Sealed with a Christmas Kiss

by Rachael Lucas

  Maddy and Roderick returned from the far end of the room, easy in each other’s company.

  ‘You two okay?’ Roddy, sensing Kate’s discomfort, put a calming hand on the small of her back. She felt herself relaxing into him, tension disappearing. He knew what to say to keep boring Leo happy.

  ‘Yep, great.’ Leo touched his pocket again, unthinkingly.

  ‘Yes, lovely. Just chatting about work and things,’ Kate said brightly.

  ‘No more work, Leo. You promised.’ Maddy’s tone was warning, but she smoothed it over with a smile.

  ‘Nope, definitely not. Just got to pop to the – where’s the toilet?’

  His pocket bleeped again, insistently.

  ‘Just across the hall, down the passageway to the left.’ Roderick waved vaguely.

  ‘The door next to the portrait of the man in a kilt with a Jack Russell,’ said Kate, helpfully.

  ‘Uncle Hector.’ Maddy, having just had the family tour, had clearly been paying attention. She gave Roderick a knowing smile.

  ‘That’s the one. Another drink, Maddy? Your glass is empty.’ Roderick took her glass, making for the drinks cabinet. Kate looked at her own empty glass with a slight raise of the eyebrows. Maddy was very small, very beautiful and very charming, and she suddenly felt rather lacking in all of the above.

  Leo disappeared from the room, hand in pocket. She got a distinct impression that the only thing he urgently needed was a work email fix, not a visit to the loo.

  ‘Let’s get this party start-e-e-ed . . . ’

  Kate had never been more relieved to hear Susan’s terrible singing voice echoing through the hall. There was a clatter of bottles and the thud of boots, as Willow shot up from her bed with an excited bark. Kate jumped up, ostensibly to let in her guests but mainly to escape the increasingly strained atmosphere.

  In the hall, having let themselves in, stood Tom MacKelvie and his wife, Susan. They threw off their coats, leaving puddles of melted snow on the floor. Willow, circling, her tail flapping madly, licked them up. Susan was dressed beautifully as ever, her dark hair cut in a close crop which emphasized her huge eyes. She was wearing a short shift dress with opaque black tights, and had exchanged her snow-covered wellingtons for a pair of vertiginous heels which took her to over six feet tall. She gave Kate a much-appreciated hug, looking over her shoulder into the sitting room.

  ‘What’s the goss?’ she whispered low enough that nobody else could hear.

  ‘She’s lovely. He’s – weird,’ Kate mouthed back, paranoid that she’d be caught out.

  ‘There’s a man here with no drink.’ Tom half-embraced his best friend, Roderick, and held his hands out in a gesture of desperation.

  Leo returned from the bathroom to a room suddenly filled with life. Kate watched him reach out to Tom, shaking hands, smiling as Tom explained his role as gamekeeper on the Duntarvie Estate. Clearly it wasn’t Leo that was the problem, it was her. Everyone else seemed to get on with him just fine. She looked sideways at Susan, who was draped across the arm of the sofa, chatting away to Maddy about her wedding plans. Kate couldn’t shake a feeling that something wasn’t quite right, but she was the only person who seemed to notice it. She poured herself a tonic water, topping it up with ice and lemon. Something made her uncomfortable, and she wanted to be on her guard.

  Over dinner the wine flowed, but Kate kept her glass half full. Nobody noticed that she was topping up everyone else’s glass but not her own, and by the time she pulled the salted caramel tart out of the larder, the mood varied from pleasantly mellow (Roddy) through to surprisingly plastered (Leo). He was definitely more communicative with several drinks inside him, and as Kate set the tart down he turned to her with a grin.

  ‘Tart’s on the table, eh, Kate? Dress rehearsal for my stag do.’

  ‘Leo! You’d better be joking.’ Maddy glared at him, pulled up short from her conversation with Susan, who cocked her head at Kate, frowning slightly.

  Kate shook her head in a response which was almost imperceptible. Their friendship had been forged over a long year in the close-knit island community, and Susan had been delighted when Kate and her best friend Roddy had finally admitted how they felt about each other. It was a relief to know that Susan had her back.

  Leo smirked at Kate, a knowing expression on his face. ‘’Course, darling.’

