Page 59 of A Winter Kiss on Rochester Mews
‘You really do have quite a cruel streak,’ Tom told her, though there was a half smile playing around his mouth just before he took a sip of his pint. ‘I expected better from you.’
‘Ha! Don’t dish it, if you can’t take it!’
‘Oh God, get a room,’ scoffed Sam, who was sitting on Tom’s other side and had been listening to their exchange with an expression of growing incredulity.
Mattie and Tom both turned to look at Sam, who wilted slightly under their collective gaze.
‘We don’t need to get a room because we’re just two friends having a joke,’ Tom said a little stiffly. ‘What’s the harm in that?’
‘Quite frankly, Sam, you’re the last person to tell someone else to get a room,’ Mattie said quietly and Sophie, who was sitting opposite them, gave a little squeak of alarm, glancing across at her grandfather who was debating quiz team names with Verity and Nina.
‘Have I missed something?’ Tom asked idly with an amused glance at Sam, who looked ashen.
‘Please, Mattie …’ Sam moaned.
Mattie had made a promise so she shook her head. ‘It’s between me and Sam but we’re not going to be hearing any more salty remarks. Right?’
‘Right,’ Sam agreed and by the time his face had returned to its normal hue, Clive, the landlord, had passed around the Christmas quiz question sheets and was going through the very, very long list of rules that accompanied the regular quiz at The Midnight Bell. And because it was the special Christmas quiz, he’d thrown in a few new ones.
‘All team names must be Christmas-related but not blasphemous. I will be deducting marks for any ungodliness,’ Clive droned on.
Mattie rolled her eyes. ‘How did we get stuck doing a Christmas quiz?’ she asked Tom. ‘When we hate Christmas.’
‘We just won’t participate,’ Tom said as Clive moved on to discuss the special glitter pens he was distributing but how he wanted them returned at the end of the quiz and to put the tops back on in between answers so the glitter wouldn’t dry up.
‘It’s not as if we’re going to know any of the answers,’ Mattie said. ‘So, we might just as well sit the whole thing out and it’s not like we’re going to come close to winning anyway.’ She jerked her head in the direction of a table across the pub where The Battering RAMS, from the computer repair centre around the corner, the reigning champions of The Midnight Bell quiz, were discussing tactics.
‘Pair of scrooges,’ Nina complained when the quiz started and Mattie and Tom carried on their own little conversation about going halves on some IKEA shelves for the spare room.
Mattie was dimly aware of the quiz happening going on without them. There was a round on Christmas carols that got very heated with Verity snapping, ‘The cattle are lowing, not mooing. Honestly, what is wrong with you people?’
The round on Christmas films passed with Cuthbert and Sophie carrying the rest of their team, as it turned out there wasn’t a single Christmas film they hadn’t seen. ‘Grandpa knows all the dialogue toIt’s a Wonderful LifeandThe Muppet Christmas Carol’ Sophie proudly explained, but then they got on to Christmas literature, which should have been a slam dunk but apparently wasn’t.
‘Tom! Tom!’ Posy hissed urgently from across the table. ‘What is the last line ofA Christmas Carol?’
‘Why are you asking me?’ Tom complained. ‘You own a bookshop.’
‘A romantic fiction bookshop,’ Posy pointed out. ‘I can’t get on with Dickens. He’s just too Dickensy, but I bet you’ve read all his greatest hits. Come on, take one for the team. What’s the last line?’
Tom sighed, then with an apologetic glance at Mattie, whispered, ‘It’s “God bless us, every one.”’
It didn’t end there. Tom was also called upon to answer questions about Christmas-related stories from J. R. R. Tolkien, Mark Twain and Hans Christian Andersen.
‘Traitor,’ Mattie whispered at him. ‘I thought we were sitting this one out.’
‘I don’t want Posy withholding my Christmas bonus,’ Tom whispered back but when they got onto the Christmas food round, it was his turn to sit there with a disapproving expression as Mattie was forced to field questions such as ‘Name three ingredients in bread sauce that aren’t bread’, ‘What date is stir-up Sunday?’ and ‘What’s the German name for stollen?’
In the end, Team A Happy Ever After Christmas won the quiz by one extra point because there weretwoGerman names for stollen and Mattie knew both of them.
‘For two people who hate Christmas, you know a hell of a lot about it,’ Nina said as The Battering RAMS (renamed The Battering HAMS for this special Christmas quiz) complained bitterly about the outcome and demanded a recount. ‘I bet if I sneaked into the flat while you were both working, it would be dripping in Christmas baubles.’
‘Then you’d be disappointed,’ Tom said, returning from the bar with a tray of drinks. ‘And also trespassing.’
Posy patted her bump, which was more bump-like than ever, though she had a good month to go until her due-date. Carol had made Clive drag over a plump maroon wingback chair and matching footstool especially for Posy and she seemed very content with her lot in life. Or maybe it was just the sheer bliss of closing the shop at a civilised hour and putting her feet up. ‘No arguing,’ she said. ‘This is a time for celebration and joy and giving, so let’s do Secret Santa now.’
Everyone pulled out rectangular-shaped gifts from various bags and coat pockets. Despite Nina’s wish for handmade chocolate treats, it was tradition that the Happy Ever After Secret Santa presents had to be books.
‘You’d think they’d all be sick of the sight of books by now,’ Sophie had muttered when the email was sent round the staff. She was a big reader herself but the Secret Santa had made her sour, because she’d been assigned Posy, who’d pretty much read everything. Luckily, in a moment of inspiration she’d realised that Posy was cooking a baby who hadn’t read a single book and had bought her a beautiful collection of feminist fairy stories.
