Christmas at Strand House

by Linda Mitchelmore

  ‘I wouldn’t go as far as that,’ Fred said. He picked up a mince pie, put it whole into his mouth and then washed it down with a glass of sherry.

  Janey handed Xander the very small measure she’d poured him.

  ‘Ready?’ Xander met Janey’s eye and raised an eyebrow.

  ‘I am. Thanks for the mince pie, Annie, it was delicious. And the sherry. I’ll ring you and let you know when I’ll be back for the rest of my things.’

  ‘You do that,’ Fred said. ‘And I’ll be on hand, riding shoTgun just in case.’

  Everyone laughed, although Janey’s was probably more nervous than the others because she was in no doubt that Fred would use it if he had to. And then it was hugs and kisses goodbye, and Merry Boxmas, and Janey and Xander were back in the lorry and bowling back to Strand House, laughing all the way.

  ‘Another surreal Christmas experience under the belt,’ Xander said, as he brought the lorry to a halt outside Lissy’s house.

  ‘But a belter!’ Janey laughed. Things could only get better for her now.

  Chapter 36

  Lissy

  Lissy was just finishing whisking the batter for the Scotch pancakes – which she liked to serve with blueberries and maple syrup and some rashers of crisply friend pancetta if people liked it – when the doorbell rang.

  Xander and Janey back at a guess. The note Xander had left her was on the kitchen counter beside the box of blueberries. She must have read it at least a dozen times, couldn’t take her eyes off it. And every time it made her laugh.

  ‘There’s no easy way to tell you this but I’ve left you for another woman. I know, I know … too soon. It was hard to leave you lying there looking so beautiful in sleep, so very desirable all over again, but a man can’t perform on an empty stomach. And besides, a promise is a promise and I told Janey I’d take her to fetch her art things. I hope you’ll be able to find it in your heart to forgive me. Love Xander xxx’

  She folded the note carefully, put it in the pocket of her jeans, and went to let them in.

  Janey stood there with a large portfolio in one hand and a jug of brushes in the other. Xander was coming up the steps carrying the rest of Janey’s things – boxes of paints at a guess. He made kissy gestures at Lissy behind Janey’s back, making Lissy laugh.

  ‘Is that all?’ Lissy said.

  Somehow, she’d been expecting it to be much more. She’d been thinking about which room Janey could have on a semi-permanent basis. The one she was in at the moment, or one at the back where it would be quieter and there was view out over the town to the moors beyond? The back of the house faced west and Lissy knew that gave a good light for artists, beautiful sunsets. She’d give Janey the options and let her choose.

  ‘It is,’ Janey told her, stepping into the hall. ‘Nothing’s framed so it won’t take up too much space. Is it okay to put it all in my room for now?’

  ‘It is. Breakfast in about fifteen minutes. Okay with that, both of you?’

  ‘Very okay,’ Janey said. She told Lissy about Annie and the mince pies and Lissy grimaced to think of having either of those so early in the morning.

  ‘Fred had a gun and I’m in no doubt he’d have shot us if we’d refused his wife’s hospitality,’ Xander said.

  ‘A gun?’ Another of Xander’s jokes, surely?

  ‘That’s exactly what my reaction was, Lissy, when he said it!’ Janey laughed. ‘I had no idea he had one!’

  ‘See?’ Xander laughed. ‘You didn’t believe me there, did you?’

  Oh, I did really, I did. That’s what she admired so much about Xander – his honesty. It might not always be what she wanted to hear but far better that than all the lies she’d had to hear from Cooper.

  And damn and blast him for creeping into my thoughts with someone who is so the opposite of him standing in front of me looking so adoringly at me, and with whom I am falling less in lust but more deeply in love with by the second.

  ‘How could I not?’ Lissy said.

  ‘Hey, you two,’ Janey said, grinning from one to the other, ‘I’m beginning to feel a bit two’s-company-three’s-a-crowd around here.’

  Oh, was it that obvious, Lissy’s feelings, her desire for this man standing there so early still on Boxing Day morning and wearing shorts! Probably.

  Lissy couldn’t quite believe Xander was wearing shorts. There’d been a frost on the shrubs in the front garden when she’d looked out earlier which was unusual being so close to the sea, although she could remember stopping with Vonny once when it had been so cold that the beach had frozen – what fun they’d had stamping about on the crunchy sand.

