Christmas at the Castle

by Jenny Kane

  ‘Thanks.’ Charlie smiled as the waitress arrived with a jug of coffee and some milk. ‘I don’t suppose you’ve got anything for a headache behind the counter, have you? We had a bit too much of the local special last night.’

  ‘That’s not like you.’ Mel noticed the way Charlie’s friend from London was knocking back the coffee as though her life depended on it.

  ‘Trust me, organising a literary festival requires many things, and last night it was whisky.’

  Mel inclined her head towards the counter. ‘I have something in my bag.’

  Charlie followed Mel, and gratefully popped two tablets from the waitress’s personal supply of Ibuprofen. ‘You’re a lifesaver.’

  ‘I’m looking forward to the festival,’ Mel enthused. ‘Mum and I are coming to the romance panel. Am I right in thinking there’s a bus organised to take people to and from the castle each night?’

  More determined than ever not to let the locals down, and mentally adding the transport situation to her, ‘make sure it’s sorted’ list, Charlie said, ‘We have, but there’s only one, so once it’s full, folk will have to make their own way back and fore.’

  ‘I’ll make sure I’m first in the queue!’

  ‘If you bring three of your finest homemade scones and an unhealthy quantity of butter, then I’ll make sure you get reserved seats!’

  Returning to the table, Charlie knew she couldn’t put the moment off any longer, ‘Alice, Kit has news.’

  Looking up from where she’d been staring into the abyss of a full-strength black coffee, a beverage she only drank in the most extreme of emergencies, Alice said, ‘Let me guess, the festival is cancelled. Cameron is extracting his revenge. Frankly, I don’t blame him.’

  Adopting the tone she used when her teenage daughter was being difficult, Kit spoke through the drumbeat of her hangover. ‘If you could stop wallowing in self-pity, Alice, I’ll tell you.’

  An uneasy silence descended as Kit broke her news. ‘While you were talking to Charlie last night, I went to see Cameron.’

  ‘You did?’

  ‘I had to at least try to make him change his mind.’

  Alice held her coffee cup close, as if she was determined to extract every ounce of its warmth. ‘Well, thank you for trying, Kit, and for coming all this way to help us out. I’m sorry it was for nothing, and while I’m at it, I’m sorry I haven’t thanked you before.’

  ‘You’re welcome, and I appreciate the thanks, Alice.’ Kit took courage as the aroma of coffee wafted her way. ‘I have good and bad news. There will be a festival, and it will be at Crathes, but I’m afraid Cameron doesn’t want you at the castle. You’ll have to run it from outside the grounds, Alice. I tried to make him see sense, but as we still have a venue, and therefore an event, I didn’t want to push my luck.’

  Alice fiddled with her teaspoon. ‘How are we going to break it to everyone that it’s all off? They’ll be a lot of things to return – wine, champagne, and the SWI have already made a heap of cupcakes. And the people who’ve made hotel bookings will need compensating as well.’

  Charlie frowned as Kit repeated, ‘Alice, are you listening? It isn’t cancelled.’

  ‘Not cancelled?’

  ‘No. But you can’t go. We need a replacement host to do the introductions and close each event. And while we’re on it, we don’t have anyone to run the crime panel.’

  A spark flared in Alice’s eyes. ‘I can’t attend my own festival?’

  Kit felt awkward, ‘I’m afraid not.’

  ‘That’s impossible.’ The words shot out of Alice’s mouth like vengeful bullets, ‘I have to be there to make sure it’s all running OK, to make sure the drink is in place, the tickets are taken, that everyone is happy. It’s the little touches that matter. Anyone can host, but I have to be there to actually run it. Bloody Cameron! For a moment there I thought he’d given up on his plan to ruin my reputation by cancelling, but in fact he’s trying to ruin it by making sure it’s a disaster!’

  Charlie let out a slow exhalation of breath. ‘Alice, I assume you aren’t saying you can’t trust Gran, Kit, and I to make sure all those things are alright?’

  Dropping her spoon with a clatter, Alice sighed. ‘Of course not; but that’s the part of being an events planner I love best. The final touches that make it run smoothly.’

  Pulling herself together, Alice looked at the two writers. ‘So then, if I can’t be on site, which of you two will be the overall host, and which will triple check every tiny detail?’

