Christmas at Lilac Cottage: (#1 White Cliff Bay) (4 page)

‘I don’t really want children,’ Penny said, quietly, even though it was a lie.

Linda stared at her as if she was some kind of monster. ‘Why wouldn’t you want children?’

‘Excuse me.’ Henry suddenly loomed over them all. ‘Can I buy some cakes? I’m in a bit of a rush so…’

‘Of course, sorry to keep you waiting.’ Linda quickly moved back behind the counter and Henry flashed Penny a look of concern before he turned away.

He had stepped in to save her.

Tilly came running over to Penny carrying a plate of misshapen biscuits. Tilly’s snowmen either looked drunk or as if they were based on Picasso paintings, with wonky eyes and manic grins.

‘They’re beautiful, I love them,’ Penny signed and Tilly grinned, handing her one to eat. ‘Oh no, I couldn’t, these are yours.’

But Tilly insisted and Penny took a big bite. ‘Delicious.’

Tilly skipped off behind the counter again, taking her creations with her.

Maggie leaned over the table. ‘Ignore the nosy old bat. Having children is no fun, they poo and cry all the time, you never get any sleep, you spend your whole life driving them around as they have far more of a social life than you, every penny you earn gets spent on them. You really are better off without them.’

‘And this is your third child?’ Penny laughed.

Maggie’s face lit up as she smiled adoringly at her belly. ‘I know, I never seem to learn my lesson.’

Penny stood up. ‘I better go, I have a carving to finish before tonight.’ She placed a kiss on Maggie’s cheek. ‘I’ll see you later.’

Maggie waved at her as she was eyeing some of the other cakes that were on sale behind the glass counter.

Penny reached the door the same time as Henry did and he opened it for her and let her go out ahead of him, hoisting Bea up onto his hip as he followed her out.

He walked up the street with her, but he didn’t say anything.

‘Thanks for, erm…’ Penny gestured vaguely back towards the bakery.

‘No problem. Is everyone in the town as rude as that?’

‘She wasn’t being rude, it’s just people don’t really mind their own business around here.’

‘I don’t like the sound of that. Where I come from, no one pokes their nose into what anyone else does with their life.’

‘People care, they look out for each other. It might come across as nosy but it comes from people genuinely wanting the best for everyone. I like to pretend that I don’t want my own children or family but in reality I do and the people of the town know that.’

Henry stared at her and she winced.

‘I hate that I’m so brutally honest with you. There’s something about you that brings all my secrets to the fore. I wish I could blame the mulled wine, but I can’t even do that today.’

‘What were you doing with your hands in there?’ blurted out Bea from the safety of Henry’s arms. Henry stared at Bea in confusion.

‘The little girl in the bakery, Tilly, she’s hearing impaired, which means she can’t hear anything…’

‘She can’t hear anything?’ Bea’s eyes were wide with surprise.

‘No, so when people talk to her she can’t hear what they say. So she communicates with her hands. It’s called sign language and she makes different movements with her hands to say different words.’

Bea nodded solemnly, with all the seriousness of a four year old taking the weight of the world on her tiny shoulders.

‘Shall I teach you how to sign your name and the next time you see Tilly you could introduce yourself?’

Bea nodded keenly and Penny showed her the three simple gestures for the letters B, E and A, acutely aware that Henry was staring at her the whole time. What was it about this man? He wasn’t watching her hands and what she was doing, he was just staring at her. She glanced up briefly from Bea into his eyes and was thrown by the sheer hunger there. He looked away first, clearly embarrassed by being caught staring.

He cleared his throat. ‘So you learned sign language so you can communicate with Tilly?’

