Page 116 of A Christmas Celebration
‘I can’t, I’m afraid,’ Brodie told me, squeezing my hand. ‘I’m actually here on a mission. I’ve come to take a ride in the cherry picker.’
‘You can come with us to do that instead, if you like, Paige,’ Archie suggested.
I gave him a withering look and he laughed.
‘I’ll walk the dogs with you,’ Molly said, putting Suki, who she had been carrying, down, ‘and we’ll meet in the hall after you’ve done, shall we?’ she added to Archie.
‘Good idea,’ he said. ‘And you’ll stay for dinner, won’t you, Brodie? Dad’s turning on the hall lights when it gets dark. You won’t want to miss that.’
‘Well,’ Brodie said, looking at the rickety bike, ‘I’ll think about it. The roads around here are a bit dicey in the dark.’
‘I can take you back to Brambles in the Land Rover if you like,’ I offered. ‘It would be lovely if you could stay.’
‘All right,’ he said, pulling me close again. ‘That would be great. Although I’m not going back to Jack’s, but we’ll talk about that later.’
‘Yes,’ said Archie, ‘come on. I’ve moved the picker to where Dad told me you wanted it, so let’s make the most of the light. I don’t suppose you’re going to tell me why you want to go up in it, are you?’
The pair of them walked off and Brodie threw a parting smile over his shoulder which made my heart flutter as if I was a thirteen-year-old rather than an early thirty something. I blew him a kiss back and guessed his visit was most likely something to do with Angus’s commission so Archie had no hope of wheedling any details out of him.
‘Come on then,’ I said to Molly. ‘Let’s go before we freeze to the spot.’
We walked the woodland trail, checking everything was properly in place and lingered a long time at the reindeer enclosure. There was a calf among the group which had been born in the spring and was keen to bump noses with Bran through the fence. Floss wasn’t interested in the beautiful beasts, but Molly had picked Suki up again as she was prone to yap and dart under the fence.
‘Are these all female?’ I asked one of the keepers as I ducked to avoid a magnificent velvet covered antler when the largest of the group wandered over to say hello.
‘Yes,’ said the guy who travelled with them. ‘We have a mixed herd but it’s the females who keep their antlers until after they’ve given birth in the spring. The males shed after the breeding season in December.’
I thought about that for a moment, then looked at Molly who smiled.
‘So, Santa’s reindeer…’ I began.
‘All girls,’ said Molly with a gleeful grin.
‘Really?’ I gasped.
‘Extremely likely,’ confirmed the keeper.
‘Well, I never,’ I said. ‘I never knew that.’
Having gingerly petted the majestic matriarch, we said goodbye and took a detour to the Wishing Tree. The atmosphere in both the woods and the hawthorn clearing felt completely different to the day of the gathering. There was a light breeze weaving its way through the branches but nothing like the gust which had pushed Brodie and I together.
I watched as Molly walked up to the tree and then aroundit, one hand resting on the trunk as she circled. I stood further back, thinking of that unforgettable kiss, along with everything else that had happened since. Sometimes it felt as though I’d been staying at the hall for far longer than a month.
‘Molly,’ I said, when I noticed she’d stopped walking, ‘are you all right?’
She took a few seconds before answering and even though there was nothing unusual in that, I got the feeling there was something amiss. For a start, she hadn’t quizzed me once about the shift in mine and Brodie’s relationship and she hadn’t asked about the impact the rose quartz she’d pressed on me when I first arrived was having either.
They were both topics I would have expected her to broach, especially as it had been a while since we’d been alone. I had been fully prepared for her to capitalize on our solitary walk and gift me with more of her other-worldly wisdom as we took it.
‘Yes,’ she sighed. ‘I think so.’
‘You don’t sound very convinced,’ I said, beginning to feel concerned.
She moved a little away from the tree and turned to face me.
‘I’m sensing big changes,’ she said, a frown creasing her forehead and making her look nothing like her usual serene self. Molly had never gone in for frowning. ‘But I can’t see what they are yet. It’s unsettling.’
‘Big changes for you?’ I asked, moving closer to her side.
