Coming Home For Christmas

by Julia Williams

  ‘But she’s so lonely, Gabe,’ said Marianne, ‘don’t you think—’

  ‘No I don’t,’ said Gabriel. ‘Eve’s living in the village now and can meet plenty of people there. We’ve done enough to help her. It’s not our problem, Marianne, not anymore.’

  Pippa was on the phone sorting out the hiring of equipment for the Halloween Spooktacular she was planning. It was turning out to be quite a headache, but a fun headache. She’d roped in a number of students from the Drama College in Shrewsbury to play scary parts, hired a couple of smoke machines, worked out a maze in one of the barns with Nathan and George’s help, and despite all the usual bureaucratic nonsense, it actually felt like it was coming together. She’d looked into how other farms did similar things, and spoken to several farmers who reckoned it was their most profitable activity of the year, so she was hoping for great things.

  Although, she was hoping for even better from Christmas. She’d planned to create Santa’s Snow Palace in the biggest barn, and even wangled some reindeer from Ralph’s estate. Ralph had also kindly agreed to be Father Christmas, and with the help of the drama students as elves, she was hoping she could create a really magical feel. If both ventures were successful, Pippa felt they had a good chance of starting the New Year with a nice healthy profit, which meant she should be able to run more events next year. She was still feeling incredibly nervous about the future of the farm, but if things worked out the way she hoped, in a couple of years she might finally be in a position to buy Dan out.

  Since Richard had reappeared to help with the campaign, Dan seemed once again to have melted into the background. He never came into the kitchen for a cup of tea anymore, and when he brought the children home, refused to spend any more time with Pippa than he had to. She’d made it clear to the children that Richard wasn’t about to come back on the scene, but whether the message had got through to Dan or not, she didn’t know.

  It was true she had seen Richard a couple of times, but having quickly established their relative positions on the farm remained the same, she’d made sure he knew that their relationship was not going anywhere, and he appeared to have accepted it. To his credit, it hadn’t stopped Richard from being involved in the campaign, frequently turning up to ‘man the barricades’ as he put it, which made her smile. Richard was hardly the radical type.

  Dan, on the other hand, seemed to be resolutely ignoring the campaign, which made her sad. She knew he loved those woods as much as she did. Time was, he’d have been there fighting with her. Every inch of the way.

  When she came off the phone, she realised Dan was silently standing in the kitchen, patiently waiting for her to finish. She was surprised, as it had been several weeks since he’d voluntarily come in the house.

  ‘Is everything ok?’ she asked.

  ‘Fine,’ said Dan, ‘but I thought you ought to know. I’ve just run into Ralph Nicholas. And they’ve brought the planning meeting forward.’

  ‘Oh?’ said Pippa, the meeting was planned for next week.

  ‘Yes,’ said Dan. ‘It’s tonight, the planning meeting is tonight.’

  Chapter Twenty-Seven

  Marianne drove down the lane, late as usual. Pippa had rung her to let her know what was happening, and she’d filled Gabriel in, before leaving him to put the kids to bed, while she hotfooted to Shrewsbury where the planning meeting was taking place. Pippa had already gone, otherwise they’d have shared a lift. Marianne felt bad dumping Gabriel in it, particularly as they had barely spoken since the row about Eve, but she wanted to be there to hear the verdict.

  When Marianne arrived, she discovered a noisy demonstration outside the council office by some of the campsite followers, who were holding up placards and shouting ‘Save our woods!’, while on the other side of the entrance a rival group were shouting, ‘What do we want? A hotel for Hope Christmas! When do we want it? Now!’

  Inside it was even more chaotic. So many people had turned up for the vote, the council chambers were full and people were milling around outside listening to the action from speakers which were wired into the meeting room. Despite the two opposing groups, the atmosphere was mild and festive. Some people had brought sandwiches and Miss Woods was dispensing tea from a large flask. Batty Jack appeared to have a flask of his own, which Marianne suspected didn’t contain tea.

  ‘Have I missed anything?’ asked Marianne, as she found Pippa in the crowd.