  Kate balled her hands into fists behind her back. He was an absolute arse, and nobody else seemed to think so. And if she was Maddy, she’d be running at a hundred miles an hour in the opposite direction, not down the aisle with that tosser. She took a deep breath.

  Later that night she’d probably lie in bed thinking of numerous witty, tart-based retorts. Instead Kate bit her tongue and passed the jug of cream around the table, smiling politely.

  ‘Coffee, anyone?’ Susan pushed her chair away from the table, its legs screeching on the wooden floor.

  Kate gave her a thankful look and sat down to eat her pudding, realizing as she did that she had no appetite.

  Nobody apart from Kate and Susan had taken up the offer of coffee, and the meal was just breaking up when there was a banging at the door, followed by a swirl of cold air and the sound of swearing.

  ‘Bloody freezing out there!’ Another island accent, this one deep and lyrical.

  Maddy and Leo looked up, confused. It was ten o’clock at night – late for someone to drop in in the middle of town, let alone at a house in the countryside on an island. Nobody else in the room seemed surprised, and Roderick was already reaching into the dresser for another whisky tumbler.

  ‘Evening, all.’

  Standing in the kitchen doorway was the embodiment of Celtic gorgeousness, and he knew it. Clocking Maddy immediately, he ruffled a hand through his sandy hair and flashed her a smile reminiscent of a young Ewan McGregor.

  ‘Well, hello there.’

  Maddy, being only human, flushed. Faced with the direct beam of Finn McArthur’s charm, it was hard not to react. He’d honed it over many years. Kate and Susan, both by now impervious to his lines, treated him more like an over-exuberant pet labrador.

  ‘Turn it down a notch, Finn, you’re freaking out the bridegroom.’ Susan stood up, putting a reassuring hand on Leo’s shoulder. ‘Leo, Maddy – this is Finn McArthur.’

  Roderick stood up, went to shake his friend’s hand and ducked as he went for a high five. They ended up tangled in a drunken bear hug.

  Kate took control of the situation, realizing Maddy and Leo were looking more than a little confused by the sudden arrival of this tawny-haired giant.

  ‘Finn, here’s a drink. Maddy, Leo – our friend Finn. He was invited to dinner, but he got a better offer.’ Kate’s tone was amused. She and Finn had history, but that was in the past now, and their relationship was based on mutual teasing and a shared sense of humour.

  ‘I had some business to attend to, actually,’ Finn defended himself, gratefully accepting his whisky.

  ‘Whatever.’ Susan’s tongue was in her cheek.

  ‘Anyway, he’s here now. You’ve missed dinner, but there’s some – oi, fingers off, get a plate at least!’ Before she could finish her sentence, Finn had picked up the final slice of the tart and it was gone.

  ‘We were just about to go through to the sitting room for a game of charades . . . I know it’s a bit of a cliché, but there’s bugger all else to do round here.’ Tom put his arm round Susan’s waist, scooping her up from the table. Her long legs unfolded gracefully and she looked up at him suggestively.

  ‘Unless anyone fancies a game of hide and seek in the dark?’

  Kate motioned a flat-handed no behind Maddy’s back. There had been quite a few evenings when they’d ended up messing around like teenagers, hiding in the outhouses around the estate in the velvet darkness, hearts pounding with fear and excitement.

  ‘I think charades is a much better plan.’ Roderick held the kitchen door open, motioning for everyone to pass him. Breathing a sigh of relief, Kate ushered everyo
ne through.

  Leo, surprisingly, threw himself into his part. Leaping across the sitting room in an attempt to mime The Unbearable Lightness of Being, he didn’t notice the phone flying from his pocket. Nor did he realize Kate had picked it up and placed it on the coffee table to avoid it being stamped on during his display.

  Kate perched on the arm of the sofa beside Roddy, feeling tired and a bit fed up of everyone drunkenly yelling. Maddy stood up, swaying for a second on her high heels. She smiled down at Kate.

  ‘I’m just popping to the loo – oh, Leo, isn’t this your phone? You’ll lose it if you leave it lying here.’

  Holding the phone, Maddy stepped towards Leo, who almost jumped towards her to grab the phone from her hand. As he did so, he hit the pocket of signal within the room. The phone buzzed, but at the same time his pocket started beeping insistently.

  A moment of realization swept over Kate, the only person sober enough to grasp what was happening straight away.

