Page 133 of A Christmas Celebration
The boards turned out to be a variety of white modular display stands which fitted together in endless configurations.
‘These are perfect,’ I said, examining them. They were both sturdy and unobtrusive. Ideal for our purpose. ‘Why have you got them?’
We were in one of the offices in the stable block which had been converted to house the charity Anna and Jamie ran.
‘They look expensive,’ I added.
‘They’ve been used by the charity and they weren’t cheap,’ Angus confirmed, ‘but as Jamie always says, you buy cheap you buy twice, and these have paid for themselves already and have been used at multiple fundraising and awareness raising events.’
They’d been well looked after too. There wasn’t a mark on any of them.
‘I thought we could set them up in the main hall,’ Angus said, ‘in whatever layout you think will work best.’
‘I’d like to give each person who is exhibiting their own space,’ I said, as I began to picture the party in my head and hoped I would be able to convince more artists to turn out so close to Christmas. ‘That way they’ll be able to talk to the guests more intimately.’
‘That’s a great idea,’ Angus agreed.
‘And talking of guests,’ I said, ‘if we don’t invite some, along with more artists soon, they won’t come. Christmas is a busy time, and I daresay most people have already made plans. To be honest, I think it might be too late to expect much of a turn out.’
Angus shifted further around the office.
‘It’s all in hand,’ he squeaked.
‘How so?’ I asked.
‘Well,’ he said, peeping around the boards and giving me a mischievous smile, ‘I had a similar idea on the extra artist front myself a couple of days ago and got Lizzie, from The Cherry Tree Café on the case.’
‘I see,’ I said.
‘And,’ he added, disappearing from view again, ‘the other guest invitations were sent out a couple of weeks ago.’
I couldn’t believe it.
‘So, what was the point of drafting me in then?’ I gasped. ‘You made out that it was a completely new idea when you talked me into helping with it, but it sounds like you’ve got it all in hand already and you don’t need me at all.’
I wasn’t sure whether I felt exasperated or relieved, as was so often the case when dealing with Angus Connelly.
‘Of course, I need you!’ he said, facing me again. ‘First and foremost, I needed you to convince Albert and Brodie to exhibit. That was the main thing. But then there’s the nuts and bolts of the thing to get sorted, too. I’ve only asked guests and artists. Nothing else.’
As ever, he was the ideas man and someone else was left to do the more mundane graft. In this instance, me.
‘And what about the artists?’ I asked. ‘Have you had much of a response?’
‘I have,’ he said, sounding serious. ‘Show stands are so expensive that lots of small creators can’t afford them, so Lizzie has asked people who haven’t had an opportunity to exhibit like this before.’
‘Oh, wow,’ I said, thinking what a wonderful opportunity the potential exposure for them was going to be. ‘That’s fantastic.’
Angus and Lizzie’s success took the pressure off me a bit which made it even more fantastic.
‘And I specifically asked you to help because I wanted to give you something to focus on once Anna and Hayley got back,’ Angus then kindly said. ‘I was worried you might feel a bit redundant with less to do when they took over again.’
‘Well,’ I said, tears prickling as a result of his thoughtfulness, ‘I appreciate that.’
‘You do know that we don’t want you to go, don’t you, Paige?’ he said, looking a little bright eyed himself, ‘so I’m going to be coming up with all sorts of plans to stop you.’
I rushed into his arms and he hugged me tightly. In the current absence of my own father, Angus was doing a wonderful job of stepping into the breach. Even if at times he did still have a tendency to be a bit maddening.
‘I take it that’s all right?’ He smiled.