Penny smiled. ‘The whole town did. When Tilly’s mum, Polly, found out she was hearing impaired she came to the town meeting and said she was going to arrange sign language lessons at her house and asked if anyone wanted to attend so they could communicate with her daughter when she was older. Almost everybody in the town turned up. They had to move the lessons from her house to the town hall to accommodate everybody. Some only learned the basics, but most people can converse quite fluently now. Tilly is such a confident little girl because of it, she can talk to anyone in the town now and not feel excluded. People care here, and I know they don’t always go about it in the right way – and they gossip and stick their noses in where they’re not wanted – but they genuinely do care.’

Henry nodded, thoughtfully. ‘I can see that it has—’

Just then Beth, second in command of the Blonde Bimbo Brigade, came striding over. She sidestepped Penny and managed to slide in between her and Henry with the practised art of someone who had done it a thousand times before. Beth was beautiful and had a much softer way about her than her friend, Jade; most men were putty in her hands.

‘Henry, I’m Beth…’

Henry stopped dead in the street. Penny wasn’t surprised, Beth seemed to have that effect on all men.

Penny paused awkwardly for a moment, before realising that her and Henry’s conversation was now over – he only had eyes for Beth.

She had turned away, when she heard Henry speak.

‘Do you have any idea how rude it is to come over and interrupt me when I’m talking to someone?’

Penny turned back in shock.

Beth looked around and saw Penny as if for the first time and giggled. ‘Oh, it’s only Penny. You don’t mind, do you, Penny?’

Penny shook her head; there was no point in kicking up a fuss over it.

‘Well I do,’ Henry said, storming past Beth so he was at Penny’s side again. He put his hand on the small of her back encouraging her up the hill. ‘I’m sorry, was she a friend of yours?’

‘No, she was in my class at school but we’re definitely not friends.’

‘I can’t abide rude people. Look, I better go, I have to pick Daisy up.’

‘I love Daisy,’ Bea said, cuddling into Henry’s chest. ‘Do you love Daisy, Uncle Henry?’

‘Very much.’

‘And do you love me?’

‘Of course.’

Bea seemed satisfied by this answer. He had a lovely way with his niece. He would have made a great dad to his child and it broke Penny’s heart that he had never been given that chance. But at the age of sixteen, when he was still a child himself, he probably would have struggled. There weren’t many children who had the maturity to raise a child at that age, so maybe his kid being put up for adoption had been for the best.

‘We’ll pop by later so you can meet Daisy, if that’s OK. She’s dying to see you.’

Penny nodded and Henry rushed off up the hill, with Bea waving madly over his shoulder.

Penny watched him go, sparks zinging through her body. Even without any sign language, the signals that he was giving off were those of somebody who was physically attracted to her. No one ever looked at her like that. She was damaged goods to most of the men in the town. Chris had seen to that, telling all his friends how messed up she was after the miscarriage, how she’d sit and cry for hours on end. A lot of the men her age had been too scared to go anywhere near her after that. Even after all this time, there was a wariness from the men in the town as if she might burst into tears at any moment. Henry was different, like he just saw her and none of the other baggage mattered. It infuriated her that she liked him so much, that he had kept her awake all night, her thoughts filled with him. He was married, he loved Daisy. There was no way this could end happily for her.

P
enny pulled
up behind Henry’s car a while later and could see him standing on the edge of the hill with his arm wrapped round a woman with bright blonde hair. They were looking out on the view and the woman was pointing out certain things down in the town. She was tiny, maybe a bit smaller than Penny, and stick-thin; even her arms and legs were tiny like a child’s. She was wearing flowery jeans and a black t-shirt and was clinging on to Henry like she adored him.

Penny got out of her car and Henry looked over his shoulder at her. He must have said something to his wife because the blonde suddenly turned around, a huge grin splitting her face as she looked at Penny. Penny approached, unable to take her eyes off Henry’s wife. She couldn’t be any older than eighteen. She had large blue eyes and rosy cheeks and was undeniably beautiful, but she looked like she was fresh out of college. Penny noticed that the t-shirt she was wearing had a kitten on it. She was a child, and Henry suddenly sank down quite considerably in her estimation.