  Maddy looked down at the still-buzzing phone, her brow furrowing. She looked across at Leo’s pocket. He’d placed a guarding hand there, instinctively, but the bleeping continued.

  ‘If this is your phone, what’s that in your pocket?’

  ‘I can explain.’

  Susan snorted loudly. ‘You’d better make it quick, Sonny Jim, you’ve got a wedding in three weeks.’

  Roderick shot her a warning glare.

  Maddy looked down at the phone, sliding the bar across, unlocking the screen. Her heart-shaped face was ice-white with fury.

  ‘“This bed’s no fun without you in it”?’ She read slowly, enunciating every word clearly.

  ‘Maddy, sweetheart, it’s not what it looks like . . . ’ Leo reached forward, trying to grab the phone from her hand.

  ‘I think I can see perfectly well what it looks like.’

  ‘I think we all can.’ Nobody shushed Susan this time. The room was deathly silent apart from the spitting of logs on the fire.

  Maddy looked down at the phone again, scrolling upwards through the messages. The pain of betrayal flashed across her face, followed by a moment where Kate was certain she was about to burst into tears. Kate reached out, uncertain, putting a comforting hand on her arm. She felt Maddy stiffen, and take a breath.

  ‘I’m going to get a glass of water.’

  ‘Let me give you a hand.’ Roderick stood up, offering his arm to Maddy in an old-fashioned gesture. He didn’t even look in Leo’s direction as he stalked out of the room.

  Kate knew that the alternative would be him punching Leo in the nose. Roddy’s feelings about affairs were well known to her – after his mother had left the family for her lover, leaving his father crushed, he’d grown up well aware of the devastation infidelity could leave in its wake.

  ‘I think you’d better make yourself scarce, mate.’ Finn spoke up, breaking the silence within the room.

  ‘It wasn’t anything – just an office fling . . . ’ Leo tried a half-laugh to smooth things over, appealing to Finn and Tom’s blokey side.

  Tom shook his head slowly, his lips set in a tight line. ‘You’re talking to the wrong person.’

  Kate looked at Leo, stuck here on an island with a load of people who thought he was a cheating arsehole . . . hang on, he IS a cheating arsehole. Even Kate’s soft heart couldn’t find space to feel sorry for him for more than a moment.

  Manners took over. ‘If you come up with me, I’ll show you to a spare room. I suspect that might be for the best?’

  ‘Well, for tonight, anyway.’ Leo gave her a half-smile which Kate thought was meant to look penitent, but which appeared completely fake. But would Maddy feel the same way? They had a wedding planned in just over three weeks, and after all, she’d clearly seen something in Leo that Kate hadn’t noticed.

  They walked upstairs in silence.

  Kate waited in the galleried hall whilst he collected some clothes and his toilet bag, and then showed him to one of the many spare rooms. This one had the heating turned down low – heating the whole of Duntarvie House cost so much that the disused rooms were closed off and arctic on wintry nights. The room was icy enough that their breath hung in clouds.

  ‘Just a moment, I’ll grab you an oil radiator.’ Kate left him standing by the window, looking out into the blackness.

  ‘Thanks.’ Leo took it from her, plugging it in beside the metal bed frame. The room wasn’t anywhere near as glamorous as the luxurious room Kate and Jean had prepared for their guests, and the bed was clad in heavy, old-fashioned blankets and an antique eiderdown which had been in the house forever.

  ‘If you need anything . . . ’ Kate looked at Leo’s face for a moment. He seemed remarkably unmoved by everything that had happened, and had even taken a moment to grab the offending mobile before leaving the sitting room. She didn’t quite know how to treat him. It wasn’t really her place to judge, and after all, she could well be hosting his wedding in a few weeks’ time. Maybe she should make more of an effort.

  ‘I’ll get you a tray with some bits and pieces, give me a moment. I’ll be back in a sec.’

  Kate ran downstairs to the kitchen. The kettle had boiled and Maddy was perched against the Aga, having swapped the planned glass of water for a much-needed cup of hot, sweet tea. From behind her back, Roderick gave Kate a look which clearly said, ‘Get me out of here!’

  ‘Maddy, I’ve put Leo in one of our spare rooms for now—’

  ‘I don’t care where you put him, as long as it’s nowhere near me,’ she spat. Clearly shock had been replaced – rapidly – with fury.

