Page 89 of The Holiday Cottage

And in the end it was much easier than she’d predicted, mostly because of Ava.

“The first rule of finding a tree is that it has to be big.” Ava held tightly to Imogen’s hand and tugged her from tree to tree. She was wearing a pink padded jacket and green boots and her ponytail poked out from under her warm hat. “I like the ones that smell. Do you like the ones that smell?”

“I don’t know. I’m relying on you to advise me.”

“What’sadvise?”

“It means you tell me what you think I should do.”

“Oh.” Ava brightened. “I can definitely do that.”

“She definitely can,” Iris said as she walked past with her hand in Patrick’s. “Another word for it would bebossy.”

“I’m not bossy. Oh,look!”

Imogen almost lost her balance as Ava suddenly hauled her toward a tree on their right.

“Ava—” Sara reached out and rescued the scarf that was threatening to abandon contact with Ava’s neck “—you can’t just drag Imogen everywhere.”

“Why not? We’re having fun.”

“I know you’re having fun and that’s great,” Sara said, “but maybe have fun a little more gently.”

Watching Sara interact with her children brought a lump to Imogen’s throat. She was so warm, loving and patient. She would never send a child away if she’d had a bad dream.

We tried to put you in your own room when you turned eighteen months, but you just wanted to sleep in the bed with Sara.

What would her life have been like if her mother hadn’t taken her away?

She snapped herself out of that thought. What was the point in going there? All they had was now, and hopefully the future. The past was gone, and she wasn’t going to let it contaminate the present.

But she wondered, maybe, if Sara’s and Dorothy’s warmth and strong sense of family had somehow seeped into her, even though she had no memories of it. Were those early days of security and safety part of the reason she had remained so steadfastly loyal to her mother?

The question vanished from her head as her arm was almost pulled from its socket by Ava.

“This one!” Ava didn’t like being reined in.

“Ava!” Sara sounded exasperated. “Stop pulling Imogen.”

“I wasn’texactlypulling her. It’s just that I wanted her to walk faster. I like her, Mummy.”

“I know you do. We all like her, but we don’t want her to fall on her bottom on the ice, otherwise she won’t like us! And she won’t want to come with us next time.” Sara secured the scarf and gave Imogen an apologetic smile. “She is so excited. So is Iris. We all are, to be honest. I hope you’re not finding us too overwhelming.”

We all like her.

“It’s wonderful.” She realized that Sara was as nervous as she was, and she was grateful to Ava, who was so open and accepting and blissfully unaware of the potential for awkwardness. Ava’s total absence of emotional caution somehow made the whole situation easier. “You do this every year?”

“Yes. It’s one of our favorite family traditions. I did it with my parents, and so did Patrick, so I suppose it was a natural thing to repeat it with our own children. It’s something we all look forward to.”

Bored with listening to adult conversation, Ava skipped ahead to take a look at another tree.

Family tradition.

Imogen wanted to ask if her mother had done it too. If she’d joined in the Christmas tree trip, but she didn’t want to risk killing the mood by mentioning her.

“Tina never joined us,” Sara said softly. “She hated family trips. She was happier spending time with her friends.”

Imogen wondered how she’d known what she was thinking. “That must have been hard on you all.”

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