‘Daisy, this is our landlady Penny, Penny this is Daisy.’

‘Hi,’ Penny said, quietly, suddenly feeling old and haggard in the face of his young, beautiful wife.

‘Hi, I’m so pleased to meet you, I saw Bernard through your window, can I meet him, Bernard is the coolest name for a dog ever,’ Daisy chattered with the over-exuberance of a puppy.

‘Sure,’ Penny said, gesturing for Daisy to follow her in. Daisy looked up at Henry with complete adoration as if asking his permission, which he actually gave with a nod of his head.

‘I’m just going to check on lunch, you girls go ahead,’ Henry said, disappearing through his own front door.

Daisy followed her in and Bernard fell off the sofa and ambled over to greet the new visitor, wagging his tail and sending the magazines and newspapers on the coffee table flying.

Daisy immediately sank to her knees to stroke him. ‘Aren’t you the cutest thing ever?’

Bernard rolled over onto his back so Daisy could stroke his belly and Daisy giggled. ‘I love dogs, but my dad would never let me get one.’

Penny watched her getting over-excited about Bernard. Not only was she physically like a child but she had the maturity of one too. She was very sweet and endearing but she wasn’t at all what she’d imagined when she thought of Henry’s wife.

‘So, Daisy, are you at university or…’ She trailed off before she said college; she didn’t want to offend her. Maybe she just looked a lot younger than she was.

Daisy giggled again. ‘Everyone always thinks I’m a lot older than I am. I’m sixteen, just. It was my birthday last week. I’m at school, taking my GCSEs this year, but I’ll be going to college in September.’

Penny’s gut twisted with a sick rage. She was barely sixteen, Henry had taken her away from her family and shacked up in some sick lovers’ nest in her home. There was no way she was going to condone that.

‘Would you mind staying here with Bernard for a moment? I just need a quick word with Henry.’

‘Sure.’ Daisy barely looked up as she stroked Bernard all over.

Penny let herself in through the connecting door, not even caring that she was entering his home without his permission. Henry poked his head through the kitchen door and was surprised to see her and not Daisy.

His eyebrows furrowed with concern at her face as he walked into the lounge. ‘You OK?’

Penny closed the door behind her. ‘She’s a child,’ she spat.

‘Very astute.’

‘And you’re married to her, how is that even legal? Surely someone has to be eighteen to get married. Look at the size of her and look at the size of you. You make me sick.’ She slammed her finger into his hard chest.

Henry couldn’t have looked more shocked if she’d come into his house stark naked dancing the conga. ‘Wait, wait a minute. I’m not married to her.’

‘That doesn’t make it any better.’ Penny realised she was shouting. ‘I thought you were a decent, kind man and now I find you’re nothing more than a disgusting pervert.’

His eyebrows shot up and then immediately slashed down in a furious scowl. ‘Firstly, just because you are my landlady doesn’t mean you have the right to walk into my home any time you feel like it.’ Henry opened the door behind her. ‘Secondly, Daisy isn’t my wife, or my girlfriend, she’s my daughter. Now get out of my house before you see me get really mad.’

P
enny drove
up through the steep, winding lanes as the houses got scarcer on the way up towards her home.

How had she been so stupid? Why hadn’t she asked for more information on the people that were moving into her home? Had she been so desperate for some company that she would have accepted anyone? The agency had never said that it was a father and daughter, they’d just said Henry and Daisy Travis and she had wrongly assumed they were a couple. Maybe they deliberately hadn’t told her because she might have had reservations about a teenager moving in next door, or maybe they just hadn’t thought to pass that kind of information on.

She hadn’t seen Henry all afternoon as she finished her ice carving and not even later when her assistant Josh had come round to help her load it into the van. Daisy had gone out earlier, clearly to explore the town, but although Henry had been in, there had been no sound at all from next door, the silence somehow foreboding.

She had to make it up to him.

