Again, that hand-wringing.
‘I’ll stick my head above the parapet here and say that’s because Stuart didn’t want you to.’
Janey nodded.
‘He was jealous. I used to work for an estate agent before and I loved it; meeting people, going to some fabulous houses with potential buyers, and some awful ones too, but that was life. He thought I was having an affair with my boss. He accused me of it on our honeymoon. When we got back he said I was to ring and say I wasn’t going to be working for him anymore. As a maths teacher in a grammar school his earnings could keep us both.’
‘But they didn’t keep you happy, eh?’ Xander said.
‘In the beginning, yes. I was flattered, I suppose, that he put me on a pedestal in his way, and that he thought I was so attractive others would be attracted to me.’ Janey smiled at him, a sad sort of smile and yet there was light in her eyes, a glimmer of something he couldn’t quite define, like the way the sun shone across the sea sometimes making it look like it had been sprinkled with diamonds perhaps. ‘And that,’ Janey laughed, ‘isn’t me fishing for compliments in case you wondered!’
Xander hadn’t thought anything of the sort. He was happy to talk to Janey, of course he was, but he’d rather it was Lissy sat opposite him right now. He fished around in his mind for something to say, sticking with the piscatorial vibe.
‘I’ve had a thought, Janey,’ he said. ‘This stuff of yours you’ve got stashed in your neighbours’ shed. How safe is it really? For it, and for them?’
‘Probably not very, why?’
‘Well, I’ve been thinking. We’ve all had a long day today and I doubt anyone will be up with the lark although I could be. If you like, and if you could get hold of your neighbours to let them know we’re coming, I could drive you over there in my lorry at the crack of dawn. We could load your stuff onto my lorry and be back here before anyone’s put the kettle on. What do you think?’ Xander bit his cheeks to stifle a yawn.
‘Would you? Really? Gosh, don’t answer that because you wouldn’t have offered if you didn’t mean it. I want to say yes but I’d need to run it past Lissy first. I mean, she might not want it all here on Boxing Day.’
‘I’m pretty certain her invite for you to stop runs to the materials you need to make a living, but if she doesn’t then you can leave it at mine. I’ve got a spare room. So, what do you say?’
‘I say yes.’
‘And there’s more,’ Xander said. He didn’t know where all this stuff coming into his head and out of his mouth was coming from but it seemed to be the right thing to be saying, just to see the joy on Janey’s face. All the tight lines he’d seen there when he’d turned up the day before Christmas Eve were ironing out. She looked younger. Calmer. Safer. ‘If you need to go back and fetch stuff like clothes and books or whatever and you don’t want to face Stuart on your own then I can gather the heavy gang and take you.’
‘Heavy gang?’
‘The blokes who work for me. And a few of their mates. Rugby players, all.’
Janey’s mouth went big and round with surprise, and then she laughed.
‘That I would have to see. He wouldn’t put up a fight with them,’ Janey said.
No, he just picked on you, the bloody coward, Xander thought but wasn’t going to say. Janey knew it anyway, didn’t she?
‘So, that’s a yes to that as well, then?’ Xander said.
‘It is. I know Annie and Fred don’t go to bed until the early hours. I’ll go up to my room now and ring them. They’ll probably be glad to get it off their premises, to be honest.’
Janey leapt up off the couch, suddenly energised at the thought of having her things around her again. She came over to Xander and put her arms around his neck, and kissed his cheek.
‘Thank you so much for what you’re doing. I don’t know I’ll ever be able to repay you.’
‘Just be happy,’ Xander said. ‘That’ll do me. Oh, and safe.’
‘Night night, then,’ Janey said. ‘I’m sure it’ll be okay with Annie and Fred. What time shall we say, you and me?’
‘Eight? Totnes isn’t far. We can be there and back before the other two surface and still be in time for breakfast.’
