Christmas at the Keep, page 1
Marcia Willett
* * *
CHRISTMAS AT THE KEEP
Contents
THE CHADWICK FAMILY TREE
CHAPTER ONE
CHAPTER TWO
CHAPTER THREE
CHAPTER FOUR
CHAPTER FIVE
CHAPTER SIX
CHAPTER SEVEN
CHAPTER EIGHT
CHAPTER NINE
CHAPTER TEN
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
About the Author
Marcia Willett’s early life was devoted to the ballet, but her dreams of becoming a ballerina ended when she grew out of the classical proportions required. She had always loved books, and a family crisis made her take up a new career as a novelist – a decision she never regretted.
She lived in a beautiful and wild part of Devon, and her surroundings inspired many of her novels.
Marcia passed away in June 2022 after a period of ill health. She leaves behind a son and two grandchildren. Christmas at the Keep is her last book.
Also by Marcia Willett
FORGOTTEN LAUGHTER
A WEEK IN WINTER
WINNING THROUGH
HOLDING ON
LOOKING FORWARD
SECOND TIME AROUND
STARTING OVER
HATTIE’S MILL
THE COURTYARD
THEA’S PARROT
THOSE WHO SERVE
THE DIPPER
THE CHILDREN’S HOUR
THE BIRDCAGE
THE GOLDEN CUP
ECHOES OF THE DANCE
MEMORIES OF THE STORM
THE WAY WE WERE
THE PRODIGAL WIFE
THE SUMMER HOUSE
THE CHRISTMAS ANGEL
THE SEA GARDEN
POSTCARDS FROM THE PAST
INDIAN SUMMER
SUMMER ON THE RIVER
THE SONGBIRD
SEVEN DAYS IN SUMMER
HOMECOMINGS
REFLECTIONS
THE GARDEN HOUSE
STARRY, STARRY NIGHT
For more information on Marcia Willett and her books,
see her website at www.marciawillett.co.uk
To Charles
CHAPTER ONE
October
‘Ed’s coming home.’
There is a little silence. Hal Chadwick puts his iPhone on the kitchen table and looks at Fliss. Ed, the black sheep of the family, Hal’s younger son, who has been away in the US for ten years: it has all the makings of the return of the prodigal son. Hal picks up his phone, reads the message again and then puts the phone in his pocket. How complicated family relationships can be, especially in this particular case. Fliss is not only his second wife but also his cousin; they married when her husband, Miles, died. Hal and Maria had been divorced for several years by then and he brought their two sons, Jolyon and Edward, to the marriage, while Fliss brought her twin son and daughter. The Chadwicks are a close-knit family. Their home, The Keep, a castellated stone tower in the Devon countryside, has been there for all of them at one time or another, and now Hal and Fliss are the custodians.
Fliss is watching him. ‘When you say “coming home”,’ she says, ‘do you mean to England or here?’
Hal grimaces. ‘Things haven’t gone well in New York. He and Rebecca have split up. Apparently, he’s applied for a job in London, but meanwhile he says he’d like to come to see us all. He’s been jabbed but he’s self-isolating, of course. I’m not sure that he’s got anywhere else to go.’
‘Well, why not?’ says Fliss lightly. ‘It will be good to see him.’
Hal pushes the kettle on to the hotplate of the Aga. Since Fliss’s niece Lulu and nephew Freddie are both temporarily lodged at The Keep, it would be difficult for her to refuse. And why should she? Ed has always made waves, but it seems unlikely that he will turn up now and cause trouble. Nevertheless, Hal feels a twinge of anxiety. His younger son has a clever way of exposing weaknesses, poking fun, and he hopes that Ed will behave himself.
‘Is it to be a long stay?’ Fliss is asking, spooning coffee into the cafetiere.
Hal shrugs. ‘No idea. You know Ed. Never quite sure what’s happening next. I don’t suppose he’s changed.’
‘You don’t suppose who’s changed?’ Freddie appears in the doorway, a golden Labrador at his heels. ‘It’s quite chilly up on the hill this morning. Am I in time for coffee?’
‘You certainly are.’
