Page 49 of The Little Shop on Silver Linings Street
She turned to Kit. ‘Isn’t that the most perfect thing you’ve ever seen? There’s even smoke coming from the chimney, look!’
‘And perfect if you don’t want any neighbours,’ said Kit.
Daisy walked a few steps to the side. ‘I’m just trying to work out where we are,’ she added. ‘But if I’m right, there are no roads across here. How do you get to the place?’
Kit shrugged. ‘On foot?’ he suggested. ‘I should imagine that’s part of its charm, the fact that it’s hidden away among the trees and the only way to get to it is by walking.’ He smiled. ‘But then I guess you know all about that.’
‘I do… but my cottage is slightly closer to civilisation than this place. Oh, but still, isn’t it gorgeous?’ She was still staring at the cabin, trying to imagine what it must look like inside. ‘You said you come out walking this way quite a bit, didn’t you? What does it look like in the daytime?’
‘Erm… a log cabin…?’ He was teasing her, she could tell. ‘But you’re right, it’s quite something and without the benefit of lights to show its presence during the day, you could easily walk right by and miss it entirely; it blends in almost perfectly among the trees.’
Daisy gave a sigh and turned away. ‘Probably owned by a huge bear-like woodcutter, who wears checked shirts and spends his evening polishing his axe collection…’
Kit laughed. ‘Let’s hope not!’
They carried on walking, striking out straight through the middle of the field, heading for its opposite corner.
‘Are you warm enough?’ asked Kit as they turned into the wind.
Daisy nodded. ‘I am actually, this walk is blowing the cobwebs away too, which was just what I needed. There is something so utterly peaceful about walking in the moonlight.’
Kit pointed at a line of animal tracks in the snow that stretched away in a curve in front of them. They looked fresh. ‘Monsieur Reynard is out on his nightly rounds, I see.’
She scanned the countryside ahead of them, but the fox was nowhere to be seen. ‘I have one too. She crosses the bottom of my garden most nights. And the year before last, she raised cubs. I used to see them playing on the lawn.’
‘So sad that most folks never get to see a sight like that,’ added Kit.
‘Or don’t want to… The most amazing set of tracks I ever saw came from the outline of an owl in the snow. It had come in to land to take some prey, a rabbit I think from the prints. You could almost see every feather on the massive arc of its wings imprinted into the snow as it took off in flight. It was the most breathtaking and heartbreaking thing I’ve ever seen.’
Kit’s face was lit up in wonder. ‘I would have felt blessed to have seen something like that. Maybe one day I will.’
Daisy turned to look at him, meeting the wistful expression in his eyes. ‘I hope so,’ she said.
They fell silent for a while after that, reaching the end of the field a few minutes later. Kit led them through a small thicket of trees and across a lane that looked like a farm track before cutting sharply away to his left through another dense stand of trees.
‘Watch your footing here,’ he said. ‘It’s pretty dark in the middle.’ He held out his hand as she scrambled over a large log and she instantly felt the reassurance of his grip as she stepped back onto flatter ground. She looked around her but she still had no real idea where she was.
Within another couple of minutes, however, she could see a line of lights through the trees, getting brighter and brighter with every step. Soon it would be time to leave the silvery twilight world behind and she felt strangely disappointed.
‘You’ll see where we are in a minute,’ said Kit, as they emerged back into open space, but Daisy had already spotted the face of the clock-tower at the far end of the market square, which towered above all else.
‘We’re at the back of the park!’ she exclaimed, looking around her to see the trajectory of their walk. They had travelled in the opposite direction to the road that Daisy had been following and yet she’d been amazed how quickly they had reached the town.
‘You would have found your way,’ said Kit, as if reading her thoughts. ‘But it’s much easier when everything is not covered in snow, the landmarks are so much harder to read.’
‘Even so, it was very kind of you, Kit. I’ve hijacked your walk.’
He stopped to look at her. ‘And yet we’ve still been walking?’ His lips curved upward into a grin. ‘So maybe you haven’t… maybe, I’ve just had the pleasure of your companyonmy walk.’
His eyebrows were raised in amusement, but there was something more than just merriment in his eyes, something she couldn’t quite fathom.
‘Well… thank you, anyway…’ She trailed off, a little embarrassed. ‘And enjoy your day off,’ she added as an afterthought. She took two steps forward. ‘Bye then…’
Kit laughed. ‘I said I’d walk you home, and walk you home I shall.’ He waggled a finger at her. ‘And don’t argue. I’m not great at a lot of things but rescuing damsels in distress is a particular forte of mine. My success rate is currently one hundred per cent and I should hate to ruin my score by abandoning you here.’
‘So how many damsels have you rescued then?’
She grinned as Kit made a show of scratching at his head, thinking hard as he counted on his fingers. He beamed at her. ‘One!’ he announced.
