Sealed with a Christmas Kiss (4 page)

Nobody apart from Kate and Susan had taken up the offer of coffee, and the meal was just breaking up when there was a banging at the door, followed by a swirl of cold air and
the sound of swearing.

‘Bloody freezing out there!’ Another island accent, this one deep and lyrical.

Maddy and Leo looked up, confused. It was ten o’clock at night – late for someone to drop in in the middle of town, let alone at a house in the countryside on an island. Nobody else
in the room seemed surprised, and Roderick was already reaching into the dresser for another whisky tumbler.

‘Evening, all.’

Standing in the kitchen doorway was the embodiment of Celtic gorgeousness, and he knew it. Clocking Maddy immediately, he ruffled a hand through his sandy hair and flashed her a smile
reminiscent of a young Ewan McGregor.

‘Well, hello there.’

Maddy, being only human, flushed. Faced with the direct beam of Finn McArthur’s charm, it was hard not to react. He’d honed it over many years. Kate and Susan, both by now impervious
to his lines, treated him more like an over-exuberant pet labrador.

‘Turn it down a notch, Finn, you’re freaking out the bridegroom.’ Susan stood up, putting a reassuring hand on Leo’s shoulder. ‘Leo, Maddy – this is Finn
McArthur.’

Roderick stood up, went to shake his friend’s hand and ducked as he went for a high five. They ended up tangled in a drunken bear hug.

Kate took control of the situation, realizing Maddy and Leo were looking more than a little confused by the sudden arrival of this tawny-haired giant.

‘Finn, here’s a drink. Maddy, Leo – our friend Finn. He was invited to dinner, but he got a better offer.’ Kate’s tone was amused. She and Finn had history, but
that was in the past now, and their relationship was based on mutual teasing and a shared sense of humour.

‘I had some business to attend to, actually,’ Finn defended himself, gratefully accepting his whisky.

‘Whatever.’ Susan’s tongue was in her cheek.

‘Anyway, he’s here now. You’ve missed dinner, but there’s some – oi, fingers off, get a plate at least!’ Before she could finish her sentence, Finn had picked
up the final slice of the tart and it was gone.

‘We were just about to go through to the sitting room for a game of charades . . . I know it’s a bit of a cliché, but there’s bugger all else to do round here.’
Tom put his arm round Susan’s waist, scooping her up from the table. Her long legs unfolded gracefully and she looked up at him suggestively.

‘Unless anyone fancies a game of hide and seek in the dark?’

Kate motioned a flat-handed
no
behind Maddy’s back. There had been quite a few evenings when they’d ended up messing around like teenagers, hiding in the outhouses around
the estate in the velvet darkness, hearts pounding with fear and excitement.

‘I think charades is a much better plan.’ Roderick held the kitchen door open, motioning for everyone to pass him. Breathing a sigh of relief, Kate ushered everyone through.

Leo, surprisingly, threw himself into his part. Leaping across the sitting room in an attempt to mime
The Unbearable Lightness of Being
, he didn’t notice the
phone flying from his pocket. Nor did he realize Kate had picked it up and placed it on the coffee table to avoid it being stamped on during his display.

Kate perched on the arm of the sofa beside Roddy, feeling tired and a bit fed up of everyone drunkenly yelling. Maddy stood up, swaying for a second on her high heels. She smiled down at
Kate.

‘I’m just popping to the loo – oh, Leo, isn’t this your phone? You’ll lose it if you leave it lying here.’

Holding the phone, Maddy stepped towards Leo, who almost jumped towards her to grab the phone from her hand. As he did so, he hit the pocket of signal within the room. The phone buzzed, but at
the same time his pocket started beeping insistently.

A moment of realization swept over Kate, the only person sober enough to grasp what was happening straight away.

Maddy looked down at the still-buzzing phone, her brow furrowing. She looked across at Leo’s pocket. He’d placed a guarding hand there, instinctively, but the bleeping continued.

‘If
this
is your phone, what’s
that
in your pocket?’

‘I can explain.’

Susan snorted loudly. ‘You’d better make it quick, Sonny Jim, you’ve got a wedding in three weeks.’

Roderick shot her a warning glare.

Maddy looked down at the phone, sliding the bar across, unlocking the screen. Her heart-shaped face was ice-white with fury.

‘“This bed’s no fun without you in it”?’ She read slowly, enunciating every word clearly.

