The Night Before Christmas (21 page)

‘I don’t know why,’ Lydia said thoughtfully. ‘I suppose I wanted to keep it special, separate. I think I knew, even then, that it was never going to go somewhere, but I wanted to get lost in it, lost in my own love story. You know, like you do in a good book or a film. I wanted to lose myself in what Jackson and I had for as long as we had it. Which wasn’t very long. Look, Joanna, it’s not as if I’ve been running around trying to steal your boyfriend. He left me, don’t forget, it was over. You’re the one who brought him here, knowing it would put me, and him, in an impossible position. Why?’

Joanna’s laugh was mirthless. ‘Why? Don’t you think I’ve asked myself that question? The minute I met Jack, I wanted him. He was so funny and charming and sexy. He was like a whirlwind of romance, it really did feel like I was in the middle of my own daydream, it was magical. And when I was with him, he made me feel so … special. As if he couldn’t live without me.’

‘Yes,’ Lydia said, filling the kettle again. ‘He is very good at that.’

Joanna sighed. ‘He was not only perfect, but different from any other men I’ve known. I’m used to boys falling in love with me straightaway. Jackson held back, just a little, and I wanted to know why, was there someone else? Was it just that he wasn’t that into me? Well, you
know what I’m like, I couldn’t let it lie, so I waited until he was in the shower one morning and I checked his phone for anything, anything he might have said about me, any contact with another girl.

‘There were no texts, no voicemails, nothing at all that incriminating; although, as you can imagine, there were rather a lot of women in his contacts! I was really only looking at his photos for fun when suddenly there you were staring out at me. You were in bed, naked, I suppose, under his sheets, smiling at him. You looked beautiful.’ Joanna shook her head. ‘I couldn’t believe what I was seeing. I was in shock. Perhaps I should have confronted him about it or called you then, but to me the fact that he kept that photo meant he still thought about you. I didn’t want to lose him to you.’

‘Joanna.’ Lydia shook her head incredulously as she looked at her friend. ‘As if I could ever beat you in a straight contest.’

‘Oh, don’t do that.’ Joanna rolled her eyes.

‘What?’ That thing you do, all that false modesty, pretending that you’re not beautiful and clever and funny and brilliant.’

‘What?’ Lydia stared at her. ‘Don’t be mad, Jo-Jo. Everyone knows that you’re the beautiful one, the head turner. I’m just normal.’

Joanna studied her for a long moment. ‘You really think that, don’t you? You really don’t see how amazing you are. I know I’m beautiful, and witty, and have a
high-profile, well-paid, glamorous career as a model slash presenter slash actress, if selling fleeces embroidered with wolves can be called glamorous. But even if you do wear your heart permanently on your sleeve, you’re so … genuine, Lydia. I’m all fakery and sham. I worried that I couldn’t keep Jackson for long. I just wanted to keep him for as long as I could, and telling you about him, or him about you, didn’t seem like a good way of doing that.’

‘Even if that makes sense, which it doesn’t, by the way … you brought him here? What were you thinking?’ The kettle began to rumble and bubble, busily.

‘I wanted Jackson and I to stay together, and short of never seeing you again, I knew if we were going to be together then he was going to meet you sooner or later,’ Joanna said. ‘I know it sounds insane, but perhaps I have gone a little mad. Being in love does that to a person, doesn’t it?’ Lydia raised her eyebrows; having recently kissed a man she barely knew, in the snow, she was in no position to judge. ‘I thought if I brought him here, after making it clear to you how much he meant to me, and with Stephen about to propose to you …’

‘Hang on, you didn’t know about Stephen and the ring until after we got here.’

‘I did,’ Joanna said flatly, leaving Lydia utterly confused. She sighed. ‘Fine, you might as well know
the whole story. I ran into Stephen on Bond Street a few weeks ago. I was looking for a new bag and he was window shopping, looking in jewellers! Well, I put two and two together and congratulated him on doing the right thing and finally proposing to you. Couldn’t be better, I thought; you settling down with Stephen meant I could relax about being with Jack. Thing is, Stephen was just looking for your Christmas present, he hadn’t exactly decided definitely to propose, and I suppose I might have railroaded him a little, maybe suggested that perhaps, if he didn’t pop the question soon, he might lose you for good …’

‘You did
what
?’ Lydia gasped. ‘You told Stephen to propose to me?’

