Page 2 of Trust in Truth
Anna’s right eyebrow shot up. “Oh, did you buy us a new toy?”
Katherine stifled a giggle. “Come on, this naked tree won’t dress itself. I’ll take the tinsel to the top, and you can wind it around as I lower it.”
Anna did as instructed and climbed the stepladder. Katherine barked orders from above as to the best position for the tinsel, purely based on her ability to see better from high up, not because she was a perfectionist as Anna suggested.
Katherine re-joined Anna and made some minor adjustments to the tinsel. “Baubles next. Do you want to hang them?”
Anna took a step back and held her hands up in front of her. “No way am I taking on that responsibility. Plus, I don’t have a tape measure to meet your exacting standards when it comes to bauble distribution.”
Katherine mouth opened and she nudged her upper arm into Anna’s. “Watch it, you!”
Anna set about adding the hooks to the baubles and passed them one by one to Katherine for precision hanging.
“The branding for Abbey Barn has come back. We need to give feedback ASAP so we can get the leaflet finalised and order signage. The printers will be getting busy towards Christmas.”
“Can't it wait until after? It doesn’t officially open until the spring. I would have thought you’d have enough on your plate with the New Year’s Eve event.”
“We have two hundred people coming to the abbey for the event. The barn may not look pretty on the inside, so the least we can do is make sure it looks inviting on the outside. I want them all taking a leaflet home too. If we can't rely on our supporters to book the barn for events, we are stuck out of the starting block. If you’re worried the signs will get damaged when the barn is fitted out, we can take them down in the new year. We’ll need a string of lights for the outside. I just need everything to be perfect if I'm going to impress the trustees and get this job.”
“If it were up to me, I would have given it to you. It was Margaret who insisted on the trial run.” Katherine looked at Anna’s open mouth. “Perhaps I shouldn’t have mentioned that.”
Katherine had just confirmed what Anna had suspected. Margaret had been insistent that Anna was irreplaceable as a tour supervisor and seemed reluctant to let her organise their first big event. Anna had suspected it was because the new role would mean working closely with Katherine. The tour supervisor position was only contracted ten months out of the year, from February through November. She was sure Margaret had planned to have Katherine all to herself over those two months. Luckily Katherine had persuaded the other trustees that Anna was worth giving a chance to.
Katherine waved her hand at Anna, snapping her from her thoughts that had drifted to Katherine and Margaret alone together for two months. She shuddered.
“Bauble.” Katherine held out her hand.
“Last one.”
Katherine placed it on the tree and stood back to admire their work. “One last touch.” She pulled an angel from the box and offered it to Anna. “Do you want to do the honours?”
Anna nodded up at the aggressive-looking crown of the tree. “No, thank you. I’m not subjecting her to a month impaled on that spike.”
Katherine twisted her lips. “Fair point.” She rummaged further in the box and extracted a star. “Better?”
“Much.”
“Good. Now do the honours and then I have an early present for you.”
“Really?” Anna replied with a hint of trepidation.
“Yes, really. Don’t tell me you don’t like presents either.”
“Okay, I won’t.” Anna ran up the stairs and placed the star on the top to a round of applause from Katherine.
Anna called down. “You take this Christmas malarkey too seriously.”
“Maybe you don’t take it seriously enough. Now come here and open this.” Katherine extracted a present from behind the tree and passed it to Anna.
A squeeze of the elegantly wrapped present caused a lurch in Anna’s stomach. “Please don’t tell me this is a Christmas jumper.”
“Let me guess, you don’t do Christmas jumpers either?”
Anna’s heart sank. She had always refused to embrace the craziness that was the Christmas jumper season. She believed it was another fad to extract money from people during an already financially difficult time. She hoped it wasn’t one with flashing lights.
It took a moment to unwrap the present. First, she had to make it past the elaborately tied bow Katherine had placed around it with red ribbon. As she tore at the wrapping paper, she was relieved to extract a navy-blue jumper with a white deer on the front. She should have known that it would be tasteful and elegant if Katherine had bought it.
“I have one too, though slightly different. I’m not sure we are at the matching jumper stage of our relationship.”
