Once Upon a Winter: All Four Parts in One - Plus an Exclusive Extra Short Story...

by Tilly Tennant

  ‘Your train down was ok?’ Ross asked Gina.

  ‘I’m getting so used to taking it these days that I should have my own permanent seat,’ Gina smiled.

  ‘All the more reason for you to move back to Millrise,’ Briony replied.

  ‘It is. I can’t wait to get back here.’

  ‘It won’t be long now, with a bit of luck,’ Hannah cut in, accepting a small glass of white wine from Briony. ‘Thank you. I’m driving, so I’ll make this last,’ she added as she took a sip.

  ‘I said I would drive.’ Gina took the glass Briony offered to her with a grateful smile.

  ‘No, it takes a rare and special skill to drive my car.’

  ‘Having been in the engine I can vouch for that,’ Ross laughed.

  Hannah gave him an impish look. ‘Hey, cheeky!’

  Ross chuckled as Hannah sat down at the table. Gina sat next to her with Ross on the other side, and Hannah caught the furtive look of encouragement he offered her. It looked as though they were going ahead with their plan – the question was, when.

  ‘So…’ Briony turned to Hannah, ‘your Mitchell couldn’t make it?’

  ‘He sends his apologies. He’s got so much to do right now that he’s swamped.’

  ‘And your daughter couldn’t come either?’ Briony continued, looking at Gina now.

  ‘Sadly, it’s her dad’s turn to have her this weekend and I’d completely forgotten that when you invited us. It’s very difficult to change the weekends he has her and she must go because it can cause all sorts of problems if she doesn’t – legal involvement and that sort of thing. I find it’s best to keep everything running as smoothly as I can. Divorce can be a messy enough business as it is.’ Gina took a gulp of her wine. Hannah imagined she was tempted to grab the bottle from Briony’s hand and swig it straight back from that.

  ‘But it’s not Gina’s fault… the divorce, I mean,’ Hannah added, instinctively feeling the need to make things clear to the Hunters. She didn’t want Briony to think her sister was the sort of woman who cast men aside as soon as she was bored with them.

  ‘Well… I did initiate it, so technically it is down to me,’ Gina elaborated, blushing, ‘but I wasn’t the wrongdoer.’

  ‘Oh, I see. I suppose it must be very difficult,’ Briony agreed with a sage nod, although their world was so ordered and ruled by traditional values that it was hard to imagine she’d encountered a messy divorce like Gina’s first-hand before.

  ‘Dinner shouldn’t be long now,’ Briony announced. As she said this, she bustled off to the stove.

  Hannah turned to Ross. ‘How are you feeling?’

  ‘Loads better. I’m going to get back to work this week. I feel well enough and I’m going mad sitting around doing nothing.’

  Paul patted a great hand on his son’s shoulder. ‘I’ll have your back so you’ll come to no harm.’

  ‘He’d better not,’ Briony called from across the room.

  Paul leaned in to the table and lowered his voice. ‘I wouldn’t dare let anything happen with the dragon in charge, would I?’

  ‘I heard that!’ Briony shot back and both Paul and Ross burst out laughing. Gina and Hannah gave polite smiles, not quite sure whether they were entitled to laugh too.

  The next hour was a happy one. Like all Briony’s cooking, the lunch she had made for them was fantastic. The chicken was crisp on the outside – the skin spiced with a delicate paprika marinade – the meat tender and succulent. She’d served it with a mix of roast potatoes, sweet potatoes and butternut squash, with carrots and green beans from their kitchen garden. It was finished off with the best gravy Hannah had ever tasted.

  While she tucked in with gusto, she looked across at Gina to see that her sister was politely doing her best, but not making much of a dent in her plate. She was probably too nervous to eat, although Ross clearly handled his nerves differently as he was shovelling his lunch in as though the apocalypse was imminent.

  Hannah pushed her plate away and sat back in her chair, nursing her stomach. ‘Briony, that was the most incredible lunch – thank you.’

  Briony’s smile was almost wide enough to fill the room. ‘Wonderful! I hope you’ve left room for pudding, though.’

  Hannah pulled a comical face. ‘I might explode! Or the suspension will probably collapse when I get in the car later.’

