by CP Ward
She stood up, looking around her. The man was standing with a lantern in one hand on the other side of the bike. In the other he was holding the bridle of an enormous reindeer. As Jessica stared, the reindeer snorted and stamped its hooves with impatience. Something silvery dripped off its back, and to Jessica’s surprise she realised it was melting snow.
‘Oh, um, hello,’ she said.
The man turned. He was perhaps a little older than her, mid-thirties. His face a little stubby, hair a little rugged. He wore a woolly hat and a thick sweater that looked like it had been made from the wool of three or four sheep.
‘Hi. We heard you come down the valley earlier. I’m not sure where you’re heading, but you’re off most of the touring routes. Far too windy for most bikers out here. You ran out of petrol?’
Jessica blushed. Why am I blushing? ‘Yeah, looks like it.’
‘Is this your bike?’
‘Ah … kind of.’
‘Kind of?’
‘It’s my dad’s.’
The man smiled. ‘Oh. Well, he has good taste. Must have cost a few quid.’
‘Yeah, I think so.’ She wondered why she felt like she was digging herself a hole. Trying to correct herself, she said, ‘I’m Jessica and this is my, um, friend, Kirsten.’
‘Government-appointed trainee,’ Kirsten said, standing up. ‘This is the first time we’ve done anything girly together.’
Jessica grimaced. ‘We’re on our way to Snowflake Lodge.’
‘Oh, really? We’ll you’re a little ways off. You missed a turn back along, but it’s not far. Half an hour on these roads. About the same by sled.’
‘Sled?’
The man smiled again. He had a nice smile, Jessica thought, even if it felt a little patronising. ‘Yeah, once the snow sets in, it’s the best way to get around. Belinda here needs the exercise too.’
‘Are you like, Father Christmas?’ Kirsten blurted.
‘Do I look that old?’
‘About thirty-five.’
The man laughed. ‘I’m thirty-four. But I’ll give you a year for the poor lighting. My name’s James. James Wilcox. And down there by the train line, that’s my cousin Henry.’
‘Henry?’
James cupped his hands and hollered, ‘Henry! Up here! I’ve got her!’
A light appeared further down the valley, quickly moving upslope. A figured appeared out of the dark and another man, a couple of years older but just as powerfully built and—reluctantly, Jessica had to admit—handsome, came up to meet them. For some reason, the first thing she noticed was the ring on his finger.
Kirsten, rather shockingly, had noticed it too. ‘Oh, you’re married?’ she said. ‘I suppose this can’t be like the movies, then. Two guys, two gals?’ She pronounced it with a long, drawling “a” as though it were something she had copied from a movie. Jessica closed her eyes, wishing she had some duct tape to put over Kirsten’s mouth. ‘Not that it matters, because I have a boyfriend.’
Jessica’s eyes snapped open. ‘Since when?
‘Last week. Billy from the pub asked me out on a date. We haven’t been on it yet, but we will.’
‘You never told me.’
‘Of course not. You’re my boss.’
James and Henry were both chuckling. Jessica felt like a seventeen-year-old away from home for the first time.
‘Do you think you could point us in the direction of the nearest petrol station?’ she asked.
James laughed. ‘Thirty miles back the way you came. If you start walking you’ll be there by morning, if the bears don’t get you first.’
‘Bears? There are bears?’ Kirsten said.
‘And wolves. But no walruses. You’re safe there.’
Jessica’s cheeks burned as the two men shared an amused glance. She decided she didn’t like either of them much at all.
‘We’ll wait until morning,’ she said. ‘We’ll be fine here in the sidecar. It was nice to meet you both, but we’ll let you get on your way.’
James’s smile dropped, replaced by an expression of seriousness Jessica had not seen before. ‘I’m afraid we can’t allow that,’ he said. ‘It’s December. It’s not proper cold yet but in three or four hours it’ll start to kick in. It could easily go ten below tonight, and it’s snowing further up the valley. It’s a good thing she got over the fence or we might never have found you.’
‘Well, we appreciate the help,’ Jessica said.
‘You said you were heading for Snowflake Lodge?’
‘Yes.’