  ‘They haven’t got to us yet,’ said Pippa. ‘We’re the fourth item I think, and they’re on the second.’

  She glanced around, looking at the hotel supporters’ group who were piled in one corner talking amongst themselves animatedly.

  ‘There are a lot of people here who want the hotel,’ she said. ‘That might have an impact on the council’s decision.’

  ‘And more who don’t,’ said Marianne, pointing out the crowd round Miss Woods, and the people still pouring in the door, who judging by their unkempt clothing had come from the camp.

  ‘I suppose,’ said Pippa, but she still looked jittery.

  Marianne could make out an interminable mumble from the speakers over the sounds of the crowds, as one of the councillors was spouting forth about an ongoing problem with drains.

  ‘How come the meeting got moved?’ said Marianne. ‘I thought it was at the end of the month.’

  ‘So did we,’ said Pippa. ‘Sneaky bastards thought they’d get it in before anyone noticed. Luckily Ralph found out, and they hadn’t bargained for the Hope Christmas grapevine. Once Miss Woods had let Diana Carew know, the whole town knew.’

  ‘What’s your gut feeling saying?’ asked Marianne.

  ‘My gut feeling seems to have gone awol tonight,’ said Pippa, ruefully. ‘Word on the street is that the councillors are pretty divided on the issue, and with so many people in the town supporting the development it’s not going to be clear cut. The balance could still be in our favour though.’

  An hour or so passed, during which Marianne regretted rushing off so quickly, as the meeting and chat seemed to go on forever. She was feeling literally sick with nerves by nine o’clock, when they finally moved onto the Hope Christmas Woods. What if they didn’t succeed? What then? Their whole lives would be turned upside down.

  The arguments flowed. Some councillors feeling there had been enough building in the area, one declaring, to so many cheers from the public gallery the chairman threatened expulsions, that she’d had enough of the ‘ravishing of our precious countryside’. But depressingly the tone of the argument seemed more in favour of the proposals than against, with several councillors, none of whom lived anywhere near Hope Christmas, seeming to think it would be fantastic for Shropshire to have more luxury hotels. Marianne was surprised they weren’t demanding one in every town, they seemed so enthusiastic. They were met with huge cheers from the Yummy Mummies and their friends.

  Marianne looked at Pippa anxiously. They’d been hoping that the planning wouldn’t be granted. What if they were wrong?

  Cat and Noel snuck into the County Council building hopelessly late, just as a councillor from the other side of the county closed his argument.

  ‘He’s given a very strong case for the hotel bringing in much needed jobs not just for Hope Christmas, but the outlying villages,’ whispered Pippa, filling them in as they took their seats.

  Tony Morrow, their local councillor, got up to speak, pointing out that Hope Christmas already had a thriving tourist economy, and asking for whose benefit the hotel complex was – hardworking locals who couldn’t afford the prices of spa treatments? Or rich people who would spend the whole weekend being pampered there without stepping foot in Hope Christmas? ‘Yes, the hotel complex will bring people to the area but they won’t spend money here,’ he said, reeling off an impressive list of statistics about hotels that LK Holdings had brought into previous areas, which had caused more problems than they’d solved. ‘If anything, it is likely to have a detrimental effect on the local economy, which is not what we need, no
t for this special place, which we know and love,’ he concluded triumphantly to thunderous applause and more whoops and cheers from the gallery.

  ‘Go, Tony Morrow!’ said Cat. ‘I never knew he had it in him.’ Tony Morrow had always struck her as a rather ineffectual councillor. Cat had once had dealings with him concerning traffic calming measures near the primary school, and he’d been about as much use as a wet weekend in November.

  The speaker after Tony proved to be not quite so compelling. ‘It’s so important that we don’t let business decisions destroy our environment,’ she droned so drearily Cat felt like screaming. She found herself drifting off, thinking back to the chaos she and Noel had left at home. Paige had come home with a detention slip for having cheeked her teacher, Mel was in the dumps about how difficult A level year was going to be, and Angela had declared firmly she wanted to stay on for another week, resulting in a long and tedious phone call with Kay, trying to subtly explain that her mother was in fact a grown up, of sound mind and could stay as long as she liked.