‘No, I helped him along. I was doing it for you, Lyds. Anyway, when he thought about it a bit, he realised I was right, that he should seize the day, but he had no idea what sort of ring to get you. Well, obviously you and I have talked and talked about that for the last ten years at least, so I told him I knew just what you wanted. I took him to Tiffany.’

‘You picked out my ring?’ Lydia was aghast. All that time she’d wrangled with how much Stephen must have cared for her, going to so much trouble and expense to find exactly the right ring, and it had been Joanna all along.

‘So when I told you that I’d found the ring and that I wasn’t sure about marrying Stephen, you knew all the
time? I bet you were furious that I was having second thoughts, especially as you planned to have me safely engaged and out of the way when you finally revealed who your boyfriend was.’

Joanna chewed her bottom lip for a moment, lifting the kettle off the base and pouring its contents into the pan.

‘When you put it like that, it does seem a bit mad … I did feel terrible when you told me how you felt about Stephen. I never would have meddled if I thought you weren’t happy. I thought that if you and Jackson were suddenly brought together, I’d be able to see if he still wanted you. It never occurred to me that you might want him back.’

‘But I didn’t! I don’t want him back,’ Lydia said, firmly. ‘Maybe, perhaps for a moment or two, seeing him when I was so uncertain about how I felt for Stephen did make me wonder … But, in reality, I never would have done that to you, of all people. Honestly, Jo-Jo, if you’d just told me who he was, then all the crap I’ve gone through over the last few days, all the confusion and angst, could have been avoided.’

‘Except that he wanted you, of course he did, he’s made that perfectly clear.’

‘Are you crazy?’ Lydia asked her.

‘You’re the one everyone always falls in love with,’ Joanna said quietly. ‘You’re the kind of woman men want to marry, I can’t compete with you.’

‘Me?’ Lydia exclaimed. ‘Which one of us has been engaged five times?’

‘Exactly,’ Joanna said. ‘I can’t keep a man interested in me long enough to marry.’

‘That’s ridiculous,’ Lydia said. ‘You chuck them almost as soon as you’ve got a ring on your finger.’

‘Yes, before they get the chance to change their minds,’ Joanna said, pitifully. ‘Everyone has always left me, Joanna. Mum, Dad, everyone. I just wanted to keep Jack.’

‘Oh, Jo-Jo, you are clinically insane, but don’t you know by now that not everybody leaves you? Me, Katy and Alex. We will always be here.’ Lydia held out her arms to her friend, just as the whistle on the kettle began to sing, seeming, as the two women hugged, to morph into one long high-pitched scream.

‘Alex.’ Joanna and Lydia looked at each other and ran to help their friend, a half-filled pan of boiled water left cooling on the table.

David was on his knees, mobile phone in one hand, about to peer between Alex’s firmly clenched knees.

‘Get away him from there!’ Alex wailed. ‘Katy, get him away from there! I’ve told him he’s not to go down there. If he sees this we’ll never have sex again.’

‘Here.’ Lydia put an arm on David’s shoulder. ‘I think she really needs you up that end. Let me take a look.’

Perhaps a little relieved, David shuffled away from the business end and took Alex’s hand.

‘Oh God,’ Lydia said, her eyes widening, any fear or revulsion she thought she might feel disappearing in a moment. ‘I can see the head. Oh I … whoa, I think this little fella is nearly here.’

David tried to look, but Alex dragged him back. ‘Please, stay with me here. Lydia, push it back in. I’m not ready, I’m not ready to be a mum …’

Alex squeezed her eyes tightly shut, tears escaping down her cheeks as the next wave of pain hit her.

‘Okay, don’t think pushing him back in is an actual option, and I don’t think waiting for the ambulance is either,’ Lydia said, holding her hand out for the phone. ‘Let me speak to Maxine, tell her what I see.’ She deftly caught the handset that David threw.

‘Hello? Lydia here, again.’ Lydia tried to keep her voice down, so that Alex wouldn’t hear the fear in her voice. But one look at her friend’s face told her that Alex was lost in her own world, totally caught up in the process of bringing her child into the world. ‘I think the moment is somewhat nigh.’

‘Okay, Lydia, have a look and tell me what you can see.’

Bracing herself, Lydia looked again, ‘Fuck, it’s amazing. I can see the top of the baby’s head, he’s really hairy!’

