Christmas at Lilac Cottage: (#1 White Cliff Bay)

by Martin, Holly

‘You’re my form teacher?’

  Jackson nodded. Now he’d made her entire year.

  ‘I’m so impressed that you have this skill at such a young age, have you had much training?’

  ‘I did a wood carving course in the summer and Penny has been showing me lots of things.’

  Jackson turned his eyes on Penny and smiled. ‘Tuppence Meadows, how lovely to see you here, and inspiring a younger generation I see. You’ll be putting me out of a job.’

  ‘Your job is quite safe,’ Penny said. ‘Working with Daisy has been a delight but I don’t think I’d want to work with thirty teenagers.’

  He laughed. ‘Yes, they can be a handful at times.’ He turned back to Daisy. ‘Will you be popping in this week before the school closes for Christmas? It’d be nice for you to meet the rest of your form at least.’

  ‘Yes, I think I’m coming in Thursday or Friday this week.’

  ‘Well, I look forward to seeing you then.’

  He moved on to Penny while Pippa chatted to Daisy.

  ‘This angel is stunning, Tuppence.’

  ‘Penny.’

  Jackson smiled. ‘Penny, my apologies. The detail of the hair is quite beautiful. I’m very impressed, but I had no doubt that you would go on to do fantastic things with your art. I’ve seen a lot of your sculptures around town over the years, makes me very proud. If you ever did want to come to school and do an ice carving workshop with the kids, it would be very inspiring and I’d be there the whole time so they wouldn’t give you any grief.’

  Penny smiled at the idea. She had thought about teaching some kind of carving course at the local college; she loved being able to pass on her skills and inspire other people to carve too. She had done hen and stag ice carving parties before and a few corporate team building days, which were always a lot of fun, and she had loved working with Daisy over the last few days. Maybe working at the school for a few days would be an excellent way to dip her toe into that side of things.

  ‘I’ll give it some thought,’ Penny said and Jackson smiled.

  Pippa joined them.

  ‘I love your angel, Penny, I think it’s magnificent.’

  ‘Thank you.’

  Pippa and Jackson wandered off to the middle of the room to discuss the results. There was lots of gesturing around the room, especially towards Octavia’s castle. The organiser of the event joined them and he nodded as they told him the result. Jackson didn’t look too happy though.

  ‘We have our winners here,’ the organiser boomed in his deep voice. ‘And I must say the level of quality we have seen has even got our judges arguing over the winner, but our lovely Mayor does have the final say. So, in third place, the judges have chosen…’ He paused dramatically. ‘Daisy Travis with her snowflake.’

  There was a big round of applause from the crowd and Penny cheered the loudest. As she moved to hug her she realised Daisy was shaking.

  ‘Well done, I’m so pleased for you, you totally deserve it,’ Penny said.

  ‘In second place is… Octavia Greene.’

  There was a huge collective gasp from the crowd that Octavia hadn’t come first. Every single person in this room knew that Octavia’s sculpture should have won, including, it seemed, Octavia. Her mouth dropped open, not from pleasant surprise but in pure outrage. Penny winced, knowing where this was going next. For Octavia to be awarded second place that meant that Penny had been awarded first as Pippa’s attempt to say thank you for saving her son’s life the day before.

  ‘And first place goes to…’

  Penny prayed that Frank’s flowers or Ignatius’s lighthouse had caught the judges’ eye.

  ‘Penny Meadows.’

  There was a polite round of applause and lots of murmuring and shaking heads as people obviously disagreed with the final verdict.

  Penny wanted the ground to swallow her up. She didn’t want to win like this. She was proud of her angel – it was good – but Octavia’s castle was incredible.

  Daisy threw herself at Penny, squealing loudly, clearly not having any idea why Penny had won.

  The judges came over to shake Penny’s hand and award her a rosette. She could barely muster a smile of thanks. A few other people came to shake her hand and pat her on the back and then the competition was over and people started to leave.

  Octavia stomped over to her and Penny knew it wasn’t to congratulate her. ‘You and I both know why you won tonight and it has nothing to do with your ice sculpture.’

