Page 66 of A Christmas Celebration
‘Brambles distillery,’ Mick told him, ‘but the calls were for Paige, Angus, not you.’
‘Oh,’ said Angus, throwing me a smile. ‘That’ll doubtless be Jack, trying to re-schedule your tour, Paige.’
‘It wasn’t Jack,’ said Mick. ‘It was the other one, Brodie.’
‘Brodie,’ said Angus, sounding slightly less sure of himself. ‘I didn’t realize you knew him, Paige. Are you sure he didn’t want me, Mick? Because I am expecting him to call.’
‘No,’ insisted Mick. ‘It was definitely Paige he was after.’
‘You were with him in the pub last night, weren’t you, Paige?’ Molly then piped up. ‘Perhaps you left something behind. You were in a bit of a rush to leave, weren’t you?’
I could sense Angus looking at me.
‘You know,’ I said, ‘you might be right. I couldn’t find my scarf this morning.’
‘That’ll be it then,’ Molly said.
‘Must be,’ I agreed. ‘It can’t be anything else.’
‘Right, come on,’ Dorothy said impatiently. ‘Come and carve this joint, Angus, otherwise we’ll be eating at teatime.’
I made a point of filling Dorothy in about what Kathleen had done for Alice and her children the evening before and I was just beginning to sense that she was starting to soften when the phone rang again. It was a wrong number, but it reminded Angus that I had a call to return.
‘When you speak to Brodie,’ he said to me, ‘could you please remind him he needs to give me an update?’
‘About what?’ I brazenly asked, hoping Mick might overhear, but he took no notice.
He’d apparently forgotten all about the conversation we’d had in the conservatory the morning I’d heard Angus and Brodie whispering in the kitchen.
Angus tapped the side of his nose.
‘I hope you aren’t up to anything, Angus,’ I said loudly. ‘With the Winter Wonderland on the horizon, the last thing we need is any sort of disruption, isn’t it, Catherine?’
‘Paige is right, Angus,’ she said sternly. ‘You mustn’t get up to any tricks before the Wonderland.’
‘What about after it?’ He grinned and everyone groaned.
We set the kitchen to rights and then all of us, including the dogs, went up to the family sitting room, where the fire was already lit.
‘You can use the phone in the kitchen if you can’t get a signal here,’ Catherine kindly offered. ‘If Brodie has called that many times, then I daresay you should ring him back.’
‘Actually,’ I said, only partly to stop further mention of him, but mostly because I felt it was time, ‘as we’re all together, there’s something I’d like to talk to you about.’
‘It’s not to do with your workload, is it?’ Mick asked. ‘I’ve been worried that we’ve put too much on you.’
‘No,’ I said, ‘it’s not that. I’m managing everything well enough. So well, in fact, that there’s turned out to be a bit of space for something else.’
‘Is it a new relationship?’ suggested Archie, waggling his eyebrows.
‘Be quiet, Archie,’ Dorothy tutted. ‘Ignore him, Paige.What is it that you’ve found time for? I’m amazed you’ve been able to find a spare minute for anything.’
‘Well,’ I said, taking a deep breath, ‘I suppose you could define it as a PWC.’
‘No way,’ Archie laughed, earning himself a stern look from his mother.
‘Go on,’ said Angus, sitting up straighter and looking intrigued.
‘It’s all come about by accident really…’ I began.
