Christmas under a Cranberry Sky

by Holly Martin

  ‘Have you enjoyed taking photos today?’

  ‘It’s been brilliant. I think I’ve found my niche in life, this is what I’m supposed to do.’

  He smiled, longing to reach out and touch her. But although he was quite happy to kiss her in front of the staff, he knew it would be unprofessional to do so in front of the guests who were starting to filter in for lunch.

  ‘Do you have five minutes?’

  Pip nodded. ‘Yes, just five minutes, though. I need to grab a very quick lunch before a lot of the guests go down to the ice palace this afternoon.’

  ‘Come up to my office.’

  Pip frowned in confusion but followed him up to his office anyway. He stepped inside, leaned round her to close the door, then kissed her hard. She let out a gasp of shock for a second before she kissed him back.

  There was something so wonderful about just kissing her, her taste, her smell, her warmth, the fact that she obviously enjoyed it as much he did. Her kisses were so sweet and innocent and her obvious affection for him completely disarmed him.

  He groaned as he pulled away, leaning his forehead against hers and holding her close.

  ‘Did you just bring me up to your office so you could kiss me?’

  ‘I’m not even going to deny it. I couldn’t kiss you downstairs in front of all the guests, certainly not in the way I wanted to kiss you and I couldn’t not kiss you. You’ve been gone for just a few hours and I missed you already.’

  He cringed inwardly at how pathetic he sounded. He was trying to play it cool with her, to not let on how he was feeling, trying to hold back from falling in love with her, but he was failing miserably. He didn’t want to scare her off either with being too full on. But weirdly she didn’t seem bothered by his need for her.

  ‘I missed you too. So we have the fireworks and carnival after dinner, but maybe, after we’ve put Wren to bed, you can show me just how much you miss me then.’

  He grinned. ‘I look forward to it.’

  ‘I better go. I’ll see you at dinner?’

  He nodded, kissed her again briefly this time and then watched her leave. He sat down at his desk and opened up his email account. He quickly fired off one email and had just opened up a new one when Neve walked in.

  ‘Hey, how are you feeling?’ Gabe asked.

  ‘I’m fine. Please stop worrying about me. And I’d appreciate it if you didn’t send Adam to sniff around me as well.’

  ‘He’s worried too.’

  ‘There’s no need. I’m fine.’ She sat down in the chair opposite his desk and his eyes immediately found her stomach. Was it any bigger? It still looked flat to him.

  ‘Can you remember which holiday company Pip said she worked for?’ Neve said, snagging his attention away from what could possibly be his niece or nephew.

  ‘I can’t remember. Was it Ocean View?’

  ‘That’s what I thought she said.’

  ‘Why do you ask?’ Gabe asked.

  ‘Because I’ve just been in touch with Ocean View about their new brochures and our prices and I told them their photographer was here. I asked them for which brochure they were considering using the photos she’s taking and they didn’t know anything about her. They said they didn’t have any photographers out at the moment and they didn’t know any photographers under her name.’

  ‘Well that’s weird. Maybe it was Ocean Wave not View.’

  ‘Oh maybe,’ Neve said.

  ‘Or Seaview? There’s a holiday company called Seaview, isn’t there?’ Gabe suggested. ‘Maybe we got them confused. Or Pip got confused. She’s freelance and she said she works for lots of different companies. If she was working for Ocean View last week and this week she’s working for Ocean Wave she might have given us the wrong name by mistake.’

  ‘Maybe. Though that doesn’t explain how Ocean View hadn’t even heard of her.’

  ‘Well it does, if they hire her through an agency. They might not actually have any dealings direct with her.’

  ‘That’s true,’ Neve said.

  ‘I’ll ask her tonight.’

  ‘OK. I just want to make sure that whoever she is with has the most current information. Especially if she intends to quit her job. I want to make sure they have all the photos and information before she leaves.’

  ‘Is she quitting her job?’

  ‘Well, it sounded like she was. When we talked about her being our photographer this morning, it sounded like it was a permanent thing for her.’

  ‘She says she wants to stay but…’ Gabe trailed off.