  ‘I’m off,’ Janey finished. Then she turned to Xander and said, ‘See. I wasn’t so far off the mark with what I said to Annie, was I? Anyway, don’t answer that because no answer’s needed. I’m off. If you can tear yourself away, Xander, to bring up my stuff …’

  Janey walked towards the stairs and Xander began to follow, but Lissy laid a hand on his arm to detain him a moment.

  ‘What was all that about?’ Lissy asked. ‘What did she say to Annie?’

  ‘Well, don’t let this go to your head at all but when Annie assumed that I was the new man in Janey’s life she told her in no uncertain time that you and I are an item, as the saying has it. So, are we? An item?’

  ‘I think we must be,’ Lissy said. ‘After last night it would be rude not to. And now, I think, before we embarrass ourselves in the hall I think you’d better get that stuff up to Janey’s room. And thanks, you know, for doing that for Janey.’

  ‘And for you,’ Xander said. ‘I did it for you, too. Any friend of yours is a friend of mine. I’ll be going back for things she’s got in the house still – well, me and the blokes who work for me and some of their mates. She says it’s not a lot.’

  ‘Doesn’t matter if it is,’ Lissy said. ‘There’s plenty of room here. It’s a double garage as well so some of it could go in there. See, I’ve thought it all through.’

  ‘Ah,’ Xander said, ‘but have you taken on board that time is ticking away and you told Janey fifteen minutes to breakfast, and that I am absolutely ravenous?’

  ‘I have. Double quantity Scotch pancake batter is ready and waiting.’ Lissy tapped her jeans pocket to let him know the note he’d left her was in it. ‘Five-star performance-worthy batter, no less!’

  And then Lissy blew him a kiss and hurried back to the kitchen, her body still throbbing and glowing from the night before, her heart fit to burst with a happiness she’d never have believed could be hers ever again. Had there not been two other people in the house she knew that she and Xander would have spent the whole of Boxing Day in bed, emerging only now and then to nibble at Christmas Day leftovers, and make coffee. But she could wait. Deep down she’d been waiting for him a long time, hadn’t she?

  Lissy set to making a fruit smoothie – mango and apple with some grated fresh ginger in it – because she thought their bodies had probably been overloaded with Christmases excesses and needed a healthy-eating fix, although no one had complained of being bloated or been tipsy. Just mellow. Would she have gone into Xander’s room last night if she’d been stone cold sober?

  Yes! A resounding, stonking great yes!

  ‘And what, madam, are you grinning so broadly about at what, to me, is such a ridiculously early hour?’ Bobbie said, coming into the kitchen, looking as though she was just off on a photo shoot wearing wide black palazzo pants, a white shawl-coloured jumper, and her trademark teeteringly high heels.

  ‘You’ve got one guess,’ Lissy said.

  ‘You took Auntie Bobbie’s advice?’ Bobbie tapped the side of her nose knowingly, making Lissy giggle.

  ‘I did.’

  ‘Wise, very wise,’ Bobbie said. ‘What I didn’t say last night was that I didn’t want you to let what I could see was meant to be for you, slip through your fingers. There was someone – when Oliver was about fifteen or sixteen – I met who was right for me. He was free, I was free, and we love
d one another. But I let my past experiences cloud everything and I couldn’t bring myself to tell him about Oliver. The shame and the guilt were with me still. It was too big a secret to keep and I knew I’d fester keeping it from him, so I evaded the issue altogether by ducking out. There was never anyone who came close after that.’

  ‘Oh, Bobbie,’ Lissy said. ‘That’s too sad. Could you find him again?’

  ‘I could. I might,’ Bobbie said.

  She looked away from Lissy, unable to meet her eye for some reason. Lissy wondered what that might be. She gave the batter another whisk and waited for Bobbie to tell her – if she wanted to.

  ‘I’ve done what just about everyone does when they go on Facebook, however much they might deny it and pretend they don’t, and I’ve searched for him.’

  ‘And?’ Lissy prompted.

  ‘And he’s newly single. Divorced. I must be getting devious in my old age because I searched his ex as well and she’s all cosied up in Hampstead with the new love of her life. No children it seems.’