  Noel had started the conversation, but it had got so heated, Cat had had to finish it, promising to take the greatest care of her mother-in-law (as if she wouldn’t) and that they’d review the situation in a week. It had been quite a relief to leave the house …

  She turned back as Ms Boring sat down to muted applause, and Simon Clancy, the councillor for Hope Christmas South (otherwise known as Smooth Simon), locally rumoured to be in the pockets of any number of entrepreneurial builders, got up to speak.

  Cat looked at Pippa anxiously. Smooth Simon was known to be one hell of an operator. God alone knew what he was going to have to say.

  Pippa’s heart sank as Simon Clancy talked. Producing facts and figures that demonstrated the benefits that LK Holdings’ plans would bring to the area. ‘This can only be a good thing for our town and community,’ he said with such conviction, he clearly had the council eating out of his hand. Indeed, his voice was so mesmerising and enticing, for a minute there, he even had Pippa thinking he had a point. Oh hell, it was going to be incredibly hard standing up against this.

  ‘One of the contentious issues of this project, is how we balance the legitimate needs of nature with the forward-looking plans for a modern outlook for Hope Christmas,’ Simon was saying. ‘People are no longer prepared to stay in b&bs and poky little hotels for a weekend away. They want luxury, and spas and the things this hotel can offer. For too long we’ve been saying the two things are incompatible, but LK Holdings have assured me they will protect the wildlife on the site – they are even suggesting turning part of it into a small sanctuary, which I think would address many of the concerns that my constituents have, and which I also share. Felix Macintyre, the CEO, is certainly keen for this to happen, and Luke Nicholas, his second in command, who is himself a local, also wants to retain the character of the area.’

  ‘Luke Nicholas!’ snorted Noel, with whom he’d had dealings when the eco town was being proposed. ‘Since when has he cared about the local area?’

  ‘Ssh,’ said Pippa, as Simon continued.

  ‘To vote against the proposal, is to leave Hope Christmas far behind. So I urge you tonight, to vote for it, and give the village what it needs to bring itself thoroughly into the twenty first century.’

  He sat down to wild applause from the council chambers and boos from the public gallery. Again the chair shushed them, and called everyone to order, but Simon’s speech had left everyone restive. There were shouts from the pro crowd of ‘Give us our hotel now!’ which were met with ‘Don’t destroy the woods!’ from their side. The debate continued for a further fifteen minutes, but it seemed to be going nowhere, so the chair finally said, ‘We are now going to have the vote. So I declare half an hour’s pause before we resume.’

  ‘That’s it,’ said Noel gloomily. ‘Bloody Simon Clancy’s swung it the wrong way. If only Tony Morrow had spoken last.’

  ‘We haven’t lost yet,’ said Pippa stubbornly, but her heart was sinking. They always knew it was going to be tight, but now? It was too close to call.

  The half an hour turned into an hour, and a sombre silence fell over the crowd, the cheery rebellious spirits of earlier dying down as both sides realised the count could go either way.

  Finally at midnight, when Pippa felt she might scream with the tension, the chair called everyone to order.

  ‘Concerning planning permission for Hope Christmas Woods, and Blackstock Farm, planning is hereby granted to LK Holdings,’ he said to utter pandemonium.

  There were huge cheers from the Yummy Mummies, who were hugging each other with glee, and groans of despair from the campers, who looked stunned by the announcement.

  ‘That’s not right!’ shouted someone from the upper gallery.

  ‘Whose side are you on?’ shouted another, while the chair’s cries for calm were completely drowned out.

  Pippa felt sick to the stomach as the chair struggled to make his voice heard. ‘And just to reiterate,’ he said, ‘there is no right to appeal.’

  It was over. They’d lost.

  My Broken Brain

  Worst day in a long while. 1am

  Pippa’s just rung to say it’s all over. The campaign failed and the fields opposite ours are going to be turned into a hotel.