  ‘Do you think you should have told Alice about you and Gervase?’

  ‘It would have felt a bit tactless to rub in how happy I am when she isn’t.’ Charlie pushed the last drawing pin into the corner of the festival poster she was adding to the library’s display of books from the authors due to come to town. ‘I know you think I’m silly, but I’m still worried Gervase will fall for her. Every bloke I’ve ever seen near Alice has. Why would Gervase be any different? She’s gorgeous, it’s just how it is, and I can’t face the thought of being heartbroken in that way again.’

  ‘I don’t think you’re giving Gervase any credit here.’

  ‘Maybe not.’ Charlie repositioned a pile of books by Jeremy Allen, who was to be the main attraction on the crime panel. ‘I considered asking Gervase to host the crime panel. He reads lots, and he knows loads about authors and writing. He’d know exactly what sort of questions to ask.’

  Kit, who’d been beginning to think that she’d have to ask Phil to do it, was relieved, ‘I think Gervase would be perfect. Well, that settles it. You have to tell Alice about him.’

  ‘I did what you said.’

  Charlie saw the flash of a fishtail in the bubble of rushing foam, which she was sure was a good omen. The River Feugh gurgled its response, telling her it only gave good advice.

  ‘It was good to stand my ground for a while, but now I’m afraid. It feels so right with Gervase. I know I’m being paranoid, but what if Gervase does fall for Alice?’

  ‘Did Gervase laugh when you told him to spoke to the stars, and took advice from a river?’

  ‘No.’ Charlie smiled as she recalled how Gervase had nodded solemnly when she’d told him about that peculiarity of her nature, and he’d confessed he often had deep and meaningful conversations with the fish in his garden pond.

  ‘Then you have your answer.’

  Kit was in the corner of the estate office, emailing Peggy to check that life in Richmond was as she’d left it, when Cameron, a rogue twist of tinsel around his shoulders, came back into the office after his daily inspection of the main pathways to make sure they weren’t too slippery to walk on. He greeted Kit, but although he managed to be polite to all Crathes customers, in the privacy of his office he sank back into wounded pride mode.

  Deciding to take no heed of Cameron’s mood, Kit said, ‘I have an idea that could finish off the festival with a swing, and help mend your broken heart.’

  ‘I don’t have a broken heart!’

  ‘Is that so? Well Alice does, and I want to fix it.’

  Cameron’s brow furrowed, a shaft of jealousy stabbing his chest, ‘So which poor fool has she let close enough to hurt this time?’

  ‘Herself! Obviously! Now listen …’

  Chapter Thirteen

  Friday December 4th

  ‘Where are we going?’ Charlie dragged on the coat Gervase threw at her from behind the bookshop counter. ‘I don’t have time to go anywhere but Crathes. The festival starts today and I have so much to do!’

  ‘Kit can manage for a while longer.’

  It didn’t take long for Charlie to work out where they were heading, ‘You’re taking me to the bridge?’

  Gervase held Charlie’s hand tighter as they marched along the road. By the time they reached the stone bridge, she was out of puff. As Gervase pointed a gloved hand at the swirl of the water, Charlie tried to gauge if he was angry, resigned, or faintly amused that he’d had to bring her to a river in th
e middle of a working day to make her see sense.

  ‘I’m glad you confided your fears about Alice to me, but they are groundless. If you won’t believe me, you might believe your river. So go on, ask it.’

  Suddenly the fact that she always trusted the river over people seemed silly. ‘I don’t need to.’

  And to her surprise, Charlie found she didn’t. With Gervase’s hand in her own, she didn’t need to divine her wisdom from the drama of the Feugh.

  ‘Are you sure?’ A smile flickered in the depths of the bookshop owner’s eyes as Charlie nodded emphatically. ‘Good. Because I am only going to say this one more time,’ Gervase took hold of both of Charlie’s hands, ‘I am crazy about you. I was the second you walked through my shop door with your mad hair and your clumpy boots. Alice, on the other hand, I respect as a businesswoman, and I’m sure I’ll grow to like her as a person, but I wouldn’t fancy her if she was drenched in onion gravy with a side order of honeyed parsnips and mashed tatties!’

  Laughing, Charlie said, ‘Excuse me? Gravy, parsnips, and mash?’

