The Christmas Wish List: The perfect cosy read to settle down with this autumn

by Heidi Swain

  That was quite a comforting thought.

  *

  I was on edge all day and I couldn’t wait for Beamish to whisk us away, even if he hadn’t sounded as though he wanted to whisk me anywhere.

  ‘Have you got your thermals on?’ I asked Dolly as the time ticked slowly by. ‘You know Beamish said you’d need layers.’

  ‘I have,’ she confided. ‘A long-sleeved top and leggings. I feel the cold more than I used to these days.’

  ‘I could microwave those handwarmer things you’ve got, if you like. I know you’ve got gloves, but you could slip them into your coat pockets just in case.’

  ‘That’s an excellent idea,’ she agreed, looking at her hands.

  I almost jumped out of my skin as someone rattled the handle and hammered on the door.

  ‘That’ll be Beamish,’ said Dolly, rushing to turn the key.

  I glanced at the clock and put up a hand to stop her.

  ‘If it is him, he’s early,’ I noted. ‘Let me just check.’

  I peeped around the curtain and saw Beamish standing on the doorstep. The chink of light escaping on to the path alerted him to my presence.

  ‘Are you going to let me in? It’s freezing out here.’

  ‘It is Beamish,’ I said to Dolly, who then opened the door.

  ‘Why was the door locked?’ he frowned, letting in a blast of icy air as he stepped inside. ‘You never have your door locked this early, Dolly.’

  ‘We haven’t been out,’ she said lightly, ‘so it’s been locked all day.’

  That was true enough but didn’t explain why I had gone into stealth mode and checked who was outside before granting them entry. If Beamish thought anything was amiss, he didn’t let on.

  ‘All set then?’ he asked. ‘It’s a bit of a drive so we need to crack on. Anna at Wynthorpe said you could borrow these, Hattie,’ he added, holding out a bag.

  It contained the wellies I had borrowed the day Dolly and I visited the hall.

  ‘That was kind of her,’ I said, taking the bag, ‘and you.’

  If he’d gone to the bother of sorting out some wellies, he couldn’t really mind me tagging along, could he?

  ‘It was Anna’s idea,’ he shrugged. ‘Come on, let’s go.’

  I was more than happy to get out of the house but being unfamiliar with the area had no real idea where we were heading. Dolly, however, seemed to have more of an inkling.

  ‘Something tells me,’ she said, from her vantage point in the passenger seat, ‘that we’re going to hear this surprise before we see it.’

  Beamish shook his head and laughed.

  ‘I can’t keep anything from you, Dolly, can I?’

  ‘I’m right, aren’t I?’ she asked and I could hear the smile in her voice.

  ‘I think you might be.’

  ‘What?’ I asked, leaning between the seats. ‘What is it?’

  Dolly looked at Beamish and smiled back. Clearly, I wasn’t going to be told what we would be hearing and seeing until the moment we arrived at our destination and, as it turned out, not even then.

  ‘I bet you’re glad of those layers now, aren’t you?’ Beamish said to Dolly as the three of us stamped on the spot, trying to keep warm.

  ‘I am,’ Dolly agreed, ‘and the handwarmers Hattie microwaved.’

  I wrinkled my nose and felt the biting cold tickling my toes. We had been warm enough walking from the truck to a large and crowded wooden hide but now the chill was finding its way in and it was only a matter of time before it reached my very marrow.

  The hide was full of people as were the viewing platforms on either side. Everyone seemed very keen to get the best spot to look out over an expanse of empty water which was dotted with swaying reed beds and gently undulating islands. I hoped whatever we were here to see was worth risking pneumonia for.

  ‘Is there any more coffee in that—’

  Beamish put up his hand, his head cocked to one side.

  ‘Shush,’ he said, ‘did you hear that?’

  I opened my mouth to interrupt his interruption but then I thought I heard something too. It was distant and I had to strain to hear it but there was a distant ‘honk’ on the horizon.

  ‘They’re coming,’ Dolly whispered, her eyes bright in the fading light. ‘They’re coming.’

  The honking gradually increased in volume and was joined by what sounded like hundreds, possibly thousands of others. The noise was intense.