James nodded. ‘We’re on foot, and it’ll get a little icy to go up there tonight, but there’s plenty of room at my place. It’s about a twenty-minute-walk along the train line.’
He had mentioned the train line before, but Jessica hadn’t seen anything. ‘Where?’
James pointed over his shoulder. ‘It’s about a hundred yards in front of you,’ he said. ‘It goes from Inverness out to Hollydell, where Henry lives. It’s another ten miles further east.’
‘Hollydell?’
Henry smiled. ‘It’s a Christmas village. You should visit while you’re up here, if you have a chance. Say, are you girls from down south?’
‘Bristol,’ Jessica said.
‘You should meet my wife, Maggie. She’s a southern girl too. She’s visiting her family at the moment, but she’ll be back around Christmas. How long are you up here on holiday?’
‘Oh, we’re not on holiday,’ Jessica said, immediately wishing she’d gone with Henry’s assumption.
‘No?’
‘She’s the new plumber,’ Kirsten said proudly. ‘And I’m her assistant.’
The men shared another glance. ‘Is that so? Working women?’
‘But we’re not lesbians,’ Kirsten said.
Jessica put her head in her hands and moaned as the two men laughed. ‘I prefer you when you’re reading your books, Kirsten,’ she said.
James clapped his hands together. ‘Come on, let’s get out of this cold, just in case there are any bears. Bring whatever you need. We’ll hunt out a tank of petrol from the shed and one of us’ll come out for the bike in a bit.’
A few minutes later, they were following James and Henry’s bobbing lanterns, the huge reindeer trotting obediently along beside them. They crossed a train line that had been entirely hidden in the dark, then James turned up a narrow track leading between two stone walls. The train line was on one side, the hill rising off into darkness on the other. As the trail began to rise, moving away from the train line and angling uphill, they passed patches of wet snow on the ground.
‘We’re a week or so off the first big dumps,’ James said. ‘Once it comes it’s here until March, though. It’s snowshoes and sleds all round.’
‘Isn’t that a bit inconvenient?’
James smiled. ‘Not when you’ve got a tummy full of hot chocolate, there are lights hanging in the trees, and a fire burning in the grate. You get used to it. Ah, here we are.’
The path angled around a corner to reveal a cluster of farm buildings set around a small but quaint farmhouse. Set into a hollow in the hill, its lights had been entirely invisible from the road, which Jessica guessed was somewhere to the east behind them. Outside lights illuminated a cobblestone courtyard, in the centre of which was a large pine tree.
‘If you have time in the morning, I’d love a little help decorating my tree,’ James said.
They took Belinda to a barn, in which several other reindeer sat on the ground, apparently asleep. A couple stood up at Belinda’s arrival, wandering over to the gate to see what was going on.
‘Aren’t they huge?’ Kirsten said.
‘They need to be if they’re going to pull Father Christmas’s sleigh,’ James said. ‘It’s pretty full, you know. Did you know that he needs to visit eight hundred and twenty-two houses per second in order to visit every house on Christmas Eve?’
‘I didn’t know that,’ Kirsten said. ‘Does that take into account the number of childr
en per house, or the respective religions of their parents?’
James looked awkward. ‘I suppose it depends on which book of interesting facts you read.’
Henry offered to go and get the bike, while James let them inside. The house was a traditional cottage, all stone walls and lamp-lit nooks and comfortable armchairs, with a log fire in the living room. James took them in and sat them down, then returned a few minutes later with a tray of hot chocolate and marshmallows.
‘This will fill you up,’ he said. ‘We might as well get into the spirit of things with Christmas just around the corner. Just so you don’t get too much of a sugar high, I’m reheating some stew from dinner. Give me a few minutes.’
Jessica was surprised to see it was nearly nine o’clock. Kirsten, humming to herself, set about making some kind of marshmallow tower on top of her hot chocolate. Jessica looked around the room, taking in all the mementoes and family photographs. Most of them showed an elderly couple, but in older photographs she recognised a young boy as James, standing beside a girl who was a little older.
‘My family,’ he said, coming back in with a tray laden with bowls of stew and large crusty bread rolls. ‘My parents have sadly passed. My sister, Lillian, lives down in London. She’s got some posh city job. It was left to me to take over our parents’ farm.’
