by Heidi Swain
‘I went and registered this morning,’ he went on, ‘it’s important to support your local library, you know. The town is lucky to still have one.’
‘Of course,’ I stammered.
‘That is all right with you, isn’t it?’ he asked.
I couldn’t help thinking he sounded a bit peeved all of a sudden and wondered if his change in tone was because he had spotted me and Gavin deep in conversation, hidden behind the large print. Or was my paranoia pushing me to read too much into his words? I knew I had nothing to feel guilty about. I had met my ex with the intention of getting to the bottom of a few things and we had managed to part on civil terms, like proper grown-ups, rather than silly kids squabbling in the street. But for some reason I did feel guilty. For some reason, I was feeling as guilty as hell.
‘Of course,’ I said again.
‘I needed some extra inspiration,’ Gabe explained, ‘and you’d be surprised what you can pick up in a library.’
I nodded and drank another mouthful of tea.
‘I know I might not look the bookish type,’ he began.
‘No,’ I interrupted, ‘it’s not that.’
‘What is it then?’ He frowned.
I shook my head.
‘Nothing.’
‘Look,’ he laughed, ‘I mentioned the library and you looked like you were going to fall off your chair.’
‘It’s nothing,’ I said again. ‘I just thought I’d left some overdue books at my parents’, but I haven’t. It’s fine.’
Gabe nodded and went back to flicking through the pages. I watched him for a few seconds before putting down my cup. He really was dragging our trip into town out now.
‘Right,’ I announced. ‘Come on. We better go and find Bran because we really should be getting back.’
Chapter 17
As it turned out, I had every reason to be wary of Gabe’s motives for dragging out our trip to Wynbridge. He may well have enjoyed his sugar hit back in town, but the extended trip to the Cherry Tree Café had really been part of an elaborate ploy to keep me away from Wynthorpe and buy everyone else at the hall as much time as possible.
‘We have a surprise for you, Hayley,’ said Anna, as she wrenched open the truck door the second Gabe had cut the engine. ‘Come with me, and make sure you bring that,’ she ordered, when she spotted the bag at my feet stamped with the Hardy’s logo.
‘What’s going on?’ I asked Gabe. ‘What’s all this about?’
‘Beats me,’ he shrugged, opening the back door to release Bran. ‘But you’d better do as you’re told.’
I narrowed my eyes and he started to laugh.
‘And there was me thinking you were supposed to be able to trust an angel,’ I told him with a sniff.
‘You can,’ he smiled. ‘I’m one hundred per cent trustworthy.’
In that moment I wasn’t all that sure that I believed him and I had no idea where everyone had got the idea that they could boss me about, either.
‘Come on!’ called Anna.
‘I’m coming,’ I yelled back.
This clearly wasn’t the time to pick an argument, and the air inside the kitchen seemed to crackle with excitement as soon as I arrived. I didn’t feel at all comfortable. I was certain that whatever they had been cooking up would be a good surprise, as opposed to the pretty rotten ones I had recently endured, but that didn’t stop me from feeling nervous. I didn’t much like being the centre of attention these days, whatever the circumstances.
‘Do you think we should blindfold her?’ said Jamie, making a grab for a tea towel, ‘I think we should.’
‘Don’t be silly,’ tutted Dorothy, snatching the towel from his grasp and hanging it back over the Aga rail. ‘You’re not kidnapping her. She is allowed to see where she’s going, for goodness sake.’
‘Look, what’s going on?’ I asked. ‘If you don’t tell me where I’m going, I won’t be going anywhere because you guys are freaking me out.’
‘I thought the old Hayley,’ said Gabe, who clearly couldn’t resist joining in with the banter, ‘was unshakeable. I can’t imagine her ever freaking out over anything, or have I been given false information?’
I stuck my tongue out at him and put my bag down on the table just as Catherine walked in and set about unruffling my feathers.
‘Wonderful,’ she smiled, her cheeks unusually aglow. ‘You’re back. Come with me, Hayley, please.’
