I'm Glad I Found You This Christmas, page 7
‘I’ve got to go. I’m at the shelter now, and I have to get back or I’ll get in trouble. Well, actually I won’t, because I’m a volunteer and they’re grateful I show up at all, but you get the picture. I’ve got to get going. Keep me posted, though. Call me tonight if you can. I’ll be waiting by the phone.’
‘Love you, Ren.’
‘Love you too, Hun. Hang in there.’
As soon as the phone clicked off, Maggie felt totally alone again. If only Renee were here, she could make everything better.
‘Come on, Maggie,’ she muttered. ‘Let’s do it then. Let’s be me.’
She stood up and pulled on her boots. Outside, it had begun to snow lightly. Maggie buttoned up her coat and headed downhill toward the village square, unsure what she was doing or where she was going, hoping only to shed from her shoulders the weight of Dirk’s impending appearance and her growing attraction to Henry before the weight became too great to bear, and she found herself lying face down in the snow, slowly being buried.
13
Lookout Point
Down in the square, a group of people were putting up Christmas lights. As Maggie wandered past, Phillip, the delicatessen owner, called Maggie over, so for a while she held the foot of a ladder while Phillip strung a line of candle-shaped bulbs along his shop front. Phillip hummed to himself the whole time, gently contented with his work, despite a broken string of lights in a basket at his feet.
‘Frost damage,’ he had told her when she asked, then shrugged his shoulders. ‘Can’t be helped, can it?’
As they worked, several people waved and smiled as they walked past. Maggie began to wonder if she was the only person in Hollydell who wasn’t blissfully happy.
‘So, are you travelling alone?’ Phillip said, climbing down the ladder after fixing the last light.
‘My boyfriend’s coming tomorrow,’ Maggie said, remembering that Phillip had left early the previous night, before she had drunkenly spilled her problems to anyone who would listen.
‘Oh, that’ll be nice. He’ll be in time for Christmas, then. It’s pretty spectacular here in Hollydell. The event of the year, to be sure.’
‘I can’t wait,’ Maggie said, perhaps with less enthusiasm than she intended.
Phillip looked about to say something else, but a voice hailed Maggie from across the street. She turned to see Ellie beckoning to her. She said goodbye to Phillip and headed over.
‘Did you eat lunch yet?’
‘Um, no, not yet.’ Maggie glanced at her watch, and was surprised to see it was already half past one. She had completely forgotten to eat.
‘Well, get this down you on the way.’ Ellie handed her a wrapped sandwich. ‘Beef and mustard with a sprinkling of Christmas spice.’
‘Sounds, um, delicious. Where are we going?’
Ellie grinned. ‘You look like a bit of a snow-shoer, Maggie.’
‘I’ve never tried.’
‘Ah, don’t worry. Just imagine you’re walking with tennis rackets tied to your feet. Ever try that as a kid?’
Maggie grinned. ‘Probably.’
‘There you go, then. A group of us are heading up to the lookout to watch the Christmas lights come on. We have to launch this year’s Christmas star.’
Maggie frowned. ‘What’s that?’
‘You’ll see. Are you dressed warmly enough?’
‘I think so.’
Ellie patted her on the back. ‘Let’s go, then. The others are waiting.’
A group of ten people had assembled outside the village hall. Gail, the catering assistant Maggie remembered from Barney’s, was handing out snowshoes and giving a tutorial on how to put them on. Ellie waved at Maggie, and Gail found her another pair from a box. They weren’t unlike tennis rackets: a kind of net fitted into a lightweight steel frame with a curved front end and a slightly wider back. They fitted neatly over Maggie’s boots, securing with a pair of straps.
‘This way,’ Ellie said, waving for the group to follow. Gail waved goodbye as Ellie led them across the road and through a gate into a triangular field behind the closest line of restaurants. Children’s play equipment was half-buried in snow. A cleared path arced up through the park and into the trees. Maggie, finding the shoes harder to walk in than she had expected, was last.