  Despite all Pippa’s hard work.

  I know she’s devastated; so am I. Neither of us wanted this. It’s the beginning of the end. The farm won’t be able to survive with that opposite us.

  Now I really don’t think we have any choice. We have to sell up. And I am utterly heartbroken. For Pippa. For the kids. For me. At least if Pippa and I were still together, we could support one another through this. But we’re not.

  So here I am, alone, in the dark, feeling more fractured than ever.

  Part Four

  Got my feet on holy ground

  Last Year

  Christmas Alone

  Dan got into the Land Rover and started it up while his mum and dad fiddled about, as ever. Mum was flapping that she’d forgotten something (not presents, Dan had brought them over the previous day, nor booze, because Dan had done that too) ah, apparently it was the cake, which she’d insisted on making to ‘save poor Pippa time’. The implications of ‘poor Pippa’ were not lost on him. It was his fault he was living back at his parents and it was his fault that Pippa had a new boyfriend, Richard, who apparently was going to come for Christmas. Pippa had rung Dan apologetically the day before to ask if it would be all right for Richard to join them, as his own family Christmas wasn’t happening. It was Dan’s fault too that instead of spending Christmas where he belonged, with his wife and children, he was visiting with his parents, a stranger in his own home. He didn’t need Mum to rub it in. He was already feeling lousy enough as it was.

  Last year it had been too painful to have Christmas together, so Pippa had gone to Marianne’s, and Dan had spent the day working on the farm, before having a late lunch with his parents and retiring to bed. It had been too dismal for words, so when Pippa told him the children were desperate to have Christmas Day together, Dan couldn’t say no. The boys had asked him outright in front of his parents if he was coming for Christmas, and Lucy only had to look at him with those begging eyes of hers, and it was a done deal. He could never refuse his daughter anything, however awkward things might be round the Christmas table.

  And he did think things were getting better. More civilised. He saw Pippa most days, popping in for tea at some point, trying to make sure he was around for the kids at the end of the day, if he could be, and of course, they still had the farm to run together. At some point they were going to have to come to some decision about the farm. Dan was uncomfortably aware that since his accident, productivity wasn’t quite what it had been, and though Pippa was playing the state of the accounts down, he knew in his heart that they were in big trouble. In the past, he wouldn’t have cared, somehow they could have worked things out, but now, he just didn’t know. They couldn’t keep working like th
is for ever, particularly not with Richard on the scene.

  Dan yawned as Mum and Dad finally got in the car, and he drove off to the farm. After a quick Christmas Eve visit to see the kids, when he’d had to swallow his pride and accept that Richard was sitting in their lounge watching Christmas TV with his family, he’d come home and sat up brooding all night. A year earlier he told Pippa it was all over. He was different since his accident, for him things could never be the same again, and he didn’t want Pippa’s pity. He loved Pippa, he would always love Pippa, and that was why he had to leave her. He couldn’t bear the thought of her becoming resentful with him, because he wasn’t the man she married. She said it didn’t matter; he knew it did.

  And so he’d hardened his heart, and let her go, and now she was starting afresh with someone new. Which was good. It was great in fact. It meant that she was over him, and he couldn’t hurt her anymore. And if he kept building the barriers up between them, soon not being with her wouldn’t hurt him anymore, either.

  By the time they drove into the courtyard of the farm, and were getting out greeting everyone and exchanging Christmas gifts, Dan knew what he had to do. Today, he would give Pippa the best gift of all. He would set her free, so she could have a new life, however much it hurt to do so.

  That’s what you did for the person you loved.

  October

  Chapter Twenty-Eight

  ‘It’s not over till the fat lady sings,’ said Pippa, stubbornly refusing to accept they’d lost, as she and Miss Woods pored over minutes of council meeting notes, trying to work out their next plan of action. Their options appeared to be limited. Planning permission having been granted, it was going to be difficult, if not impossible, to appeal against it. Though Pippa didn’t want to admit it, particularly as the Yummy Mummies were being so triumphant every time she went into the café, it did look as though they might be at the end of the road.