  ‘So, the coast is clear? You could …’

  ‘Not just yet. I’ll get to know Oliver first. And his family. He’s sent me photos of them all on my phone. His eldest is the spit of me when I was that age, so much so I thought he’d got hold of a photo of me from Pamela and Charles at first. And the youngest, she’s got her grandfather’s blonde hair. They were there waiting for me when I woke up. Not that I slept much. Too much noise …’

  ‘Stop it!’ Lissy said. ‘You’re side-tracking!’

  Bobbie had heard her and Xander in the night, albeit they’d both been conscious of not shrieking from the rafters how wonderful their love-making was.

  ‘I am. I’m still in dizzy shock over Oliver. But now, well now I don’t think the fact I’ve got a lovechild … far preferable to that other phrase, illegitimate child, I always think and mostly it’s true, a baby conceived of great love - is likely to ruffle any feathers for anyone, is it?’

  ‘You mean the man you let slip through your fingers? What’s his name?’

  ‘Sebastian. He’s Swiss. Speaks four languages. And he told me he loved me in all of them.’

  ‘Don’t then—’ Lissy began. She heard Xander and Janey talking to one another coming down the stairs and went to switch on the kettle for coffee. ‘Don’t, then, let him slip through your fingers a second time if there’s a second chance to be told in four languages again that he loves you. Just do it, okay? And soon. For me. For you. And ultimately it could be for Oliver and his family as well.’

  ‘Darling, girl,’ Bobbie said, rushing over to put her arms around Lissy from behind, and hug her, lean around to one side and kiss her cheek. ‘Thank you. You may not be my daughter but you’re beginning to sound like me.’

  A massive swell of emotion threatened to swallow Lissy up. Bobbie was as far removed from her own mother as it was possible for two women to be and that saddened her and thrilled her in equal measure. She couldn’t imagine not having Bobbie in her life now.

  ‘That,’ Lissy said, ‘is the loveliest thing to hear.’

  Chapter 37

  Xander

  ‘Okay, ladies, here’s the thing. It’s not raining. The frost’s gone. The sun is making a hazy appearance. We have all been more than well fed.’

  Lissy had said, after breakfast, why didn’t they go into the sitting room because there was yacht racing in the bay and they might like to watch from the comfort of an arm chair.

  So, there they were. Janey – delighted to have yet another subject to draw and take photographs of for future art projects – had dragged the single arm chair to the window and turned it round so she now had her back to them all, looking out. Bobbie was lounging, feet up on a footstool, on the smallest couch and Xander was sitting on the same couch as Lissy, but not touching.

  ‘Is this a trailer for something?’ Bobbie asked. She was pretending not to look at her phone which they all now knew contained photographs of Oliver and his family, but she was.

  ‘Could be,’ Xander said.

  ‘Spit it out, sonny,’ Bobbie laughed.

  God, but Oliver was going to love her, wasn’t he? How could he not? She was such a character. It would be only too easy to take Bobbie on looks alone and see her as somewhat narcisstic – his mother had a cousin like that, always having some treatment or other searching after the elixir of youth – but they would miss so much; her humour, her caring, her understanding. And, as now, her insights and her ability to read between lines.

  ‘Right, guys,’ Xander said. ‘It’s like this. It’s ten o’clock now and in another hour I’m due on the beach by the pier for a charity dip.’

  ‘Dip?’ Lissy said.

  ‘In the sea?’ Janey said turning around, so obviously she wasn’t totally focused on her art at that moment.

  ‘I would assume he means the sea,’ Bobbie said. ‘Hardly likely to be champagne, is it?’

  ‘Now there’s a thought,’ Xander grinned. A vision of pouring a bath of champagne for Lissy in the en suite of his room upstairs popped into his head. How she’d look, stepping into it, her long legs, her mane of dark hair flowing down her pearly back. He glanced at Lissy quickly to find she was looking at him and smiling. Hmm … he had a feeling she was reading his thoughts because she wagged a finger playfully at him. ‘I’ll file it away for future reference Bobbie, if I may. But, yes, the sea. I’ve rather recklessly put myself down for ten minutes, fully submerged. For the Children’s Hospice.’

