Page 57 of The Little Shop on Silver Linings Street
‘You might want your wellies,’ he said.
She looked down at her boots. ‘Oh. I rather thought… Why, are we walking?’
‘Only a tiny bit, but there’s still a little snow around. I’d hate for those to get ruined.’
The snow had all but melted out by the canal but, she sighed, wellies it was.
Five minutes later they were walking down her garden path and, as Kit went on ahead to open the gate, she realised she was studying him quite intently. For some reason it made her blush. The small hallway had been far too intimate a space to look at one another without embarrassment but she’d never realised before quite how long Kit’s legs were. Perhaps it was seeing him silhouetted in front of her, dark against the deepening blue of the night, that made him seem taller than usual. She cleared her throat and looked away.
His car was parked next to hers, in the spot she used just where the road to town rose over the canal bridge. He opened the door for her, apologising as he did so.
‘It’s very old, and what you might call functional, but I don’t use it much, so…’ He trailed off, leaving the sentence unfinished. She climbed in, smiling at the contrast between Kit’s choice of transport and that of his brothers. Expensive, plush or sporty this was not. And it was freezing.
‘I think the heater might have packed up, too,’ added Kit, climbing in beside her. ‘Sorry, but we won’t be in it for long and when we get where we’re going, I promise it’s warm.’
‘So, where are we going? Somewhere in town?’
‘Not quite, but close. A little place I know.’ He grinned at her, but it was obvious he wasn’t going to tell her any more.
She did up her seat belt and smiled back. ‘Okay then, let’s go.’
Kit wasn’t kidding when he said it wasn’t far. He took a road away from the town, but they had only been driving a couple of minutes when he turned off the road onto a tiny track that Daisy didn’t remember seeing before. Even with his headlights on full beam, there wasn’t much to see; tall hedges rose on either side, blocking the view. After another minute, Kit pulled up in front of a small gate and killed the engine. It was suddenly very dark.
She could hear the exhalation of breath as Kit grinned and the creak of his seat as he moved. ‘Can I just say that, whatever this looks like, I’m not an axe murderer.’
‘Ah, but you would say that, even if you were…’
‘Possibly true.’ He opened his door, flooding the interior of the car with light. ‘Want to risk it?’
She laughed. ‘Things can’t get much stranger than they’ve been the last few weeks,’ she replied. ‘I’ll risk it, if only because I have no idea where we are and I’m quite intrigued to find out.’
Daisy climbed from the car and followed Kit to where he came to rest by the gate. The night was like an impenetrable blanket, the moon completely hidden behind the clouds, but she could feel the stillness spreading out around her.
‘Would you like the torch? Or my arm?’ asked Kit. ‘It’s almost too dark tonight, even for me.’ He switched on a torch he was holding so that its light cast an eerie glow up over his face. ‘Although it’s not far, you’ll see the lights pretty soon.’
She took the torch, but switched it off again, linking her arm through his. ‘I like the dark,’ she said. ‘Just don’t lead me into a ditch.’
‘Fair enough.’
He opened the gate and she stepped through, sensing wide open space in front of her. There was something darker even than the sky massed some way ahead of her and, as her eyes gradually adjusted to the gloom, she began to make out the shape of a field, hedgerows leading away from her on both sides.
She squinted as they walked, striding out right into the centre of the field. There was something she couldn’t quite see yet, but there was a sense of purpose in the way Kit was moving so she knew they must be close.
It all unravelled in her head at the exact same moment she saw the first flash of light. As if her internal compass had suddenly tuned in to where they were. She realised that the road where she had got stuck in the snow must lie on the opposite side to the field, which would mean… And then there was another flash of light, and another, and she understood exactly where they were and where they were going.
She must have quickened her pace or tightened her grip on Kit’s arm because she heard him chuckle. ‘Worked it out, have you?’
She nodded. ‘But I still don’t…’ And then she stopped. ‘Oh, my God, Kit, youlivethere? That cabin in among the trees is yours?’ She slapped at his arm. ‘You sod, you could have said!’
‘And where would have been the fun in that?’ Kit replied.
‘I don’t believe it.’ And now that she could see the gap in the trees and the warm glow of the house beyond it, she dropped his arm and began to run, stumbling a little on the uneven surface, but not caring.
She skidded to a halt just at the perimeter of trees and sucked in a breath. Close up it was even more breathtaking. It was a traditional log cabin – a long low roofline behind, with an adjoining apex at the front providing a deep overhang around a porch area surrounded by railings. Twinkling lights were wrapped around the wooden uprights and along the top rail and slightly larger lights hung from the pitch of the roof. At the corners of the building the enormous logs which formed the cabin walls were laced together like clasped fingers, and on the left-hand side a huge tree was covered in coloured lanterns. The recessed windows glowed with warmth and she could smell the smoke from the chimney.
‘I don’t believe it,’ she said again as Kit came to stand by her side. ‘I think this has to be the most magical building I’ve ever seen.’ She could hardly believe she was actually going to go inside. ‘How on earth did you get lucky enough to find this place?’ she asked.
‘I had it built,’ Kit replied, grinning. ‘Or rather, I built it…’