  She stormed out and Daisy looked at Penny in confusion. ‘Talk about losing graciously.’

  ‘Come on, let’s go home,’ Penny said, feeling thoroughly deflated despite the ribbon that was shimmering on her chest.

  Josh and Daisy followed her out.

  Daisy chatted to Josh all the way back to his house but Penny was annoyed. The whole evening had been a farce. She wanted to inspire Daisy to continue with her carving, show her that with hard work and commitment she could create beautiful sculptures that people would admire. Instead she had exposed her to the crazy world of fierce competition and showed her that, no matter how hard you worked, it came down to who you knew and whose back you had scratched. Was there any point entering the big competition at the ball in a week’s time if the winning vote had already been cast?

  Penny dropped Josh off and she smiled when she saw him give Daisy a quick peck on the cheek to say congratulations. Daisy sat in silence with a huge smile on her face the rest of the way home.

  They pulled up outside their house and Daisy practically bounced to the door, overflowing with excitement. Penny let them in through her front door and after Daisy had greeted Bernard with enough affection to last him a lifetime, she burst through the connecting door into her lounge.

  ‘I have had the best night ever,’ Daisy announced to her dad and Penny moved to the doorway to watch her. Henry was sitting on the sofa, reading a book, which he immediately put down to give his undivided attention to Daisy. He was wearing glasses and his feet were bare and there was something that made her stomach leap with affection for him at these small little attributes.

  ‘Dad, I came third. Admittedly it was only out of eight people, well six, but still I came third and Jackson Cartwright was a judge and he said he was so impressed by my sculpture and…’

  ‘Wait, you entered into the competition? I didn’t know you had been creating your own sculpture, why didn’t you tell me? I would have come.’

  ‘I didn’t think it was any good, it was my first attempt and… I don’t know, I didn’t want you to see me fail.’

  ‘I’ve told you before, you can only fail if you don’t have a go. I’m so proud of you for entering. I wish you would have told me.’

  ‘Sometimes you get a bit funny about my art.’

  Henry looked shocked. ‘I’ve always supported your art. I’ve paid for courses, I’ve taken you to exhibitions, I’ve bought you art gear…’

  ‘But whenever I tell you I want to be an artist when I’m older, you always tell me not to neglect my other subjects.’

  ‘That has nothing to do with me not supporting your art and everything to do with you being a lazy sod when it comes to your homework.’ He put on a high-pitched girly voice. ‘Dad, I don’t need to do my maths homework because I’m going to be an artist when I’m older. Dad, I don’t need to do this history essay because I’m going to be an artist.’

  Daisy giggled at the terrible impression.

  ‘You’re a clever girl, Daisy. You could be anything you want to be when you’re older, a doctor, scientist, astronaut. If you want to be an artist then I’ll be behind you one hundred percent, but that does not mean you get to take it easy in all your other subjects. In a few years’ time you might decide that you don’t want to be an artist any more, you might want to be a vet or a translator or prime minister. You can’t do those things without your GCSEs. You have six months until you finish school and you can study whatever course you want at college but you’re damned well going to wor
k your arse off between now and then.’

  Daisy smiled. ‘OK.’

  ‘And next time, tell me when you enter a competition and then I can cheer the loudest when you win, or boo really loudly at the winner if you lose.’

  ‘Penny won,’ Daisy said and Henry looked over at her.

  ‘You did, that’s fab. I wouldn’t have booed at you if I’d been there,’ Henry said and then to Daisy he whispered, loudly, ‘Well, maybe I’d boo quietly.’ Daisy and Penny laughed. ‘I don’t suppose there’s photos of these wonderful sculptures.’

  ‘I have photos on my phone,’ Daisy said, grabbing her phone and, pressing a few buttons, she passed it to Henry. ‘That’s mine.’

  ‘Wow, this is really great, and you did all this on your own?’

  ‘Penny did the chainsaw bit, she wouldn’t let me use that.’

  ‘Good job too, some of those tools look lethal.’ He flashed Penny a look of concern.

