Christmas at Strand House: A gorgeously uplifting festive romance!

‘The very same. Sam. Ace Taxis. Forgive me for taking liberties closing the door but you were paying to heat the street with it wide open.’ His smile was broad and, Lissy decided, genuine. But he looked embarrassed now.

‘I don’t think anyone’s ordered a taxi,’ Lissy said, the hint of a question in her voice.

‘Not me, anyway,’ Xander said. He put slight pressure on Lissy’s shoulder as though to remind her he was still there.

‘No, no they haven’t. But the thing is I brought a young woman here earlier today. Before lunchtime it was. Fairish hair down to here.’ He put the side of his left hand halfway down his right arm to show where her hair had come. ‘Wearing a black coat, she was. Swamped in it. Anxious. I’ve got her phone.’

‘Oh,’ Lissy said, a massive sigh of relief taking the tension from her. ‘Is that all?’

‘Well, not entirely,’ Sam said. ‘I need to make sure I give this phone to the right person because …’ He lowered his voice, looked into the distance behind Lissy and Xander and then towards the staircase. ‘Where is she?’

‘Janey,’ Lissy said. She could see this man – Sam – meant Janey no harm now. ‘She’s in the kitchen.’

‘Yes, that would be the name,’ Sam said. ‘I sensed there was something up with her the second I picked up the fare. She looked lost in that coat of hers like it was two sizes too big in the first place or she’d shrunk two sizes since buying it. And scared, she looked scared. This confirms it.’ He waved the phone towards Lissy. ‘She must have dropped it down beside the seat. I was just parking up for the night when I heard its ringtone. Frightened the life out of me it did. On and on it went. I know I should have switched the thing off but curiosity got the better of me. Anyway, whoever it is was was threatening her with all sorts. Filthy language like you wouldn’t believe. Sounded drunk to me.’

‘Oh, poor Janey,’ Lissy said.

‘Got a daughter the same sort of age, I have,’ Sam went on, as though he was in no hurry to leave. ‘Stuff’s happened to her over the years, poor maid.’

Lissy couldn’t help smiling at Sam’s use of the Devonshire term ‘maid’. Vonny had used it all the time when Lissy had been younger. ‘You’re more drowned than a drowned rat, maid,’ was what she always said when Lissy had come back dripping and covered in sand from the beach.

‘I’m sorry you’ve had to deal with this, Sam,’ Lissy said, aware now how Xander’s arm was still around her and how good it made her feel. Safe. Cared for. But it was only the sort of gesture anyone would make to comfort another in a time of stress. ‘But I’ll take over now. Thank you for your concern. Not many would have bothered.’ She reached out a hand for Janey’s phone and Sam handed it to her.

‘Some Christmas it’s going to be for her, poor woman,’ Sam said. ‘I’ll let myself out.’ He turned to go. Then he turned back again. ‘Got it lovely in here, you have. All it needs, in my humble opinion, is a stonking great floor-to-ceiling tree, decorated to within an inch its life, in this barn of a hall. Maybe two. And that’s me sticking my nose in where it’s not wanted.’

‘D’you know,’ Xander said. ‘I think you’re right. We’ll go and get one tomorrow, shall we, Lissy?’

‘I think we must,’ Lissy said.

‘Happy Christmas anyway, you guys,’ Sam said.

‘Happy Christmas,’ Lissy and Xander said as one.

Chapter 10 (#ulink_16b693ff-b77c-5244-9422-40368c743e80)

Janey

‘I lied,’ Janey said. ‘Stuart and I haven’t separated. Well, not legally. I’ve left him. I left a note under the tin with the teabags in it.’

‘When?’ Bobbie asked gently. She sat beside Janey on the couch – one of Janey’s hands held between both of hers – where Xander had half dragged, half carried her, after she’d come round from her faint. ‘When did you leave?’

‘This morning.’

‘Does he know you’re here?’ Lissy asked.