  ‘I’ll just grab him a couple of bits.’ Kate bent down, quickly gathering a little kettle, a teapot, and some of the tiny packets of teabags her mother had brought on her last visit. She sloshed some milk into a jug, aware all the time that Maddy was glaring at her as if she was somehow in the wrong for providing Leo with any small comforts.

  Kate scuttled upstairs with the things on a tray. Knocking on the door, she found Leo inside, laptop on knee, looking remarkably unruffled.

  ‘Have you got a Wi-Fi password?’

  After writing it down for him on his notepad, she left him to it. Probably off to chat to his girlfriend online. Anyway, that wasn’t her problem. What was her problem was the small matter of a wedding which was due to take place here, displaying the beauty of Duntarvie Estate, in less than a month. A wedding that was looking highly unlikely, given that the couple in question were sleeping in separate rooms and one of them seemed to be occupied elsewhere.

  Any chance of a gossip update? Some of us are stuck under a baby and can’t reach the remote control.

  Climbing into bed beside Roddy, thankful that the evening was over, she passed her phone across silently, letting him read the message for himself. With a snort of laughter, he kissed her on the shoulder.

  ‘I’m going to leave you with that one, darling, and get some sleep. Emma did say she wanted the gory details, I suppose . . . ’

  Kate took the phone back, and started tapping a response.

  3

  A Falling Out

  ‘I don’t care if she loves him or not, Kate. I’ve got a load of advertising hanging on this wedding. They can get divorced afterwards.’ Sian’s voice was increasing in pitch so rapidly that Kate had to hold the phone further and further from her ear.

  ‘So where’s he gone now?’

  ‘He got the first boat off the island this morning. I tried to console Maddy that maybe it wasn’t as bad as it looks, but to be honest, Sian, it couldn’t look much worse. He had a separate phone full of texts from some other woman—’

  ‘I don’t care if he had a phone full of texts from fifteen women! I’m in the shit now, Kate, and frankly, so are you. Where’s Maddy? Can I speak to her?’

  ‘She’s gone for a walk down to the beach. I told her it was my best thinking place – but I’m not going to try and persuade her to reconcile with some sleazy git who’s been having affairs left, right and centre.’

&
nbsp; ‘Fine.’ Sian’s voice suggested it was anything but. ‘I’m going to have to think about this. There’s a solution here, and it’s probably staring me in the face. Tell Maddy I’ll be in touch.’

  The line went quiet – blissfully so – and Kate slumped forward onto the kitchen table, head in her arms.

  She’d lain there for a while when there was a tentative tap at the door. Maddy’s head, long hair covered with a beret, appeared with a shy smile.

  ‘I’m so sorry about last night. Well, about all of it, really.’

  ‘God, Maddy.’ Kate stood up, making space on the long bench for her to sit down. ‘You haven’t done anything wrong. You’ve got nothing to apologize for. Leo, on the other hand . . . ’

  ‘I did get a bit ranty after he’d gone to bed.’

  ‘Yeah. After you’d realized the man you were about to marry was having an affair. I think under the circumstances, that’s okay.’ Kate lifted the teapot with a questioning look. Maddy nodded, gratefully. There was some of Jean’s coffee cake in the larder, too, Kate remembered, fetching a couple of huge slices. She passed one across.

  ‘I don’t get it, though. I’m supposed to be getting married in three weeks’ time, and I’m more worried about telling everyone than I am about the realization that my life just ended.’

  ‘That’s because your life didn’t end.’ Kate looked at Maddy thoughtfully. ‘I think it probably just started. I know you loved him—’

  ‘I loved the idea of him,’ Maddy interrupted. ‘But I think I got a bit caught up in wedding fever.’

  ‘It’s easily done,’ said Kate, with a sympathetic expression. ‘I’ve seen it happen to so many of my friends.’

  She thought back, remembering the preparations for Emma and Sam’s wedding. Emma had been determined to make it as low-key as possible, but Kate had a distinct memory of her best friend having a complete meltdown over John Lewis being out of stock of the specific thickness of ribbon she needed. Maybe it was a rite of passage?

  ‘Well,’ said Kate, bringing herself back to the present, ‘Sian’s on the warpath, but there’s nothing she can do about it. I’m sure we’ll sort something out, even if we have to mock up a wedding for the photo shoot.’