Once Upon a Winter: A totally perfect festive romantic comedy

by Tilly Tennant

  These thoughts raced around her head and her emotions tied her up in knots, and it was because of all this that she didn’t hear the stop-start of an engine through the stillness. It was the sound of wheels spinning on ice, of a vehicle getting away from its driver’s control, of sometimes making headway and sometimes not but its progress erratic and dangerous. Hannah had walked this lane a hundred times before today and never had cause for fear from the occasional passing car. Today, when her mind was elsewhere, was the one day it needed to be on the road.

  It was too late by the time Hannah turned to see the car skid towards her, the terrified face of its driver looming from the shadows of the interior as he struggled with the wheel. Hannah froze, unable to move and bogged down by the snow even if she could. She heard a shout, and it wasn’t until afterwards that she realised it was Tom calling her name. She turned to see him race through the snow like a superhero, and in a scene that felt utterly surreal when she recalled it afterwards, he hurled himself at her and knocked her into the grass verge, the impetus taking both of them out of the path of the oncoming car. Hannah was jolted into a snowbank, and he landed with a thud on top of her.

  ‘Are you okay?’ he asked, genuine fear in his eyes.

  Hannah didn’t answer. She couldn’t form the words, but could only look up as he rolled his weight off her to see that the car was still skidding and sliding on the lane.

  ‘He can’t stop,’ Hannah managed to squeak in a panicked voice. ‘He can’t stop!’

  Tom glanced from her to the car and back again, before he pushed himself up and gave chase.

  ‘Off the brakes!’ he yelled after the car. ‘You’re making it worse! Steer into the skid!’

  After a few breathless moments, the car slowly came to a halt. Hannah watched as Tom made his way to the driver’s door and knocked on the window. ‘What the hell…?’

  Hannah got clumsily to her feet and rushed over as fast as the snow and her shaking legs would allow. She was dimly aware that Gina and Jess had now come out, but she was too dazed and worried about the drama that was still unfolding to respond to their concern.

  ‘I’m so sorry…’ The man opened the door, grabbing onto the frame for support as he emerged from the car. He looked as shaken up as Hannah felt.

  ‘It’s alright, George!’ Hannah managed to call. ‘I’m fine.’

  The old man looked at her, his eyes full of shame. ‘I could have killed you!’

  ‘You didn’t and there’s no harm done.’

  ‘What on earth were you doing out?’ Tom cut in, his voice terse. ‘Especially as you have absolutely no idea how to drive in this weather!’

  ‘I’m sorry –’ George began.

  ‘It’s fine,’ Hannah interrupted, throwing a pleading look at Tom. ‘Please don’t make a big deal of it.’

  ‘It’s not fine; he almost killed you!’

  ‘But he didn’t.’ She turned to her elderly neighbour. ‘Perhaps we’d better give you a hot drink before we do anything else; you look white as a sheet.’

  ‘I’m so sorry, Hannah,’ George began as she gently took his arm. ‘I had to go to Hilda’s grave. I always go, every Christmas, and I couldn’t leave her alone today even though the weather was bad. But then the snow kept coming and the light was failing –’

  ‘George,’ Hannah said, ‘please don’t apologise. Of course you must go to Hilda’s grave, today of all days. How many years has it been now?’

  ‘Ten,’ he said, wiping a coat sleeve under his nose.

  ‘Ten, wow… it must be hard for you.’

  ‘It is, but I manage. And I still have Trixie for company, dear little thing.’

  ‘Is she at home?’

  ‘I have to get back to her,’ George began, rubbing his hands over and over as he seemed to recall a new thing to worry about.

  ‘You can, but first I want to make sure you’re alright. You’re no good to Trixie if you don’t make it home in one piece.’

  ‘He can’t drive home, that’s for sure,’ Gina said as Hannah, George and Tom made their way back to where she was standing. She turned to Hannah and lowered her voice to a tense whisper. ‘What happened? I heard shouting and skidding and I run out to see you at the side of the road with Tom on top of you!’

  ‘A bit of trouble with George’s steering… nothing to worry about. I’ll tell you more later. First things first, we seem to have collected another stray.’