‘Okay, Lydia,’ Maxine said, her voice even and calm in tone, and not remotely matching the panic rising in
Lydia’s chest as she realised the burden of responsibility she was taking on. ‘It’s possible that on the next contraction the head and shoulders will appear, and then it will be very quick until baby’s out.’

‘Oh … kaaay,’ Lydia said.

‘As soon as you see them, support baby’s head and shoulders, and when he comes out, if you can get him to his mother’s breast as soon as possible. The sooner baby starts suckling the sooner the uterus will begin to contract and the less blood she’ll lose. The good news is, I’ve just had word that the chopper’s up. We’ll be there in minutes.’

‘Ambulance is on its way, Alex,’ Lydia told her. ‘So now all you have to do is concentrate on getting that baby here for its first helicopter ride, okay?’

Alex nodded, squeezing Katy’s hand so tightly that the tips of her finger blanched white. ‘I’m ready.’

‘Good. David, help Alex get her bra off. Alex – next contraction, get ready to meet your baby, okay?’

‘Yes,’ Alex wept, ‘let’s do this!’

There was a short period of quiet, save for the ticking of the clock on the mantel, and then David yelped as Alex squeezed his hand

‘I’ve got you,’ David said, his arms around Alex.

‘I can feel it coming!’ Alex’s scream roared through the room, echoing in the halls, stairways and all the rooms of Heron’s Pike, and Lydia gasped as the baby emerged in a gush of fluid into her arms.

‘Oh my God! Oh my God, it’s a girl!’ She stared at the tiny pink and red creature in her hands, the most beautiful thing she had ever seen. And then she realised the baby was perfectly still. ‘Katy, quick, the phone!’

Dropping Alex’s hand, Katy held the phone up to Lydia ear.

‘What’s happening?’ Alex asked. ‘Where’s my baby?’

‘She’s here,’ Lydia said into the phone. ‘She not breathing.’

‘Hold her with her head down,’ Maxine said calmly. ‘This helps drain any fluids that might be getting in the way, and rub her back, you can be quite firm.’

‘Nothing!’ Lydia’s voice quivered as she held the tiny scrap of life in her arms.

‘Just wait one moment.’ Terrifyingly, Lydia thought she could hear fear in Maxine’s voice for the first time.

And then the baby seemed to gasp, and cough, audibly sucking in a breath of air, which it held for a fraction of a moment before letting it out again in one long, wonderful wail.

‘Thank God, it’s worked.’ Lydia let herself breathe along with the baby, aware of sudden tears streaming down her cheeks.

‘Good work, Lydia,’ Maxine said. ‘Now get that baby to her mum. Keep her warm. Help will be there any minute.’

Still sobbing, Lydia placed the tiny girl against Alex’s breast, and the friends watched in awe as, after a
moment, her little rosebud mouth latched on to Alex’s nipple and she began to suckle.’

‘Oh my God, she’s so beautiful,’ Alex said, gazing fondly at her daughter. ‘Isn’t she beautiful, darling?’

‘The most beautiful thing I’ve ever seen,’ David said, breathless with wonder, as he stroked the baby’s head with the back of one finger. ‘You did it, darling, you did it,’ he told Alex, tears in his eyes. ‘I knew you would.’

‘I couldn’t have done it without you,’ Alex told him fondly, before beaming at her friends. ‘Or you lot! Especially you, Lydia!’

‘You were nothing short of a bloody fucking hero!’ David added.

A blast of cold air whipped through the room as the back door opened and suddenly the place was full of people, all the boys, including Will, along with a woman bundled up in a very thick coat and carrying a doctor’s bag, plus two paramedics wearing high-visibility coats. Lydia stood back, discovering that she was still trembling, as she watched the doctor check over Alex and the baby before the paramedics transferred them onto a gurney, wrapped tightly in blankets and safely secured by belts.

As they wheeled her away, Alex held out her hand to Lydia. ‘Thank you,’ she said. ‘I don’t know what I would have done without you.’

‘Well, it was really a team effort,’ Lydia said, tears welling up in her eyes.

‘I know, thank you, all of you. What would I – we – have done without you? Now bloody well make up and have a happy Christmas Day, for our sake, okay?’

Lydia nodded, looking at Joanna. ‘We will.’

‘One thing,’ Alex said sleepily to David as they wheeled her out of the room. ‘At least we get out of eating that mutilated turkey.’

