Christmas at the Little Village Bakery

by Tilly Tennant

  The back door of the minibus slammed shut, and Mr Dempsey touched Tori on the arm. ‘Time to go.’

  ‘No!’ Spencer cried. ‘You can’t go! Just give me five minutes… Our relationship is worth at least that, isn’t it?’

  ‘I’m sorry.’

  ‘But…’ Spencer thought quickly, ‘you’ve got to come and get your stuff from my house, right? So I can ride with you in the taxi back there and we can talk?’

  ‘I don’t think that’s a good idea. Are your parents home?’

  ‘Yes, but—’

  ‘If they’ll let me in I’ll pick up my stuff.’

  ‘But I love you!’

  Tori turned to the waiting cab. Mrs Dempsey watched through the window as Spencer followed.

  ‘Tori, please!’

  ‘I’ll call you. It’s better that we talk when we’ve both had time to calm down.’

  ‘I am calm!’ Spencer insisted, his voice rising in contradiction of his words. Tori climbed into the cab and shut the door. Spencer hammered on the window. ‘Why are you doing this?’

  She looked straight ahead, her eyes wide as if she was trying to stop herself from crying, but she didn’t reply and she didn’t look at him.

  ‘Why are you doing this?’ he repeated in a small voice as the cab pulled away. ‘I love you…’

  As Tori became a speck in the distance, Spencer collapsed onto the front step of the Dog and Hare and held his head in his hands. He’d lost her now for sure. Merry Christmas, Spencer. Welcome to the rest of your life.

  He looked around at a gentle hand on his shoulder.

  ‘I’m sorry,’ Colleen said. She gave him a sympathetic smile.

  ‘I was an idiot,’ he said in a dull voice. ‘I let stupid things get in the way when I should have been fighting for her.’

  ‘You let your compassion get in the way. You always did try to juggle the happiness of everyone at once, but sometimes you have to let one or two of the balls go, and that’s something I’ve never seen you do in all the years I’ve known you. It doesn’t make you a bad person that you wanted to make everyone happy; she just can’t see that right now. If you ask me, she doesn’t know what she’s throwing away but I think she will realise it, and when she does she’ll be back.’

  ‘Thanks for trying to make me feel better, but you’re wasting your breath on me. It’s Christmas morning, Colleen. You should be inside enjoying it with Doug now that the Dempseys are out of your hair, not wasting it on a loser like me.’ He pushed himself up from the step and dusted the snow from his backside. ‘I might as well go home.’

  ‘Come in for five minutes. You look exhausted and I bet you would feel better with a brandy inside you.’

  ‘I’m fine…’ Spencer began to wave away the offer, but Colleen stopped him.

  ‘Just one. Doug would be happy to see you.’

  Spencer was pretty sure that Doug wouldn’t care either way, but it seemed to matter to Colleen, so he nodded shortly. It wasn’t as if he could get back to his house before Tori anyway, and even if he did she wasn’t budging on her decision to go to London with her parents.

  ‘I don’t know where on earth they think they’re going to stay,’ Colleen added as Spencer followed her into the bar. ‘It’s not like you can just walk into a hotel on Christmas morning and demand a room.’

  ‘I bet they can,’ Spencer replied, the bitterness in his tone unmistakable. He didn’t care right now whether he sounded like a petulant child or not, but he realised that he probably did. ‘Would you say no to those two scowling faces?’

  ‘And I bet that cab is costing an arm and a leg,’ Colleen continued. ‘What happened to get them so angry?’

  ‘I don’t really want to talk about it,’ Spencer said. ‘I’m sorry, but I’m still trying to make sense of it all myself.’

  ‘I understand. For now, let me fix you that brandy and just you sit for five minutes before you go back – pull yourself together.’

  Doug was in the bar in his wheelchair. He looked as if he was nursing his first alcoholic drink of the day. Spencer supposed that Christmas morning tipples went with the territory when you were a publican – they certainly wouldn’t get much chance to sit and relax with a drink once they opened at lunchtime.

  ‘He’s here,’ Doug said, nodding at Spencer. ‘Poor bugger. If you ask me it’s good riddance.’

  ‘Doug!’ Colleen chided. ‘He’s heartbroken!’