‘No. Not unless he’s hacked into my emails and found the details but I doubt it. He was still in a drunken stupor from the night before. As always. Well, not always. He drinks moderately in the week in termtime. He can hardly turn up drunk at nine o’clock for his first maths pupils, can he? But he goes on benders at weekend and in the holidays. I couldn’t take any more. I should have left him years ago.’

Janey felt her shoulders drop down from somewhere near her ears just saying the words – words she’d thought for years but never thought she’d utter.

‘Lots of us stay in relationships longer than is good for us. Sometimes it’s just too scary to go it alone,’ Lissy said.

Is that what it had been like for Lissy, Janey wondered, surprised at Lissy’s comment, because the emails they’d exchanged after Cooper had left Lissy had suggested otherwise … that Lissy had been heartbroken. Maybe she was seeing things in a new light now she was divorced. Divorced. Oh my God, Janey was going to have to deal with all that. She was going to have to see Stuart at some stage but she wasn’t going to be alone with him ever again. She’d ask her brother-in-law to be with her. Or a solicitor.

Janey looked at Xander and then Bobbie and they were both nodding, as though they agreed with what Lissy had just said.

‘Have you listened to Stuart’s call?’ Xander asked. ‘Sam said, well, he said it wasn’t the nicest Christmas message.’

A bubble of laughter fluttered inside Janey – Xander was trying to lighten the mood, trying to comfort her.

‘No. I’m not going to,’ she said. ‘He wouldn’t have said anything I haven’t heard before. He’s a fair bit older than me,’ Janey went on. ‘Did I say?’

Her three friends shook their heads. There was so much none of them knew about each other.

‘Sixteen years.’

‘Really?’ Lissy said, eyes widening in surprise and leaning forward as though wanting to hear better. And more.

Lissy sat on the couch beside Xander, opposite her and Bobbie. Lissy had crossed her legs as though holding herself, and her emotions tight, but Xander was sitting, legs sprawled and Janey thought he looked so comfortable, the house might have been his not Lissy’s.

‘My mother warned me about the age difference,’ Janey said.

‘Oh, mothers!’ Bobbie laughed. ‘They don’t always get it right, you know, Janey.’

‘I know. But mine sort of did. She warned me that the age difference would throw up all sorts of issues, if not in the beginning but as time went on. She said that Stuart and I had been brought up in different eras with different music and different politics. We’d had a different education – Stuart went to uni, I didn’t – and been subjected to different morals in our upbringings. That’s what my mother said.’

‘And your father?’ Lissy asked.

‘I must have had one,’ Janey said with a shrug. ‘But he was never mentioned. My mother married Grant when I was six and then they had Suzy. If I bought up the subject of my real father my mother swiftly changed it. So I stopped asking. It just wasn’t worth the hassle.’

‘And does your mother know? About Stuart? How your marriage has been for you?’ Lissy again. Janey could tell she really cared, and that she wasn’t being nosy, just trying to get the fuller picture.

‘I told her once. I went to her, covered in bruises, and all she said was I’d made my bed and I’d have to lie in it. She and Grant are living in Spain now.’

‘Oh, God,’ Lissy said. ‘All these mothers swanning off to live abroad, leaving their children!’

‘With respect, Lissy,’ Bobbie said, rather sharply Janey thought, ‘sometimes people – even mothers – have to do what they have to do. And what’s more, you and Janey are hardly children anymore.’

If Lissy was taken aback at Bobbie’s comment, she covered it well, although Janey noticed Xander turned sharply to look at her, checking she was okay.

‘You’re right, of course.’

‘And,’ Janey said, unable to let the subject of Stuart go although she knew she had to or it was going to spoil this whole Christmas break, wasn’t it? ‘He liked Freddie Mercury. So Eighties’ music and I was only a child then listening to Postman Pat!’

‘Postman Pat and his black-and-white cat,’ Xander said in a sing-song voice.

And then there was what was possibly the most bizarre moment Janey had ever had, or would have, when they all sang the Postman Pat song. Bizarre, but heavens how it lightened the mood.

‘Freddie Mercury was one helluva performer,’ Bobbie said. ‘It’s an age difference thing. There’s quite a gap between my age and you three.’