Chapter Sixteen

25 December

The very distant sound of laughter and squealing prised open Lydia’s exhausted eyes and tear-swollen eyelids. It was Christmas morning, Lydia realised, and it had to be quite late because pale, watery light was creeping in under her thick curtains. Reaching across the empty half of the bed, she picked up her watch and looked at it. It was almost nine on Christmas Day. The day that Lydia had always wanted to be perfect, magical and above all happy. The day that for as long as she could remember had been none of those things.

Still, just because she’d singled-handedly managed to upset and alienate the three men in her life in one fell swoop, and somehow end up single instead of engaged, it didn’t mean she couldn’t eat her own body weight in turkey and Christmas pudding, which was exactly what she planned to do. Fate, it seemed, had her destined always to be alone, so she might as well get really, really fat, and perhaps become an alcoholic, which was her first preference when it came to hobbies suitable for elderly spinsters.

Clambering reluctantly out of bed, Lydia shuddered as she went to the wardrobe and brought out the obligatory glittery top, a long fine-knit silk top, shot through with silver, which slid rather attractively off one shoulder, not that anybody would care, Lydia thought morosely, as she teamed it with her black velvet skinny jeans. Or that anybody was ever going to graze that poor shoulder with a stubbly kiss ever again. She picked out the sparkliest bling she could find in her travel jewellery box, a pair of chandelier diamante earrings that Joanna had brought home from work and given her for her birthday, and a huge fake red ruby ring, which she slipped onto the third finger of her left hand in pure defiance. Who wanted to be engaged, anyway? It made a girl sound like a public convenience.

In the wake of witnessing her very own Christmas miracle, Lydia had been filled with warmth and goodwill to all men, even Jackson. Even after Alex and David had at last been spirited away into the night sky, and despite the drama and the oddness of Joanna’s strange confession, it felt as if they had made up and that somehow working together to deliver the baby had cancelled out everything that had gone on during the hours before the little girl made her dramatic entrance. Even the fact that Joanna had rigged Lydia’s engagement, and that Lydia had made out with Joanna’s boyfriend, seemed insignificant as the three remaining women toasted the baby, and congratulated themselves
on their new midwifery skills. That was the magic of Christmas, Lydia had thought warmly, not even slightly cross with Stephen that he’d pretended proposing to her was all his idea and that he’d picked out that ring all on his own. If ever there was a time of year that was all about new beginnings, hope and faith, then this was it.

Suddenly seeing quite clearly exactly what she needed to do, Lydia went to find Will, her nerves fizzing with anticipation and her heart thundering in her chest, inspired to do exactly what every reasonable and rational bone in her body told her not to do: tell the man exactly how she felt about him. Lydia was prepared to lay all the cards on the table, and tell Will that the kiss they’d shared meant just as much to her as it had to him, and that even though the whole thing seemed crazy, it seemed crazier still not to act on something that felt so right.

Which was why it was rather an anticlimax when, to her dismay, she found Will in the lean-to getting ready to leave with the doctor.

‘Hello, Miriam Day.’ The woman, who was a little older than Lydia, held out her already gloved hand, smiling warmly. ‘Well done you, Alex told me as I was settling her in the ambulance that you delivered baby and got her breathing. You must have nerves of steel!’

‘Oh well, I … just did what had to be done,’ Lydia said, watching Will as he zipped up his jacket and
wound his scarf around his neck. ‘Anyone would have done the same.’

‘Nonsense, I’ve seen junior doctors run a mile from a dilated vagina!’ Dr Day chuckled. ‘Brightened up my Christmas, anyway. Nothing like a medical emergency to get you out of the house!’

‘You’re going?’ Lydia asked Will as he picked up his rucksack.

‘Doesn’t seem much point in me sticking around here now.’ Will was polite but cool. ‘Baby’s delivered, Aga is working, heating is on. You don’t need me any more.’

‘Oh, everyone always needs a man like Will!’ Dr Day giggled. ‘Don’t you agree?’

Lydia smiled tightly, nodding, trying to think of some reason to ask Dr Day to wait outside in the freezing snow while she talked to Will. She hadn’t envisioned an audience for her romantic declaration.

‘Don’t you think you’re being a tiny bit over-dramatic, leaving now?’ Lydia began. ‘We kissed and it was lovely, really lovely, actually. But as far as I’m aware, we didn’t get married or anything.’

‘Ah,’ Dr Day said. ‘I might just see you in the tractor, Will.’