  ‘Oh, I don’t mean the girlie – she’s grand. But her folks… I thought Yanks were supposed to be friendly.’

  ‘And Englishmen are supposed to be sensible but I don’t see you showing much of that,’ Colleen replied as she handed Spencer a glass.

  ‘It’s alright,’ Spencer replied, taking a seat at the table with Doug. ‘I feel sorry for you two having to look after them. I would never have suggested they stay here if I’d known what they were like.’

  ‘Not your fault. A paying customer is a paying customer and you have to take the business where you can,’ Doug said sagely. ‘We’d have put them up regardless. But I can’t say I’ll miss them now they’re gone.’

  Spencer knocked back his brandy in one go. He wasn’t one for drinking neat spirits and felt it go straight to his head. But it had a pleasant warming effect too; he hadn’t realised just how cold he’d become as he sat outside on the step, the sweat freezing on his skin.

  ‘Fancy another one?’ Doug asked, raising an eyebrow.

  Spencer shook his head, but Colleen took his glass and filled it anyway, placing a new drink in front of him. Spencer took that and knocked it back too. He pulled his phone from his pocket and unlocked it. There was a missed call from his dad, and one from Dylan, but no call or text from Tori. A small part of him had hoped she would change her mind, that she might message him to say she was turning the cab around and coming back, but he knew deep down that it was a silly, forlorn hope. Even if she’d considered it, her parents would see to it that she didn’t. God, how he hated them – almost as much as he loved their daughter. It seemed like a ludicrous position to be in and so very unfair. They had been alright before, and then her stupid parents had come and messed everything up. They hadn’t liked him from the start, and they had set out to destroy him and Tori. It looked as though they’d got what they came for.

  ‘I’ve just got to check on the turkey,’ Colleen said, offering Spencer a conciliatory pat on the shoulder. Spencer nodded and fiddled with his glass as she left him with Doug.

  ‘I’d get you another one, but I’m a bit indisposed,’ Doug said. Spencer looked up and couldn’t help a wan smile.

  ‘I’m sorry. Here’s me feeling sorry for myself and you’ve got far bigger problems. I should be thankful that I have all my limbs working.’

  ‘And youth on your side,’ Doug grinned.

  ‘I know I haven’t lost a limb or anything, but it feels like I’ve lost something… something I can’t put a name on, like there’s this huge gaping hole inside me.’ Spencer shook his head. ‘Listen to me – I sound like an idiot. Why do you need to know all this?’

  ‘I might be a bit long in the tooth and stuck in a wheelchair but it doesn’t mean I can’t have a bit of sympathy for you.’ He nodded up at the bar. ‘Fetch yourself another, and get me one while you’re at it.’ He tapped the side of his nose. ‘On the house – we won’t mention it to Colleen.’

  Spencer couldn’t be bothered to argue. Comfortably numb might just be a nice state of being right now. He strode over to the bar and squeezed a couple of shots from the optics, taking them both back to the table where Doug waited.

  ‘Last year Colleen and I nearly split up,’ Doug said. He held his drink up to the light with a satisfied look before downing it.

  ‘You did? What happened?’

  ‘Well, we worked it out, didn’t we?’

  Spencer blinked. He waited for more, some elaboration on the story, but none came. Instead he knocked back his own measure with a grimace.

  ‘It’ll work out for yo
u too,’ Doug said, holding him in a steady gaze.

  ‘I wish I could be so sure. What do you think I should do about it?’

  Doug shifted in his seat. ‘Beats me.’

  Spencer stared at him. Brilliant advice, Doug. But he had to admire the stoicism with which the landlord of the Dog and Hare viewed life’s problems. For him, almost splitting from Colleen was just like being stuck in a wheelchair with two broken legs – things would come right if they were meant to and it was pointless worrying about it. Spencer wished a little of it would rub off on him.

  Colleen returned from the kitchen wiping her hands on her apron. ‘I bet you could do with a top up,’ she said to Spencer, glancing at the empty in front of Doug with a slight frown as she took Spencer’s glass. ‘Then if you need a friendly ear, you can tell me all about it.’ She was about to return to the bar when there was a knock on the front doors of the pub. Spencer’s head flicked around as Colleen scurried off to answer it. But he was to be disappointed, because it was not Tori at the door, but his mum and dad. Colleen let them in and they came bowling over to the table.