  ‘She’s very sensible when she uses the tools, and I’ve showed her the correct way to use them,’ Penny said.

  Henry still didn’t look happy about this but he clearly decided to let it go. ‘It’s very good, you really do have a skill for this.’

  ‘This is Penny’s.’

  Henry gave a low whistle. ‘That’s seriously good. Wait, what’s this?’

  Daisy leaned over to look and laughed. ‘That’s Fabio’s sculpture before it got broken.’

  Penny flushed as Henry stared at it. ‘This Fabio seems to be very familiar with his subject.’

  ‘Hardly, he missed out all my wobbly bits.’

  Henry’s eyes cast over her. ‘He seems to have done a good enough job. So you and he…?’

  ‘No, definitely not, not ever,’ Penny said.

  ‘Not from lack of trying though,’ Daisy giggled as she pressed a button on her phone and played the video of Fabio’s bizarre proposal.

  Henry burst out laughing.

  ‘Oh, well, on that rather embarrassing note, I’ll leave you all to it. Daisy, I’m really glad you came tonight. I hope the crazies didn’t put you off.’

  Daisy shook her head. ‘I loved it, thank you.’

  Penny smiled briefly at them and shut the door between them. She walked into the front room where Bernard was on the sofa, upside down, tongue sticking out of his mouth, snoring loudly.

  She fiddled around with her iPod, choosing a random playlist and something soft, sweet and slow drifted out of the speakers. She lit a fire and a few candles that smelt of spiced apples and mulled wine. A perfect romantic night for one. She sighed. She didn’t fancy reading or watching telly. She wasn’t sure what to do with herself. Next door she could still hear the soft sounds of Henry and Daisy talking and laughing.

  It had been an odd twenty-four hours, with the sea rescue, seeing Kathleen, the farce of the ice carving competition and that incredible kiss that seemed to have almost been forgotten by the man who had done it. She closed her eyes and touched her lips, remembering what it felt like to have his lips there. Her memories replayed the event perfectly: his softness, the way he had held her, the taste of him, his sweet, spicy smell. She could smell him now, the warmth of his scent wrapping round her.

  Suddenly her eyes snapped open, realising that his warmth and scent was a real thing. She span around and he was standing right there in her body space.

  ‘Sorry, I didn’t want to scare you, you seemed miles away.’

  She flushed. Did he know she had been thinking of him?

  ‘I just wanted to say thank you for tonight, I haven’t seen Daisy smile as much for a long time.’

  Penny swallowed down the emotion of having him so close. ‘No problem.’

  He still didn’t move as he stared down at her. She looked away briefly, to see the connecting door was closed. He hadn’t just come to say that.

  He reached out to touch her hair, running one finger down its length and rubbing the end over his thumb. She couldn’t move away from him. He was going to ruin her and there was nothing she could do to stop it. He ran a finger down her cheek and everything in her melted so she was surprised she was still standing. How could something so simple have such an effect on her?

  He sighed heavily and stepped back slightly, breaking the spell between them.

  ‘Daisy has always hated my girlfriends. Even when she was little if I went on a date with a woman she would cry and scream. There was never that many, anyway. Raising a child on your own, there isn’t much time for anything. But I had invited one or two women back when she was six or seven and it always ended with her crying hysterically. I stopped bringing women to the house after that and dated women in secret for years. I vowed that I would never bring anyone home unless it was a serious relationship. Since she’s got older, she’s met quite a few of my girlfriends and never liked any of them either. I think Rosie was the only one she liked. They’d go out together, go shopping. When we broke up I think Daisy was more upset by it than Rosie was.’

  He moved his hand to link his fingers with hers. ‘Even though she has hated almost every single one of the girlfriends she has met, she has never asked me not to date anyone before. Until you.’

  Penny took a step back, wounded. ‘I’m not good enough for you.’