  ‘You don’t believe she will?’

  ‘I’m just not sure it will be enough for her. The island, life as a step-mum, me. I don’t want her to regret giving up that glamorous life of travelling the world for me. Every time she speaks about her job, she is filled with so much excitement and happiness about her travels and I’m just not sure she will feel the same way about staying here.’

  ‘If she loves you, she’d never regret it.’

  ‘I suppose that’s the trouble, I don’t know whether she does.’

  ‘Giving up that life to stay here is a big change for her. If she is already putting the wheels in motion to make that change happen after just a few days, I’d say the chances of her already falling in love with you are pretty high. Give her a chance. I know I was against the two of you getting together at the start, but she wants this to work as much as you do.’

  Gabe nodded. He knew she was right.

  Neve stood up. ‘Find out who she works for because with talent like hers, whoever she walks away from is going to be pretty pissed off at losing her. If they know they are losing her to us, they might be even more annoyed. I’d like to pre-empt that if I can.’

  ‘She’s freelance, I wouldn’t think they’d be that bothered. Sure, she has a ton of talent, but there must be hundreds of freelance photographers out there that can step into her shoes.’

  Neve opened her mouth to protest and, not wanting to cause her any more stress, he held up his hand to stop her. ‘I’ll find out.’

  ‘Thank you.’

  Chapter 20

  Gabe walked through the village with Wren sitting on his shoulders. There was a wonderful hum about the place as the guests moved from shop to shop, their arms filled with bags of goodies they had bought or their hands filled with sweets or cakes. With only three days until Christmas, people were obviously buying last-minute gifts or treats for the big day.

  Everyone seemed happy and he knew the villagers must have already had a roaring trade on their first day.

  The only fly in the ointment had been Mrs Hughes whose list of complaints had been steadily getting longer. The fact that there wasn’t a swimming pool had been high up on her list of complaints. What did she expect them to do, magic one out of the air? She didn’t like the pillows, she wasn’t keen on the tree decorations in her lodge and she didn’t appreciate that there was so much snow.

  He had to give credit to Cora, Iris and Jake who had dealt with her complaints professionally and courteously, but he knew, from his experience in his other hotels, that mystery guests liked to complain about ridiculous things to see how the hotel staff dealt with the complaints. It made him wonder. Could Mrs Hughes be the mysterious Mr Black? It had never really occurred to him before that Mr Black could in fact be a woman. But it would explain why she was so intent on finding fault with everything.

  She had even marched up to him not two minutes before, when she could clearly see he was playing with Wren, and complained about the temperature of the hot chocolate. He had apologised and said he would look into it even though he had no intention of doing any such thing.

  ‘Daddy, why was that woman shouting at you?’ Wren said, leaning into his head.

  ‘Sometimes when someone is sad all their life, they forget how to be happy. Instead of enjoying the good things they look for the bad.’

  Wren clearly thought about this for a second. ‘Is Mrs Hughes sad, Daddy?’

  ‘
Yes, I think she might be.’

  ‘Do you think we can make her happy again?’

  ‘I hope so, Princess.’

  ‘Can we get some churros with chocolate sauce?’

  ‘Of course we can.’

  ‘I love churros, they make me happy.’

  ‘They make me happy too.’

  Gabe smiled at her simplistic view on life. Who needed to be sad when there were churros to be had?

  He walked into the churro and doughnut shop and Wren chatted happily to Maryline, the owner of the shop, while they were being served and then they walked back out onto the street just as his mum and dad walked out of the shop opposite, their arms filled with bags and boxes.

  ‘Are you two buying all the stock from the whole village? There’ll be nothing left,’ Gabe laughed.

  ‘Oh, shush, you, this is just a few things. Everything is so lovely, I can’t resist,’ his mum said.

  ‘Gabe, this place looks so wonderful,’ his dad said. ‘Your grandad would be so proud of what you’ve achieved here, continuing his legacy like this. The village, the little lodges, the glass igloos. I think he would have really loved it.’