A chill blast of air swept across Lydia as Dr Day hurriedly made her exit, and Will looked sharply at her. ‘Nobody said we did, it’s just … I thought you were one sort of person, it turned out that you were another. My mistake. No big deal.’

‘Will!’ Lydia exclaimed, infuriated. ‘What sort of person are you, to judge me on something you know nothing about? You turn up out the blue, smouldering away, and then without any encouragement at all from me, pretty much tell me I’m the best thing since sliced bread, get all stroppy because I’m so surprised that I don’t immediately fall into your arms all overcome with gratitude, and
then
, without knowing any of the facts
whatsoever
, change your mind completely about me, based on another man trying to kiss me!’

Finally, Lydia paused for breath. She had to acknowledge that as romantic declarations go, this one wasn’t quite panning out how she’d planned it.

‘I take people as I find them,’ Will said, unmoved by her outburst. ‘I’ll leave the stove, just in case. Would you ask Jim to drop it back, next time he’s passing.’

‘Hang on a minute.’ Lydia softened her tone as she put her hand on the arm of his coat, stopping him in his tracks. ‘You like straight talking, well, here is some. I really thought that we’d connected, you and I. And, yes, the fact that we met during quite possibly the most complicated week of my life did give me pause. But I put it to you that you knew that when you kissed me. You knew that I’d only just broken up with Stephen, and that any decent sort of person would be rather thrown off balance by something so … surprising. And as far as Jackson is concerned, I’ve been taught that the central principle of justice is that an individual is
innocent until proven guilty. Talk to Joanna, and Jackson, and they’ll tell you the real story about what happened in the cellar.’

Will did not respond, but neither did he leave, which Lydia took as a good sign. ‘I am pretty blown away by you, Will. I didn’t expect this, but it’s happened and I don’t want to fluff it over nothing. You seem like an honest sort of man to me, and I just don’t believe that everything you said you felt has evaporated over night. Apart from anything else, you said there was something about me, something that made you want to build me a house. Well, there’s something about you too, Will.’ Lydia took a breath. ‘Something that makes me think I might want to live in it. With you.’

Having made her declaration, Lydia pressed her lips together as Will looked into her eyes, and for one second she was absolutely certain he was going to kiss her. And then he shook his head and walked away.

‘It must have been snow blindness,’ Will said. ‘You’re a city girl, a southerner. I’m a country bloke. We are three hundred miles and worlds apart. I don’t know what I was thinking, saying all that stuff to you out of the blue. It wasn’t fair and I shouldn’t have done it, I should have learned by now that nothing good ever comes of saying too much. I’m sorry, Lydia, but I’m heading home. Have a happy Christmas.’

Will looked past her. ‘Ready?’

‘Ready.’ Jackson nodded, walking towards them.

‘But …’ Lydia turned to him. ‘What about Joanna, what about this mess you’re walking out on?’

‘Joanna won’t talk to me,’ Jackson said. ‘I figure I need to give her some space. Take care, Lydia, you know where I am if you change your mind.’

Lydia stood in the drafty lean-to, goose bumps punctuating her skin, as Will helped the doctor and then Jackson clamber onboard the tractor and they rumbled off, leaving Lydia, hugging herself against the cold, to look up at the sky and wonder how she’d managed to get everything so exactly wrong.

Arming herself with her best smile, Lydia brushed out her hair until it shone, slipped on her stiletto ankle boots, and went to the kitchen, where Katy and Joanna were peering at the Aga with the kind of hopeless, desolate expressions that should only be reserved for funerals.

‘Happy Christmas?’ Lydia offered the salutation uncertainly.

‘Did you know you appear to have put on some Christmas tree decorations?’ Joanna asked Lydia, smiling sweetly. ‘And by the way, at some point in the night, the Aga passed away, peacefully and in its sleep. Time of death we think approximately three a.m. as it is stone cold now, and rigor mortis has already set in. Much like my love life, now I come to think of it.’

‘I blame you for this,’ Katy told Lydia, seemly surprisingly sanguine about the demise of the beast. ‘If you’d
secretly copped off with the right one of the Three Kings you’ve been road testing over the last few days, then Will would still be here and he’d know what to do about it.’

‘Yes, Lydia, you really are a dreadful slut, kissing anyone who’s passing,’ Joanna said mildly. ‘But then again, I suppose I’m the megalomaniac with control issues, so who am I to talk?’

