Christmas at Lilac Cottage: (#1 White Cliff Bay) (3 page)

‘So you’ll have to go to the Christmas Eve ball now you’re a resident of White Cliff Bay,’ Penny said, desperately trying to change the subject. ‘Daisy will love it, there’s music and fine food and dancing, there’s also a big ice carving competition there this year.’

‘I’m not sure a ball is really my sort of thing. I’m too big to dance gracefully.’

‘Everyone goes, you have to go. It’ll be a great way for you to meet people and I’m sure Daisy will be upset if you don’t take her.’

Henry still seemed undecided.

‘It’s for charity, you sort of have to go.’

He smiled at her again and she cursed herself for reacting like a silly schoolgirl with a crush.

‘Well, if it’s for charity then I can’t say no, can I?’

Penny grinned and shook her head. Noticing he had finished his lasagne, she stood up and took his plate to the sink. ‘Shall we go into the front room? It’s a bit cosier.’

What was she doing? She didn’t need to get cosier with this beautiful man, with this beautiful
married
man. But Henry was already standing up and moving in there, taking his new best friend Bernard with him.

She watched him go. She could do this, be in the same room with a man she was insanely attracted to without launching herself at him. A giggle burst from her throat at this thought. She had never launched herself at anyone in her entire life; it was unlikely she was going to start now. She was rubbish when it came to approaching men or even talking to them. Henry was easy to talk to. Although she was attracted to him, being married meant he was safe and she had spoken more to him tonight than she had to almost any man recently. She would just enjoy his company tonight and hopefully tomorrow she could pick up in the same place with his wife too.

She plated up two mince pies and followed him. She stopped when she saw him on all fours in front of the fireplace trying to light the fire. Good lord, his arse was a sight to behold. She couldn’t help but stare at it as he wiggled it around setting twigs and papers in between the bigger logs.

Bernard seemed transfixed by his arse too and she quickly grabbed his collar before he decided that humping Henry was a good idea. She had almost forgotten that Bernard liked to hump most of the guests who came to the house. She didn’t get too many visitors up here, but poor Jill, her cleaning lady, had been humped several times over the years, especially when she got on all fours to dust or clean. Bernard thought the whole thing was clearly a game and the more his victims tried to wiggle or escape, the more Bernard clung on for dear life, like he was riding a bucking bronco.

‘Bed!’ Penny said, pointing to Bernard’s basket. Bernard seemed to sigh theatrically at having his fun thwarted. ‘Bed, now.’ Bernard slunk off with disappointment and climbed into his basket.

‘Erm, that’s a very nice offer, but we’ve only just met,’ Henry said and then laughed as he watched her flush.

She sat down on the sofa and to her surprise he sat down next to her. There were three other chairs that he could have sat in but he chose to sit next to her. She wanted to get up and move away from him but that would have appeared rude. His smell was intoxicating, sweet but spicy like cinnamon, zest and cloves. He smelt of Christmas, of the pomanders she used to make with her parents when she was younger and hang over the fire. She wanted to press her nose to his neck and breathe him in.

He didn’t say anything, he just stared at her like a starved man would stare at steak.

He suddenly leaned forward and brushed his finger across her cheek. Electricity sparked through her at the softest of touches and she leapt back away from him.

Henry’s eyes widened in horror. ‘I’m so sorry, I’m not normally this creepy, I promise. I don’t normally go round touching strange women. You had sauce on your cheek, I was just wiping it off. With hindsight I probably should have just told you.’ He stared down at his wine. ‘What did you put in this thing? It’s gone straight to my head.’

Penny tried to find her voice, to try to say something to put him at ease, but she could still feel his touch on her cheek. Had it really been that long since she was touched by a man that her body reacted this insanely over a simple graze of her cheek?

She cleared her throat. ‘I didn’t think it was creepy.’

‘You didn’t?’

‘A bit inappropriate maybe, but not creepy.’