  ‘Here they are!’ someone who was standing outside shouted above the cacophony. ‘I can see them!’

  All eyes were now trained on the sky.

  ‘They’re pink-footed geese,’ said Beamish, for my benefit. ‘They come here to roost on the marshes. It’s one of Norfolk’s most stunning natural sights.’

  ‘I hadn’t realised we’d crossed county lines.’

  ‘Well,’ he said looking at Dolly, ‘I can’t offer her international travel but then, that wasn’t on the list.’

  Looking out as the geese poured in, their silhouettes filling the sky for almost as far as the eye could see, I wasn’t sure if he was being sarcastic or not, but I wasn’t prepared to let wondering about it mar the moment.

  ‘This is amazing,’ I said to Dolly.

  ‘It certainly is,’ she agreed.

  Then, almost as quickly as it had started, the sound faded and the geese settled, each bird finding its own place for the night.

  ‘Can we come back in the morning and watch them go, Daddy?’ the young girl next to me asked the man she was with.

  ‘I’m not sure even you can get up that early, my love,’ he laughed, smiling at Dolly.

  ‘I can,’ his daughter insisted, bouncing on her toes. ‘I will. There’s no school now so we can sleep in the next day.’

  ‘Perhaps,’ he told her.

  ‘Why did they make all that noise?’ I asked Dolly. ‘If this place is their nightly refuge, I would have thought they’d fly in quietly.’

  ‘They’re in family groups,’ the little girl knowledgeably told me, ‘and their honking keeps them together. It’s their way of making sure they haven’t lost anyone.’

  ‘Oh right,’ I said, ‘I see.’

  ‘It’s really important that they all stick together, isn’t it, Daddy?’

  ‘Sure is,’ he said, shoving her knitted hat back on her head. ‘It wouldn’t do to lose your family out there on the marshes, would it?’

  ‘No,’ she said seriously. ‘They have to stick together to keep safe, just like us.’

  She was right in more ways than one. Had I stuck with my family I would have been a damn sight safer than I had been when Jonathan had drawn me away. From now on I was going to make keeping my parents close a priority.

  ‘Are you coming back again tomorrow?’ the girl asked me.

  ‘No,’ I said, ‘not tomorrow, but I will one day.’

  ‘I can’t imagine you’ll have all that much time for ornithological endeavours in Abu Dhabi,’ said Beamish once we had walked back to the truck and Dolly was tucked into the passenger seat with warm blankets and a flask. ‘But Dolly’s pleased you came tonight.’

  Wasn’t he?

  ‘She used to visit here with her father when she was younger, you know,’ he carried on.

  I hadn’t known that.

  ‘So, when I saw she’d included a coastal trip on the Wish List if felt as important as the ice skating to me.’

  I looked at my friend through the truck window. She was staring into the darkness and I felt a sudden and uneasy prickling at the back of my neck. I didn’t know what it was, but it was there nonetheless.

  She had said she was fine to do the walk, but I could see the distance and slippery conditions underfoot had taken it out of her. I was going to have to put my foot down when it came to rushing about in the run-up to Christmas and felt even happier that I wasn’t going to be leaving Wynbridge before the big day now. There was something amiss, something niggling at the back of my mind about my friend but I couldn�
��t pin down what it was.

  ‘I see,’ I said, turning to help Beamish stow our muddy wellies away in the boot. ‘And I could tell she loved it, as did I.’

  Beamish nodded but didn’t comment.

  ‘I really meant what I said about coming back to see it again,’ I told him.

  ‘Of course.’

  ‘And as far as finding time to go birdwatching in the sun is concerned,’ I continued, drawing in the biggest breath, ‘that won’t be happening now.’

  ‘The birdwatching?’

  ‘Any of it.’

  ‘What do you mean?’

  ‘I’m not going,’ I told him. ‘I’ve changed my mind.’

  ‘Oh,’ he said, ‘right.’

  ‘I’m staying with Dolly for Christmas and then I’ll have a think about what I’m going to do and where I’m going to live in the new year.’

  ‘You’re not going back to your flat then?’

  ‘No,’ I swallowed. ‘I’m not going back.’

  He slammed the boot shut.