There was a charity Boxing Day walk into the sea to go to later but that wasn’t until later in the morning. His name was down to do it. He hadn’t mentioned it to the others yet and he was hoping at least one of them would join him, but he wasn’t holding his breath about that. The forecast for tomorrow was dry but cold. He had a wetsuit but he didn’t think any of the girls would have one, not even Bobbie who seemed to have travelled to Devon with the entire stock of a branch of Marks and Spencer.
‘Let’s do it!’ Janey said, giving him a high five. She went to the door and opened it. ‘Oh, the kitchen light’s out. Lissy must have gone to bed. We’d better turn all the other lights off.’
Damn, damn, damn and blast. Xander had wanted to give Lissy a goodnight kiss at the very least.
Chapter 33
Lissy
Lissy tiptoed across the tiles of the hall and up the stairs. She wanted to catch Bobbie if she could – tell her she was fine about it if she wanted to go back to London in the morning. She had Sam, the taxi driver’s card. If he wasn’t up for driving Bobbie all the way to London then he’d probably know someone who was.
She tapped on Bobbie’s door.
‘Bobbie?’ she called, quietly. ‘It’s me. Lissy.’
The door opened almost at once, as though Bobbie had been waiting for her.
‘Can I come in?’
‘I hoped you would,’ Bobbie said, reaching for Lissy’s arm and drawing her into the room. She was still fully dressed even though it had been a good half hour or so since she’d come upstairs. She was still fully made up. And she still had a huge grin on her face.
Lissy closed the door with a soft click.
On the bed was a sheet of paper taken from an envelope, and face down on the bed. Olly’s letter.
‘You’ve read it?’ Lissy said.
‘Yes. And I’m in shock somewhat at the coincidence of things. Someone else must have written the envelope but Olly’s handwriting could be mine – the same slope to it, the same quirky way we write the letter “r” and the same straight downstrokes of “p” and “y” and “g”, without curls to them.’
‘Genetic,’ Lissy said. ‘Not coincidence at all.’
‘Bless you for saying that,’ Bobbie said. She gave herself a little shake and then said, ‘Where are the others?’
‘In the sitting room. I heard them laughing. Oh …’ Lissy heard footsteps coming up the stairs. ‘I think that’s them now.’
‘They’ll be going into their own rooms, don’t fret,’ Bobbie said, drawing Janey over towards the window and the two bucket chairs that were placed there. She tapped the side of her nose in an ‘I know something that you don’t’ sort of way.
‘I don’t know what you mean!’ Lissy said, knowing she was colouring up, knowing exactly whose room she wanted to be going into.
‘Oh yes, you do,’ Bobbie said.
They were both instinctively lowering their voices now so as not to be overheard.
‘Oh, all right. You win. I might do,’ Lissy told her, suppressing a giggle.
‘Next question,’ Bobbie said. ‘Am I right in thinking that things didn’t quite go according to plan this morning when you went out with Xander?’
‘Yes, and no.’
‘The “yes” bit being the hand-holding bit Janey and I witnessed and the arm around your shoulders bit?’
‘That,’ Lissy said.
‘And the “no” bit being you didn’t make it into Xander’s cottage? Right?’
‘Wrong. We got there.’
‘But there was a but?’
‘A big one.’
‘Called Claire?’ Bobbie said.
‘That’s not a very nice thing to say, or think, but yes. It just didn’t seem right. Xander knew the second we stepped
into his hall actually. I would have gone for it … God, I don’t know why I’m telling you all this especially after the news you’ve had – it seems a bit self-indulgent.’
‘Rot,’ Bobbie said. ‘No one could have been more self-indulgent than I was an hour ago. And you three listened, and you three said all the things I needed to hear. So, I’m going to say something now …’
Lissy wasn’t sure she wanted to hear. She’d come up here to tell Bobbie she really didn’t mind if she wanted to jet off in the morning and now she was getting a gentle lecture of sorts.
‘Bobbie,’ she interrupted. ‘I’m telling you stuff I wouldn’t even tell my own mother.’
‘And that’s precisely why you’re telling me. I’m not your mother.’
‘The very best of friends, though,’ Lissy said. ‘Our instincts were right when we chummed up at that art workshop, weren’t they?’
