Page 91 of The Secret Christmas Bookshop
He disappeared into the melee, and Sophie found her own phone, put on the torch and went to check on the food trucks. Natasha had a Maglite angled across her mobile bar, and was rapidly tidying everything away.
‘Are you all right?’ Sophie asked.
‘I need to get back to the Blossom Bough. I’ve left a couple of my part-timers in charge, and they’ll be having kittens not knowing what to do in a power cut.’
‘Go,’ Sophie said. ‘I’ll lock up your stand.’
‘Sure?’
‘Sure.’ She took the keys from Natasha, used her light to make sure everything was tidied away, then pulled down the shutter and locked it. Everything was so much more difficult with limited light and a thrashing wind. She gave one final pull on the door, checking it was secure.
‘Sophie!’ Her body recognized the voice before her brain did, and she whipped round, saw a torch beam heading towards her.
‘Harry!’ He was walking awkwardly, his long strides off-kilter over the uneven ground. ‘Are you all right?’
‘I’m fine,’ he said. ‘Areyou? I didn’t know where you were.’
He brought his right arm around her, pulling her against him, and she buried her nose in his neck. His skin was chilled and damp, but she felt calmer immediately. She reached her hands behind his neck and he flinched.
‘Harry?’ she took a tiny step back.
‘I’m fine.’
‘What happened?’ She held her phone up and to the side, so she could see his face without blinding him.
‘I’m not sure the village hall is the best place for everyone right now,’ he said. ‘A lot of people have gone home, but there’s Frank and his bridge players. Dexter and Lucy are still here, and Birdie, Jazz, Fiona and Ermin. There’s no comfort; it’s just cold and dark.’
‘Harry?’
‘I’ve got a generator at the manor. I installed it a while ago, so …’
‘Harry.’ She touched his cheek, turned his head so he was facing her. ‘Why did you flinch when I put my arms around you?’
‘It’s nothing.’
‘What’snothing?’
He clenched his jaw, irritated. ‘Something fell on me when that lightning flared. I was standing next to the village hall and something fell off – a bit of the roof, I think – but it didn’t hit anyone else.’
‘Oh, that’s OK then,’ Sophie gritted out. ‘As long as it’s onlyyouwho got injured. Where does it hurt?’ She felt sick all of a sudden, desperate to check he wasn’t bleeding, that he hadn’t broken anything.
‘My shoulder, but I’ll be fine. Let’s get everyone to the manor, wait out the storm there.’
Sophie was shivering, the icy rain hitting her skin in shards, and Harry had his hood down, his hair plastered to the top of his head.
‘Are you sure you’re happy to have everyone at the manor? The power might come back on in a minute.’ But the thunder and lightning were relentless, and Sophie reasoned that it wouldn’t be fun sitting it out with no possibility of light except candles, no heat except blankets. The manor, with all its fireplaces, was a much more welcome prospect. Add in a generator, and it was positively palatial.
‘I think we should go there and see what happens,’ Harry said. ‘Everyone’s put so much effort into this event, and I know it might be ruined now – we’ll have to wait until it’s light to see the damage – but this is the least I can do for them.’
‘OK.’ Sophie squeezed his right arm, frowning when he tried to rotate his left, then winced. ‘And I can have a look at your shoulder.’
‘It’s fine,’ he said again.
‘Except it’s obviously not. Come on, let’s get out of the deluge.’
Harry was right: the village hall was cold and inhospitable, with the rain drumming against the glass, the hard wooden floor and the meagre flickers from the battery-operated tea lights. In the light of Ermin’s torch, Sophie was met with a sea of anxious, unhappy faces.
‘OK everyone,’ Harry said, managing to sound both direct and soothing, ‘anyone who wants to can come back to the manor. I’ve got a generator there, so we should be able to get some light, and at the very least I’ve got fireplaces.’