  ‘We better get Dolly home,’ he said. ‘She’ll need an early night after that long walk.’

  I don’t know what reaction I had been expecting when I told him about my change of plan, but I hadn’t thought there would be no reaction at all.

  Chapter 24

  Another restless night stretched ahead and I couldn’t help playing over Beamish’s lack of reaction to my, what I considered, monumental news. It wasn’t that many days ago that I’d been tethered and we’d had two near-kisses and multiple moments of prolonged eye contact. Now I was as free as a bird but not going anywhere and he didn’t seem to care for me at all.

  I wasn’t looking to replace one man with another, but my friendship with Beamish (the way he listened when I spoke, respected and accepted my opinions even if he didn’t always agree with them and was interested in what I had to say) meant the world to me and I wanted things between us to go back to how they had been before.

  It was because of the man Beamish was that I had looked with fresh eyes at my one-sided relationship with Jonathan and come to the conclusion that it wasn’t the healthiest, even before he had bruised my wrist. Beamish and I might not have been destined to end up together, but our friendship was priceless.

  ‘What are your plans for today then?’ Dolly asked when I went down to breakfast.

  ‘I haven’t actually got any,’ I told her, warming my hands around the teapot, ‘so I’ll clean the fire out before I eat, if you like. It’s chilly in here this morning.’

  ‘What about the Winter Wonderland?’ Dolly quizzed. ‘I know you were keen to go. Didn’t Beamish mention it last night?’

  ‘No,’ I said sharply, ‘he didn’t.’

  Dolly didn’t say anything and I felt bad for biting her head off. It was hardly her fault.

  ‘How are we doing with the Wish List?’ I asked, trying to make amends.

  ‘All right,’ she answered. ‘There’s still a few things to tick off but, by and large, I think we’re getting there.’

  ‘And with time to spare,’ I said. ‘I’m sorry I snapped.’

  ‘It’s all right,’ she said kindly. ‘I can’t even begin to imagine how you’re feeling right now. This isn’t exactly how you expected your holiday here in Wynbridge to work out, is it?’

  ‘No,’ I told her, ‘it isn’t, but actually, I’m feeling far better about certain aspects of it than I expected to.’

  Dolly looked rather pleased with herself and I wondered if my previous suspicions might have been right. Rather than simply asking me to stay to support her, I reckoned she had cleverly crafted this impromptu break and engineered my re-gaining of Christmas spirit, with a rather different motive in mind. I knew she wasn’t going to mourn the loss of my relationship with Jonathan, but what about my friendship with Beamish? If she had invited me with an ulterior motive, where, if anywhere, did he fit into her plan?

  ‘Apart from . . .’ I began but stopped.

  ‘Apart from what?’

  ‘It doesn’t matter,’ I said, crossing the room to retrieve the coal bucket.

  ‘What is it, Hattie?’

  I put the bucket back down.

  ‘It’s Beamish,’ I told her. ‘Something seems to have happened between us. Almost since the moment we met our friendship has felt like the easiest in the world but these last couple of days something’s not felt right and I can’t help thinking that it might have something to do with Jonathan.’

  How it possibly could I didn’t know, but that was what I was worried about.

  ‘I didn’t think it would matter now, but it feels deceitful that no one knows about him, even though he is out of the picture now. I don’t like it.’

  ‘Are you saying that you think Beamish has found out about your relationship with Jonathan?’ Dolly asked.

  ‘Perhaps,’ I said, biting my lip. ‘Although I don’t s ee how.’

  ‘Well if you’re that worried about it, talk to Beamish and, if he hasn’t found out, tell him anyway, tell everyone.’

  ‘Surely it’s too late for that now, and besides, I was under the impression that you thought I shouldn’t.’

  ‘I was,’ she sighed, ‘to begin with, but now I think that was a mistake.’

  ‘I didn’t think you made mistakes, Dolly,’ I said a little bluntly.

  She looked rather cross.

  ‘What, because I’m old?’ she frowned. ‘Because I’ve seen a lot of life, you think I can’t get things wrong anymore?’

  ‘No,’ I said, shocked to hear her snippiness matching mine. ‘I’m sorry. That’s not what I meant.’

