Page 19 of The Christmas Retreat
As I was led to my grand bedroom I wondered, given the limitations of my wardrobe, what exactly Maudie expected me to change into, unless she thought my Norfolk jacket and skirt merely a drab chrysalis, from which would soon burst forth a bright social butterfly. This thought amused me as I tidied up and then joined her at the foot of the stairs, and we went together into the dining room where my guardian and his daughter awaited us.
I don’t know why I had pictured Cosmo Caradoc as an elderly man, like Papa, when I knew very well he was more Mama’s age, a good twenty years younger, so I was temporarily dumbfounded to find him so tall, dark and commanding in appearance – and you were right, for he is very handsome in a dark and intense way. He stared at me intensely when we were introduced and then said abruptly that I looked very much like my mama when he first met her at my parents’ wedding, except my eyes were a dark grey rather than her light blue! From the way he said it, I suspected he had had a soft spot for her.
Bea, who merely said, ‘How do you do?’ in the same clipped high voice as Maudie, was just as her aunt had described her: small, dainty, extremely pretty, with her waving black hair in a chignon. Her eyes are as dark a blue as her papa’s, but I thought her rosebud mouth looked sulky. She was attired in a pale pink dress that seemed to me to have an excess of frills and ribbons, and she did not seem to think much of me, or my blouse and skirt.
Over dinner I was too overwhelmed by tiredness, the realization that I was so very far away from those I loved and everythingfamiliar to me, and the strangeness of my current surroundings and company, to notice what I ate. I did not revive for some time and then it was to find Bea and Maudie discussing the latest fashions and a dress pattern and some material that Maudie had obtained for her in London.
‘Of course Miss Hughes, who is the dressmaker in the nearest town, will not do it justice,’ Bea informed me, before adding: ‘I suppose Aunt and I will have to introduce you to what little local society there is – and apart from the Prynnes, who have a large estate nearby, there is only the vicar and his family and the doctor and his daughter. I hope you have brought more suitable clothes for the country, for everyone will be quite shocked at the shortness of your skirt … not to mention your hair.’
I thought this rather rude of my cousin, to whom I was not warming, so I said firmly, and with a challenging glance at Mr Caradoc, that since I had no desire to be introduced into local society, my lack of suitable country clothes and hairstyle wouldn’t matter.
‘I am an artist and mean eventually to earn my living by my brush, so my time will be spent working during my stay here,’ I finished defiantly.
Maudie pursed up her lips at this, and said I was still quite a child and must do as my guardian bid me, as if I was eight, rather than eighteen!
Mr Caradoc said very gravely, so that I didn’t know if he was serious or not, ‘You must understand, Bea, that your new cousin is not a frivolous and empty-headed chit like yourself, but serious-minded and quite determined about her work, and means to pursue her studies while under my guardianship.’
My eyes again met his deep set and compelling dark blue onesand I thought I might as well lock swords with him now, as later, so I said firmly that, as I had written to him, I had no need of a guardian, for in the autumn I planned to take up residence in Cornwall with my friends.
He replied that since he found my plan of living with a friend not much older than myself and her brother totally unsuitable, he could not agree to it and could only hope that I found the surrounding scenery as inspiring as he did, for my home would be at Triskelion for at least the next three years.
Then, before I could argue the point, he smiled in a way that suddenly made him look much less formidable and suggested that I should settle into Triskelion and see how I liked it, before continuing to argue the point.
I let it go for the moment and in fact was so tired that I went early to bed.
But I am now refreshed after a good sleep and, since it is almost eight, mean to go down and beard the dragon himself over the breakfast table before the others come down! While he seems to understand my desire to work and to be taken seriously as an artist, so that a summer spent here will be more useful than I expected, yet he must be made to accept that that will be the extent of my stay at Triskelion. I know you were afraid that when I got here I would find I liked it so much I would wish to make my home here, but I can assure you that will not happen. And your other great fear, that Bea would replace you in my affections, is equally groundless, because anyone less likely to turn into a bosom friend I never met.
I expect as I write this you are setting out for Cornwall to view the cottage and I do hope it is as perfect as it sounded. My letter will be waiting for you on your return and possiblya longer letter by then, too. And I hope to receive one from you as soon as possible, for I want to hear all about Smuggler’s Cottage.
Your loving friend,
Arwen
6
A Grand Entrance
The stranger’s brusqueness had at least dispelled any lingering feeling of shock, although the realization of the cause of my near accident had already started to do that before he arrived; it wasn’t the first time I’d been spooked by a low-flying barn owl at night in a country lane.
As I set off slowly and carefully down the hill, I thought wryly that I was now probably more ruffled than the poor bird after it almost collided with my windscreen.
Once I’d rounded the bend I passed a straggle of cottages that began to cluster more and more closely together, until I arrived at what must be the centre of the village, a huddle of buildings around a small green, with the glimmer of a large decorated fir tree in the middle.
There were a couple of lit shop windows too, which surprised me, because I knew it to be a very small place. Maybe I really should have taken the time to check out the website for Triskelion and the general area. But things had just been so frantic that I had done nothing but pack and fall into bed exhausted for days!
The road branched beyond the green, one way heading down the valley, but dead ahead of me was the bridge that led, through open iron gates on the other side, to the haven of Triskelion. Since I had so much been dreading having to meet and live with a houseful of strangers, it was odd that it should suddenly feel, in some strange way, that I had come home.
I parked at the end of a small row of cars on the gravel sweep, next to Evie’s distinctive red Volvo hybrid, and switched off the engine, sitting motionless for a few minutes, gathering myself together, before getting out and hauling my suitcase and holdall from the tightly packed interior and heading for the huge studded wooden door under an open, lamplit porch.
I barely had time to reach out for the heavy cast-iron knocker – in the shape of the Green Man, foliage sprouting from his mouth and forming a leafy beard, and nestled quite appropriately in the middle of a huge Christmas wreath – before the door was flung open, releasing a flood of bright light, warmth and the distant high yapping of a dog.
‘There you are,’ said a warm contralto voice with the lilt of a Welsh accent. ‘Come in out of the cold.’
She seized my holdall and I followed her into a very large hall – bigger than the ground floor of my cottage, I was sure – closing the door behind me.
*
It was a cavernous space, big enough to have a fireplace of its own, with a couple of comfortable, shabby old armchairs drawn up to it. A huge Christmas tree stood next to a broad flight of stairs that vanished up around a bend.