  ‘Don’t worry,’ Ross cut in with a cheeky grin, ‘the tractor will just about hold you so you won’t be stuck.’

  ‘Ross!’ Briony chided, but Hannah let out a giggle.

  ‘I’m sure I could manage a bit in a little while.’

  ‘What have we got, Mother?’ Paul asked.

  ‘Morello lattice tart and crème anglaise.’

  ‘You mean pie made from squished up cherries the birds spat out last autumn and a tin of Tesco custard?’ Ross asked. ‘Honestly, Mum, trying to make out we’re posh or something.’

  ‘You’re not too old for a smack,’ Briony said with a pretend frown.

  ‘I am too big though.’

  Briony let out a mock sigh of exasperation. ‘I pity the poor woman who ends up with you.’

  The mood suddenly shifted, emotional tectonic plates wrenching apart, and Hannah knew that the time had come. Ross looked at Gina, and she gave a tiny nod.

  ‘Mum…’ he began, ‘there’s something that I… we… really need to tell you.’

  The moment’s pause felt like a lifetime, and everything in the kitchen seemed to stop. Briony exchanged a puzzled glance with Paul. Hannah wondered if she ought to make an excuse and leave the room, but she was glued to her seat, and almost felt that if she moved, the moment would be shattered and gone forever.

  Gina’s hand rested on the table. Ross covered it with his own and gave it a squeeze. ‘Gina and I…’ he continued in a steady voice, ‘we’re together.’

  For the first time in Hannah’s experience, there was no sound from Briony’s open mouth.

  ‘Together?’ Paul repeated.

  ‘Yes,’ Ross said. He was calm, as composed as Hannah had ever seen him. Gina, on the other hand, looked as though she’d stopped breathing.

  ‘You’re a couple?’ Briony finally managed.

  ‘I’m sorry we didn’t tell you before,’ Ross said. ‘We wanted to but it never felt like the right time.’

  ‘How long has this been going on?’

  Gina and Ross looked at each other before facing Briony again. ‘A couple of months,’ Ross said. ‘Since the salsa night, really.’

  ‘And you couldn’t even tell me? I’m your mother!’ Briony squeaked. ‘All that time and you couldn’t tell me?’

  Hannah suddenly felt sick for both of them. They had known this was going to be hard, but it looked as though it was going to be worse than anyone had anticipated.

  ‘Please don’t be angry with Ross,’ Gina cut in. ‘It’s my fault we kept it quiet. I thought you’d be upset and I didn’t want to be the cause of that.’

  ‘Why would we be upset?’ Paul asked, genuine confusion on his face.

  ‘Well… because of the age gap…’ Gina replied.

  Another heavy pause held the room hostage. But nobody – not Hannah, Gina or even Ross – could have predicted what happened next. Briony leapt from her chair and rushed around the table. She grabbed Gina by the shoulders, yanking her to her feet. Hannah’s blood froze, but her fear quickly turned to shock as Briony pulled Gina into a fierce hug.

  ‘Oh, you silly girl!’ she cried. ‘I can’t believe you were scared to tell us!’

  ‘We didn’t know what you’d say,’ Gina replied. Although it sounded more like, ‘Fmee thidnth fnow fwat youfd thay,’ muffled as it was by Briony’s shoulder. Only her sister’s eyes were visible, and Hannah could see that Gina was as shocked by the turn of events as she was.

  Briony finally let go of Gina, who had begun to turn a worrying shade of puce. She turned to Ross. ‘I thought there was a woman…. Didn’t I say there was a woman, Paul?’

  Ross�
��s dad nodded.

  ‘You’re happy?’ Briony asked, turning back to Ross.

  ‘God, Mum, yes!’ Ross replied, although Hannah thought it might be the daftest question ever when the answer was so obvious.

  ‘Then I couldn’t be happier,’ Briony announced, beaming at Gina. ‘All I want for my son is that he’s lucky enough to find someone who makes him happy, and I’ve seen enough of a change in him recently to guess that it must be down to you.’

  Gina smiled, but she still looked a little shell-shocked. They’d spent so long fearing the worst that they hadn’t really considered the alternative – that Briony and Paul might be ok with it.