  His mum nodded. ‘It’s so lovely. When you first said you were going to take over the hotel, I had no idea how you could possibly make it better, apart from a few repairs. I honestly didn’t expect anything like this. All these people will tell all their friends and family about what a wonderful place this is. I imagine you’ll be sold out for months and that’s something your grandad never achieved.’

  ‘Thank you, I’m so pleased you both like it. We spent so much time here when I was a child, I didn’t want to damage those memories and I certainly didn’t want to do anything that would ruin the island. I hope Grandad would have liked what we’ve done too,’ Gabe said.

  ‘I’m sure he would.’

  Wren suddenly ran from Gabe’s side and disappeared into the crowd of people. His heart leapt as she vanished from his sight and he quickly ran after her.

  When he pushed his way through a few of the guests he saw her approaching Mrs Hughes. He ran over to stop her just as Mrs Hughes turned round at the sound of Wren calling her name.

  ‘Mrs Hughes, would you like a churro?’ Wren asked, offering up the cup of sticky treats.

  Mrs Hughes stared at Wren in surprise.

  ‘They make me happy,’ Wren explained. ‘And I thought they might make you happy too.’

  Oh crap. He hurried over to apologise for his daughter just as Mrs Hughes helped herself to a churro.

  ‘Make sure you get one covered in chocolate sauce, those are the best ones,’ Wren said.

  Mrs Hughes chose carefully and popped it in her mouth. She chewed for a second and then swallowed.

  ‘Thank you,’ she said and just before she turned and walked away, he was sure he saw her smile. Maybe Wren was right, maybe everything could be fixed with a chocolate-covered churro.

  He knelt down in front of his daughter. ‘That was very kind of you.’

  Wren smiled as she pulled a churro out the pot to eat herself.

  ‘But don’t run off when there are lots of people around. I don’t want to lose you.’

  ‘Are you afraid of getting lost, Daddy?’

  ‘I would be lost without you.’

  Wren smiled. ‘I’ll hold your hand then, Daddy, then you can’t get lost.’

  Gabe didn’t know whether to laugh or sigh that Wren had completely misunderstood, but with Wren holding his hand the problem was solved regardless.

  Suddenly there were shouts and laughter from the end of the village. He stood up, taking Wren’s hand and looked over towards the commotion.

  Leo and his gang of reprobates were walking through the village, clearly not fazed by the sheer number of people out on the street. Leo was flicking evil glares at anyone he walked past. People were pointing and laughing and taking pictures as the ponies looked through the shop windows, clearly looking for something they could steal.

  Gabe walked over, determined to shoo the ponies out of the village, despite the fact that the guests clearly thought they were hilarious. But before he could get close, Leo spotted a likely victim. Emma Brown and her boyfriend Anthony Richards stepped out of a shop, each holding a pancake. And before they could take a bite Leo ran up and snatched the pancake from Emma’s hand and ran off with it in his mouth.

  ‘Hey!’ Emma shouted after Leo’s retreating back while the other guests laughed, some people filming the whole debacle on their phones. Another of Leo’s cohorts suddenly snatched a bag of sweets from someone else’s hand and then, at a gleeful whinny from Leo, all the other ponies ran out the village after him, clearly to share the illegal contraband.

  Gabe sighed as he walked up to the guests who had been mugged so he could reimburse them. Thankfully they all seemed to see the funny side, but clearly it had been too soon to assume everything was going smoothly.

  * * *

  ‘The first day seems to have gone relatively without a hitch,’ Pip said as she sat down to dinner with Gabe, Wren and his parents that evening. ‘Well, I certainly didn’t spot any problems. I know we have the grand opening after dinner but I can’t foresee any difficulties.’

  Pip exchanged a smile with Gabe as Wren climbed onto Pip’s lap and carried on colouring in a Frozen picture. Wren had accepted her so easily into their life that Pip couldn’t help feeling touched by it. She squeezed her tight and kissed the top of her head, love for her unfurling in her chest. Pip watched as Wren coloured in Elsa’s blonde hair and then coloured the eyes in the same gold colour. It warmed her from the inside. ‘What are you having for your dinner, honey?’