‘Maddy, sweetheart, it’s not what it looks like . . . ’ Leo reached forward, trying to grab the phone from her hand.

‘I think I can see perfectly well what it looks like.’

‘I think we
all
can.’ Nobody shushed Susan this time. The room was deathly silent apart from the spitting of logs on the fire.

Maddy looked down at the phone again, scrolling upwards through the messages. The pain of betrayal flashed across her face, followed by a moment where Kate was certain she was about to burst
into tears. Kate reached out, uncertain, putting a comforting hand on her arm. She felt Maddy stiffen, and take a breath.

‘I’m going to get a glass of water.’

‘Let me give you a hand.’ Roderick stood up, offering his arm to Maddy in an old-fashioned gesture. He didn’t even look in Leo’s direction as he stalked out of the
room.

Kate knew that the alternative would be him punching Leo in the nose. Roddy’s feelings about affairs were well known to her – after his mother had left the family for her lover,
leaving his father crushed, he’d grown up well aware of the devastation infidelity could leave in its wake.

‘I think you’d better make yourself scarce, mate.’ Finn spoke up, breaking the silence within the room.

‘It wasn’t anything – just an office fling . . . ’ Leo tried a half-laugh to smooth things over, appealing to Finn and Tom’s blokey side.

Tom shook his head slowly, his lips set in a tight line. ‘You’re talking to the wrong person.’

Kate looked at Leo, stuck here on an island with a load of people who thought he was a cheating arsehole . . .
hang on, he IS a cheating arsehole.
Even Kate’s soft heart
couldn’t find space to feel sorry for him for more than a moment.

Manners took over. ‘If you come up with me, I’ll show you to a spare room. I suspect that might be for the best?’

‘Well, for tonight, anyway.’ Leo gave her a half-smile which Kate thought was meant to look penitent, but which appeared completely fake. But would Maddy feel the same way? They had
a wedding planned in just over three weeks, and after all, she’d clearly seen something in Leo that Kate hadn’t noticed.

They walked upstairs in silence.

Kate waited in the galleried hall whilst he collected some clothes and his toilet bag, and then showed him to one of the many spare rooms. This one had the heating turned down low –
heating the whole of Duntarvie House cost so much that the disused rooms were closed off and arctic on wintry nights. The room was icy enough that their breath hung in clouds.

‘Just a moment, I’ll grab you an oil radiator.’ Kate left him standing by the window, looking out into the blackness.

‘Thanks.’ Leo took it from her, plugging it in beside the metal bed frame. The room wasn’t anywhere near as glamorous as the luxurious room Kate and Jean had prepared for their
guests, and the bed was clad in heavy, old-fashioned blankets and an antique eiderdown which had been in the house forever.

‘If you need anything . . . ’ Kate looked at Leo’s face for a moment. He seemed remarkably unmoved by everything that had happened, and had even taken a moment to grab the
offending mobile before leaving the sitting room. She didn’t quite know how to treat him. It wasn’t really her place to judge, and after all, she could well be hosting his wedding in a
few weeks’ time. Maybe she should make more of an effort.

‘I’ll get you a tray with some bits and pieces, give me a moment. I’ll be back in a sec.’

Kate ran downstairs to the kitchen. The kettle had boiled and Maddy was perched against the Aga, having swapped the planned glass of water for a much-needed cup of hot, sweet tea. From behind
her back, Roderick gave Kate a look which clearly said, ‘Get me out of here!’

‘Maddy, I’ve put Leo in one of our spare rooms for now—’

‘I don’t care where you put him, as long as it’s nowhere near me,’ she spat. Clearly shock had been replaced – rapidly – with fury.

‘I’ll just grab him a couple of bits.’ Kate bent down, quickly gathering a little kettle, a teapot, and some of the tiny packets of teabags her mother had brought on her last
visit. She sloshed some milk into a jug, aware all the time that Maddy was glaring at her as if
she
was somehow in the wrong for providing Leo with any small comforts.

Kate scuttled upstairs with the things on a tray. Knocking on the door, she found Leo inside, laptop on knee, looking remarkably unruffled.

‘Have you got a Wi-Fi password?’