‘You live here alone?’
He smiled. ‘Just me and my cat, Molly,’ he said, just as Kirsten sneezed.
‘Are you all right?’
Kirsten flapped a hand. ‘Oh dear. I have some tablets in my bag, don’t worry. Ah, but I left them with the bike.’
‘Henry will be here in a minute. Sit on that chair over there. Molly doesn’t like that one.’
Jessica grimaced as Kirsten sneezed again.
‘Oh, bless me.’
Just at that moment, the front door opened and Henry came in, a swirl of wind bringing a flurry of snow with him. He shut the door, pulled off his coat, and gave them a smile.
‘All good,’ he said. ‘I’ve put your bike in one of the barns to keep it out of the weather. It’s just started snowing.’
‘You got back to it all right?’ Jessica asked.
‘Yeah.’ Henry frowned. ‘As it happened, a motorist had stopped by it, and left his headlights on. It only took me a minute to get up there.’
‘A motorist?’
‘Yeah, I was a little surprised. To have two vehicles out this way at this time of night is quite a surprise. The guy had stopped to see if you needed any help, but looked a little concerned that the bike was unattended. I reassured him you were in a safe place and you’d be going on to your destination in the morning.’
Jessica frowned. ‘He didn’t happen to be wearing a hat and a trench coat, did he?’
Henry lifted an eyebrow. ‘As a matter of fact, he did.’
12
Breakfast
James took the two girls to a guest suite on the second floor, thankfully a Molly-free zone. Both girls were exhausted and within minutes were asleep on the room’s comfortable twin beds. The next morning, feeling the most rested since her flat’s pre-Doreen days, Jessica left Kirsten sleeping and headed down to see what had befallen her motorbike in the night.
The men were wandering across the courtyard, where a light snow had fallen overnight. Jessica realised she was completely unprepared for any kind of snow as it immediately engulfed the work boots in which she had ridden here. As she walked across to the covered barn where the men were now inspecting the Tomahawk, she felt the tickle of icy snow wetting her ankles.
‘Quite a bike you’ve got here,’ Henry said. ‘I’d love something like this to take me back to Hollydell, but unfortunately I’m on the sled. You be careful riding this in the snow.’
‘You’re leaving?’
‘I’m afraid so. It’s December 2nd. The season’s kicking off. You have a great time at Snowflake Lodge, and if you have a chance to get over to Hollydell to say hello, by all means.’
‘Thank you.’
Out in the courtyard, she waited with James while Henry harnessed a couple of reindeer to a small sleigh. Then with a wave goodbye and a click of the reins, he was off down the lane and away.
‘Breakfast?’ James said, when Henry was out of sight. ‘I’ve got fresh bread and cereal, coffee and orange juice. Better than you’d get in a Travel Lodge, I imagine.’
‘I hope we’re not imposing,’ Jessica said, feeling suddenly awkward. ‘We’ll be on our way as soon as Kirsten wakes up.’
James shook his head. ‘I didn’t mean it like that. It’s nice to have guests, even unexpected ones.’
Still unable to shake a sense that they were imposing, Jessica followed James inside. He had already laid out a table with some breakfast things.
‘I have to say, you’re an odd couple,’ James said, pouring Jessica a cup of coffee out of a filter.
‘She’s my trainee,’ Jessica said.
‘Ah, I remember. You’re a plumber with rich parents.’ He grinned. ‘Fantastic. I suppose if you have a decent safety net, you can try anything.’
‘They’re not my safety net,’ she said, a little too sharply. ‘Unlike my parents, I didn’t want to spend my life sponging off my family fortune, not bothering to get a job, using their money, living in their house—’
James lifted an eyebrow. ‘No, of course not. That would be terrible, wouldn’t it?’
‘Oh. Sorry. I didn’t mean—’
‘It’s okay,’ James said. ‘I pay the mortgage. I had to remortgage the house to pay for my father’s cancer treatment. He died in the end, but we had a couple of years together we might otherwise not have had. It was worth every penny, even if during the summer I work two jobs to keep up the payments.’
‘I’m really sorry.’
