The Christmas Invitation

by Trisha Ashley

‘You can’t be frozen, Piers, because it was toasty warm in Billy’s cab,’ Zelda said. She shed her quilted coat and the huge hat and then, having hugged Teddy and patted Lass, looked up and added, ‘I did tell you you should go back to London on the next train, but you would insist on coming.’

  ‘I always go to Underhill for Christmas,’ he snapped. ‘Done it for years.’

  ‘No, you don’t. Sometimes you’ve spent it at your club, or with your children,’ Tottie pointed out.

  Den and Billy had now brought in the luggage and Zelda told Teddy he wasn’t to look at the big bag with parcels sticking out of the top. ‘And no touching them to see if you can feel what they are.’

  ‘Are they all for me?’ he asked, eyes shining.

  ‘You’ll just have to wait and see, darling, won’t you?’

  A small figure emerged from the kitchen passage, seemingly borne along on a zephyr of deliciously aniseed-scented air.

  River was wearing one of Den’s huge striped blue and white aprons over his tunic and trousers, which enveloped him from head to toes. A fetching smudge of flour lay across one cheek and he’d tied a red and white checked tea towel pirate-fashion over his head to hold back his long silver hair.

  ‘Greetings of the Goddess be upon you,’ he said to Zelda, who smiled enchantingly at him. He turned his limpid azure gaze on Piers and added, generously in the face of an affronted glare, ‘And upon you, too.’

  ‘This was always a madhouse,’ Piers muttered, tossing his coat and scarf over a chair.

  Billy was holding a very large canvas sack, the last thing to be brought in. ‘This is the mail for Starstone. I told the postie I’d drop it off here and take anything for the farms on with me.’

  ‘Okey-doke,’ said Den. ‘I’ll sort it and someone can walk down and deliver it tomorrer.’ Then he added, ‘Yer going to stay fer an ’ot drink, or maybe a cup of soup to thaw you out, Billy?’

  ‘No, thanks. I’d better get off.’ Billy jerked a thumb at Piers. ‘What about him?’

  ‘I don’t know …’ sighed Tottie. ‘I expect you’d better leave him here and we’ll see what Clara and Henry say when they get back. We’ll have to do something with him.’

  ‘I’d certainly like some of that soup, and perhaps a snifter of brandy,’ Piers said autocratically.

  ‘The only brandy yer likely to get in this ’ouse is the drop I put in the Christmas pud,’ Den said. ‘I’ll put yer stuff in yer room, Zelda.’

  She protested and said she could carry it up herself, but he insisted, so the rest of us went into the kitchen and had coffee and mince pies, while Zelda and Piers drank their soup. Lass, having expressed her pleasure at seeing Zelda again, now seemed compelled to keep a wary eye on Piers, though I’m not sure what she thought he might get up to.

  ‘That mutt keeps staring at me,’ he said.

  ‘She’s not a mutt, she’s a cocker spaniel,’ Teddy told him in surprise. ‘Didn’t you know that?’

  ‘Lass probably suspects you’re going to steal the family silver,’ Tottie suggested.

  ‘Do we have any?’ asked Teddy. ‘Is it in a box, like treasure?’

  ‘No, only a set of fish knives somewhere in the attic,’ she said. ‘Oh, and that silver wine coaster in the dining room.’

  Piers brightened. ‘I wouldn’t mind a drop of something now, but whisky for preference.’

  No one took him up on this and, after a moment, he took a hip flask out of his pocket, shook it, then upended it over his coffee cup till a few slow drops trickled out.

  ‘Those cakes smell wonderful,’ Zelda said.

  ‘Yer can have some fer tea,’ Den said. ‘They’re seed cakes. River gave me the recipe.’

  ‘And you would be … ?’ said Piers, looking at River with disfavour.

  ‘He’s sort of Meg’s grandfather, Teddy told me,’ Zelda said, smiling at River. ‘Since Meg is my new cousin, then I suppose he’s my sort-of great-uncle!’

  ‘I think I’m only a remote connection by marriage,’ I said. ‘It’s all a bit complicated to work out.’

  ‘Meg’s sort-of grandfather? Curiouser and curiouser!’ said Piers, staring at River.

  ‘I came for the Solstice, but the snow is delaying my departure.’

  ‘Well, no rush fer yer to go, is there?’ said Den, with a pointed look at Piers. I’d initially felt rather sorry for Piers after his chilly reception, but really, his attitude did him no favours!

