Page 102 of It Always Snows on Mistletoe Square
‘I doubt that,’ Henry says, taking a last sip of his whisky. ‘I know both Estelle and Angela were very special to my uncle – he told me so when he first showed me the sealed envelope. Any friends of theirs will always be very important clients of Foster and Jackson. Now, I must leave you and return to my own family – it is Christmas Eve, after all.’
‘Of course you must,’ I say, leaping up. ‘I’m sorry you’ve had to come out on Christmas Eve.’
‘Not at all. Like I said, we’ve all been very excited about this document in the office, so it’s good to see who our mystery clients have turned out to be. It’s been lovely meeting you both.’
Ben stands up. ‘And you, Henry. I’m sorry if I’ve been a bit off. Like Elle has said, this has all come as such as shock to us both.’
‘Completely understandable,’ Henry says, reaching out his hand to Ben and then to me. ‘I will look forward to seeing you both again in the New Year.’
Ben and I both see Henry to the door and wait while Henry pulls his coat back on, and replaces his trilby hat.
‘Merry Christmas to you both,’ he says, lifting his hat again to bid us farewell.
‘And a very Merry Christmas to you and your family,’ I say. ‘Have a lovely day tomorrow, won’t you?’
‘We will, thank you. Christmas really is the most magical time, isn’t it?’
‘You can say that again, Henry,’ I reply. ‘This one in particular has been full of surprises.’
We watch Henry walk down the steps and along the path and then he’s gone.
‘Right,’ I say, turning to Ben.
‘Right,’ Ben replies. ‘Now what do we do?’
‘I have no idea. I feel like I’m in some sort of strange dream.’
‘Me too. I guess we’d better open our letters. Henry said that would answer any questions we might have.’
‘If those letters answer every question I have right now, it will be a miracle,’ I say. ‘And I think we’ve seen quite enough of those lately, don’t you?’
Twenty-Six
Ben pours us both another whisky and we sit down by the fire with our letters on our laps.
‘I don’t know about you, but I’ve what feels like a thousand questions I want answered right now,’ Ben says, taking a long drink from his glass. ‘And I doubt these letters are going to answer all of them.’
‘Me too. But maybe we should open them first and see what they say. You never know?’
‘All right, let’s get this next part of the mystery out of the way, and then we can try to figure this thing out properly between us.’
‘It says I should open mine first,’ I say, lifting up the envelope. ‘And I should read it aloud to you and you only.’
‘Mine says similar,’ Ben says. ‘Except I should read it after your letter.’
‘Right then,’ I put down my glass and carefully prise open the envelope. From it I pull a thick piece of paper with a letter addressed to me, handwritten in black ink.
‘It’s from Estelle,’ I say looking at the bottom of the second page. ‘“My dearest Elle,”’ I begin. ‘“Firstly, I am sorry that I am not writing this in my own hand. Angela is noting it down for me, while I am dictating.”’
‘What’s new?’ Ben says, smiling.
‘“Angela says, what’s new?”’ I continue to read, raising my eyebrows at Ben. ‘Looks like you take after your grandmother.’ I smile. ‘“But even though I am not writing it myself, everything I say comes from my heart. You and Ben will likely be in a state of flux right now.”’ I glance at Ben. ‘To put it mildly.’
‘“And I do not blame you at all. But what I want you both to know is Angela and I never meant to deceive or hurt you in any way. We only had your best interests and the interests of Christmas House and Holly House at heart when we came up with our plan.”’
‘Here we go,’ Ben says.
‘“As you will now know,”’ I continue reading, ‘“when I die, I will have no direct descendants to pass my estate on to, and so I have left everything to my dearest friend, Angela. But we are both aware that there is someone who should rightly inherit Christmas House when Angela dies. This is where you come in, Elle.”’