  ‘Fish fingers,’ Wren declared.

  ‘No you’re not,’ Gabe said. ‘You had that for your lunch.’

  Wren pouted and Pip laughed.

  ‘What are you having, Pip?’ Wren asked.

  Pip grabbed the menu and gave it a once-over. ‘Mushroom soup to start, pasta carbonara and crème brûlée.’

  Gabe went very still next to her.

  ‘I’ll have that too,’ Wren declared.

  ‘Good choice,’ Pip said, then looked up to talk to Gabe’s parents. ‘Did you guys have a good day? Did Gabe take you down to the village?’

  ‘He did,’ Lizzie said. ‘It’s so wonderful down there. All the shopkeepers are so lovely and talented. The guests loved it. So many of them came back to the lodge with their arms filled with purchases. I think it’s going to be very successful. It’s so different to how it was before. We haven’t been here for years and the whole island was almost in ruins, but it looks fantastic now.’

  ‘Leo came to the village too, didn’t he, Daddy? He stole a pancake from one of the guests. It was so funny.’

  Pip looked over at Gabe. ‘Did you have pony trouble?’

  ‘A little. Luckily it was only a pancake and a bag of sweets from someone else. The guests thought it was hilarious. I bought them replacements and Luke came down and brought the ponies’ favourite food to the trees outside the village to encourage them away from the shops, but I think we’re going to have to come up with a more permanent solution to keep them out of the village from now on. We may have to fence the village in and have cattle grids over the roads. I think the villagers will be happy with that solution too, as they’ve all been terrorised by Leo and his gang at some point.’

  ‘I still think it’s hilarious that these tiny ponies are terrorising everyone.’

  The waiter came and took their order and again Pip could feel the tension from Gabe when Pip told the waiter what she wanted. The waiter left and Pip looked at Gabe in confusion.

  ‘That’s an odd choice of dinner.’

  Pip frowned. ‘Is it?’

  Gabe stared at her for a moment and then clearly changed the subject. ‘Are you looking forward to the fireworks, Wren?’

  Wren nodded and clapped her hands. ‘I love fireworks.’

  Pip turned her attention to Wren, knowing something was wrong, though she did
n’t know what.

  * * *

  Pip stood opposite the line of guests as they all waited excitedly for the carnival procession to begin. The start time of the procession had been put back half an hour and Pip didn’t know why and now it seemed it was more than ten minutes later than the new time too. She just hoped that everything was OK and nothing had gone wrong. She hadn’t seen Gabe since dinner, and Adam and Neve were nowhere to be seen, so she couldn’t ask them. The other staff who had been rushing around giving out drinks and cookies to the kids didn’t know anything either. The guests looked happy enough though. They had all been plied with oversized hot chocolates in cardboard cups, which were helping to keep them warm. The hotel staff had made a temporary barricade for the guests to stand behind and they stood there now, stamping their feet and cupping their hot drinks. The excitement among the children especially was almost palpable and Pip took a few photos of them all as they waited.

  Wren was playing opposite with Chester and they were chasing each other around and giggling uncontrollably as Boris and Mikael watched over them.

  Suddenly music and singing could be heard and everyone looked around excitedly waiting to see the start of the procession. Pip took a few more photos of the guests, their excitement and happiness completely visible on their faces. It seemed even Mrs Hughes was looking forward to the event.

  From around the back of the hotel two fire-breathers appeared, blowing arcs of fire into the dark night sky. The crowd predictably oohed with wonder and Pip momentarily transferred her camera lens to the fire-breathers. They were dressed all in gold with red and orange ribbons trailing from their arms and legs. Following close behind them were jugglers throwing clubs of fire into the air. It was magnificent. As they moved along in front of the guests, Pip took more photos of the performers and everyone’s reactions to them.

  The dancers were next, some ballet, some ballroom dancers, interspersed with more contemporary street-dancing, which involved lots of somersaults and throwing each other around. They were all dressed in emerald green outfits that sparkled in the light of the lanterns that lined the path, and somehow, though there was this mix of dance styles, it all blended together into a beautiful and seamless performance.