  ‘Will anyone still want any tea this afternoon, after the soup and all these mince pies?’ Tottie asked.

  ‘Clara will, fer a start,’ Den said. ‘And they’ll be back any minute – the light’s going.’

  Looking at the kitchen clock, I was surprised to see that it was almost mid-afternoon by then and the sky outside the windows looked as if it was thinking of dumping the next lot of snow.

  ‘Let’s go back into the drawing room and wait,’ suggested Tottie, but River said he’d help Den clear up the kitchen first and then they were going to make a kissing bough.

  We always had one at the Farm, so he obviously thought it was a vital part of the proceedings.

  Piers’ belongings were still stacked in a heap near the front door: Den evidently hoped for his imminent departure.

  Piers seemed very unpopular, and I can’t say I’d really taken to him either. Now he bagged one end of the sofa nearest the fire and, leaning back, closed his eyes. ‘Such a long, cold, wearisome day …’ he murmured histrionically.

  Tottie switched on the Christmas tree lights and went to draw the curtains behind them.

  ‘There’s the car now: the others are back,’ she said, peering out into the gloom.

  ‘They’re going to be so surprised to see Mummy got here through the snow!’ said Teddy.

  ‘They’ll be even more surprised to find Piers did, too,’ Zelda said drily.

  31

  Baggage

  ‘Hello, everyone!’ said Henry cheerily as he came into the drawing room. ‘Zelda, my dear! I’m so glad you made it.’

  ‘Hello, Henry,’ she said, getting up and kissing him fondly, and then embracing Clara, who’d followed him in.

  ‘Lex’s just taking Sybil’s bags up to her room and they’ll both be down in a minute,’ Clara said. ‘And look, here’s Mark! He’s come back with us for tea, isn’t that lovely?’

  ‘Well, actually,’ he said, ‘I came to ask Meg if—’

  But I was destined never to know what he was going to ask me, for at that moment his eyes fell on Zelda, who’d returned to sitting on the end of one of the window seats by the Christmas tree, and their gazes locked. Neither seemed able to look away. There might have been no one else in the room – or even in the world – but the two of them.

  It was like all the classic moments in rom-com movies rolled into one and I felt myself grinning. I mean, they must know each other already, but now they stared into each other’s eyes as if they’d instantly been hit by a thunderbolt.

  The sharp yapping of the little dogs as they rushed in ahead of Sybil finally broke the spell and Zelda and Mark blinked, dazed, then looked away.

  Pansy hurtled over and threw herself on to my lap, while Wisty and Lass greeted each other in a more matronly manner.

  The yapping had also awoken Piers, who had been snoring in his corner of the sofa, hidden by Tottie’s angular figure at the other end.

  ‘What?’ he barked, sitting bolt upright and glaring wildly around him. ‘I wasn’t asleep.’

  ‘You were,’ said Teddy, who was sitting on the floor, absorbed in sending tiny toy cars hurtling down some kind of vehicular helter-skelter. ‘You were snoring and your mouth was wide open.’

  ‘Oh God, what are you doing here?’ Mark exclaimed, with a heavy scowl. Turning to Sybil he added accusingly, ‘Mum, Piers is here. I thought you’d told him we couldn’t have him for Christmas?’

  ‘That could have been put so much better,’ said Henry critically. ‘You sound like a pair of cannibals.’

  Sy
bil turned pale. ‘But … I did tell him it was impossible for him to visit Underhill this year! I wrote twice and left several messages on his phone.’

  ‘Ah, dear Sybil!’ Piers said, hauling himself to his feet and coming over to kiss her on both cheeks. ‘A little misunderstanding and some crossed wires, but I’m here now and I’m sure things can be arranged. How delightful to see you again.’

  She looked totally distracted. ‘Of course, I’m pleased to see you, Uncle Piers, it’s just we weren’t expecting you. Didn’t you get my messages?’

  ‘He only got your first letter and thought you were putting him off because Mark didn’t want him to come,’ said Zelda.

  ‘He got that right,’ said Mark.

  ‘Boiler broke – had to move to my club till it was time to come up here,’ Piers explained succinctly.

  ‘I’m going to be too busy working on the house for guests, even welcome ones,’ Mark said.

  ‘Clara told me about your wedding reception venue plans and it sounds a really fun idea,’ Zelda said enthusiastically to Mark.