‘Very inappropriate, I’m sorry.’

Silence descended and sparks seemed to crackle between them like the flames in the fireplace.

Penny passed him a mince pie, suddenly feeling nervous around him for the first time that night. He took it and bit into it, obviously still embarrassed by his overly tactile moment earlier.

‘Mmm, this is delicious. I’m so rubbish at making mince pies, I just can’t seem to get them right.’ He took another bite and moaned softly with pleasure. ‘So tell me more about this ball, will I have to wear a suit?’

She was relieved to move the topic back onto safer ground, although the sudden vision of Henry in a suit was doing nothing to stop these inappropriate thoughts from swirling around her head.

‘Erm, yes, everyone gets dressed up in their best clothes.’

Henry pulled a face.

‘I’m sure you’ll look very sexy in a suit.’ Good lord, what
had
she put in the mulled wine, some kind of truth serum? His eyebrows shot up, the mince pie frozen halfway to his mouth. ‘I’m sorry, I’m rubbish around men, I really am. I’m trying to say things to you that I’d say to my girlfriends. “Oh you’d look beautiful in that dress, those shoes look so good on you.” Please don’t take it the wrong way, I’m not chatting you up.’

He resumed eating his pie and Penny was surprised to see what looked like a brief flash of disappointment cross his face, but then it was gone.

She took a sip of the wine.

‘What charity is it for?’

‘It changes every year. This year we’re raising money for research into miscarriages, stillbirths and premature babies.’

‘That sounds like a very worthy cause. My sister, Anna, miscarried, I know how utterly heartbreaking it can be. She just has her second child, but I don’t think the pain of it ever really goes away.’

She stared at him, a huge lump forming in her throat. He understood. He stared right back, narrowing his eyes slightly. When he spoke his voice was soft. ‘I’m guessing you’ve lost a baby too.’

She swallowed. ‘You’re very astute. It was a long time ago, eight years in fact. I was only twenty-one.’ It had been a long time since she had spoken about it too but he seemed to command so much honesty from her. ‘You’re very easy to talk to. I never talk about this with anyone. Chris and I had only been going out for three or four months but I just knew that he was my happy ever after, that we were going to be together forever. Then I fell pregnant. He didn’t want to keep it, he wanted to travel the world, not be tied down by a baby. But there was no way I could get rid of it; from the moment that I found out, I loved that baby with everything I had. I was nearly four months when I lost it. Chris was so relieved, he practically cheered when I told him. I couldn’t stop crying, for the baby, for his reaction to it. He left me a few days later. I was heartbroken.’

‘I’m so sorry.’

‘It’s fine. Well, it’s not but it was a very long time ago. And looking back now, I’m so glad we never stayed together. He was wrong for me in every way. I cannot even begin to imagine raising a child with him. He was an ass. So maybe in some horrible way it was for the best.’

‘I went through a similar thing myself when I was sixteen, got my girlfriend pregnant. She was horrified, kept saying that she wanted an abortion, that the baby would ruin her life. I couldn’t bear the thought of that – this was my child and I couldn’t believe that she hated this baby so much when it hadn’t even been born. Thankfully her parents were Catholic and wouldn’t let her have an abortion but they blamed me entirely and I wasn’t allowed anywhere near her. They moved away and said the baby was going to be put up for adoption. I was absolutely gutted. I suppose I should have been relieved, a drunken fumble that turned into a pregnancy, I was sixteen years old with my whole life in front of me and her parents were giving me a way out, but I never saw it like that. I never saw my girlfriend again. Last I heard she ran away to Australia not long after the baby was born.’

Penny stared at him in horror. Was it worse that Penny had lost her baby or that Henry had a baby somewhere that he wasn’t allowed to see? ‘What happened to your baby?’

Just then Bernard leapt up from his position at the window and started barking furiously at something unseen outside.

Henry quickly moved to the front door as if he was ready to take on the world. She giggled at his over-protectiveness as he flung the door open and Bernard ran out into the night.