  ‘It’s like a regular cottage hospital today,’ Gina said wryly.

  George’s plaintive voice interrupted them. ‘How am I going to get home without the car?’

  ‘Don’t worry about the car,’ Hannah said. ‘We’ll park it safely and you can leave it here tonight. When the snow ploughs have been through tomorrow it’ll be safe to drive it home. I doubt much traffic will be coming down here tonight.’

  ‘Apart from the ambulance,’ Jess put in.

  ‘Oh, yes, the ambulance,’ Gina nodded.

  George looked at them all in turn. ‘Ambulance?’

  It was then that Hannah noticed the bandage she had so painstakingly wrapped around Tom’s wound had fallen off. ‘Your head…’ She unconsciously reached for him, checking herself as she realised. He put a vague hand to his injury.

  ‘It doesn’t seem to be bleeding anymore,’ he said.

  ‘Is it for you then?’ George asked him brightly. ‘I can run you to the hospital if you like.’

  Hannah resisted the urge to laugh. Tom was in far more danger hitching a lift with George than waiting for the paramedics, with all the unknown risks that might involve.

  ‘Don’t worry, George, the ambulance is on the way,’ Gina said.

  ‘Come on,’ Hannah said, ‘we need to get Tom inside and find yet more dry clothes for him. And while we’re at it, George can come and have a cup of tea to calm down before we get him home… is that alright, George?’

  ‘Me calm down?’ George asked in disbelief as they began the short walk back to the house, ‘what about you? It wasn’t me staring death in the face a minute ago.’

  ‘Oh… I’m alright,’ Hannah said cheerfully. A bit too cheerfully. She only hoped nobody could see that her legs were still shaking. She needed a cup of tea too, but with a bit of something stronger to go with it.

  Hannah’s legs finally buckled as she reached the kitchen, and Gina, with that silent understanding that only sisters possess, gently manoeuvred her to a chair without a word.

  ‘Tea…’ Gina murmured as she opened and shut cupboards searching for more cups, while everyone else filed in behind them. Hannah watched, the sudden dissipation of adrenaline from her system making her feel weak and useless.

  ‘That cupboard… On the left,’ she said quietly.

  ‘Would you like some help?’ Tom asked.

  Gina cocked an eyebrow at him. ‘I think you ought to get some dry clothes on first.’

  George was already peeling his coat and boots off, and looked around the kitchen for somewhere to hang them.

  ‘The peg by the back door will be fine,’ Gina told him. Her attention turned back to Tom, who was now looking down at himself and seemed to be surprised that he was, once again, soaked to the skin.

  ‘I don’t think my own clothes will be dry just yet,’ he said apologetically.

  ‘There are some more in the spare bedroom,’ Hannah began, and she made to get up but Gina laid a hand on her shoulder and pushed her back into her chair.

  ‘You sit down. And take that coat off so Jess can hang it up.’ She turned to Tom. ‘Up the stairs, first bedroom you come to is the spare one. You’ll find a hideous antique wardrobe in there.’

  ‘It is not hideous!’ Hannah squeaked.

  ‘You keep telling yourself that,’ Gina said mildly. ‘Hotel for woodworm is what it is.’

  Tom went off to find himself some clothes. Hannah frowned at Gina. ‘Did you have to send him upstairs?’

  ‘Are you worried he’ll find something he shouldn’t?’

  ‘Of co
urse not. It’s just weird, that’s all.’

  ‘The amount of Jason’s clothes you still have; is that the weird thing you mean?’

  ‘How do you know how much I have up there?’

  ‘I don’t. But that you have any at all is weird. I binned everything Howard didn’t collect.’

  ‘I was going to get around to it… I just kept forgetting.’

  ‘Of course you did. I suppose it’s lucky really that you didn’t throw them out or Tom would have been walking around in that silk kimono you brought back from Tokyo.’

  George joined Hannah at the table, lowering himself into a chair. She could almost hear his old bones crack as he settled. She wasn’t sure how old he was – pushing ninety, at least, she suspected – but she’d always liked him. He was one of her most helpful and cheery neighbours, although his house was a good walk from hers.

