Page 122 of A Christmas Celebration
Kathleen gave Alice a hug and quickly bustled off and we then collected tickets and maps which, I noticed, had been designed by Hayley, and set off. There were points of interest marked all around the woodland trail and if visitors stamped all the spots on their maps using the ink pads at the corresponding site, they got an extra gift from Santa in the grotto.
‘So,’ I said, as Alice and I fell into step after the initial excitement had calmed a little, ‘how are things in town? Still good, I hope?’
Alice looked at me with the biggest smile lighting up her pretty face. Her cheeks were flushed and she looked far less tired and worn out than she had the first time we met.
‘The flat’s still great,’ she said, with a twinkle in her eyes, ‘and moving there has changed so much more than my address.’
‘It must be that Wynbridge magic you mentioned before.’ I smiled.
‘Without a doubt,’ she laughed.
‘Are you still planning to look for a job in the new year?’
‘Definitely,’ she said firmly, ‘because I’ve realized now just how detrimental to my mental health the time spent entirely on my own at the cottage with just these three actually was.’
‘I get that.’ I nodded, her words sparking another idea.
‘I had thought,’ she carried on thoughtfully, ‘that when I got out of my relationship, if you could call it that, that I’d be done with people. That I would want to keep myself to myself for good, but I was wrong. Time spent in company, even just an hour a day chatting in the market, or visiting the library, has made a huge difference to the way I feel.’
‘I love that,’ I said, knowing I had experienced something similar myself since arriving at the hall.
After losing Chadia, I had been ruthlessly independent, working alone for years and making no attachments and forming no ties. I had thought it was for the best. The one sure way to prevent my heart from further assault. However, the anguish I experienced after my mistake, which most likely wouldn’t have even happened had I been a team player, was proof that my heart hadn’t, in fact, been protected at all.
However, since arriving at the hall and working with others, forming bonds, friendships and a romantic relationship, I had come to realize the true value of what made for a happier and fuller life. It was other people and I was feeling a million times better for letting them in.
I wondered how many other people there were, in the Wynbridge area alone, who might need to experience that for themselves? Not everyone might have been looking for romance but we all needed friends. How many of the people I visited in their isolated cottages had regular opportunities to get together in person?
‘And keeping busy is helping me find myself,’ Alice continued confidently. ‘I’m even thinking about taking an adult education class or two and, even though I won’t be ready for a new relationship for a very long time,’ she stoically added, having clearly thought it all through very carefully, ‘I’m already thinking that I should never say never.’
‘Oh, Alice.’ I sniffed, feeling simultaneously choked and delighted. ‘That’s amazing.’
‘It is,’ she laughed. ‘If you’d told me this time last year, that I’d be here now, with my kids living a completely different life, with so many new friends and such wonderful support, I never would have believed it.’
‘Reindeer!’ shouted Saffron as we rounded a bend in the path and the enclosure came in sight. ‘Come on, Mum. Look, there’s Rudolph!’
‘It’s Rachel actually,’ I whispered to Alice, taking the buggy handles from her so she could enjoy the special moment with her daughter. ‘I’m so happy for you, Alice,’ I told her.
‘So am I.’ She beamed in return.
‘You’re an inspiration,’ I told her again.
‘Well.’ She blushed. ‘I don’t know about that.’
I stayed with her for the largest part of the day and after Kathleen had driven her and the exhausted children back to town, I walked around the trail again on my own. I wanted to go back and see the owls which were being shown by a lad called Ed and his mum, Mags. I had seen their stand earlier, but one of the owls was having a flap on its perch which had scared Alice’s youngest so we hadn’t lingered.
‘Hello, Paige,’ said Will, who happened to be visiting the stand at the same time.
‘Hi,’ I said. ‘How are you?’
‘I’m good.’ He nodded. ‘Thrilled to have been able to give the all clear for the sleigh rides to go ahead. Have you been for a ride in it? I’m guessing you have by now.’
‘No,’ I told him. ‘I haven’t yet. I’m saving it for tomorrow.’
I rather liked the thought of Brodie and I, and Albert, if he fancied it, going for a ride with Mick at the helm. I had seen the resplendent red sleigh going up and down throughout the afternoon and it looked even more spectacular in motion than it had set up in Wynbridge market square on the night of the switch-on.
The only thing missing from it was Santa, but that was because he was entertaining visitors in the grotto and two Father Christmases in one place would have taken some explaining. Mick had been cajoled into wearing a Santa hat though and he didn’t look impressed about it when it kept slipping down over his eyes as the ponies trotted along. I was just grateful there had been no further suggestion that I should play the elf.
‘You’ll love it,’ Will said. ‘It’s really exhilarating and brings out the child in all of us.’ I could believe that. ‘Do you know Ed, by the way?’ he asked, turning back to the lad who was in charge of the owls.