As a retired admiral of the fleet, Hal has a lot of respect for Freddie, whose commission as a naval chaplain has just ended. Freddie is debating his future, not certain whether to return to parish ministry or to try a different kind of chaplaincy, and he’s been welcomed at The Keep whilst he deliberates.
‘Here we are, Honey.’ Fliss is filling the dog’s water bowl. ‘Drink up and you shall have a biscuit.’
Freddie sits down at the refectory table. ‘So who hasn’t changed?’ he repeats.
‘Ed’s coming for a visit.’ It’s Fliss who answers him. ‘He’s moving back and he’s applied for a job in London.’
‘On his own?’ asks Freddie, reaching for his mug of coffee. ‘Thanks, Hal. Has he split with his partner? I’ve forgotten her name.’
‘Rebecca,’ Hal reminds him. ‘It seems so.’
There’s a little silence, except for the sound of Honey lapping water. Nobody speaks but each imagines that the others, too, are thinking about Lulu, whose partner has recently left her and their small son, Oliver, and who, like Freddie, has taken refuge at The Keep.
‘Well,’ says Freddie cheerfully, ‘it looks like it will definitely be a family Christmas, then.’
‘Oh, no,’ groans Hal. ‘Please. Not the C-word. No offence, Freddie.’
Freddie grins at him. ‘None taken. A thousand parish priests will be thinking the same thing. Let’s just hope we don’t have another Covid spike.’
‘Don’t even think about it,’ says Fliss firmly. ‘It would be so good to see everyone. The Keep packed, just like in the old days.’
‘So just to be clear, Freddie,’ says Hal, ‘you’re not leaving till next year, OK? If it’s going to be that sort of Christmas, I shall need your moral support.’
‘Aye aye, sir,’ says Freddie, grinning at him. ‘Suits me.’
‘Good man,’ says Hal. ‘More coffee?’
Fliss watches them. She loves having Freddie and Lulu here. Her sister, Susanna, Freddie and Lulu’s mother, was embarrassed when the subject of Freddie’s leaving the navy first arose. Freddie would no longer have naval accommodation, and unless he got a place in a parish with a vicarage, he’d have nowhere to live. Fliss was adamant.
‘Don’t be silly, Sooz,’ she said. ‘You and Gus haven’t got that much space, and Freddie doesn’t want to rush into a job just to have a house. That would be crazy, with The Keep just down the lane, and it will be lovely for us to have him. Hal’s doing that deaf, grumpy-old-man thing and he’s so much better with other people around.’
‘You’ve already got Lulu and Ollie,’ Sooz reminded her.
‘That’s different,’ said Fliss. ‘It was the perfect solution when the wretched Mark disappeared. And we can all help Lulu with childcare. Anyway, it would be so good for her and Freddie to spend time together. We’ve hardly seen him for these last five years.’
‘It would be great if he could come to you,’ Sooz admitted. ‘He could rent something, of course, but he’s been on his own so much …’
‘If he’d be happy to be with us we’d love it,’ said Fliss. ‘The Keep belongs to all of us, remember, not just me and Hal.’
‘Thank goodness we’re not still in lockdown,’ said Sooz. ‘It’ll be lovely to have him here for a little while. He’s been at sea so much.’
And so it was decided.
Now, Fliss wonders how the dynamic might change with Ed’s arrival. She’s very fond of his older brother, Jolyon, but Ed was always the tricky one. It’s difficult to believe that he’s been in the US for ten years, with only a few visits home, and she wonders how he’ll like being back. It’s strange that these three younger members of the family should all be here at turning points in their lives, and she hopes that she and Hal can help them.
She takes her mug of coffee and sits down in the rocking chair. As usual in moments of stress, she is comforted by familiar things: the long, built-in dresser with its load of pretty china and family bric-a-brac; Honey asleep in the dog basket surrounded by her toys; the warmth from the Aga. Here, more than sixty years ago, she came with Susanna and their brother, Sam, to take refuge with their grandmother after their parents and older brother were murdered by Mau Mau in Kenya. The Keep was a sanctuary for them, the family nourished them, and now Fliss draws strength from it.
