Page 31 of A Christmas Celebration
‘I reckon it’s warmer in here already,’ he said, sounding drowsy as he went to get up.
‘You stay where you are,’ I said, lightly laying a hand on his shoulder. ‘I can see myself out.’
Having made such a positive impact, I don’t know why I sobbed all the way back to the hall, but I did.
Chapter 10
I was up with the lark on Monday morning and, having had a super quick catch up with Mum and Dad on the phone and reassured them that I was happily settled at the hall, I then worked my way methodically through the household chores. I probably could have got through them faster but, as I was flying completely solo, I took my time and it was lunchtime before everything was eventually ticked off to my satisfaction.
‘How have you got on?’ Dorothy asked as we all congregated around the kitchen table after she’d banged the gong.
‘Great,’ I said, eagerly accepting a bowl of creamy lentil soup because I had worked up quite an appetite. ‘I daresay Hayley works much faster, but I’m all done now.’
‘I popped over earlier to ask if I could help,’ said Molly as she messily broke a bread roll into pieces on her plate, ‘but you looked so engrossed in the vacuuming, I didn’t like to disturb you.’
‘I’m sorry,’ I said, wondering if she had been worried about making me jump. ‘I didn’t realize.’
‘That’s all right,’ she said, nibbling on a tiny part of the deconstructed roll. ‘You were clearly focused and looked like you had something on your mind.’
‘Have you got something on your mind?’ Catherine asked, sounding concerned.
‘You aren’t worried about anything, are you?’ Angus added.
I wondered if either Mum or Dad had mentioned anything before the phone had earlier been passed on to me. I hoped not. I considered saying something about Albert, if only to distract my godparents from what might have been said, but then decided it wasn’t worth the risk.
The Paige’s Worthy Cause conversation was still very much at the forefront of my mind and my fragile ego wasn’t up to teasing, even of the mildest kind and I obviously couldn’t allude to the puzzling Angus and Brodie conversation, which I had been thinking about, either, because I wasn’t supposed to know anything about that.
‘Well, of course I have something on my mind,’ I therefore said jovially instead, latching on to humour rather than my real current preoccupations. ‘Hayley will have mine and Archie’s guts for garters if she comes back and finds we haven’t kept the hall in perfect order. That’s enough for anyone to worry about, isn’t it?’
Catherine and the others were mollified, but Molly wasn’t and I could tell she was still trying to work out why I was back in the country and not sleeping as well as she thought I should.
‘Please don’t,’ I whispered.
‘I can’t help it,’ she whispered back. ‘I’m sure it would be better all round if you talked about it.’
‘It really wouldn’t,’ I insisted, ‘but being here is helping. Being useful, even though it’s only in a small way, is making a difference, so can we please just leave it at that?’
There was no lie in that. Immersing myself in the cleaning had filled my head for hours and stopped me scrolling over the details of my mistake and then blowing it up out of all proportion. Even though I hadn’t yet regained faith in my decision making, I was thinking about what had stolen it away less and less.
‘All right,’ she said. ‘And actually, you do look a bit better today. Let’s leave it for now.’
I knew I could have told her that my role had simply come to an end because of the loss of corporate sponsorship, but Molly wasn’t stupid. She knew there was more to it than that. She had spotted the signs the moment she had first laid eyes on me, and therefore rather than start any sort of explanation, I still felt the best course of action was to carry on avoiding the entire topic.
‘Yes, let’s,’ I agreed. ‘I’m heading into town in a bit,’ I said, addressing everyone. ‘Do we need anything picking up?’
Bran was on his feet almost before I was.
‘I won’t be able to take you with me this time,’ I told him, kissing his shaggy head.
‘Can’t you go in tomorrow as you’ll be heading to Wynbridge to sort the deliveries then anyway?’ Mick asked. ‘You’ve hardly stopped since you got here.’
‘Afraid not,’ I said. ‘I won’t have time to get done tomorrow what I need to do today.’
‘Well, you’re going to have to take Bran,’ Dorothy said firmly. ‘He’s been under my feet whining for you all morning. I can’t stand an afternoon of it as well.’
‘I would have had him with me this morning if he wasn’t so scared of the vacuum cleaner,’ I said, stroking his wiry back.
I hadn’t seen him for dust once I’d put the plug in the socket.