The path led gently uphill through tall pines. Snow had drifted on the forest floor, covering everything in a silvery blanket. From up ahead, Maggie heard Ellie’s voice drifting back, telling the nearest members of the group about the care and maintenance of the forest, before going on to explain what kind of animals they were likely to spot. Maggie was happy to hear confirmation that there were neither bears nor wolves, though the mention of a wildcat was a little unnerving, even though at this time of year it was unlikely to be seen during the day.
‘Where are you from, dear?’ said an older lady, slowing to let Maggie catch up. ‘Len and I come up from Bristol every year. Hollydell’s a wonderful place, isn’t it?’
Maggie, huffing far more than she’d have expected from a gentle slope—Perhaps Dirk thinks I’ve got fat?!—came up alongside her.
‘Cambridge,’ she said.
‘Oh, do you work in the university?’
Maggie winced. ‘Next,’ she said.
‘Next door? Oh, it must be a lovely view.’
The storefront of Maggie’s workplace had a lovely view of Carphone Warehouse across the street, but there was a spire of something just about visible over the second-storey roof.
‘Oh, it is,’ she said, smiling. ‘Not the best, but could be worse, couldn’t it?’
‘I’m Linda, by the way,’ the old woman said. ‘Len and I are both retired schoolteachers. Len came across this place years ago while researching a project for his pupils. Amazing they don’t advertise it properly, isn’t it? But then, if there were too many people, it would spoil it.’
Maggie nodded along, trying not to huff too loudly. The path had steepened, and walking on snowshoes was like wading through wet sand.
Up ahead, Ellie had brought the front of the group to a stop. Puffing like the Hollydell Express, Maggie came up last, and found herself in a quaint forest glade where several picnic tables stood.
‘Break time,’ Ellie announced. ‘Roll out the gingerbread men.’
Several members of the group let out a cheer. Maggie smiled, but she was still trying to get her breath back.
It was clear that for some members of the group, this was a regular ritual. Two couples spontaneously burst into a breathless rendition of White Christmas, while the others laid out biscuits and poured hot coffee out of flasks into paper cups.
‘Are you here alone?’ Linda said, coming to sit beside Maggie, who was perched on the end of a bench, looking out into the forest.
Maggie suppressed a sigh. ‘My boyfriend’s coming tomorrow.’
‘Oh? So late? He’ll miss so much fun.’
‘I know. He’s working, though. He got a promotion this year and it’s taking up a lot of his time.’
‘A shame he can’t take time off for Christmas,’ Linda said. ‘I mean, everyone needs a refresh, don’t they? And letting you come up here on your own … well, who knows who you might meet when magic’s in the air?’
Maggie tried not to think about Henry, but his face kept flashing in her mind. Perhaps it would be better to stay at home tonight rather than meet him at the concert. It could only lead to trouble, and while it might amuse Renee to have two men fight over her, Maggie didn’t see the appeal.
Ellie passed a metal container of gingerbread men down to Maggie. No chance to offer Christmas cheer had been missed; even the tin had a pretty Christmas scene on it.
‘Maggie’s hoping her boyfriend will propose,’ Ellie said, loud enough for the rest of the table to hear. ‘Wouldn’t that be a wonderful Christmas gift?’
Maggie cringed as the rest of the table oohed and aahed. She wished a sinkhole would open up in the snow to swallow her up. She wondered if there was enough time to run back to her cottage, collect her things and make it to the train before Andrew began the daily journey to Inverness.
‘How long have you been together?’ someone asked.
Maggie had to think about it. ‘Four years,’ she said at last, even though she’d only count the year he’d been in London as a half.
‘Well, I guess it’s due,’ Linda said.
A couple more people shuffled closer, no doubt with questions of their own, but Ellie stood up. ‘Don’t hound the poor girl,’ she said. ‘Let’s get going. We have a tight schedule.’
They packed up their things and headed on up the path, which was cutting back more and more as the hillside steepened. Maggie found herself at the back again, this time fearing avalanches rather than wildcats, despite Ellie’s assertion that there was nothing to worry about.
