Page 70 of One More Christmas at the Castle
‘I don’t think I could take late nights and horror – I need my sleep.’
‘Me too, and I’m still haunted by a couple of really old ones he showed me ages ago, after assuring me they weren’t scary. One was calledThe Beast with Five Fingers, all about a severed hand that crawled about strangling people …’ I shuddered.
‘No, not my cup of tea either. But I hope Sabine will enjoy watching that old home movie I brought with me – Nancy, too. She must have been out there with her husband about then because they’re in it.’
‘I hope Henry and I can see it, too, at some point, because the more I hear about those times, the more fascinating they sound.’
‘“The Golden Years”, Sabine calls them, and Tommy felt much the same … though even golden years can’t be entirely free of some tragedy.’
I looked at him curiously, but he didn’t say any more and I didn’t like to ask.
By then, we’d taken a path from the track that came out by the lake and there, in the open, it seemed even colder.
‘The lake has iced over and it looks quite thick here, at the edge,’ I said, pulling my hood up to stop my ears freezing.
‘It’ll still be too thin in the middle for skating, though,’ Xan said, and then gave a wry smile. ‘It’s what I’m doing in the recording sessions with Sabine – skating over the thin ice, as best I can.’
‘Is there a lot of thin ice?’ I enquired tentatively.
‘Patches, though luckily Tommy told me so much about the past that I can be tactful. The first one, of course, was losing her mother at such a young age and then her father almost immediately marrying the nurse who’d been looking after Sabine’s mother up till her death.’
‘Did he? That seems very insensitive and must have added to the trauma of losing her mother!’ I said, shocked.
‘Yes, and she was only seven at the time.’
‘No wonder Mrs Powys wants this Christmas to be as like those of her early childhood as we can make it,’ I said.
‘She resented and loathed her stepmother and I don’t think ever forgave her father,’ Xan said. ‘I don’t think it helped that he doted on her half-sister, either.’
‘I hadn’t realized she’d had a sister.’
‘She died very young,’ he said shortly. ‘And that’s another bit of thin ice to skate over later …’
He fell silent again, staring out over the frozen lake. Plum, who had been investigating some reeds at the edge of the lake, now plodded back and gave an imperative bark.
‘I think that means he wants his trusty bearer to carry him home,’ I suggested.
‘I think you’re right. We’ll go back through the terraces, shall we?’
‘Yes, I want to see if anything else is magically flowering in the Winter Garden.’
As we set off up the first stone steps I said, ‘I downloadedone of your biographies, Xan, the one about a Victorian female archaeologist.’
‘I was lucky enough to know one of her descendants and he still had some of her papers. I started off with historical biographies but I’ve since digressed into writing about anyone who interests me – and Asa’s was certainly one I’ve wanted to write for a long time.’
‘You’ve written such a lot of books, it was hard to choose one. I think I’ll have to buy the paperback too, later, just for the photographs.’
‘No, don’t. I’ll give you a copy for Christmas in return for your recipes and reminiscences.’
‘But I don’t suppose you carry spares of your books about with you, so you’d have to buy it,’ I objected.
‘Well, yes, but it will boost my own royalties,’ he said. ‘I’m giving Sabine a copy of my last book for Christmas, because it was difficult to know what else to give her.’
‘I suppose it must have been, especially in view of her health issues,’ I agreed. ‘I’m planning a little pre-Christmas surprise for her, which I hope she’ll like.’
‘What is it?’ he asked.
‘If I told you, it wouldn’t be a surprise, would it?’