After writing it down for him on his notepad, she left him to it. Probably off to chat to his girlfriend online. Anyway, that wasn’t her problem. What
was
her problem was the
small matter of a wedding which was due to take place here, displaying the beauty of Duntarvie Estate, in less than a month. A wedding that was looking highly unlikely, given that the couple in
question were sleeping in separate rooms and one of them seemed to be occupied elsewhere.

Climbing into bed beside Roddy, thankful that the evening was over, she passed her phone across silently, letting him read the message for himself. With a snort of laughter, he kissed her on the
shoulder.

‘I’m going to leave you with that one, darling, and get some sleep. Emma did say she wanted the gory details, I suppose . . . ’

Kate took the phone back, and started tapping a response.

‘I don’t care if she loves him or not, Kate. I’ve got a load of advertising hanging on this wedding. They can get divorced afterwards.’ Sian’s
voice was increasing in pitch so rapidly that Kate had to hold the phone further and further from her ear.

‘So where’s he gone now?’

‘He got the first boat off the island this morning. I tried to console Maddy that maybe it wasn’t as bad as it looks, but to be honest, Sian, it couldn’t look much worse. He
had a separate phone full of texts from some other woman—’

‘I don’t care if he had a phone full of texts from fifteen women! I’m in the shit now, Kate, and frankly, so are you. Where’s Maddy? Can I speak to her?’

‘She’s gone for a walk down to the beach. I told her it was my best thinking place – but I’m not going to try and persuade her to reconcile with some sleazy git
who’s been having affairs left, right and centre.’

‘Fine.’ Sian’s voice suggested it was anything but. ‘I’m going to have to think about this. There’s a solution here, and it’s probably staring me in the
face. Tell Maddy I’ll be in touch.’

The line went quiet – blissfully so – and Kate slumped forward onto the kitchen table, head in her arms.

She’d lain there for a while when there was a tentative tap at the door. Maddy’s head, long hair covered with a beret, appeared with a shy smile.

‘I’m so sorry about last night. Well, about all of it, really.’

‘God, Maddy.’ Kate stood up, making space on the long bench for her to sit down. ‘You haven’t done anything wrong. You’ve got nothing to apologize for. Leo, on the
other hand . . . ’

‘I did get a bit ranty after he’d gone to bed.’

‘Yeah. After you’d realized the man you were about to marry was having an affair. I think under the circumstances, that’s okay.’ Kate lifted the teapot with a questioning
look. Maddy nodded, gratefully. There was some of Jean’s coffee cake in the larder, too, Kate remembered, fetching a couple of huge slices. She passed one across.

‘I don’t get it, though. I’m supposed to be getting married in three weeks’ time, and I’m more worried about telling everyone than I am about the realization that
my life just ended.’

‘That’s because your life didn’t end.’ Kate looked at Maddy thoughtfully. ‘I think it probably just started. I know you loved him—’

‘I loved the
idea
of him,’ Maddy interrupted. ‘But I think I got a bit caught up in wedding fever.’

‘It’s easily done,’ said Kate, with a sympathetic expression. ‘I’ve seen it happen to so many of my friends.’

She thought back, remembering the preparations for Emma and Sam’s wedding. Emma had been determined to make it as low-key as possible, but Kate had a distinct memory of her best friend
having a complete meltdown over John Lewis being out of stock of the specific thickness of ribbon she needed. Maybe it was a rite of passage?

‘Well,’ said Kate, bringing herself back to the present, ‘Sian’s on the warpath, but there’s nothing she can do about it. I’m sure we’ll sort something
out, even if we have to mock up a wedding for the photo shoot.’

‘God, I feel so guilty.’

‘Sian’s not your responsibility, Maddy.’ Kate reached across, giving her arm a squeeze. Maddy, who had been biting her nails, looked up at Kate. The reality was clearly
starting to sink in. She’d arrived on the island less than a day ago full of plans for her imminent wedding, and now she was sitting in a stranger’s kitchen with a hangover and no
fiancé.

‘You didn’t do anything wrong – apart from trust Leo.’

Maddy looked up at Kate, frowning. ‘No, I didn’t, did I?’ She leaned forward, cupping her chin in her hand, a thoughtful expression on her face. She seemed to be processing
this idea for the first time.

‘I’m sorry you’ve had such a bad time.’

‘Oh, don’t worry,’ said Maddy, automatically. She seemed a bit dazed. Between the shock and the hangover, Kate wondered if sending her off on the boat back to the mainland was
a good idea.