And then, nearly two hours after setting out, they broke out of the forest and Maggie found herself on a snowy hilltop with panoramic views of Hollydell below them and the rolling forested hills surrounding it. She looked for signs of other civilization, but other than a vague grey line a couple of valleys over that might have been the railway line, there was no sign that there was anything else left in the world.
Hollydell could have been the only town left on Earth.
Maggie smiled. Rather than feeling concerned, it filled her with a wonderful sense of peace.
‘Oh look, there goes Andrew,’ Ellie said, pointing down into the valley.
A line of smoke puffs and a faint chug-chug indicated the train moving through the forest. Maggie caught a glimpse of it through the trees as it passed alongside another small lake, then it was gone out of sight.
Linda clapped Maggie on the back. ‘Only one more day, dear. Just one more day. Although if I were your young man, I’d already be here.’
Maggie forced a smile. ‘He’s just been so busy….’
But even as she said it, she wondered. Dirk never talked to her about what he did, he just blocked her out. She wasn’t even sure what his role in the company was. He was a member of the director’s board, but what did he direct?
She tried to shake off the feeling that in recent months he had acted as though she were now beneath him. Perhaps it embarrassed him to say his girlfriend worked in a clothes shop. She’d never even thought about it while he was working for his father’s company, but now he’d landed a better job, she wasn’t so sure.
‘Okay, let’s get the star launched,’ Ellie said. ‘Len, can you get out the balloon? David, please check the batteries. We can’t have them going out before Christmas night. Maggie, you’re our newest member, so you can have the honour of holding the guide rope. Just don’t let go until I say.’
Maggie had no real idea what was going on. Len had taken a large, clear balloon out of a bag and was holding it by a thick cord attached to one end. The man called David was holding a plastic star with a light bulb inside. He pressed a button on the side and it illuminated brightly enough to make Maggie wince.
‘I have no idea how this doesn’t get you in trouble with the aviation authorities,’ Linda was saying to Ellie, but Ellie just shrugged and laughed.
‘We got it cleared,’ she said. ‘We’re not on any flight paths here anyway. The only thing you’re likely to see in the skies over Hollydell is Santa’s sleigh.’
Even though a couple of the group laughed heartily, Ellie had said it with such conviction that Maggie could believe it had been a statement, not a joke. She thought of the shape in Simon’s shed hidden by the grey sheet, then shook her head.
No. It was ridiculous.
‘Okay, we’re all ready,’ Len said.
‘Switch it on,’ Ellie said to David, who flicked the switch, illuminating them all. Maggie hadn’t realised how dark it had been getting until she saw how lit up their faces were, but the sun was close to the horizon already.
‘Okay, let go. Maggie, on three … one, two … three!’
At Ellie’s indication, Maggie let go of the rope. The star, hanging below the helium balloon, drifted gently up into the sky until it was little more than a distant speck. With a creak, the cord, tied around a metal hook embedded into a large rock, went taut, and everyone broke into a spontaneous rendition of When you Wish upon a Star, clapping along as they sang. Maggie, caught off guard, joined in by the end of the first verse, and by the time the song finished, she was singing as loud as anyone.
To the west, the sun was beginning to set.
Ellie stepped out of the group and clapped her hands. ‘Well done, everyone. Hollydell’s Christmas star is officially launched. Now, we need to make haste. We have about an hour to get off this mountain, an hour to eat dinner and get changed if you need it, then it’s time for the snowman concert in the village square. Are you all ready?’
A series of cheers rose up.
Ellie frowned. ‘Oh, I forgot something. How silly of me.’ She lifted a large flask up on to the rock. ‘The hot mulled wine. What a silly woman I would have been to carry this straight back down again. Cups out, everyone!’
The cheers this time were even louder. Maggie couldn’t help but laugh. Surrounded by such joy and enthusiasm in an atmosphere drenched in Christmas magic, it was easy to put Dirk out of her mind.
She took an offered cup and waited until Ellie raised a toast. ‘To Christmas, and joy to everyone!’ Ellie said.
Glancing up at the star hanging high above them, Maggie saw it had begun to flash.