  ‘They happen to be the three items that feature at positions two, three, and four on my “most delicious things in the world” list.’

  ‘Hang on! You’ve got a “most delicious things” in the world list?’ Delighted by the idea, Charlie kissed Gervase hard on the lips, ‘And I thought I was the one who was crackers, what with taking advice from a river and talking the stars and everything.’

  ‘Since when did you have the monopoly on being quirky?’

  Charlie grinned as they said goodbye to the river and headed back to the shop so they could get the first batch of books ready for the opening night, feeling as though years of insecurity had been lifted from her shoulders. ‘Hold on then, what’s your number one delicious thing? Some sort of pie to serve with the parsnips, tatties, and gravy?’

  ‘Nope.’

  ‘Haggis?’

  Gervase wrapped an arm around her waist, ‘You are. You’re my number one most delicious thing, and it’s a darn shame there’s so much to do for this evening, or I’d be dragging you back to my flat and asking if I could have a sneaky taste.’

  Kit threw her notebook across the bedroom, closed her eyes, and counted to ten. There were six hours until the first panel was due to kick off the festival, and her concentration was in pieces. With Cameron flatly refusing to do it, she and Charlie had drawn lots to see who’d introduce the first event and make sure that the questions kept flowing afterwards.

  Wishing that Phil’s plane would hurry up and arrive a miraculous two hours early so he could help her learn the lines she’d written to open the festival, not to mention the mini-biographies of the three historical novelists, each who wrote about a different era, who were due to kick off the proceedings, Kit was slowly driving herself to distraction.

  ‘At least Alice is doing the greetings at the airport,’ Kit mumbled into the mirror as she gave up attempting to memorise her lines and started to try on the outfits she’d brought that could be OK to host in. ‘Honestly! I didn’t exactly pack with designs on being Fiona Bruce!’

  Fifteen minutes later Kit’s clothes lay in a discarded pile on the bed. Stuffing her notebook in her bag, she put her coat on, and walked at speed to the estate office, ‘Cameron, do you have a spare minute to drive me into town? If I don’t have a proper cup of coffee in a proper coffee shop soon I am never going to get through the day!’

  ‘But we have a proper coffee shop in the castle?’

  ‘You do, and it’s lovely, but it is currently full of Gwen, her SWI friends, and some dreadful woman called Mrs Crippit, getting set up for tonight. I need to sit and learn my lines in an environment my brain is used to. Unless you want to drive me to Richmond for a cup of Pickwicks’ finest, then I have to get to The Gift Shop Café. Fast!’

  Charlie felt apprehensive as she knocked on the door to Alice’s hotel room. Although the air between them had cleared, and they’d communicated via text and email on festival business, this was the first time since Alice had been banned from the castle Charlie had made any effort to see Alice on her own.

  The door clicked open to reveal Alice with a mobile pressed to her ear and a piece of paper in her hand. She beckoned for Charlie to enter as she explained to whoever was on the end of the phone how to get from Aberdeen airport to Crathes.

  Hanging up, Alice smiled. ‘That was Davy Smith, the medieval crime guy for tonight; he’s hired a car so he can do the tourist bit for a few days, but he left his directions at home.’

  ‘Kit’s husband is hiring a car as well. He gets in this afternoon.’

  ‘So I believe. Anyway,’ Alice asked, ‘how can I help you? If it’s something at the castle I’m afraid you’ll have to sort it, seeing as I’m not allowed across the threshold.’

  Charlie swallowed. She hadn’t come to have a row. ‘That isn’t my fault, Alice, and no, that isn’t why I’m here. I wanted to make sure you were alright, and to tell you something.’

  Sagging onto the edge of her bed, the heavy bags under her eyes betraying how much crying she’d done and how little sleep she’d had, Alice said, ‘No, I’m not alright.’ She waved her arms hopelessly, ‘If they could see me in Edinburgh now!’

  Charlie sat next to her friend. ‘You are allowed, you know.’

  ‘Allowed what?’

  ‘To have a break. To care, to be kind, to love, to be the person I know you are underneath. I miss that Alice; the one who only wears a business suit over her body and not over her mind.’

  ‘I … I … can’t.’ Alice felt tears swelling back up in her eyes. ‘I’ve worked too hard to give it all up for someone who doesn’t even like me anymore.’