James shrugged. ‘Don’t worry about it. I’m happy for you.’
Jessica wanted the ground to swallow her up. ‘I’d better go and wake Kirsten. Then we’ll be on our way. I can’t thank you enough for helping us.’
‘It was my pleasure.’
Jessica hurried upstairs, needing to get out of the conversation before she made things even worse. Perhaps it wasn’t just Kirsten with a foot-in-mouth problem. The sooner they were out of James’s house and back on the road the better.
Kirsten was still fast asleep. Jessica gave her a shake, then, while Kirsten was groggily sitting up in bed, went to the window and peered outside.
A perfect winter wonderland greeted her eyes. In the distance, tall mountains were topped with snow. Closer, rolling hills with forested valleys were blanketed with white, the road where they had come a line between two unblemished snowfields.
A car sat halfway along the road, angled so its driver’s window was facing them.
Jessica narrowed her eyes. She had seen the car before, and even though it was too far away to make out the person sitting in the driver’s seat, she knew without a doubt who it was.
Dick Burd.
‘I’ve had enough of this,’ she muttered, turning away from the window.
‘Enough of what?’ Kirsten mumbled, still half asleep as she yawned. ‘I don’t think I could ever get enough of these beds.’
‘I’ll see you downstairs in a bit,’ Jessica said, hurrying out of the room.
Downstairs, she ignored James, who was cooking bacon and eggs in the kitchen. She pulled on her coat and zipped it up, then headed out into the snow.
The wind had got up, gusting flurries of snow around her, making her wish she’d brought something a little more appropriate to wear than the old duffel jacket she wore for evening appointments. Also wishing she had a pair of thicker gloves, she stuffed her hands into her pockets and staggered down the lane to the road, somehow managing to avoid slipping over on several frozen puddles hidden under the fresh snowfall.
The lane dipped into a valley before crossing the railway line, for a few minutes putting Dick Burd’s car out of sight. When it came back in sight, as Jessica climbed up the hill on the o
ther side of the train tracks, he was no longer in the car, but outside of it, near to the stone wall bordering the road from the moorland beyond. And he was no longer alone.
Two old ladies, one walking a hardy sheepdog, had paused beside Dick Burd, who appeared to be picking stones up out of the snow and replacing them on the wall.
‘What a thoughtful young man you are,’ one of the women was saying as Jessica came into earshot. ‘My Bob wouldn’t be seen dead out here in this weather. And you can be quite sure none of the ruffians in the village would, either. I expect your parents are very proud of you.’
‘I’m just thinking about the wildlife,’ Dick Burd said. ‘If a deer jumped over this wall into the path of a motorist, it might leave its babies without a parent.’
‘Oh, what a thought!’ the second woman exclaimed.
‘Not to mention the danger to motorists,’ Dick Burd continued. ‘Who wants to have a traffic accident this close to Christmas?’
‘Quite, quite,’ the first woman said. ‘Are you a local? I have a mind to put your name down for a community award.’
Dick Burd shook his head. ‘No, I’m just travelling through,’ he said.
‘Well, before you go much further, you come over to Dotty here’s house for some cookies and hot chocy,’ the second woman said.
‘Don’t mind if I do,’ said Dick Burd, standing up and brushing snow off his hands.
‘Oh, my!’ said the first woman. ‘Don’t you have any gloves? Your fingers will fall right off.’
‘I saw the break in the wall and I just couldn’t pass by without doing something,’ Dick Burd said.
The women had each taken hold of one of Dick Burd’s hands and were giving them a rub. Jessica retreated back down the road before she could either scream or vomit.
Kirsten was sitting at the dining room table eating breakfast when Jessica came in.
‘… and once I get my NVQ, I’ll be able to strike out on my own,’ Kirsten was saying to James, who, nodding as he cupped his face with his hands, looked far more attentive than Kirsten’s explanation probably deserved. ‘But I’m hoping Ms. Lemond—I mean, Jessica—will take me on as a partner. Her firm has such a good reputation in the Bristol area. It would be a real boon to be involved.’ Then, with a sudden animated wave of her hands, Kirsten added, ‘No pipe is too old to be cleaned!’