I felt much calmer with her in charge of proceedings and was happy to take her hand and let her lead the way. Everyone else followed on behind, with Anna beaming and clutching my bag of new art supplies.
‘Where’s Angus?’ I asked Catherine.
‘You’ll see,’ she told me, giving my hand a reassuring squeeze.
We made our way past the morning-room door and carried on a few steps further. I always thought of this part of the hall as being very much Catherine’s domain. It was the lightest and airiest part, and the rooms were decorated in softer shades than those favoured in the dining hall and along the grand wooden stairway and galleried landing. Angus had a space of his own as well, his very own den, but that was miles away from where we were heading.
‘Here we are,’ said Catherine, coming to a stop outside the door that I knew belonged to the old conservatory.
The elaborate glass construction had been a late Victorian addition and, no longer in use to showcase the exquisite orchids and other exotic flowers I had seen sepia photographs of, it now had an abandoned and rather unloved air to it. I often secretly slipped inside to read my gossip magazines, admire the architectural flourishes and enjoy the warmth that lingered at the end of the day.
‘We hope you like it.’
She turned the handle and stepped aside to let me go in ahead of her.
‘Ta-da!’ shouted Angus from his precarious position halfway up a very rickety wooden ladder. ‘What do you think?’
‘Oh, good grief,’ said Mick, easing by and rushing to help Angus wobble back down to earth. ‘I told you to leave that until we were all here.’
Everyone else filed in and I knew they were holding their breath, waiting to gauge my reaction.
‘We know you’ve always liked this spot,’ said Angus, rubbing his hands together and proudly looking about him.
Obviously, my clandestine trips here hadn’t been quite so secret after all.
‘And the light is wonderful,’ added Catherine.
‘So, we thought we’d surprise you,’ joined in Jamie, ‘and turn it into a studio.’
‘It’s yours for as long as you want it,’ Catherine explained, ‘with no expectation that you will draw Angus’s precious map or anything else he dreams up. This space is simply for you to draw, paint or do whatever you want in.’
‘And if you’re really lucky,’ laughed Jamie, ‘I’m sure Gabe here would be up for the odd life-modelling session.’
‘Be quiet, Jamie,’ said Anna, shoving him aside and walking over to me. ‘Do you like it?’ she asked.
There were deep lines creasing her brow and I realised I still hadn’t said a word, but that was because I didn’t know what to say. I looked around, amazed by the transformation. There was a bookcase, an old armchair, a table full of empty pots and an easel, even a pile of clean canvases. I couldn’t believe they had put their heads together and come up with all this so quickly!
‘You said these would come in handy one day, didn’t you?’ I said to Angus, nodding at the stack of clean canvases leant against the wall in order of size.
I had spotted him late one afternoon, what must have been getting on for two years ago, cramming them into a cupboard after one of his more eclectic buying sessions in a Peterborough auction house. I wondered if Catherine knew about half of the stuff he had hidden about the place. I was rather grateful for his hoarding habit now, even if it did cut down on cubby holes for my cleaning paraphernalia.
‘I did,’ he said proudly. ‘There’s usually a justification for my bidding, even if it isn’t alw
ays immediately obvious.’
Catherine and Jamie groaned and I started to laugh.
‘Sorry,’ I apologised, ‘I’ve just vindicated him, haven’t I?’
‘There’ll be no stopping him now,’ chuckled Dorothy.
‘So,’ said Anna, ‘you still haven’t answered my question – do you like it, Hayley? Do you think you could work here?’
‘I think,’ I said softly, ‘that this is the most beautiful studio I have ever seen and I’m sure I’ll be able to work here.’
A cheer went up and I felt tears splash down my face. There was no way of saving my eyeliner, but this gorgeous space, this wonderful, generous gift, was definitely worth crying over and I didn’t give a flying fig if my tears were betraying the person I was trying to be.
‘Oh, now stop,’ said Dorothy, mopping her eyes with the cotton handkerchief she always had somewhere about her person. ‘You’ll set me off.’