  Briony kissed Ross on the head. And then, as quickly as she had sprung around the table, she was back at the stove, preparing pudding as though nothing had happened. She hummed to herself. Hannah and Gina waited to see if Paul would add anything, but he simply nodded at Ross and said, ‘Next time, lad, just tell us, eh?’

  There were lots of questions over pudding: how and when they had got together, what their plans were, what Jess thought of it, how Hannah had found out. They answered each one as best they could and Briony seemed satisfied with their responses. All this while they waded through enormous portions of cherry pie until, after a while, when the most pressing questions had been dealt with, the conversation drifted to safer topics.

  ‘The vicar says he called on George Maynard on Thursday,’ Briony commented as she filled up Paul’s wine glass, ‘and he didn’t look very well at all – grey as a bowl of old dishwater he said.’

  Hannah thought back to the last time she had seen George. Life had got so hectic lately she couldn’t quite remember when it had been.

  ‘He’s got nobody looking after him and I don’t think he looks after himself very well,’ Paul said.

  ‘Poor George,’ Briony agreed as she cleared away the bowls – miraculously empty in spite of everyone’s protestations that they were too full to eat another thing. ‘He was never the same after Hilda passed on. Let’s send him a little plate of something to cheer him up; there’s plenty left.’

  ‘He certainly did look a bit under the weather when I saw him yesterday,’ Paul agreed. ‘I bet a plate of your chicken and potatoes would perk him right up.’

  ‘I’ll put some out for him and you can drop it in later on.’

  ‘Why don’t I go and take it for him now?’ Hannah cut in. ‘It would put my mind at rest to know how he is.’

  Briony and Paul had taken the news well, but Hannah sensed that there was still a lot left for them all to discuss. She felt it would be better if she went alone to see George and gave them time to do that without her.

  Gina seemed to understand what Hannah was up to and nodded. ‘I don’t mind waiting around here for a while if it’s alright with Briony and Paul.’

  ‘And there’s no need for you to come back – I can easily drop Gina off at yours later on,’ Ross added.

  ‘Paul will take her,’ Briony said, frowning at her son. ‘You might be driving again but you’re not supposed to be.’

  ‘Oh, Mum, no one takes that six weeks stuff seriously. That’s just for doctors to cover themselves.’

  ‘They don’t just pluck a figure out of the air. It’s six weeks for a reason.’

  ‘Well, I’ll be driving this week whether they like it or not.’

  Hannah and Gina exchanged a faint smile. Briony had surprised them by her ready acceptance of Gina but that didn’t mean it was going to be plain sailing by any stretch.

  ‘Right then,’ Hannah said brightly. ‘Whenever you’re ready, Briony, I’ll take a plate over for George.’

  *

  The evening was chilly as Hannah left the warm cocoon of Briony’s kitchen, but every night that week Hannah had seen it grow lighter by degrees. Spring was racing towards Holly Way and for Hannah it couldn’t come quickly enough. While the winter had been an eventful one, she longed for warmer, longer days, with perhaps a little more calm too. And the way things seemed to be working out, the summer might just be one of the best she could remember for a very long time.

  With great care, Hannah set the covered dish containing George’s roast dinner on the passenger seat of her car and secured it with the dishcloths Briony had given her to keep it safe before she started the engine. The heaters were still up full from the journey to Holly Farm, and they blasted cold air into Hannah’s face. She wrapped her arms around herself as she waited for it to warm up. As she sat with the engine idling, she took the opportunity to send a quick text to Mitchell to let him know that she was leaving Holly Farm and that things had gone well. His reply was immediate:

  Does that mean I get to come over and see you?

  Hannah smiled to herself as she sent a brief explanation that she had to run an errand first. Then she let go of the handbrake and pulled out of the Hunters’ gravel driveway.

  *

  George’s house was in darkness, apart from a dim glow edging the curtains of a downstairs room. As Hannah knocked at the door she heard Trixie’s hoarse yap and the sound of her claws as she skidded up and down George’s Minton-tiled hallway. Hannah waited, like she always did, to give George the extra bit of time he needed these days to get to the door. But when five minutes had passed and there was still no answer, she knocked again.