CHAPTER TWO
‘Ed’s coming home,’ Freddie says to Lulu.
He’s been looking for his sister, to share the news with her, and finds her in the kitchen garden rooting up the withered runner beans and taking out the sticks. Summer is over and the harvest gathered, but with its high sheltering stone walls, and warm earthy vegetative scents, this is a good place to be in the autumn sunshine. Lulu’s reaction to his news is a kind of puzzled indifference.
‘Ed?’ she says, resting on her fork, almost as if she’s trying to remember who he is. ‘We haven’t seen him since he came over for his mum’s funeral, have we? Has Rebecca been transferred back to the London office?’
‘He’s coming here. He and Rebecca have split up. Ed’s applied for a job in London but he’s
‘Split up?’ She looks distressed. ‘Poor old Ed. Seems to be running in the family.’
‘Perhaps it’s Ed that’s doing the walking,’ says Freddie.
He’s a little surprised by his own reaction to the news: a kind of irritation that Ed is coming to disturb the peaceful tenor of things. Yet why should he assume that Ed will do that? Lulu is clearly unmoved by the situation, which makes him feel slightly guilty. Lulu glances at him, sensing his mood.
‘Come on,’ she says. ‘I know he digs at you for being a priest but that’s just Ed. He’s harmless really.’
Freddie wants to remind her of Ed’s shortcomings – his experimenting with drugs at university, his inability to hold down a job for very long, the way he invested his mother’s savings in a dodgy deal and lost the lot – but he resists. He doesn’t want to feel like this about Ed and can’t quite analyse his reaction. Perhaps it’s to do with his own uncertainty at the moment: this lack of knowing where he should go next or what he should do. He seems to have lost his sense of spiritual direction and it worries him.
Lulu is watching him. ‘Are Hal and Fliss OK about it? Mum used to say that Ed could be a bit of a problem.’
‘I think so.’ Freddie pulls himself together and smiles. ‘Let’s just say that I’m glad I’m in the gatehouse.’
She laughs. ‘You can always escape if things get tricky. I wonder how Ollie will like him. Can you bring the bean sticks? I’ll need to clean them off or they’ll rot. I’ll just chuck the vines on the compost.’
She kicks some mud from her boots and they walk back to the greenhouse together.
‘It must be nearly lunchtime,’ she says, wiping the fork tines with some leaves, then changing into her shoes. ‘Shall we go and make a sandwich?’
‘Fliss and Hal are meeting friends at the Cott for lunch,’ he tells her. ‘I thought we might have a little jaunt.’
She smiles at the family expression. ‘Where do you have in mind?’
‘How about Buckfast?’ he asks rather diffidently. ‘We could have a bowl of soup in the refectory and then a little wander round the abbey.’
To his relief, she nods. ‘That sounds good.’
‘We’ll take my car,’ he says.
As they drive through the narrow lanes between high grassy banks, Lulu thinks about Ed and wonders if the break-up between him and Rebecca has hurt him very much. She still feels the pain of Mark’s leaving, unable to forget the things he said to her. He always accused her of being childish. ‘Grow up, Lu!’ he’d say. ‘For Chrissake, you’re thirty-five, not fifteen!’ Hurtful things, which now she believes were a cover-up for the fact that he was having an affair; to give himself an excuse for betraying her. She knows she’s not particularly clever – her elder sister, Alison, is the clever one – and his remarks are still painful to remember.
Through a gateway she glimpses the distant hills of Dartmoor, honey-coloured in the afternoon sunshine. The leaves are beginning to turn, ochre and gold and brown, and the rowan berries glow a bright red. Lulu gives a little sigh, wondering, like Fliss, if Ed will change the dynamic at The Keep. Since Covid closed down the photographic studio in Totnes for a few months she’s had very little work and there’s something comforting about being at The Keep with Hal and Fliss, and even more so now that Freddie has joined them.
They drive through the abbey’s gateway, Freddie parks the car and they walk into the grounds towards the refectory. It’s quiet today and they put on their masks, queue at the food bar for soup and rolls, then carry the trays into the refectory to find a table. They chat companionably as they eat: about their father’s approaching birthday, Ollie’s progress at school. At times like these the pain of betrayal recedes slightly and Lulu can feel at peace.