14
The Snowman Concert
With the sun set, Maggie wondered how they were going to negotiate their way back down the forest path in near-darkness. She hadn’t noticed Ellie or any others carrying torches with them, and she hadn’t even brought her smartphone to use its light. They had gone no more than a few steps under the trees though when a line of fairy lights Maggie hadn’t previously noticed blinked on, illuminating the meandering path with a dim but colourful glow.
‘Oh, how pretty,’ Linda said.
‘Must cost a fortune,’ Len grumbled, but in front of them, Ellie laughed.
‘Solar panels,’ she said, clapping him on the shoulder. ‘And light sensor timers. We’re pretty high-tech here in Hollydell.’ She turned and winked at Maggie. ‘Well, that’s what we tell people. Actually it’s fairy dust.’
They continued on down through the illuminated tunnel the path had now become, moving in single file, their snowshoes padding softly over the snow pressed down by their ascent. Somewhere along the way, Ellie started singing, and by the time they emerged at the top of the park where they had set off, they had sung their way through pretty much every Christmas carol Maggie knew.
Gail was waiting outside the village hall to collect their snowshoes, clearing the snow off with a brush and stacking them into a box. They had descended far quicker than Maggie would have believed during their arduous upward trek, and even though night had fallen, it was still shy of five o’clock. She remembered today was the winter equinox, though as Ellie cheerfully pointed out, ‘From tomorrow we’re counting down until summer.’
The concert was due to start at seven. Linda and Len invited Maggie and a couple of others to meet them at six o’clock for dinner in a little restaurant called The Elf House, which served Christmas dishes from all over the world.
‘Ain’t nowhere tastier in town,’ Len said. ‘And we’ve tried them all.’
Maggie gratefully accepted, then excused herself. For reasons even she couldn’t quite understand, she headed down the hill to the train station and climbed up on to the platform just a few minutes before the train was due to arrive. She took a seat at the far end, in the shadows where she wouldn’t be seen unless she made herself known.
It was a long shot, but perhaps Dirk had decided to come early in order to surprise her. And if he did, she would surprise him by being here waiting. They could eat with Len and Linda, then retire to Comfort Cottage to have a quiet night together with a DVD and hot chocolate.
Perfect.
But when the train rolled in and a handful of people disembarked, Dirk was not among them.
Maggie waited until Andrew had switched off the train’s lights, shut down its boiler, and headed up to the village.
She needed to speak to Dirk, just to make sure he was coming. He hadn’t wanted to talk yesterday, but it was nearly Christmas. Surely his company couldn’t be so busy that he couldn’t spare her a few minutes? At the very least she could send him a message.
But when she reached into her jacket pocket for her phone, she remembered leaving it behind in the cottage.
She bumped her head back against the wall and smiled. It actually felt good to have no way to contact him, as though she had bitten through a leash. The sense of freedom was uncanny.
So, she would have to wait until he arrived tomorrow, or come back down here to call him, by which time it would likely be too late, and he would be asleep, getting an early night before the long journey to Hollydell tomorrow.
And in the meantime, she had a pseudo-date with Henry.
A tingle of guilt tickled through her. Perhaps she should go back to the cottage, ring Renee and lament her problems, then stand Henry up and feel relieved of her guilt toward Dirk.
Or she could go up the village and a have a good time, allow Hollydell’s magic to do its work.
She stood up and walked across the platform until she could see the sky above the village.
The Christmas star they had launched from the hilltop was twinkling against the background of the night sky like a miniature firework.
‘Come on, Maggie,’ she muttered, clenching a quietly resolute fist. ‘Let’s do this.’
Len and Linda were waiting at a corner table. Three other people Maggie hadn’t met before were also dining with them. Linda pulled out a chair for her then introduced the others. The two older men were John and Ted, a couple from Birmingham who had been coming to Hollydell every year since John had retired four years ago. And Emma was a university professor from Plymouth who was ‘single and proud, although if Santa came knocking, I’d let him fill my stocking.’ As she explained to Maggie, she taught modern poetry, although didn’t have much of a flair for it herself.