  Her expectant smile had long since faded when George failed to respond a second time. She called through the letterbox, her own voice drifting eerily back to her through the still evening. There was no answering call, but Trixie’s barking became more frantic. Hannah could see nothing through the letterbox and when she had clambered over George’s borders to try and get a look into his front windows, one was in darkness and the other was obscured by curtains too thick to see anything through them at all.

  She knew something was seriously wrong.

  The first stars winked down from a frosted lilac sky as Hannah dialled Mitchell’s number.

  *

  When Mitchell eventually drove up, Hannah was sitting on George’s step, her knees pulled up tight and her arms wrapped around them as she gazed up at the sky. It was clear now, save for the thinnest ribbons of ochre cloud drifting across her vision and layers of stars scattered in every direction. It was strangely silent too. Trixie had stopped barking, though every so often Hannah could hear her snuffling on the other side of the door.

  She jumped to her feet as Mitchell climbed out of his car.

  ‘Are you ok?’ he asked, his expression tense as he strode up the path towards her.

  ‘God, yes, I’m absolutely fine. But I’m very worried about George.’

  ‘So, what’s happened?’

  ‘Nothing. I mean, I’ve knocked on the door a ton of times. Trixie is going mad in there and I can see a light on but George isn’t answering the door and I can’t see any sign of him. He could be out, but he rarely leaves Trixie and since Ross got beaten up, George has been even more reluctant to be out after dark. I just have the horrible feeling he’s in trouble.’

  Mitchell angled his head at the roadside. ‘Is that his car?’

  Hannah followed his gaze and nodded.

  ‘So, what do you want to do?’ Mitchell asked.

  ‘I think the only thing we can do is break in.’

  Mitchell was thoughtful for a moment. Then he fished out his wallet and flipped it open. ‘It would be better if we didn’t have to break any windows.’

  Hannah threw him a questioning look.

  ‘You don’t grow up on the roughest estate in Millrise without picking up a few tricks,’ he said, pulling a credit card from his wallet and flexing it.

  There were far too many questions behind this statement, but now was definitely not the moment. She gave a brisk nod. ‘Ok, let’s get it over with.’

  It was an old Yale lock, and it didn’t take Mitchell long to pop it. A wall of dry heat blasted out as they pushed open the front door, Trixie yapping and dancing around their ankles in the hallway. Hannah bent to give her a fuss.

&nbs
p; ‘Hey, hey… now then, girl, what’s going on here?’

  ‘GEORGE!’ Mitchell shouted.

  Silence.

  Mitchell felt along the wall for the switch and the hallway was flooded with light. Hannah followed as he began to walk towards the sitting room door, and she almost skidded on a wet patch. It took a moment for her to realise that Trixie must have been forced to pee in the hall. ‘Oh, you poor thing,’ she whispered as Trixie looked up at her and wagged her tail regretfully, as if she was waiting for a telling off.

  Everything was neat and ordered in the living room. The television flickered in the corner, the sound down low, as if George had been trying to watch but his heart hadn’t really been in it. And George was in his favourite armchair, facing it, eyes closed.

  ‘George?’ Hannah whispered. Instinctively, she scooped Trixie into her arms.

  Mitchell crossed quickly to the armchair. He pressed his fingers gently onto George’s wrist. Then he turned to Hannah.

  ‘I’m so sorry,’ he said.

  Hannah’s world was blurred by tears as she buried her face in Trixie’s fur.

  *

  Spring had issued a reminder to winter that it was time to go, and a gentle sun skimmed the windowsills of the kitchen at Holly Farm. The vast wooden table had been pushed up against a wall and was piled with savoury snacks, and a kitchen unit was stocked with various bottles of alcohol and soft drinks, while Briony fussed at the kettle for those who wanted something hot. Hannah stood and sipped the wine Briony had just handed her and cast her gaze around the black-clad gathering that filled the room. As she spotted a forlorn looking Trixie lying in a basket under the table, it was all she could do not to cry again. George’s little dog had been living at Holly Farm for the past two weeks, but she still looked as lost as she had when she first arrived. It seemed it was going to take a long time for her to get used to being without her old owner.

  ‘Penny for them…’ Mitchell’s voice broke in on Hannah’s thoughts. She looked up at him and gave a watery smile.

  ‘They’re not even worth that.’

  ‘Oh, I don’t know. I wouldn’t mind a peek to see what goes on in there.’