  ‘No, I’m sorry,’ she said, throwing up her hands and letting them fall back into her lap. ‘I had thought I was steering you in the right direction but I underestimated something.’

  ‘What?

  ‘The power of love.’

  ‘What’s that supposed to mean?’

  Someone started hammering on the door before she could answer.

  ‘It’s all right,’ she said soothingly as I flinched. ‘It’s my Christmas shopping delivery not your ghost of Christmas past. Give the driver a hand with the boxes, would you? We can sort the fire after.’

  Once everything had been unloaded, the driver, who was one of the many locals to have been in class with Dolly during their formative years, accepted a mince pie and a mug of coffee.

  ‘I shouldn’t really,’ he said, looking at his watch. ‘I’ve got so many orders to get through.’

  ‘You’ll need to keep your strength up then, won’t you?’ said Dolly stoutly. ‘Five more minutes won’t hurt.’

  She would brook no refusal when it came to keeping the chap’s blood sugar topped up. She had told me more than once that the new delivery service was a lifesaver to many in the town. The local Co-op was happy to take orders over the phone from anyone who struggled with their weekly shop and the personal service was thriving as a result.

  ‘Thank you,’ he said, taking another pie. ‘I suppose there’s no harm really, is there? Are you coming to the film night tonight?’

  ‘Yes,’ said Dolly. ‘We certainly are. I’m very much looking forward to it. I’ve seen both films at least a dozen times already, but never on the big screen.’

  I wasn’t sure a screen set up in the town hall warranted the title of a ‘big screen’, but it was going to be quite an occasion nonetheless. The early film was for family viewing. Elf was showing at half three and later on, the adults would have the opportunity for a romantic evening out watching Love Actually.

  I hadn’t been all that fussed when Dolly initially pointed out the posters advertising the first ever Wynbridge Festive Film event, but now I was looking forward to it. It would be interesting to see if my change in attitude towards Christmas extended to enjoying festive films.

  ‘Are you going?’ Dolly asked the lad as he washed down his last mouthful of pie with a slurp of still hot coffee.

  ‘Yes,’ he nodded, ‘can’t wait.’

  �
�You’d better get on then,’ said Dolly, her voice full of mischief. ‘It would be a shame to miss the start because you were still out delivering those orders.’

  *

  The town hall transformation was perfect. There were seats to suit everyone, including beanbags for those fit enough to pull themselves in and out of them and a couple of squishy sofas which hadn’t sold at the last auction. There was even a young woman dressed up as an old-fashioned usherette, selling sweets and treats from the tray she carried around her neck.

  I spotted her the second we entered. Most likely because Beamish was standing right next to her, bending to say something in her ear, which made her hoot with laughter. Trying to ignore the uncomfortable sensation in my stomach that the sight elicited, I looked away.

  ‘Dolly!’ he called, pointing to the front row when he looked up and spotted us. ‘Here! I’ve saved you the best seats in the house.’

  Dolly and I walked up the aisle and I helped her off with her coat.

  ‘Well now,’ she smiled, ‘these really are grand. Thank you, Beamish.’

  ‘Some of the kids will be in front of you, Dolly,’ he said wisely. ‘I thought your presence might stop them chattering.’

  ‘But you’re forgetting I’ve retired,’ she laughed.

  ‘I don’t think that will make the slightest difference,’ I told her. ‘They respect you, Dolly. We all do.’

  ‘Exactly,’ said Beamish.

  On the one hand it was a relief to find him so relaxed but on the other I couldn’t help wondering if the pretty usherette was responsible for his cheerful disposition and that didn’t cheer me at all.

  ‘I’m sorry about our trip to the Winter Wonderland, Hattie,’ he said, finally looking at me. ‘I was going to suggest we went today, but I got a call to say there were projector and electrical problems here and would I mind acting as electricians’ mate.’

  ‘Oh, that’s all right,’ I said, relief that he hadn’t snubbed me on purpose making my stomach fizz rather than groan, ‘I understand.’

  ‘I had no idea it was so late until someone said it was an hour until showtime,’ he added, turning back to Dolly. ‘The day has flown by.’

  ‘And between you all, have you fixed the projector?’ I asked.