve all been so worried about you—’
Ben stopped her. ‘I haven’t got a new young lady, April. Kirsty and I are just friends. We’re appearing in the panto together, that’s all.’
‘But you looked so in love when you were singing,’ April protested.
‘It’s just acting.’
April tilted her head and gave Ben a sceptical look.
‘Hmmm. Well, maybe you should ask her out for real.’
‘I can’t. She’s got a boyfriend.’
‘And? I had a fiancé when I met my husband Malcolm. I was supposed to be getting married in less than a month. But I bumped into Malcolm at a bus stop and I knew when I met true love. I didn’t hesitate. Malcolm and I eloped to Gretna Green on the day I should have been marrying the other fella in Teignmouth. I never regretted it for one minute. We were married for sixty-three years.’
‘Then you made the right decision,’ Ben agreed.
‘Exactly. I followed my heart and I can see where your heart is right now. So don’t go telling me you can’t ask her to go out with you because she’s got a boyfriend. All’s fair in love and war.’
‘Thanks, April,’ said Ben. ‘I’ll bear that in mind.’
Clearly it wasn’t ‘all fair’ in love or Jon Manley wouldn’t have got the girl. Again.
Ben pressed a kiss to April’s powdery cheek. She squeezed his shoulders.
‘Go get her.’
On the other side of the salle de bal, as Ben’s mother insisted on calling it, Kirsty was doing the rounds with a plate of mince pies, making sure that those who couldn’t get up easily did not miss out on the food. She chatted happily with the audience members. Ben watched her from across the room. It was easy to see why April thought Kirsty was a good catch. She wasn’t just lovely to look at, she was lovely, full stop. He had noticed that the very first time they met, when she was so calm and easy-going about being attacked by Buster.
Ben had been mortified when his mother asked Kirsty to join them at the party that afternoon. Why on earth would she want to? But if Kirsty was doing it out of any sense of duty, it didn’t show. She was laughing and having fun. She was so gracious and funny and kind.
Ben wished that April were right. He wished it didn’t matter that Kirsty had a boyfriend. But Ben understood from listening to the gossip in the rehearsal room that Kirsty had actually chosen to follow Jon back to Newbay rather than spend the winter on a cruise ship in the Caribbean. It was hard to imagine she’d made that decision on a whim. She must really love Jon to have given up such a glamorous job for a winter of wet weather and am-dram with the NEWTS, lovely though they were.
And, in any case, Ben had already decided that he was never going to go head to head with Jon Manley over a woman again. Though more than a decade had passed, during which Ben had found and fallen in love with Jo, he could still remember the soul-crushing moment when his old girlfriend Charlie chose Jon over him.
What was it about women and men like Jon Manley? Ben had pondered the mystery of women’s taste in romantic partners ever since his first game of kiss chase. The myth of the bad boy getting all the girls was true. But it wasn’t just bad boys that seemed to get the love. Not in the old-fashioned ‘James Dean on a motorbike’ sense. It was the plain arrogant ones.
Was it the challenge? Was that what women wanted in a man? Had Ben always been too easy, in the sense that when he fell in love all he wanted was to shower his beloved with kindness and affection and do whatever he could to make her life brighter and happier? Thank goodness Jo seemed to like being loved the way he wanted to love her. He couldn’t imagine ever having made her the butt of a joke or the target of a bad mood.
As Ben watched, Kirsty did a twirl to show one of the old ladies her dress and the whole room seemed to fade into soft focus around her.
‘Dad,’ Thea interrupted. ‘Dad. Hold your plate up. You’re dropping mince pie crumbs all over the floor.’
Chapter Forty-Six
It was almost three o’clock. The party was coming to its conclusion. The ladies and gentlemen of the Bella Vista wanted to retire to their rooms and take a nap before coming back down to the lounge for tea and the grand finale of Strictly. April explained that she’d placed a tenner on the newsreader to win out over the Olympic rower in the last dance. Kirsty had no idea who she was talking about. The past few Saturdays she had been rehearsing whenever Strictly was on. The battered old television in the flat didn’t have that catch-up capability. It could barely get three channels. Still, Kirsty feigned interest as April ran through the merits of each contestant’s cha-cha-cha.
‘You know, Ben looks a bit like that newsreader,’ said April. ‘He’s very good-looking is Ben Teesdale.’
‘He is,’ Kirsty agreed.
‘And he’s nice with it. So often you find men that handsome are all a bit up themselves, if you know what I mean?’
‘I agree.’ Kirsty laughed.
‘And he’s doing such a good job with little Thea,’ April continued. ‘It can’t be easy for him on his own
. Oh, I know he’s got his mum around but that’s not the same.’
‘I suppose not,’ said Kirsty.
‘A man like Ben does best with a partner. And seeing how he is as a father, you know that if he finds love again, he’ll treat that lucky lady like a goddess.’
‘I’m sure he will.’
Kirsty wondered where the conversation was going. It seemed increasingly like a sales pitch. Not that Kirsty needed telling that Ben was a good catch.
‘It’s a shame you’re already taken,’ April said then. ‘You made a nice pair while you were singing. You had proper chemistry.’
‘I suppose that’s because we’ve been doing so much practice for the show,’ said Kirsty.
April patted her on the hand. ‘I suppose it is.’
Kirsty wondered if April was teasing her. Indeed, April gave her a conspiratorial wink.
‘Tell me about your boyfriend. What’s he like, dear? Tell me how you met him. Then tell me about your plans.’
Kirsty happily told April how she had come to meet Jon, but when it came to telling her about their plans for the future, that was a different story. She paused and felt a little shiver of sadness as she said, ‘He’s got an interview today. In London. For a job.’
‘Oh dear,’ said April. ‘London is a long way from Newbay.’
Try Dubai, Kirsty thought. But she decided against telling April the full story. Instead, she ad-libbed about how she too hoped to get a job in the West End.
‘I’m sure you will. You’re a proper talent. Your voice puts me in mind of Susan Boyle.’
It was a nice comparison, Kirsty decided. She loved Susan Boyle’s voice.
‘Have a very merry Christmas, April,’ she said, getting to her feet again. Squatting beside April in order to be on her level was taking it out on Kirsty’s thighs.
‘You too, dear. There’s some mistletoe hanging over the desk in the lobby if you want to catch Ben on the way out.’
April gave another wink.
‘OK. Thank you. I’d better just …’
A Fairy Tale for Christmas Page 18