‘It’s just rabbits, Bernard hates them.’

She followed Henry to the door as he stood on the doorstep with his fists clenched, scanning the darkness for any threat. Bernard was sniffing round the rabbit holes, clawing at the grass with his big paws, with the obvious hope that one day one of the rabbits would run straight out the hole and into his mouth.

Clearly seeing that there was no one waiting outside ready to kill them, Henry turned back and banged into her, nearly sending her flying. His hands shot out and grabbed her arms. She looked up at him, silhouetted against the night sky, tiny flakes of snow fluttering around him like icing sugar, his sweet, spicy scent washing over her as he was standing so close. She had bared her soul to this man tonight and, for the first time in a very long time, she wanted nothing more than to reach up and kiss him. Weirdly enough he looked like he wanted the same thing, as his eyes darkened with desire and then scanned down to her lips. What the hell? He was married. It was bad enough that she was having inappropriate thoughts about a married man; it was absolutely not OK for him to be having those same thoughts about her.

She took a definite step back. ‘Well, it’s getting late and I have to be up early tomorrow so maybe you should go.’

He stared down at her with confusion and she knew she had been sending some very mixed messages that night.

‘Yes, of course. I’ll let you get to bed,’ he said, softly.

‘And I look forward to meeting Daisy tomorrow,’ Penny said, waiting for the guilt to cross his face at the mention of his wife. But there was no remorse there at all. He just nodded, walked through her kitchen and out the back door, not giving her a single backward glance.

She breathed in the cool night air, determined to clear her mind, then called Bernard in. He ran in, shook wet snowflakes all over her and then launched himself at the sofa where they had been sitting just moments before. She sighed and went into the kitchen.

How unfair was it that the first man in years that she’d had any kind of feelings for was beautiful, intriguing, intelligent, worked with his hands, kind and … married?

She was better off alone – that had been her mantra for the last eight years and she was sticking to it.

She jolted at a sudden noise from next door and she watched as the bookshelf was pushed away from the connecting door. He’d done that for her and she wanted to hug him and shake him in equal measure. He was married and it seemed he needed reminding of that even more than she did.

Daisy would be back tomorrow; hopefully that would stop any of that chemistry that was sparking between them.

H
enry turned
the downstairs light off and wandered upstairs to bed. There was something so attractive about Penny. Even wearing that oversized hoodie over black leggings and her hair pulled up in a messy ponytail, she looked adorable. She was fascinating too, he could have chatted to her all night. But she didn’t seem to know what she wanted. Flirting with him one moment and completely back-pedalling the next. He didn’t need another complicated woman in his life, Daisy was his entire world. But as he lay down in bed, it was Penny’s smile and those intense green gold eyes that he thought of before he drifted off to sleep.

H
enry strode along the steep
, narrow winding lanes with his niece Bea on his hip. She was too little to keep up with his long-legged stride so it was easier to carry her. She didn’t seem to mind.

He passed cute little cottages that were jutting out onto the cobbled streets, their front doors opening right out onto the road. The homes were a higgledy-piggledy mess – there was no order, they just seemed to have one house piled almost on top of the next one. They were all brightly coloured, but none were the same style as the previous one he had passed; some were tiny bungalows whereas some were large three-storey houses. But it just sort of worked.

He stepped into a coffee shop and looked up at the board to see what was on offer. He had to smile when the limited choices ran to cappuccino, espresso and a few herbal teas. This was definitely not Starbucks.

‘Jesus, who is that fine piece of ass?’ said a voice behind him in a staged whisper.

‘Jade, keep your voice down. I’m sure he can hear you.’

‘But look at him, we never get men like that in White Cliff Bay.’

‘That’s Henry Travis, Anna Kent’s brother, and that’s his niece. He’s moved into Penny’s annexe.’

Henry winced that they were talking about him so openly, like he was a piece of meat.