  There had been three choices; a local youth group so they could go on a trip to Italy, kayaking; a group of pensioners who knitted toys for orphaned children; and the Children’s Hospice which wasn’t exactly local but in the county. Xander had been in school with a girl called, Hannah, whose baby son had been in the hospice with a string of problems no medic could ever put right. It had seemed the right choice for him at the time when he’d first started doing these swims, ten years ago. Today’s would be the first since Claire had died.

  ‘Are there any other categories?’ Bobbie asked. She’d switched off her phone now and had slid it underneath a thigh. ‘Like dipping a toe in?’

  ‘A bit more than that is required. If memory serves me well the lowest category is to walk in up to your knees and stay there for thirty seconds.’

  ‘How cold is it?’ Janey got up and turned her chair around to face them all.

  So, that’s two potential partners in crime he had now, Xander thought. Bobbie and Janey were showing interest, if gingerly.

  ‘Not as cold as you might think,’ Xander said. ‘It was a very warm summer, and autumn was pretty good, too, for sunshine. The sea’s had time to warm up and it’s not been that cold yet to cool it down.’

  ‘You’re selling it,’ Bobbie laughed. ‘I’ll do the up to the knees bit.’

  Crikey, would she really? Xander hadn’t expected Bobbie to be the first to volunteer.

  ‘And me,’ Janey said. ‘How much do we have to give in sponsorship for that?’

  ‘Not sure, but I’ll pay it,’ Xander said, which wasn’t true because he did know – he was down for £50, the next category was five minutes, fully submerged, which came in at £30, and then it went down in increments to the walk-in for various lengths of time, £10 being the least anyone could pay. The thinking was that participants would get sponsorship from family and friends but most just paid up – a charity donation they were happy to pay. ‘We can sort it out later.’

  ‘They do it every Boxing Day,’ Lissy said. ‘The Lions Club or something like that. Vonny used to do it.’

  ‘So,’ Xander said, ‘in her honour you’ll join me then, Lissy?’

  ‘Not for ten minutes,’ Lissy said. ‘Five. I’ve still got a wetsuit in the garage.’

  ‘That’s for wimps,’ Bobbie said. ‘I don’t suppose there’s a bathing costume hanging around here somewhere, is there, Lissy?’

  ‘You’re considering going in the sea, in December, in just a bathing costume? You’re joking!’ L
issy said.

  ‘Not,’ Bobbie told her. ‘It’s for the Children’s Hospice, right? I’ve got a healthy son and three granddaughters who have never needed its services as far as I know. That’s a lot to be grateful for, I’d say. I wouldn’t want to risk saltwater damaging any of my clothes because, well, they’re my stock in trade, but I’ve got enough life left in me to be able to cope with standing up to my knees in sea water if I had a bathing costume to do it in. And besides, it’s going to look good in photos for my granddaughter’s, isn’t it? Trendy Grandma tames the waves, and all that. So are there any costumes we could borrow?’

  ‘There are,’ Lissy told her. ‘Vonny’s. Rather old-fashioned now but good. Classic, I suppose you could say.’

  ‘Meant to be then, isn’t it?’ Bobbie said.

  And so it was as easy as that. Xander had felt a bit guilty about not mentioning the charity dip before, maybe changing Lissy’s plans for the day, but it seemed there were no firm plans.

  It all got a bit manic after that, digging out the costumes for Bobbie and Janey – who said if Bobbie was going to brave the elements then so was she – and for Lissy to turf out her wetsuit in the garage and see if it was presentable enough to get into it, and if she could actually get into it if it was; she hadn’t, she said, worn it since she was nineteen or so. It turned out that that was a yes on both counts, not that Xander had doubted it for a moment, having held a very lithe Lissy in his arms the night before until they eventually slept.

  ‘And another thing,’ Xander said, ‘that I forgot to mention.’

  Xander had Lissy on one arm and Bobbie on the other, with Janey’s arm linked through Lissy’s on the other side. A unit. A team. Xander had been surprised at how emotional he felt at that thought and he could see now how Claire had bonded with all three women so easily. Although they were all different heights, somehow they were now all walking at the same pace, Xander and Bobbie having shortened their strides to match the other two.