‘Precisely.’
Bobbie yawned.
‘Sorry, I’m keeping you from your shut-eye. But I just wanted to say that I really won’t mind if you want to go back to London tomorrow. If it were me with that sort of news then I’d probably go. So …’
‘You’re not me,’ Bobbie said. ‘But thanks for the offer.’
‘You’ll sleep on it?’
‘Maybe.’
Lissy got the feeling Bobbie had already made up her mind about not going back in the morning and wasn’t likely to change her mind any time soon. But she didn’t want Bobbie to feel bad about it if she did.
‘If you change your mind, I dare say Xander would even volunteer to drive you back although I’m not volunteering him. Or I can. Janey would be safe left here with Xander.’
‘Hmm, yes. It’s all well and good looking out for others, but Auntie Bobbie has some advice. Put yourself first for once, Lissy, that’s all I’m saying. I know I talk a lot but I hear a lot as well. And I see a lot. I see you’ve always been a good daughter, and you’re a good friend. You’ve offered Janey a place to stay, you’re offering to get me back to London, and you were showing great interest in the conservatory plans Xander was drawing up earlier so you can give him work which, I’m guessing, he needs. So …’
‘So, what does Auntie Bobbie suggest,’ Lissy said. She had a shrewd idea she knew what it was going to be.
‘You don’t need telling. I can see that in your face. And you don’t need anyone’s permission, especially not mine. Christmas Day is very, very nearly over, Lissy. Finish it off in style. Carry on where you left off with Xander this morning. You’re a free agent, he’s a free agent. The ghost of Claire isn’t here for him, is it?’
Lissy shook her head. She’d thought it might be for her, but it wasn’t, and the relief of that realisation was almost tangible.
‘No.’
‘You knocked on the wrong door just now, Missy Lissy,’ Bobbie said. She stood up and then pulled Lissy to her feet. ‘Now go and knock on Xander’s. And make it loud enough so he hears.’
Bobbie propelled her to the door.
Lissy went. She knocked. And Xander opened it while her fingers were still in contact with the wood. He’d been waiting, hadn’t he?
‘Lissy!’
Xander, in nothing but boxer shorts that had seagulls printed on them that made Lissy want to laugh because they looked so funny and gauche somehow but oh so very endearing, reached for her hand and drew her in. He leaned over her shoulder and pushed the door to behind her.
‘Who else did you think it would be?’ Lissy tilted her head to one side, questioningly. ‘Hmm?’ she teased.
‘No one I’d rather it was,’ Xander said. He took both of Lissy’s hands between his own and raised them to his lips, and they stood together for a few moments – quiet, still. Comfortable together.
Lissy wondered who should be making the next move. Her? She, after all, had made the first one by knocking on Xander’s door and he’d have been left in no doubt as to why.
She looked around the room – easily the biggest in the house. The light was soft because Xander had only switched on the lamp on the dressing table and the two, smaller ones, either side of the bed. All had bulbous paper-covered wire shades. The kingsize bed, covered in a cloud-soft duvet patterned with white shells on a taupe ground, had been neatly made, and Xander’s clothes placed on the chair against the wall.
‘Room inspection time?’ Xander said.
Obviously he’d noticed her looking.
Her hands were still being held gently, almost reverently and Lissy was unsure as to whether to pull away a little or not. Whether to reach up and put her arms around his neck and kiss him, or not? Or wait …
‘We have unfinished business, you and me,’ she said.
‘Today’s or previous?’
They both knew what Xander meant by previous – the day of his wedding to Claire when a spark had been ignited between them, a spark neither had fanned into something bigger.
‘Both. Neither of those times was right for us, were they?’
‘But it is now?’ Xander said. He let go of Lissy’s hands and cupped her face in his hands.
In answer, Lissy reached up and put her hands over Xander’s resting oh so lightly on her cheeks.
‘I’ve never forgotten it,’ Lissy said. ‘That feeling. It came to me in dreams sometimes.’
Her lips were so close to Xander’s now.