In the abbey, she lets Freddie precede her as he walks slowly along the aisle beside the Stations of the Cross, studying each image, and then pauses outside the chapel to look at the amazing east window. She wonders how much he minds that his few attempts at relationships have never worked out. ‘Women don’t always get on with God,’ he said wryly. ‘And being at sea for months on end doesn’t work either.’
Further on, Freddie pauses by the shelf where the candles, some already lit, stand in rows below a crucifix and she watches as he takes a taper, holds it to a flame and then lights a candle. He replaces the taper and stands quite still, his hands folded, head bowed. Presently he crosses himself, turns to look for her and smiles, and she knows as they walk back together to the car that he too has found a moment of peace.
CHAPTER THREE
Ollie waves goodbye to his friends, climbs on to his bicycle and wobbles away down the lane. He glances back to make certain that Mummy and Uncle Freddie are not too far behind, and then pushes on, singing at the top of his voice. He likes it when Uncle Freddie comes to meet him from school. It’s a bit like having Daddy there. It’s difficult trying to explain to his friends why his Daddy is never around. Ollie has told them that he’s had to go a long way off because of his work, but his friends are a bit puzzled that Ollie never goes to visit him. But now Uncle Freddie is here and he often brings Ollie to school or meets him afterwards.
It’s nice being at The Keep, too, because there’s no main road so he can ride his bicycle all the way along the lane, to and from school, unless it’s pouring with rain. And now a new person is coming to stay. Ed’s coming home. Ollie is slightly confused about who Ed is. He knows he’s Uncle Jolyon’s brother but he’s not quite sure why he’s coming home from America. Maybe he’ll bring really good presents.
Ollie’s legs are getting tired. A flock of sheep jostle at a farm gate, their small, sharp hoofs slicing the turf. They watch him inquisitively and then suddenly dash away into the field. He stops cycling, the stabilizers keeping the bike steady, and he looks around.
Mummy waves. ‘Nearly there,’ she shouts. ‘Chocolate brownies for tea,’ and he nods and sets off again.
‘It’s nice, isn’t it,’ says Lulu as they follow him, ‘that we’re keeping up tradition. Fourth generation at the village school. D’you remember the Nativity plays?’
Freddie laughs. ‘Who could forget them? I remember our dear sister dressed up as Herod and frightening the innkeeper so much he burst into tears.’
‘She can still do that to me,’ admits Lulu. Unbidden, a jibe of Mark’s comes to mind. ‘“Brilliant sister. Do-no-wrong brother.” You’re the child of the cul-de-sac who never grows up, Lulu.’ It was as if he were quoting something but she didn’t ask, just in case it caused another cutting remark.
‘Have you thought about school chaplaincy?’ she asks Freddie quickly, more to distract herself than to seek information.
‘I’ve thought about everything,’ answers Freddie, rather bitterly. ‘These days school chaplains are required to teach, which means I’d have to train first.’
Lulu is silent, wishing she hadn’t asked the question. Freddie has always been a private person, rarely sharing his feelings or plans, but she knows that he’s finding it hard to adjust and wishes she could help him more. She tries to think of something helpful or positive to say, but everything she thinks of sounds banal or naïve.
Ollie gives a shout – ‘Car coming!’ – and climbs off his bike, dragging it into the grass verge. Instinctively they both hurry forward, as if ready to protect him, and the moment passes.
Fliss and Susanna are meeting in Bayards Kitchen at the Dartington Cider Press for tea.
‘So,’ says Susanna, as they sit at the table by the window, ‘Ed’s coming home. What’s all that about?’
Fliss gives a little shake of the head, makes a face. ‘Who can tell with Ed? He and Rebecca have split up and he’s back from New York. He wants to come and stay for a while. Or until he gets a job.’
‘Is Hal OK with that?’
‘I think so.’ Fliss hesitates. ‘You can’t always know with Hal. He’s never been as close to Ed as he is to Jolyon; Ed was always Maria’s boy.’
‘Until he invested all her money and lost it,’ says Susanna.