There was a loud bark of a laugh from a third woman. ‘I bet Penny thinks all her Christmases have come at once.’

‘He’s not going to go out with Penny,’ Jade said. ‘A man like that only goes out with beautiful women. Besides, she wouldn’t have the first clue what to do with him. She wouldn’t know how to please him.’

‘And you would?’

‘Oh yes. I could make him cry with joy.’

‘You’re so full of yourself.’

‘Shut up, Beth, do you want to have a go?’

‘I could do better than you.’

‘Want to have a bet? A hundred pounds to whoever can get him into bed first.’

Henry stared at the counter, incredulously as he waited for his turn in the queue. How old were these girls, twelve? He glanced briefly in their direction, three bleached blondes with long manicured nails and completely overdressed for a coffee shop on a Saturday morning. Their type did nothing for him.

‘Deal,’ said one, holding out her hand for the other to shake.

‘Well, as I saw him first, I get the first go,’ Jade said, standing up. Henry quickly looked away.

He heard the click-clack of heels over the tiled floor as she came towards him.

‘Excuse me, you must be Henry Travis. I’m Jade Ambleside.’ She held out a manicured hand for him to shake, which he ignored.

‘Sorry, I’ve sort of got my hands full,’ he gestured with his head towards Bea.

‘Well, aren’t you the cutest thing ever?’ Jade said in a singsong voice. ‘What’s your name?’

Bea stared at her with unblinking eyes. She wouldn’t speak to Jade. She didn’t speak to anyone outside her home. It was a worry for Anna that Bea would chat non-stop inside the house to her family but as soon as she left the home she wouldn’t say a word.

‘Her name’s Bea, she’s very shy.’

‘Oh, you don’t have to be shy with me, sweetheart,’ Jade sang, trying to pull a cutesy face. Bea just stared at her as if she was stupid. ‘I love children so much, I love playing with them and talking to them, kids love me.’

Henry doubted that statement to be true. He looked to the front of the queue where the same person who had been at the front when he came in was still happily chatting to the owner of the coffee shop.

‘Henry, I think we should get together some time, for a date?’ Jade said, thrusting her chest towards him.

‘Like a play date; do you have children too?’ Henry said, deliberately misunderstanding her. ‘Anna would love to take Bea to a play date with you, there’s a kids’ indoor play area on the far side of town – it’s very noisy, very sweaty, but the kids love it. I’ll tell Anna you’d be interested in going. Well, I must go, I’m in a bit of a rush. I’ll get Anna to give you a call.’

He turned and walked out the shop. Maybe he should start wearing a wedding ring so people would know he was not in the market for a relationship. Though knowing women like Jade, that wouldn’t stop her.

P
enny sat
in the bakery window, eating a freshly baked chocolate croissant. It was Saturday and the kids from the local school were chasing each other round the giant Christmas tree in the town square, throwing lumps of slush at each other and squealing with delight as the ice made contact with their skin. It hadn’t properly snowed. It never did in White Cliff Bay. They’d had tiny flurries of snow over the last few days which had gathered at the roadsides and frozen overnight, but any beautiful picturesque snow-topped village scenes were very far away.

The multi-coloured lights from the tree danced and flickered in the dull morning light, casting puddles of blues, greens, purples and reds across the wet cobbles. Every shop window twinkled with festive lights, candy canes, Santas, reindeer and the odd baby Jesus. Some were beautifully decorated, with every star, twinkle or speck of glitter strategically placed, some were a hodgepodge of fun and character.

Being in the town amongst all the hustle and bustle always cheered her up. People were so friendly and chatty. A walk of a hundred yards would sometimes take over half an hour or more because people wanted to stop and chat, even if they had only seen her the day before.

The door to the bakery burst open and the warmth and delicious cake smells were interrupted briefly with a blast of cold air.

Penny smiled at her friend Maggie as she waddled through the door. She was huge, and getting bigger by the minute. She’d never dream of saying that to Maggie’s face though, as everyone else in the town thought they should.