‘I think,’ Xander said, ‘that we had better stop talking. In a minute Bobbie’s going to be yelling for us to keep the noise down.’
‘I wouldn’t put that past her,’ Lissy said. A shiver ran through her thinking about what sort of noise they might make – later.
‘And …’
But Lissy silenced him, her lips on his. Gentle, with barely any pressure, just the delicious feel of skin on skin. In one deft movement she placed her arms around the back of Xander’s neck and he put his arms around the back of her waist before swinging her round, lifting her into his arms and carrying her over to the bed.
‘Just following my father’s advice,’ Xander said, as he pulled back the duvet just enough to able to lay Lissy down.
Now that was a sentence she never expected to hear. She got the feeling that Xander wasn’t feeling quite as confident about this as he looked.
‘Which was?’
‘That making love to a woman should look as though a man has made an effort. Comfort, warmth, caring.’
‘Round the back of the bike shed just won’t do?’ Lissy suppressed a giggle.
‘Something like that,’ Xander said.
‘So,’ Lissy said. ‘I’m comfortable. I’m warm. You care. Shall we begin?’
Everything began in slow motion after that. There was something rather wonderful in the way Xander helped her undress as though she was fragile, gently pulling her arms from the sleeves of her silk top, kissing the length of them as he went. There seemed no reason – for either of them – to be hurrying things. It was as if they knew there would be other times for that sort of sex but now it was a coming together of souls as well as bodies.
There was something rather wonderful and delicious in the way Xander was discovering her body as he caressed every part of it. Respectful. This was so unlike how sex behind the back of a bicycle shed would be. This was so not going to be a one-night stand and they both knew it.
‘Confession time,’ Xander whispered in her ear, before nibbling it and setting off a chain of desire within her that Lissy thought she might explode with it.
‘What?’ she said, although she was beyond caring now what that might be. She wanted him, and badly.
‘I’m not a very good Boy Scout. I’ve not come prepared.’
‘But I have,’ Lissy said. While Lissy had had only a few lovers since her split from Cooper she’d remained on the pill, although thinking about it now she couldn’t remember taking any since she’d been at Strand House and she ought to have done. Ah well …
‘Still okay with this?’ Xander asked.
A gentleman to the last, Li
ssy thought as she reached down and slid his boxers off his bottom and he wriggled out of them.
‘Very, very …’
And those were the very last words either of them spoke as they came together.
BOXING DAY
Chapter 34
Xander
Janey was waiting for him in the kitchen. No one else was up. He’d left a note on the bedside table letting Lissy know where he would be. He’d promised Janey he’d take her to fetch her art materials and he wouldn’t go back on that promise, as reluctant as he’d been to leave Lissy, curled on her side in a foetal position, her back to his when he’d woken up.
As Christmases go, Xander thought as he crossed the tiles of Lissy’s kitchen to grab a cup of coffee, this had to be up there with the best.
‘Merry Boxmas, Janey,’ he said. It struck him then that Janey might have heard him and Lissy in the night. Not that they’d had swinging from the chandeliers sex, but deep and meaningful sighs had been expended. By them both. ‘Sleep well?’
‘Very. Surprisingly. I’m a bit anxious now, though. Annie said last night it’ll be fine to come over but, well, what if Stuart’s up and looking out of the window?’
‘Is there only one way into their place?’
‘Yes.’
‘You can stop in the lorry if you like. I’ll go in on my own if you let Annie know that’s the new plan.’
Dressed now in the clothes she’d been dressed in when Xander had first seen her – jeans and a sweatshirt of sorts, with rather battered shoes on her feet – Janey was looking so fragile again, so scared. In Bobbie’s clothes she’d been transformed, been who – he supposed – she could be as the self-help articles he read sometimes in the dentist’s waiting room would have you believe. She still had a long way to go, didn’t she? God, but how he’d like to punch the living daylights out of her swine of a husband, not that he’d ever resorted to his fists to sort things. Well, maybe once or twice when he’d been in his teens.
Christmas at Strand House Page 19