  But before he could answer her, Piers said indignantly, ‘But I’m an old friend of the family!’

  ‘You were Grandfather’s friend,’ Mark said pointedly.

  ‘You’ll have to take this boy of yours to task, Sybil,’ Piers said, turning to her. ‘His manners leave a lot to be desired. But I know you’re always pleased to see me.’

  ‘I … of course,’ Sybil stammered. ‘It’s just … well, I’ve no idea what we’re going to do—’

  ‘Zelda kindly updated me on all the recent events – especially the news about Meg. You must be delighted to have a long-lost cousin, Mark? And what a wonderful surprise for you, too, Sybil, to find a new niece – and possibly a half-sister, I understand, if Meg’s mother can be found?’

  He made it sound as if Mum was playing hide-and-seek somewhere, like a mature Mistletoe Bride.

  ‘Yes, we are, though it was a bit of a shock at first, to find that Daddy—’ she began, then stopped dead, before gathering herself together with an obvious effort and saying with dignity, ‘Naturally, we’re all delighted to welcome Meg into the family. She’s a dear girl.’

  ‘I’m sure you are. And I expect Meg will be moving to Underhill soon?’

  ‘No, why should I?’ I asked, surprised. ‘It’s lovely to find I have some relatives, but Underhill isn’t my home.’

  ‘Underhill will soon be a business, rather than a family home anyway,’ Mark said, sparing me a glance that I was amused to see no longer held any spark of his previous interest. ‘But Meg’s welcome to stay with us whenever she wants to.’

  ‘Well said,’ applauded Henry.

  ‘That’s very kind of you, Mark,’ I said gratefully.

  ‘But Underhill is a lovely old house and needs to be a home as well as a business,’ Zelda protested. ‘It could be both, couldn’t it, Mark? I mean, you’re not going to turn it into a hotel as well, are you?’

  ‘I think Mark’s plans for the house can be discussed at a later date, darling,’ Clara told her. ‘And we hope Meg will look on the Red House as her second home, somewhere she’ll always be welcome, like you and Lex.’ She looked over her shoulder as the door opened. ‘And speaking of Lex, here he is. Have you heard Zelda’s here, Lex?’

  She pointed at Piers. ‘And an unexpected item in the baggage department.’

  He closed the door behind him and surveyed the scene with a slightly sardonic expression in his dark eyes.

  ‘Den filled me in. He and River will be along with tea shortly.’

  ‘Good, it seems for ever since lunch,’ Clara said.

  ‘We finally get to eat the seed cake they made earlier, too,’ Tottie said. ‘The smell’s been tantalizing me since they took it out of the oven.’

  ‘I dislike seed cake, so I hope there’s something else on offer,’ said Piers.

  Nobody replied to that one. Mark had gravitated to Zelda’s side, as if drawn by a magnet, and now they were sitting together on the window seat, talking in low voices, the auburn head and the dark curls, so like Lex’s, close together.

  Sybil looked at them in a puzzled kind of way and then at me and I smiled at her. She’d have to readjust her romantic notions a bit if I’d read the signs aright and Mark had finally met his match in both senses of the word.

  ‘Sybil,’ Piers said, claiming her attention, ‘we must have a little private conversation shortly. We have so much to talk about!’

  This got through to Mark, who looked up. ‘You won’t have time; you’d better return to Thorstane before it snows again. I expect Lex or Den will run you up as near to the top as possible – I’d do it myself, if I had the Jeep with me – and we can ring Fred Golightly and ask him to collect you on the other side and put you up for the night.’

  Piers looked aghast. ‘But we had to plough through snowdrifts on foot – and I’m too old for repeating that kind of caper.’

  ‘Clara and I are only a couple of years younger than you are, so you’re hardly heading for the Last Post,’ Henry said.

  ‘You’re an old ham, Piers, because Pete and Billy actually carried you in a fireman’s lift through the worst of it. I was the one who fell into that snowdrift and had to be pulled out!’ Zelda broke into an infectious peal of laughter. ‘I must have looked like a snowman!’

  Mark, who’d begun scowling at Piers again, grinned at her.

  ‘It’s too dark now to attempt the return journey today, anyway,’ Lex said. ‘And the temperature is dropping, so it wouldn’t be a good idea.’

  ‘Well, Piers, if you can’t get back tonight, what are we going to do with you?’ asked Clara. ‘Perhaps you ought to ask Mark very nicely if he’ll put you up till the road is open.’

