Page 59 of One More Christmas at the Castle
‘Good,’ he said, hefting the heavy coffee tray with ease, ‘because my inner man is feeling famished!’
When our work was done, I had a long, relaxing shower, though I found it distracting having to stand in the big, claw-footed bath to do so, because I felt it might scuttle off with me at any minute.
I went back downstairs with my hair loose to dry and wearing comfortable velvet joggers and a sweatshirt.
Henry was just on his way out to play billiards again with Xan, who had suggested I join them this time. Somehow, though, I didn’t think that Mrs Powys would have endorsed this suggestion.
‘And anyway, I simply want to put my feet up and chill in front of a cheesy Christmas film,’ I said.
‘But we always watch those together,’ Henry protested indignantly.
‘It doesn’t matter if you miss one, does it? I mean, we’ve watched them all several times before anyway! I thought I’d start the annual Christmas film festival withElf.’
‘Ooh, you know that’s my favourite!’ he said, but I told him we could watch it again another night.
He still looked disgruntled and I’d barely settled down on the sofa in front of the TV, with a big tin of chocolates next tome, when the door opened and he and Xan came in, Plum at their heels.
‘Xan saidhe’drather watchElf, too,’ Henry announced. ‘I told him you wouldn’t mind, Dido.’
‘No, not unless he eats all my favourite chocolates,’ I said, removing the one I was about to unwrap from Plum’s questing nose.
Looking up, I caught a strange expression in Xan’s lilac-grey eyes … but so fleeting that I wasn’t sure if I’d imagined it.
‘I only like soft centres, Rapunzel,’ he said gravely, then picked up Plum and sat down with him on his knee, at the other end of the sofa.
Sabine
‘So, off we go again,’ Xan had said, smiling at me across the coffee table in the study, as we started the next recording session. ‘We stopped yesterday just as you and Asa had met at that party in Oxford after your finals.’
‘Yes …’ I said, looking back across the years to that wonderful moment. ‘The moment our eyes met, we were instantly drawn together and spent the rest of the evening walking around Oxford and talking. It was … magical.’
‘You’d been intending to make your career in archaeology, so you must have had a lot in common?’
‘Oh, yes, though Asa was a few years older and already making a name for himself as a pioneer in marine archaeology, an aspect of the subject I’d never really considered before. Of course I knew of his book on the subject and had seen the first short TV documentary he made with his best friend, your grandfather, Tommy.’
‘I know he and Asa had been best friends from school,’ Xan said. ‘But Tommy’s interests lay in photography, so he found filming underwater an exciting challenge at that time.’
‘He and Asa made a good team,’ I said. ‘Their interestscomplemented each other and they both settled on Corfu. At that time, there were a lot of artists and writers living there and it was quite bohemian.’
‘I think they flocked there to escape the post-war austerity,’ Xan suggested. ‘It sounded like they had a lot of fun – parties and picnics and generally having a good time!’
‘It seemed a totally different world to me, and itwashuge fun. Asa was very gregarious, so the house was always full of people. Of course, Asa was serious about his work – that always came first. Up till then, marine archaeology had mostly meant finding sunken ships and searching for treasure, but for Asa, therealtreasure lay in tracing the remains of old civilizations that had vanished below the sea, usually because of some seismic disturbance, and I caught fire at his enthusiasm.’
‘I’m not surprised. He could make anything sound fascinating, let alone his own pet subject!’
‘That’s because he was interested in everything –andeveryone. He was so charismatic, wasn’t he?’ I said. ‘After our first meeting, we spent every possible minute of the next few days together – and we married in a registry office just before he was due to fly back to Greece.’
‘That was a whirlwind romance!’
‘Having found each other, we just couldn’t bear to be apart. The only guests at the wedding were Nancy, and her fiancé, Stephen. After the wedding, we drove here, to Mitras Castle, to break the news to my father. I’d come into my inheritance at twenty-one, of course, but under the terms of Mummy’s will, he had the right to live here and received an income from the estate.’
‘And your stepmother and half-sister, too, of course,’ Xan said.
‘I’m sure Mummy never envisaged that Father would marry again, or she would have arranged things differently,’ I said.
‘Your father must have been very surprised at your sudden marriage?’
‘Of course, but he could have no objection to Asa who, apart from his career, came from a wealthy background,’ I said. ‘Asa completely understood the situation: that although I loved my home, it was tainted for me by the presence of my stepmother. Faye was at boarding school when we visited so he didn’t meet her at that time.’