‘Thank you both so much,’ I said to Catherine and Angus. ‘I don’t know what I’ve done to deserve this or any of the kindness you’ve shown me—’
As always, when any member of the team made a stab at saying thank you for anything, we found our words were waved away, but Catherine did kiss my cheek and Angus gave me a hug before helping Jamie carefully pop the corks on a couple of bottles of champagne.
‘You know, I still haven’t got my head around all this,’ said Jamie as he handed me a flute filled with fizz.
‘It’s quite a transformation, isn’t it?’ I said, admiring the substantial proportions of the room, which I could already imagine filled with the scent of paint and littered with piles of sketches and plans.
‘I don’t think he’s talking about the conservatory,’ said Gabe, as he clinked his glass against mine.
‘What then?’
‘You,’ said Jamie, looking down at me. ‘My brash, ballsy friend has suddenly turned all soft and arty.’
‘Be careful,’ warned Gabe. ‘I don’t think soft is a word the old Hayley allows in her vocabulary.’
I rolled my eyes and took a bubble-filled sip.
‘For all you know,’ I told Jamie, ‘my secret artistic style could be all dark, dramatic skies and raging seascapes.’
‘But it isn’t,’ said Molly, who had just arrived. ‘I’ve seen the contents of her folder.’
She gave me a long hug, helped me rub the worst of my streaming make-up away and then took a tour of the room with me. She was every bit as enraptured as I was.
‘Oh, would you look at that?’ she gasped, drawing everyone’s attention.
The wind had finally driven off the clouds and the sun shone in, coloured light bouncing off the walls as the stained-glass panels came into their own. It was absolutely beautiful. I couldn’t wait to get going and I knew exactly what I was going to start with.
‘You two really need to get going with this Winter Wonderland project,’ I called over to Jamie and Angus, ‘because I need to know exactly what it is that I’m supposed to be adding to this map you want me to draw.’
‘You mean you’ll do it?’ asked Jamie, while Angus bounced on his heels in the background. ‘You’re definitely taking it on?’
‘And the adverts and flyers?’ Angus added hopefully.
‘Yes,’ I said, taking a deep breath to calm the butterflies flitting about my stomach, ‘I’m definitely taking it on. I’m taking it all on.’
My announcement surprised everyone that day, myself included, but it also properly kickstarted the extra research and planning that was required to turn the Winter Wonderland from Angus and Jamie’s fantasy into a reality, and with just over a month to make it all happen, that was no bad thing.
I began my part the next day by sitting down with Catherine and planning out a schedule for my working week that would give me the time to factor in the hours I was going to need to perfect the theme and work on the designs. I hadn’t worked on anything like this before and, although nervous, I was certain I could use my new quirky drawing style to capture the essence of the event and combine it with the whimsical eccentricity the hall was locally famous for.
‘We need to talk deadlines,’ I said to Jamie once Catherine and I were happy with my revised working pattern.
I felt excited by the prospect of working in a timeframe. For the last few years, my daily routine had been pretty laid back and I hadn’t realised just how much of a thrilling buzz a deadline could offer. Although, of course, I probably wouldn’t be saying that in a couple of weeks’ time when I was tearing my hair out and wishing I’d left my art folder hidden in my bedroom back in town.
‘Ideally,’ said Jamie who was now firmly in charge of scheduling, leaving Angus to the role of dreaming up the more artistic embellishments, ‘we need to get the first advert in the local paper on the twenty-third.’
‘That’s the day before the switch-on, isn’t it?’ frowned Anna.
‘It is,’ he confirmed, ‘and with the newspaper needing it ahead of publication, the deadline is literally just a couple of weeks away.’
‘Crikey,’ said Anna, biting her lip. ‘That soon?’
‘And, if possible, I’d like the flyers and any other promo bits and pieces ready for then, too,’ Jamie continued, ‘because that way we can hand them out at the switch-on.’
‘And at the tree auction and bake sale the week after,’ I chipped in, feeling ever so slightly less confident as my eyes strayed to the calendar on the wall.
‘What do you think?’ asked Anna. ‘Can you do it?’