  Henry shook his head. ‘No, that’s not it at all. I’m not good enough for you. She really likes you and she’s scared I’ll hurt you. I am rubbish at relationships, I generally pick people that I think I can have a good time with and don’t think beyond that. I always end things before they get too close, mainly because of Daisy. It’s hard to think about turning our team of two into a three on a permanent basis. It would have to be someone who Daisy gets on with and until Rosie there hadn’t been anyone and I never saw Rosie as someone I wanted to spend the rest of my life with. I have never imagined waking up every day lying next to the same woman for the rest of my life, or sitting down to breakfast and dinner with the same woman every day. There has been no one that I wanted to do that with until now.’ He sighed heavily. ‘I’m really painting myself in a bad light here, aren’t I, and I don’t blame you at all if you just want to be friends but…’

  ‘Until now?’ Penny managed to croak out, her throat was completely dry.

  Henry stopped talking for a second as he clearly realised what he had just said.

  ‘I care about you. A lot. And that’s new for me. I love spending time with you, listening to you talk, watching you work. We’ve had more meals together, the three of us, in the last few days than I’ve ever had with previous girlfriends and I really like that too. I like making you laugh and that kiss last night… there was something there that I’ve never felt before. I know this sounds naff. Something pulls me to you, an attraction that’s so deep that…’ He looked around, trying to find the words.

  ‘That it hurts,’ Penny said, quietly.

  He stared at her. ‘Yes. It hurts, it aches in my chest when I think of you, like a physical yearning for you. Do you feel that too?’

  She nodded. ‘And it’s silly. I don’t even know you.’

  ‘Exactly. I don’t know what that means, whether it’s lust and desire or something more, but I know I want to find out. But is it wrong of me to just want to keep it between us for now? To wait to see if it turns into something special and wonderful as I hope it will or just peters out in the next week or so. This is all so new to us both. Neither of us know whether this is going to turn into something or not. In a few days you could decide that you find me incredibly boring and that we are better off as friends. Or we could have one great night of hot, passionate sex and this intense spark between us could die out the very next day and we decide never to do it again, or we could fall head over heels in love with each other, get married, have lots of babies and grow old and grey together. We can’t see what’s round the next bend. There’s no point in upsetting Daisy if you decide that you don’t want to pursue this in a few weeks’ time. We’ve had a tough year and…’ He trailed off, looking thoroughly miserable about th
e prospect of upsetting his daughter.

  ‘You want to keep us secret?’ Penny was still trying to process that he actually wanted there to be an ‘us’.

  ‘Yes, just for a little while. I think part of her asking me not to date you is wrapped up in her uncertainty and nervousness of moving to White Cliff Bay. She’s just moved to a new town and I know she’s still feeling worried about starting school and making friends. I don’t want her to feel in the way or awkward at home too. She likes it here at Lilac Cottage, she’s settled in here really quickly because of you and the ice carving and her new job and…’ Bernard gave a loud snore on the sofa. ‘And him. She thinks if I start dating you and it all goes wrong then we won’t be able to live here any more. I was happy to move out as soon as the agency could find us our own place but if she wants to stay here, I’d take smacking my head on that tiny shower every day just to keep her happy. Can we just get Christmas out the way, let her get a bit more settled and if it’s still going strong between us then, then I promise we’ll tell her and deal with the fall-out then. If we’re not… then there would have been no point upsetting her over nothing.’

  ‘I don’t want to lie to her.’

  ‘I don’t either, that’s the last thing I want. But can we just see if we have anything worth fighting for first? I’m not the easiest man to get along with, I’m grumpy, lack any kind of patience and you will probably run a mile from me in a few days. Most women do. If we get past that and you still want me around, I promise we’ll tell her then.’

  Penny nodded. ‘OK. So we’re… dating?’

  ‘Yes, if that’s what you want?’ He looked concerned.

  She couldn’t help the grin that spread across her face as she nodded.

  ‘Daisy wants me to take you out, she thinks you need some company and friendship, so we can still do all the normal dating stuff but maybe keep all the snogging and passionate sex behind closed doors.’

  She laughed. ‘Damn, and I thought we’d strip naked and do it in the middle of the town square.’

  His eyes flashed with warmth and mischief. ‘Maybe one day. It’s Tuesday tomorrow so we have our first proper date tomorrow night anyway. We can celebrate our secret partnership then.’