Page 94 of A Christmas Celebration
The other half had splattered into Brodie’s chest and there was a huge lump of melting Stilton stuck to the front of his lovely sweater.
‘It’s fine,’ he said, as I reached for a paper napkin and tried to wipe it.
His chest felt solid and I blushed even brighter as I handed him the sticky serviette.
‘This sweater has seen worse than a blob of Stilton,’ he added, taking it from me and also turning red.
I went to apologize again, but was knocked off balance by Bran who had spotted the potato on the floor and wasn’t going to leave it for either Floss or Suki to clear up. It was the classic school playground moment, when some wit comes up behind you and takes your knees out, resulting in you creasing like a pack of cards. Only in this instance, I didn’t fold because Brodie caught me.
‘And now I need to apologize,’ he said, setting me upright again and steadying me while I abandoned the plate to the table.
In his heroic moment, he’d caught me with the Stilton-covered serviette and I had a patch to rival his on the arm of my top.
‘I’d say that makes us equal,’ I said, smiling up at him and then checking myself.
‘And you’re both going to stink,’ Archie unhelpfully added. ‘We’re swapping teams this afternoon and I bagsy not being in either of yours.’
‘I only stood to free up a chair,’ Brodie told me. ‘I really am sorry.’
‘It’s my fault,’ I said, easing around him. ‘I should have been looking where I was going. It would have been fine if Archie hadn’t been playing the fool.’
‘You still haven’t answered my kissing question,’ the man himself loudly said.
‘I think I’ll go back out,’ said Brodie, clearly keen to distance himself and I could hardly blame him. ‘I’m sure Mick could do with a hand stacking the bags.’
Mick was still eating but Brodie headed off anyway.
‘That was not helpful.’ Molly frowned, digging Archie in the ribs.
‘I was just trying to give them a nudge in the right direction,’ he said innocently.
I ignored them both and reached for another plate and potato wondering what I could do to avoid having to go back out and run the gauntlet of being paired up with Brodie. My sunny disposition had dipped a little as a result of the strange feeling in the woods and Archie acting up had dimmed it further. I no longer even felt inclined to carry out my plan to corner either Angus or Brodie and get to the bottom of their connection.
‘Right!’ shouted Mick. ‘I know we all want to have a snooze now Dorothy and Kathleen have filled us up, but if we make a concerted effort, I reckon we can be done in a couple of hours.’
With work still to do, I couldn’t bail and took the inevitable hand fate then dealt me squarely on the chin.
‘See you later, stinky Stilton twins,’ Archie laughed as he waved me and Brodie off, along with a couple of the others.
I hadn’t enjoyed being bopped on the head by falling bunches of mistletoe, but cutting the holly turned out to be worse. I was pricked more than once, in spite of the thick gloves Mick had given me and I kept catching Brodie’s eye without meaning to. I tried to position myself far away from him but somehow, we still ended up side by side.
It felt like far longer than a couple of hours before I heard Dorothy bashing the gong to tell us that time was up and there was tea and cake in the kitchen. To avoid further ribbing from Archie, I decided not to head back with everyone else and ducked off the path when no one was looking. I might have felt a little disconcerted by the woods that day, but what I would doubtless face in the kitchen would be far worse than being a bit spooked.
As I strode out, moving quickly to keep warm, I wondered if I might happen upon the Wishing Tree. I hadn’t thought about it since I’d been back but knowing how much faith Molly had in the ancient hawthorn’s abilities to make wishes come true, I wondered if it might be able to help me properly turn off my feelings for Brodie. I quickened my pace as I heard the trinkets and charms secured to the branches melodiously tinkle ahead of me and stumbled into the clearing which surrounded it.
I took a deep breath and walked over to it, noticing how many more additions there had been since my last visit while rifling through my pockets for something to add toaccompany my wish. I didn’t have anything, so instead placed my hands lightly against the trunk and closed my eyes.
‘Paige?’
I let out a squeal and practically jumped out of my skin, as the one person I didn’t want to see stepped into view from the other side of the trunk. The tree was so huge that Brodie had been completely hidden and I felt irrationally cross with the hawthorn for not giving me some sort of warning that I was not alone.
‘Brodie,’ I gasped, one hand on my chest. ‘You frightened me half to death.’
That said, I still recovered far quicker than I would have done even just a couple of weeks ago.
‘Sorry,’ he said huskily. ‘I thought everyone had gone back to the hall.’
‘So did I,’ I said, a little tightly. How ironic that the one person I wanted to avoid was in precisely the place I’d come to avoid him. ‘What are you doing here?’