  ‘What the hell happened?’ Jenny demanded. ‘Your car was abandoned at the side of the road, there was no sign of you and you weren’t answering your phone! We were worried sick and now we find you here drinking with not a thought for letting anyone know you’re alright! We thought…’

  Spencer could see she’d been crying and his heart almost broke all over again. ‘God, Mum, please don’t be upset.’

  Jenny dropped to a chair. ‘I thought you’d done something stupid… I thought…’

  Spencer grabbed her hand. ‘I’m sorry. You’re right, it was selfish of me. I just wanted to get to Tori before she left and then when I got here she wouldn’t let me explain.’

  Jenny gave a jerky nod. ‘Ignore me. I’m being silly. I should be apologising to you, not the other way around.’

  ‘It’s not your fault everything went wrong.’

  ‘But I feel responsible.’

  Spencer hesitated. He didn’t want to ask the next question, because to say it out loud might mean an answer he didn’t want to hear. But he had to. ‘She’s been to collect her things then?’

  Lewis nodded. ‘And she wouldn’t listen to a bit of reason. Or rather her stubborn old cow of a mother wouldn’t.’

  ‘We tried to apologise, to tell them that it wasn’t your fault and to make them see what a mistake it was driving you and Tori apart but…’ Jenny didn’t need to finish her sentence for Spencer to know exactly how that conversation had gone.

  ‘Your mum’s taking it hard,’ Lewis said. ‘We both feel responsible.’

  ‘So you bloody well should!’ Everyone looked around to see Ruth Evans standing in the doorway. ‘The door was unlocked,’ she added, by way of an apology for her outburst. ‘I thought you might have opened early.’

  ‘Trust you to be skulking around where you’re not needed,’ Jenny said under her breath.

  ‘I take it your lady friend has gone home and left you high and dry?’ Ruth said, looking at Spencer.

  ‘You know she has,’ Jenny replied for him. ‘You know everything that happens in this village so I can’t even imagine why you’re asking. I wouldn’t be surprised to hear that you’ve bugged everyone’s living rooms and have CCTV in their bedrooms.’

  ‘I keep my wits about me and I learn enough,’ Ruth said haughtily. ‘I’ve also been around the block a few times myself, and I think I know enough about life to be able to give some friendly advice.’

  ‘Come on then,’ Jenny said, arms folded tightly across her chest. ‘Let’s hear the wisdom of Ruth Evans. This should be good.’

  ‘Mum,’ Spencer said, ‘don’t.’

  ‘He’s right,’ Ruth said. ‘The way I see it, you didn’t make things any easier for poor Spencer here than Tori’s parents did.’

  ‘We know that.’

  ‘So why didn’t you stop? You must have known at the time you were making trouble.’

  ‘Do you really think we’d have caused all this deliberately?’ Lewis asked.

  ‘You tell me,’ Ruth said. ‘Seems to me you wanted them apart as much as her folks did.’

  ‘That’s ridiculous,’ Jenny said.

  ‘Not from where I’m standing.’

  ‘Ruth,’ Doug cut in, ‘if you’ve come in just to insult people then you can go. In fact, we’re not open yet so you can go anyway.’

  ‘The money I’ve given you over the years!’ Ruth squeaked. ‘And I helped behind the bar when Doug threw himself off the roof!’

  ‘Doug didn’t throw himself off the roof! And we’re grateful for your help,’ Colleen began, before both Lewis and Jenny cut into the argument with their own opinions, until everyone was talking at once.

  Spencer looked around at them all. This was too much. They barely noticed him get up from his seat, and without another word he left them all shouting in the pub and began the walk to the bakery.

  Chapter 11

  The cabbie had thrown Tori’s suitcases into the back of the van, and they pulled away from Spencer’s house with his parents watching from the doorstep. They had looked a good deal more distraught and repentant than they had in the Chinese restaurant the night before. Tori understood that they were probably sorry, and at any other time she might have said something to make them feel better, even listened to their requests to give Spencer another chance. But she had made her decision and she had to stay strong, even though it was killing her. She had held onto the tears and her dignity as best she could, but as the taxi left the borders of Honeybourne, they flooded out.