  ‘I’d much rather not,’ Mark said shortly. ‘And he wouldn’t find it comfortable with the place upside down. But I’ve had an idea: Flora might take another lodger at the guesthouse.’

  ‘A guesthouse? But surely it can’t be open at this time of year?’ Piers said.

  ‘No, and Deirdre’s over-wintering in Australia, as usual,’ said Henry. ‘But her niece, Flora, who I expect you met when she was Teddy’s nanny, is there and she’s already taken in one stranded visitor.’

  ‘He turned up uninvited too, and he’s stuck there till tomorrow, at least,’ said Clara. ‘Flora might take you in as a paying guest.’

  Piers appealed to Henry. ‘Henry, you and I have been friends for years – you can’t really mean to turn me out of the house!’

  ‘You were George’s friend, never mine,’ Henry said. ‘And of course I’m not proposing to throw you out into the snow, like in some Victorian melodrama, just find you alternative accommodation.’

  ‘I don’t see why I can’t stay here,’ Piers said, reseating himself comfortably on the sofa. ‘I’m sure you must have a room for me in a place of this size.’

  ‘No, actually, every single room is occupied by my invited guests,’ Clara said.

  ‘Then I expect a couple of the younger ones won’t mind sharing, to make room for me,’ he suggested.

  ‘They might not, but I would,’ said Clara. ‘I’ve allocated the rooms and that’s that.’

  She sounded totally inflexible, and River, who had quietly come in just at that moment, said apologetically, ‘I fear you may also be stuck with me for a day or two more, though I’m sure Moonflower and Bilbo would put me up if—’

  ‘Oh, we don’t want you to leave us at all,’ said Henry.

  ‘No, you’re welcome to stay as long as you want to,’ said Clara, and Piers glared at River.

  Sybil timidly faltered out, ‘I … expect a bed could be made up for me elsewhere, Uncle Piers. Perhaps Tottie wouldn’t mind if—’

  ‘Now, I thought we’d dropped the “uncle” long ago, because we’re on such different terms these days, aren’t we?’ Piers said to her in a far from avuncular way, and she blinked at him, nervously.

  ‘Sybil is not giving you her room and that’s that, Pie
rs. I’m not changing any of my arrangements to suit your convenience … though I suppose if we can’t find an alternative, it will have to be a camp bed in the library.’

  ‘A camp bed? You can’t be serious!’ Piers turned to appeal to Mark. ‘Dear boy …’

  ‘Mark is economizing on his central heating at the moment, but I expect you’d soon get warm, helping him to strip wallpaper and that kind of thing,’ said Henry with a gentle smile.

  ‘I’m afraid my health would not allow that,’ Piers said, horrified.

  ‘Perhaps it would be best if I rang Flora, then, to see if she can take you – at a special Christmas rate, of course,’ Clara said.

  ‘Best idea,’ agreed Tottie. ‘You’d be warm and well fed till you can get away and, with luck, the road will be open enough tomorrow to let you go home.’

  ‘But you wouldn’t want an old man to spend Christmas alone?’ he said pathetically.

  ‘You have two adult children and several grandchildren,’ Henry pointed out.

  ‘They don’t really want me. Their mother poisoned their minds against me years ago, after the divorce.’

  ‘Then you could spend Christmas very cosily at the club with your old army cronies, couldn’t you?’

  Den brought in the trolley, laden with china, teapot and cut slices of seed cake.

  Teddy stopped making vrooming noises and crashing his toy cars about and crawled out from behind one of the sofas.

  ‘Yer still ’ere, then?’ Den said to Piers as he set the teapot before Clara.

  ‘As you see,’ Piers said loftily. ‘And I’d like something else to eat other than that cake.’

  ‘Tough titties, I don’t do individual bleedin’ menus,’ said Den.

  I heard Zelda giggle and had to choke down a laugh myself.

  Lex got up and silently passed the biscuit barrel to Piers, who took it without thanks.

  ‘Can I say tough ti—’ began Teddy.

  ‘No, you can’t,’ Tottie told him quickly.

  ‘Oh.’ He sounded disappointed, but began to eat a slice of cake. ‘If there are seeds in this cake, will plants grow in my stomach?’

  ‘No, it’s not a suitable habitat for germination,’ said River, who had seated himself on a small, low, padded chair that might have been made for him.