  ‘Of course Cameron likes you. People don’t get that angry and irrational over people they don’t care about.’

  Alice sniffed hard and made a concerted effort to pull herself together. ‘I’ve made my decision.’ She gestured towards a pile of luggage, ‘I’m leaving tonight.’

  ‘Tonight!’ Charlie took a step backwards, ‘You can’t! I mean, you’re being paid to organise the festival until Monday night.’

  ‘The only other bits I can do if I’m not allowed on the castle grounds, I can do by phone, so I can be anywhere I like. The sooner I put some space between myself and Cameron the better.’

  ‘But I had something important to tell you, and then there’s Kit, and …’

  ‘And nothing. I’m sorry, Charlie. I can’t bear to be so near Cameron and feel invisible.’

  Charlie’s eyes met Alice’s, as the words ‘Now you know how I felt’ hung unspoken in the air between them.

  Heading for the door, Charlie made one last plea, ‘Please, Alice, reconsider. I know Cameron wants you in his life.’

  Alice groaned as her mobile began to ring again, ‘What was it you wanted to tell me anyway?’

  ‘I’ll tell you later. Just don’t disappear without saying goodbye.’

  Chapter Fourteen

  Friday December 4th

  ‘I assume you’re in a terrible state nerves-wise, have decided that none of the clothes you bought with you are suitable, and don’t think you can remember a single thing about the authors you’ll be introducing?’ Phil engulfed his wife in a hug as he climbed out of the hire car.

  Kit laughed, despite the fact her insides were doing somersaults. ‘How did you know?’

  Phil raised his eyebrows. ‘Because we’ve been married a long time! Anyway, Peggy said you’d need different clothes for hosting, so I let her raid your wardrobe.’

  Grateful for having such a brilliant best friend, Kit threw her arms around her husband. ‘I’m going to need your help, Phil.’

  ‘Don’t worry, love, you’ll be great. I’ll be there cheering you on.’

  ‘I’ll need you to do more than that. Can you be our ticket man and stuff? Cameron and Alice have really landed us in it.’

  ‘How?’

  ‘I’ll fill you in properly over lunch. Let’s just say that Shak
espeare could have got one hell of a lot of material from these guys when he was writing The Comedy of Errors!’

  Cameron peered down through the branches of the pine tree he was halfway up, adjusting the Christmas lights cabling that had become tangled thanks to some unhelpful red squirrels. ‘So you and Kit have gone ahead and organised things anyway then?’

  Charlie nodded. ‘Absolutely. It was Kit’s idea. She thought that it would be a perfect end to the festival, straight forward to arrange, and could become the estate Christmas party as well as being a lovely surprise for Alice for coming to your rescue and organising this festival in the first place.’

  Not commenting on Alice, Cameron jumped to the ground. ‘Straight-forward apart from the musicians. It is Christmas, you know, Charlie, all the country dance bands are going to be booked up.’

  ‘Almost all of them.’

  Cameron brushed dirt and dust from his hands. ‘Go on, how have you solved that problem?’

  The teasing smile the estate manger gave Charlie briefly reminded her of why she’d found him attractive all those years ago, ‘Three of the husbands belonging to Gran’s SWI team used to be in a country dance band. They’re all champing at the bit to get back in the game.’

  Then, speaking fast so that she didn’t lose her nerve, Charlie added, ‘You could invite Alice yourself, as an apology for not letting her come to her own festival. Kit and I haven’t told her we’re doing this yet.’

  Cameron regarded Charlie quietly for a second, ‘I believe I owe you a massive apology. For back then, I mean. Alice bewitched me, you see.’

  ‘It’s alright. It wasn’t, but it is now.’ Giving Cameron a quick hug, Charlie ran back to the castle, deciding that as he hadn’t actually said no to Kit’s idea about either holding a dance or inviting Alice, then he must have meant yes.

  Alice sat on the edge of her hotel bed looking at her two perfectly matching pieces of luggage. Once she picked them up and checked out of the hotel, she’d be saying goodbye to Banchory for good. Tears threatened to spill out of the corner of her eyes as she thought of how close she’d come to ruining the best friendship she’d ever had, and now, due to her own ambition, she wasn’t going to be able to visit Charlie in Banchory in case she bumped into Cameron. You’re a fool, Alice Warren.