Page 92 of The Christmas Retreat
*
We had a delicious Italian meal and, afterwards, we walked around Harlech, enjoying the view of the impressive castle and browsing the interesting shops, so it was late afternoon by the time we got back to Triskelion.
Only Toby and Pearl were around, playing table tennis in the refectory. Pearl said her sister was in the TV room and that Kate had been in and taken a plateful of cake back up to her room, where she was presumably engrossed in her new novel … or thoughts of Mr Teddy Bear.
Hearing us, Cariad bounced out of the kitchen followed by Snookums and, in a statelier fashion, Pompey. She’d been baking with Bronwen and insisted we try the little butterfly sponge cakes she’d helped make and some rather odd-shaped brandy snaps.
‘You have to wind them round the handle of a wooden spoon before they go too hard, and it’s difficult,’ she explained. ‘But even the flat ones taste fine.’
‘I wonder if Evie’s parcel came?’ I said, and Tudor, comingin just then, told me he’d carried a big box up to Evie’s room after lunch and she’d been up there ever since she got back.
I was curious to know if thiswasthe long-awaited box and, if so, what was in it, so I went upstairs and tapped on her door … but she wouldn’t let me in!
‘Itisthe Memory Box,’ she said through the half-closed door. ‘And there’s a lot more in it than I expected. But you know my style: I like to excavate each layer, scan and evaluate it, before moving on to the next.’
‘But can’t you just give me a hint of what’s in there? Photographs, diaries, what?’ I pleaded.
‘Certainly photographs, but we already knew Milly was a keen photographer. As to the rest, you will just have to wait and see.’
And with that, she closed the door again.
My mother is the most annoying woman in the entire known universe.
*
Evie didn’t appear in the sitting room until it was almost time for dinner, looking rather abstracted and with her pinkish hair up in spikes from running her hands through it. It sort of suited her, in a punk kind of way.
I’d already told everyone about the scene with Will. I might as well – they knew most of the story already. From being a near clam living alone I’d gone to sharing my private life with a company of complete strangers, except that, oddly, none of them really felt like a stranger any more.
Evie replied vaguely when Nerys asked her if she was finding the box of material that had arrived useful. Her mind wasthinking only of her work, and that was how it was to be for the whole weekend.
She would emerge at intervals for food and drink, but while her body was with us, her mind was upstairs with the contents of the Memory Box.
*
Timon had explained that the family didn’t do much to celebrate the New Year, other than stay up to raise a toast at midnight, for the Solstices and Twelfth Night weretheirbig occasions.
Noel was to stay on after dinner till midnight, which I think is why Ma didn’t vanish back upstairs to her mysterious delvings that evening.
Opal, too, stayed up, sitting in the TV room, until Pearl finally winkled her out just before midnight, when she came in reluctantly and perched on a small tub chair as if ready to take flight.
Nerys had taken a hot whisky and lemon up to Verity and said she was watching a New Year’s Eve programme on the telly and working her way through a box of chocolates. Then, as Timon filled all our glasses, Nerys turned on the radio just as the deep chimes of Big Ben began to mark the hour.
We all clinked glasses and wished each other a happy New Year.
‘A happy, healthy and prosperous one for you all, I hope,’ added Noel.
‘And the New Year is always a good time for fresh ventures, or a change of direction – so here’s to new beginnings, too!’ Timon said.
‘I’m certainly now ready to find my new forever home atlast,’ I said. ‘Max Prynne has kindly offered to let me rent the small lodge house by the back gate of the estate while I make my mind up where to settle.’
‘I want you to stay here for ever,’ said Cariad drowsily. Having been allowed up until midnight she was now in a state resembling the sleepy Dormouse inAlice in Wonderland.
‘We’d all like that,’ Timon agreed kindly.
‘And off to bed with you, Cariad,’ said Nerys. ‘I’ll come and tuck you up in a minute.’
Cariad must have been tired, because she didn’t complain, other than to say she wanted her daddy and me to go and say goodnight too.