Maggie flopped down in the brown leather armchair opposite Penny and took a large bite of the croissant Penny had bought for her.

‘Where are your little angels today?’ Penny asked, looking around for Maggie’s sons, conspicuous by their absence.

‘Daniel has taken them to watch football, so I get some peace for a few hours, but I actually miss them when they’re not with me, it’s way too quiet.’

‘You’ll have another little one to add to the menagerie soon; how is my godson today?’ Penny asked.

Maggie rubbed her oversized belly affectionately. ‘He’s fast asleep now, but he never stays still at night, feels like he’s doing the samba in there.’

‘He’s eager to come out.’

‘Well, he needs to keep that eagerness to himself for another six weeks. January thirteenth and not a moment before. I’m too busy for him to come now.’

‘How are the preparations for the Christmas Eve ball going?’ With only ten days until the ball, Penny was sure that Maggie had everything organised with military precision.

‘Good I think. The marquee is being delivered a few days before. Food is sorted, tables, chairs, heaters, they’ll be delivered on the day and I have a crew of people who will set everything up. You know what I’m like, these were all organised months ago. But I’m still getting twenty emails a day with queries or changes or demands. The band want their own dressing room, which is a headache, but it’s the bloody ice carvers who are causing me the most stress.’

Penny smiled. The competitors were an odd bunch. There was probably going to be ten of them, including her, exhibiting their entries at the ball, with one smaller competition in the lead up to the ball. In the next few days some of the best ice carvers in Europe would descend on White Cliff Bay. It thrilled Penny to be rubbing shoulders with the elite but she had met a few of them before and knew that they were highly competitive and some were very bitchy.

‘How are your new neighbours?’ Maggie said, through a mouthful of croissant.

‘I’ve only met Henry.’

Maggie took a big sip of tea, eyeing her suspiciously. ‘What’s with the look, Penny Meadows?’

‘There was no look.’

‘There was definitely a look.’

‘He…’ Penny rubbed her eyes, hating that Maggie knew her so well. ‘He’s the most beautiful man I’ve ever seen.’

Maggie clapped her hands and squealed with excitement.

‘Mags, he’s married.’

Maggie frowned. ‘I know his sister, Anna, she was telling me how much she was looking forward to having him here at last. She never mentioned a wife.’

‘Daisy,’ Penny prompted.

‘Oh yes, I do remember Anna saying something about her now, my brain is rubbish lately, I can’t remember anything.’

‘Anyway, the weird thing is… I think he sort of flirted with me.’

‘Why is that weird? You’re funny, sweet, beautiful, hugely talented.’

‘Because he’s married.’

‘Oh yes. Urgh, what a creep, all men are the same. No loyalty.’

‘You say that when you’re married to one of the most devoted men I know.’

Maggie’s face split into a huge grin. ‘Daniel is pretty amazing, isn’t he? He carried me home the other day because I was tired and couldn’t face the one-minute walk up the hill. I haven’t cooked a single meal since I became pregnant. I do love him.’

‘He’s so excited about becoming a dad again. I saw him the other day, it was all he could talk about.’

The door opened, sending a blast of cold air over them again. Penny looked up straight into the soft grey eyes of Henry. He was with a small girl, her tiny hand clutched in his. Penny recognised the little girl from around the town and guessed she must be his niece. He gave Penny a small wave before moving to the counter. She couldn’t take her eyes off him and it seemed he was having trouble looking away from her too. Something had passed between them the night before and they both knew it.

Maggie hissed to gain Penny’s attention and she tore her eyes away from her giant sexy neighbour.

‘Is that him?’ Maggie whispered, thankfully quietly enough that no one would hear her.

Penny nodded, subtly.

‘He’s hot.’

‘Maggie!’

‘What? Everyone is thinking it.’ Maggie cast Henry an appreciative look. Sure enough, every woman in the shop – the old, the young, the happily married – was staring at him in complete adoration.