  ‘It hurts now, honey, but you’ve made the right decision,’ Mrs Dempsey said, pulling her close and stroking her hair away from her face. ‘Here…’ She handed her a newly washed handkerchief. ‘Dry your eyes. By the time we get to London things will seem better.’

  ‘Will they, Mom? Because it doesn’t feel like it. It feels like things will never be better.’

  ‘Time is a great healer and one day you’ll see that the tough decision was the right one.’

  ‘I don’t think I want to be healed and I don’t think I’ll ever see things your way.’

  ‘Nonsense. You have a wonderful future ahead of you once you get this out of your system. The eligible bachelors will be lining up for you.’

  ‘Your mom’s right,’ Mr Dempsey said, leaning across to pat Tori’s hand.

  Out of her system? She wasn’t some lovesick teen with a crush on her teacher or her father’s best friend. This was a huge decision… This was the rest of her life. Why couldn’t they see that? But she was too confused, too heartsick, to argue it now.

  ‘Mom, what if I’m wrong? What if I’m throwing away something special, something I’ll never find again?’

  ‘You’re not backing down now,’ Mrs Dempsey replied, rubbing Tori’s arm vigorously as if to massage some resolve back into her. ‘You’ve done the hard part and it would be ridiculous to come this far only to go back again.’

  Tori gazed out of the window. The landscape flashed by: layers of white and grey against a blue sky, patches of deep green here and there, roads almost ghostly in their desertion as the rest of the country celebrated Christmas Day in their homes. Tinny music echoed around the cab from the driver’s radio.

  ‘Couldn’t you turn that down?’ Mrs Dempsey snapped at the driver. ‘We’re trying to have a conversation in here and you’re drowning it out! And in case you hadn’t noticed, my daughter is very upset and she needs calm!’

  ‘He’s just trying to be happy,’ Tori said in a dull voice. ‘Leave him alone.’

  Mrs Dempsey looked as though she might argue, but instead straightened her skirt and said nothing. The volume of the music reduced, but Tori could see the driver grinding his teeth in the rear-view mirror. Further along the road, the first large signpost for the motorway, and for London, loomed into view.

  Tori dried her eyes and took a deep breath. This was it: there was no going back now.
r />   Darcie couldn’t remember the last time she had felt so happy and relaxed. Millie was in high spirits, dancing around the kitchen as she cooked. Considering the late hour they had all ended up climbing into bed the night before, it was a miracle she was up and about at all, let alone so cheerful about it. But it seemed the Christmas spirit had got to everyone, and even Oscar gurgled happily in his bouncing seat as everyone scurried to and fro getting the bakery ready for their guests. It all made Darcie feel contented, and more secure in her decision to stick around for a while than she had felt so far. The bakery was beginning to smell like Christmas too, the air filled with the aromas of cooking turkey and glasses of spiced mulled wine for the chefs as they worked. Dylan was still quiet, and Darcie wondered whether he was angry about Millie refusing to open her presents, but when she snuck into the living room to check, she found him crooning to Oscar as he demonstrated the wonders of Lego and figured that he seemed happy enough.

  ‘So,’ Millie asked as they peeled sprouts together, ‘which one will you choose?’

  Darcie shot her a sideways glance. ‘Which what?’

  ‘Boy…’ Millie said with a smile.

  Darcie stared at her.

  ‘Don’t think I haven’t noticed!’ Millie laughed. ‘You’ve already told us that you’ve been thinking about Nathan, and I saw the way you and Tariq looked at each other. I wasn’t born yesterday.’

  ‘I don’t know that Tariq likes me at all,’ Darcie said.

  ‘Ah! So it’s him you’re interested in!’

  ‘I didn’t say that,’ Darcie mumbled, blushing.

  ‘You didn’t need to. What about Nathan? How does he fit in?’

  Darcie sighed. ‘I don’t know. I like him, and I feel bad that I’m even thinking about someone else.’

  ‘But he did mess you around, and you don’t know for sure that all the business with his ex is over.’

  ‘I think it is.’

  ‘But you think that Tariq might be more reliable?’

  ‘I can hardly say that. I’ve met him for half an hour when he was running away from the army. I’m not sure that’s the behaviour of someone who is reliable.’