  ‘How are you feeling?’ Hannah asked.

  ‘I might ask you the same thing,’ George replied.

  ‘Oh, I’m fine, don’t you worry. A lovely cup of tea and I’ll be right as rain.’

  Gina placed a shot glass in front of her, and then one in front of George, before bustling off to the boiling kettle.

  ‘What’s this?’ Hannah asked, eyeing it doubtfully.

  ‘Brandy,’ Gina replied. ‘Drink up.’

  ‘I don’t want one.’

  ‘Sure you do. It’ll calm your nerves,’ Gina said.

  George held his up to the light, inspecting it with a look of approval. ‘As I won’t be driving today, I suppose it couldn’t hurt to warm me up.’

  ‘That’s the spirit,’ Gina laughed as she poured boiling water into the teapot.

  ‘Can I have one?’ Jess asked.

  ‘A cup of tea?’ Gina turned to her.

  ‘A brandy…’

  Gina planted her hands on her hips. ‘What do you think?’

  ‘I’m nearly eighteen.’

  ‘Not near enough,’ Gina replied, before returning to her task.

  Jess wrinkled her nose, and glowered at no one in particular, while Hannah gave her an apologetic smile. She would probably have said yes, but then she wasn’t Jess’s mother and that always made things different, didn’t it? She had often found herself wondering what kind of mother she’d be, but as the years clocked on and the right father never seemed to present himself, she was beginning to think she’d never find out. She wasn’t bitter about it, but faced the fact with a quiet acceptance and a vow to fill her life with other things instead.

  Tom returned just as Gina was refilling George’s shot glass. She raised her eyes as Tom made his way to the table. ‘Did you find what you needed?’

  ‘I think so,’ Tom said. He now sported a pair of fashionably faded jeans and a navy brushed cotton shirt. He looked just as good in these as he had done in the green sweater of earlier, and the sight elicited such conflicting emotions in her that Hannah almost felt she couldn’t bear to look. Instead, she took a gulp of her brandy and winced as it hit the back of her throat.

  ‘I bet the dinner will be ruined now,’ Jess announced in an accusing voice, as if everyone in the room was to blame. ‘Mum made me turn everything off before we came outside to look for you so it’ll be cold mush.’

  ‘Oh, we can salvage it,’ Gina said brightly. ‘What do you think, Han? Are you up to eating just yet?’

  Hannah couldn’t really say that she was. Up until the argument with George’s car, she had been ravenous, but not anymore. However, she didn’t want to completely ruin what was already hurtling towards a disaster of a Christmas, and she thought refusing dinner might just do that.

  ‘I could eat a little,’ she said.

  Gina seemed satisfied by her answer. She turned to George. ‘How about you? We have tons to spare.’

  George looked doubtful. ‘I don’t know… Trixie will be dancing by the back door if I don’t get home soon…’

  ‘His dog,’ Hannah said to help clarify the situation for Jess and Gina, who both looked confused. ‘She is a gorgeous thing, isn’t she, your little Yorkie?’ Hannah added.

  George suddenly seemed to fill with an aura of immense pride. ‘Oh, she is! Sharp as a tack too! Hilda, God rest her soul, picked her out from the litter and she said straight away she’d be the cleverest of the lot and she is… it was just before my Hilda passed on…’ Then his face dropped, and he seemed to deflate like someone had sucked all the life out of him. Hannah sensed the mood of the room shift, and as she tried to find something to say that would lighten things, Gina anticipated it and came to her rescue with perfect timing.

  ‘How far away is your house, George?’

  The old man looked as though someone had just asked him the meaning of life. He scratched his whiskered chin as he screwed up his face in concentration. ‘About ten minutes on foot. Perhaps more in this weather.’

  ‘So if we eat now, you could be home in an hour or so. Why don’t you join us? I’m sure Trixie will be fine for a little while longer and then Jess and I can walk you home.’

  George shook his head. ‘I can’t leave her. She’s been alone for hours as it is.’

  ‘I’ll take George home and you can all eat,’ Tom said.

  ‘You can’t go,’ Jess replied. ‘Aren’t you supposed to be here when the ambulance arrives, as it’s you they’re coming for?’