‘Is that his niece?’ Penny whispered, trying to change the subject slightly.

Maggie nodded. ‘Bea. I think she’s just started school.’

Penny sighed, forcing her attention out of the window and away from Henry. ‘Mags, I think I need to start dating again. It’s been too long.’

‘I’m not surprised you’ve come to that decision after that gorgeous specimen moved in next door.’

‘He’s married,’ Penny laughed with exasperation.

‘Yes, yes of course. Well, there are plenty of other single men in the town.’ She looked out the window too as if one might just happen to be walking past. ‘What about George?’ Maggie gestured to the curly haired guy on the opposite side of the street. They had gone to school with George and, although she hadn’t hung around with him, she knew he was lovely. ‘He’s sweet, nice-looking, very funny, divorced.’

Penny watched Libby come out of the shop opposite with two cream-topped hot chocolates. She passed one to George and he wiped the cream affectionately from her nose, then handed her what looked like a bag of sweets. Libby was obviously very excited about the contents and she kissed him on the cheek to say thank you. Penny smiled at the look he gave her. ‘And he’s completely in love with his best friend. I don’t think I stand a chance.’

‘Really?’ Maggie peered across the road at the two of them. ‘I thought he was in love with Polly.’ Maggie gestured to the cute freckly red-head at the back of the shop who worked there with her mum Linda.

Penny looked at Polly who was busily chatting to Matt from the jewellery shop. ‘No but Matt is, and I’m pretty sure the feeling is mutual.’

Everyone had someone. She had always vowed that she didn’t need anyone to make her happy, but in reality being alone was no fun.

Just then Linda Forbes, the owner of the bakery, came over with her little six-year-old granddaughter, Tilly, who had the biggest toothiest grin and a mop of messy ginger curls. Penny was glad of the distraction, though she could still see Henry passing her little glances over Linda’s shoulder.

‘Tilly wants to know if you’d like to try our newest recipe, these are marshmallow snowmen biscuits.’

‘Thank you,’ Maggie signed with her hands at Tilly, before taking one and devouring it in seconds.

Penny smiled at Tilly and carefully signed. ‘Did you make these?’

Tilly’s face lit up and her hands flew into action as she signed her reply. Penny had to concentrate really hard to see what she was saying. ‘I helped with putting the marshmallows on the icing and Nanny put the eyes and nose and mouth on. I decorated some myself but Nanny said that we could eat those rather than putting them in the shop for people to buy.’

Penny signed back. ‘I want to see the ones that you made, I bet they’re beautiful.’

Tilly grinned and turned and ran into the back of the shop, no doubt to retrieve her artfully made biscuits.

Linda smiled warmly at Penny. ‘You’re so good with her, when are you going to have children of your own? You would make such a wonderful mum.’

Penny felt the familiar pain in her chest at the thought of having her own family and even Maggie gave her a sympathetic smile as she wolfed down the last of her biscuit.

‘All the girls in your year at school have kids now,’ Linda said. ‘In fact, you’re the only one over the age of twenty-five not to have any children—’

‘That’s not true,’ Maggie interrupted. ‘Jade was in our class, she doesn’t have any children, neither do Beth or Chelsea or any of the Blonde Bimbo Brigade.’

‘And we all give thanks for that. What kind of mums would they make, going out and getting drunk and ending up in a different man’s bed every night? But Penny here would make a fantastic mum.’ Linda turned her attention back on Penny. ‘How old are you now, twenty-nine, thirty? You don’t want to leave it too late. Your biological clock is ticking. You don’t even need a man these days, you can be artificially inseminated. You surely don’t want to be alone for the rest of your life?’

Penny stared at her in horror. This wasn’t the first time the people in the town had thought it was their business to talk about Penny’s lack of children but it was the first time it had been put so bluntly. To her embarrassment, she knew Henry was listening to every word too.