‘Joanna told me the whole story,’ Katy said, with the same disapproving air she reserved for her children when they’d been doing something they shouldn’t. ‘Honestly, you two, you do know that you’re grown women and not teenagers? When are you going to start acting like it, get married and settle down?’

‘When they stop making men irrational and impossible to talk to,’ Lydia said, thinking of the look on Will’s face as he left.

‘Not to mention dishonest and downright tricky,’ Joanna said. ‘Honestly, I thought it was women who were supposed to be the complicated ones. I’ll never understand men as long as I live.’

‘Well, this is turning out to be a great Christmas Day, you two in the Slough of Despond and no Christmas dinner.’ Katy sighed. ‘At least we’re warm and the children are having a good time. Come on, there’s no point in standing around here staring at that bastard thing. Let’s go and see my wonderful, beautiful children, who gave me the best ever Christmas present
by sleeping through the night for the first time in months.’

‘I’m really sorry to be so down,’ Lydia said, hanging her arms around her friends shoulders and kissing each of them as they made their way towards the sound of childish hysteria emanating from the living room. ‘Quite soon, I’m planning to drink myself into a coma, and then I’ll be much less bother. Any news of Alex?’

‘Yes.’ Joanna beamed. ‘Mother and baby are doing well, father in mortal fear for his life, but happy. And they say little Joanna Katherine Lydia is adorable.’

‘Really? They’ve named her after us? And I got bottom billing?’

‘Don’t be ridiculous.’ Joanna rolled her eyes. ‘She’s called Carole, after Alex’s mum. Born on Christmas Day and called Carole, the poor, poor child. I think I might open an account for her private therapy sessions now.’

‘And Alex?’ Lydia smiled. ‘Apart from displaying appalling taste in names, how is she?’

‘Good, great. On cloud nine, in actual fact. It must be all those drugs, either that or the discovery that she has a masterful husband after all!’

‘Mummy!’ Tilly ran to greet them, resplendent in a particularly garish tiara, courtesy of Joanna, with Vincent snapping at her heels, a huge red bow tied around his collar. ‘Daddy’s had the best idea!’

‘Impossible.’ Katy beamed at her little girl, swooping
her up into her arms and smiling at Jim, whose head was just visible above a mountain of wrapping paper, which Vincent seemed to making it his business to shred between his paws. ‘Daddy never has good ideas.’

‘Well, how’s this,’ Jim said. ‘We take what food and drink we’ve got, pack it all up, whack it on the sleigh. Wrap up warm and head down to the pub for Christmas lunch. Everyone will be there, there’ll be hot food and, more importantly, beer.’

‘And they’ve got a picture of a lady in a bikini behind the nuts,’ Jake said enthusiastically.

Katy looked uncertain. ‘Christmas lunch in a pub with a load of strangers? It’s not exactly how I planned our first Christmas here.’

‘Well, you could look at it like that,’ Jim said, standing up to reveal that he was wearing a light sabre on his belt. ‘
Or
you could look at it as a real traditional country Christmas with our new neighbours and friends. A proper community, rallying round in times of need, welcoming the poor Aga-less vagrants looking desperately for some warmth and shelter and booze. We’ve even got a Christmas baby story all of our own, although I expect Will may have trumped us with that already.’

‘Will? He’s going to be there?’ Lydia asked, although she knew the answer to the question. ‘And Stephen and Jackson, I suppose.’

‘To be honest, I think for once in his miserable life Jim is right,’ Joanna said, hooking her arm through
Lydia’s. ‘Listen, you and I are not the type of girls to hide ourselves away, all shame faced, are we? I look fabulous, you look over dressed, and if anyone deserves a decent Christmas Day, it’s us. Who cares who’s there? We can get drunk and pull a young farmer each. Show those pigs what they’re missing.’

‘Will already thinks I’m stupid and frivolous …’

‘You are,’ Katy said.

‘I don’t want him thinking I’m a stalker too.’ Lydia shook her head. ‘You go. I’ll stay here and guard the Aga.’

‘No,’ Katy said, gesturing at her children. ‘Either we all go or none of us do. Look at their tiny shining faces, Lydia. Do you really want to be the woman who disappoints them on Christmas Day, just because you feel like you’ve been humiliated enough?’ Jake pouted, Tilly fluttered her lashes and even Vincent managed a pathetic whine.