Page 9 of A Merry Little Christmas
‘That’s a good point.’ I smiled. ‘I’ll keep my fingers crossed that Lewis Hatcher doesn’t get the part.’
She giggled. ‘Or that he gets really bad tonsilitis and loses his voice.’
‘I know someone who goes to your school. A boy called Will Armstrong?’
‘Oh, Will? Yes, he’s in my class. I sit next to him in English. He’s nice. I like him. He doesn’t show off like some of the other boys and he’s very brainy. He helped me finish my story for creative writing class. It was homework and I was stuck, but Will thought of a brilliant ending.’ She gave a mischievous smile. ‘But don’t tell Mum I cheated.’
‘I won’t.’
‘It was just that one time,’ she added, looking worried.
I smiled at her. ‘It’s okay, Maisie. Your secret is safe with me.’
Ellie came over at that moment and I quickly mimed zipping my mouth shut.
‘What’s going on here?’ chuckled Ellie. ‘What have you two been plotting in my absence.’
‘Nothing,’ said Maisie with a mischievous glance in my direction.
Ellie shook her head with a fond smile. ‘We’d better go, Katja, or you’ll be late for Maddy.’
‘What about the last few tables? Can I help you clear them before we go?’
She dismissed this with a wave of her hand. ‘It’s fine. I’ll come in ten minutes early in the morning.’ She bent to Isla and kissed the sleeping baby’s soft cheek. ‘Okay, my love. Let’s go home. Ready, Maisie?’ Looking at her stepdaughter, she laughed and pointed at her empty cup. ‘I take it you enjoyed that? You’ve got a definite chocolate moustache going on there.’ Whipping out a clean paper hanky, she handed it over and Maisie wiped her face vigorously.
I carried Isla out to Ellie’s car and she fixed the seat securely in place in a few swift moves. Then she was hurrying around tothe driver’s side and telling me to wish Maddybon voyagewhen I saw her.
I watched her drive away, bombing along the lane in the trusty little blue car she’d had for years, and I wondered where on earth she found the energy. It was so good to see Ellie all bright and breezy again. She’d had a terrible time with postnatal depression, but thankfully she seemed to be over it now and back to her usual bouncy self...
CHAPTER FIVE
Maddy was really excited about her trip to Salzburg the following day and had gone last-minute shopping for a fabulous outfit at lunchtime.
‘What do you think?’ She whipped out a red dress made of some body-hugging fabric that made me pull in my stomach immediately just looking at it.
‘You’ll look amazing in that,’ I told her honestly. ‘It’ll be great with those gorgeous new fleecy-lined snow boots and your faux-fur coat when you’re swanning off for your gluhwein in the evenings.’
She beamed at me. ‘That’s what I thought.’
Then, clearly realising she was being far too happy when I’d been a little down in the dumps lately, she sat up straight, folded her arms and frowned at me. ‘So how are you? Are things okay with Caleb?’
‘Oh, yes. We’re fine.’
‘Good. Because he seems like such a genuinely lovely guy and I’d hate what happened with Richard to spoil things for you.’
‘It won’t.’ I shrugged and changed the subject. ‘By the way, Ellie’s thinking of organising a Christmas market right here in Sunnybrook.’
‘Is she?’ Maddy looked amazed. ‘Does that woman ever stop?’
‘I know. She just loves to have a project on the go. I said we’d help. I knew you’d want to be involved.’
‘Definitely.’ She looked at me quizzically, as if I was some great mystery to be solved. ‘So what’s really going on? I’ve a feeling you’re not telling me the whole story.’
I sighed. ‘Look, I’ve been having these weird nightmares ever since the thing with Richard, and I don’t know... I keep thinking they might be a warning or something?’
‘A warning?’
I shrugged. ‘In the dreams, I’m falling from the top of a skyscraper building, although I never actually land because I wake myself up screaming.’