  ‘I’ll go,’ Hannah said.

  ‘You’re not going anywhere,’ Gina cut in, frowning at Hannah. ‘You’re going to sit right there and pull yourself together. And George, I can’t let you go alone. Nobody should be walking alone in this weather.’

  ‘I don’t need fussing over,’ Hannah said, taking another glug of her brandy and proving her sister’s point. ‘But I do agree that no one should go out alone in this awful weather.’ She seemed to have conveniently forgotten that she had done just that herself, and that was why she was now sitting at her table drinking brandy and uncertain of how her legs worked.

  ‘Jess and I will go now then,’ Gina said.

  ‘Why do I have to go?’ Jess whined.

  ‘Haven’t you been listening?’ Gina asked. ‘Nobody goes out alone while the snow is still coming down like this.’

  George pushed himself up from his chair. ‘There’s really no need.’ He padded over to where his coat dripped on the peg. ‘I can easily get back.’

  ‘You can easily get into trouble too,’ Gina said. ‘Anything can happen in weather like this.’

  George let out a sigh of defeat. ‘I don’t like being a nuisance,’ he mumbled as he collected his boots.

  Hannah folded her arms on the table and rested her head on them. The conversation was beginning to tire her. Or was that more to do with the near-death experience? Or even just the very weird day? It had started so well, distinctly normal but reassuringly so; now she felt like Alice in the rabbit hole, and everything was spiralling into this surreal universe where neighbours tried to kill her, ambulance crews didn’t turn up as promised, dinners got ruined, sisters got bossy, and strange, handsome men fell from the sky like amnesiac angels. Worse still, much worse than being snowed in with all this chaos, was that she was afraid, terribly afraid that she was falling for this man with no name. She couldn’t stop replaying the moments in her mind – of Tom throwing himself in the path of George’s car to save her, of his weight on her as they lay together in the snow on the lane, the feel of his warm breath on her cheek, the depths of his dark eyes that threatened to pull her in and never let go, the odd tingle in her loins that really shouldn’t have been there in the circumstances… She felt like a stupid teenager again, not a mature woman who made her own very sensible way in life. She knew all this, so why couldn’t she get the moment out of her head?

  She felt a hand on her arm and looked up to see Gina appraising her with a worried expression.

  ‘Are you alright?’

  ‘I’m fine.’ Hannah sat up and forced a smile. ‘You and Jess take George. Make Jess a sandwich to keep her going and we’ll have dinner ready
here when you get back. There’s no rush really, is there? It’s not like we have anywhere to be today.’

  ‘Of course not.’ Gina glanced across at Jess as if daring her to argue. But for once there was no argument and after a few moments they were both swaddled up against the weather.

  ‘Ready, George?’ Gina asked.

  ‘Aye…’ George tipped his cap to Hannah. ‘Merry Christmas. I’m sorry, again… about the car and everything. Thank you for being so kind about it.’

  Hannah waved him on. ‘Don’t give it a second thought, George; it wasn’t your fault. Merry Christmas to you too. Get yourself home and enjoy your evening with Trixie.’

  ‘Don’t eat all the glacé fruits while we’re gone, you two,’ Gina grinned. She seemed to have quite forgotten that she had been accusing Tom of being a potential axe murdering psycho only a short time before, and was now quite happy to leave her sister in his care. Without another word, the three of them trooped out and the house quickly descended into an odd silence.

  Tom broke it first. ‘I feel as if this is all my fault.’

  Hannah forced another smile. They were getting harder to produce as the day went on. ‘Don’t think that.’

  ‘But if you hadn’t been out looking for the ambulance you wouldn’t have been in the path of that car. And as the ambulance was for me in the first place…’

  ‘And George might have spun off the road into a tree, or some other more dangerous place, all alone, and anything could have happened to him. Who would have walked little Trixie then?’

  ‘Stop trying to make me feel better; I don’t deserve it.’

  ‘How do you know?’ Hannah said. ‘How do you know you’re not some saintly do-gooder always organising jumble sales for Africa at the local church? In which case, you would totally deserve it.’