‘Of course,’ I said, pushing the beginnings of any niggles away. It was too late to get an attack of the vapours now. ‘I’ll make drawing up the promo stuff a priority as we’re going to need that before the map.’
‘Great,’ said Jamie.
‘Although,’ I reminded him, ‘my hands are tied until you start confirming what I can include. I don’t want to spend an entire afternoon drawing a grotto if you then decide not to have one.’
‘That’s a good point,’ said Jamie, frowning at the paperwork in front of him.
‘Are you going to include an illustration of everything on offer, rather than just write a few words and include some sort of festive border?’
‘Anna,’ I tutted, shaking my head. ‘This is a Wynthorpe Hall production,’ I told her, ‘I think I’m going to have to come up with something rather more exclusive than a sprig of clipart holly in each corner!’
‘Sorry,’ she mouthed.
‘I should think so.’
‘But you are right,’ Jamie agreed as Angus came stomping into the kitchen. ‘We really do need to start firming things up, don’t we? Here, Dad, Hayley needs to know what she has to include on the ads and flyers before she can start designing them.’
‘I’ve established the basics,’ I told them all, ‘the colour palette and font is sorted and I have a theme in mind, but I don’t want to start on too many drawings until we’ve worked out exactly what’s going to be on offer.’
‘Well, there won’t be any reindeer,’ said Angus, dumping himself down at the table and looking thoroughly fed up.
I wasn’t sure about the others, but I was a little relieved about that. Mick was going to have his hands full looking after the ponies for the sleigh, and I wasn’t sure anyone else would have been up to the task of bedding down Dasher and Blitzen, even if they would have looked the part in the woods and drawn the crowds. I supposed Gabe might have taken them on, but he was committed to setting up and running his woodland workshop and probably wouldn’t have the time, even if he did have the skills.
‘And why not?’ Jamie asked his father.
His self-satisfied tone suggested that he already knew what the answer was going to be.
‘Because they’re all booked up already,’ huffed Angus.
‘And?’ said Jamie.
Clearly more than availability had been an issue.
‘They were too expensive.’
‘Damn right,’ said Jamie, striking the word reindeer from hi
s list with a flourish. ‘At well over a grand a day to hire a pair in, I should say so.’
I whistled under my breath and felt a little sorry for Angus who was clearly disappointed, but Jamie was right, that was an awful lot of money.
‘Wow,’ gasped Anna, ‘that’s one heck of an outlay.’
‘I suppose it is,’ Angus pouted, ‘but included in that you get the folk who look after them as well. It’s not as if they just turn up and hand the beasts over. We wouldn’t have had to do anything at all, really.’
‘Apart from set up an enclosure for them,’ reeled off Jamie. ‘Check the insurance and paperwork for DEFRA, house the people travelling with them—’
‘We get the idea,’ interrupted Anna, ‘and it doesn’t matter now, does it? Perhaps we can find something a little less expensive, easier to work with, and closer to home.’
‘That sounds like a good idea,’ I agreed. ‘Just don’t take too long to find it, if I’ve got to draw it.’
There were a couple of things that were definitely happening and I could start sketching those straightaway. The snow-covered grotto in the fern garden with Santa’s set-up in the summerhouse was one and the sleigh rides were another. I was hoping to include the drawings I used for the advertising on the map as well, to save time, but we were still cutting it fine.
But that, I reminded myself, was how things worked around here, and they always came good in the end. I wouldn’t have been at all surprised if we did end up with a reindeer or two kicking about the place, even if they were inflatable or illuminated ones shipped over from the US site Angus favoured when it came to cranking up the festive feeling.
‘Don’t mind me,’ said Dorothy as she squeezed past to get to the Aga.
The smell of fresh bread had been making my stomach growl for at least the last half hour, and the increased aroma she unleashed as she reverently took out the biggest bloomer loaf imaginable did nothing to quell the pangs.
‘Thank god I gave in and started eating carbs again when I moved here,’ said Anna in an aside to me.
I nodded in agreement.
‘Just one slice doesn’t hurt, does it?’
I raised my eyebrows.