It was just starting to get dark, the twilight sky filled with clouds of blueberry and plum.

As she bumped up the tiny dirt track that traversed across the hills towards her home, she saw Daisy walking back towards the house. She stopped and buzzed down the van window.

‘It’s not far, but do you want a lift?’ Penny asked and Daisy climbed in keenly.

‘That hill is steep, eh, I’m sure going to get fit climbing up and down that all day,’ Daisy said, shutting the door behind her.

‘You’ll get used to it.’

‘Dad’s really mad at you, he very rarely gets angry. I mean, he can be grumpy sometimes, but never angry.’

‘I called him a pervert, which would upset the calmest of souls.’

Daisy giggled. ‘I can’t believe you thought we were together. I mean, he’s so old.’

Penny smiled at her. ‘I’m glad you found it funny, I wish Henry could see the funny side.’

‘He will. Come for dinner tonight, he won’t be angry with you when I’m there. I won’t let him.’

‘I really don’t think he wants to see me right now, let alone eat with me.’

‘Come on, what’s the worst that can happen? He can’t possibly be angrier than he is now.’

Penny conceded this as she pulled up next to Henry’s Range Rover.

‘I bought him some flowers,’ she said lamely, as she got out the van, holding the bunch of bright orange and purple blooms aloft.

Daisy laughed. ‘You bought him flowers, that’s hilarious.’

Penny cringed inside – it was a terrible idea, but as he had bought her flowers to apologise the night before she thought he might get a laugh out of her doing the same for him.

Daisy encouraged Penny to follow her to the door and then told her to hold back a second. This was ridiculous, he was going to take one look at her and slam the door in her face.

‘Hi Daddy,’ Daisy sang.

‘I was just about to come looking for you. I said to get home before it’s dark.’

Although Henry was keeping it light, Penny noticed the protectiveness to his voice.

‘That hill took a lot longer to walk up than I thought, besides it’s not dark, it’s twilight, dusk at best. I’ve brought a friend with me, can she stay for dinner?’

‘You’ve made a friend already? Of course she can stay for dinner, where is she?’

‘She’s outside, she’s a bit scared of you,’ Daisy giggled.

‘That’s ridiculous, I don’t bite.’

Penny saw the huge shadow of Henry looming towards the door, then he poked his head out. His face fell when he saw Penny.

‘She’s my friend, and you said she could come for dinner, so you have to let her in,’ Daisy laughed with the confidence of someone who knew she had her dad wrapped round her little finger.

Henry sighed heavily and stepped back to let her in.

‘I, erm, bought you some flowers to apologise.’ Penny proffered the small bouquet.

Henry stared at them in confusion. ‘No one has ever bought me flowers before. That’s normally a woman thing.’

‘Why should it be though, Dad, they don’t come with labels saying for women only,’ Daisy protested. ‘I think it’s a fantastic idea.’

Penny stepped into the warmth of the kitchen, eyeing Daisy who obviously thought the whole thing was hilarious.

Henry took the flowers, holding them like they were an unexploded bomb. He found a pint glass, filled it with water and shoved the stems into the glass, the flowers still wrapped in their plastic.

He turned back to face her, folding his arms across his chest, his eyebrows slashing down across his eyes.

‘I really am very sorry.’

‘You said that.’

Wow, he really wasn’t going to make this easy on her.

‘I’m just going to send an email,’ Daisy said. ‘How long until dinner?’

‘About five minutes,’ Henry said, not taking his eyes off Penny.

Daisy turned from the room and Penny heard her race upstairs.

He stared at her for a moment, the awkward tension hanging over them like a black cloud.

‘It’s OK, I don’t have to stay for dinner. I just wanted to apologise and I’ve done that. I certainly don’t want to make you uncomfortable in your own home. Tell Daisy I’m really sorry I couldn’t stay, but something came up.’

She moved to the door and he didn’t even try to stop her.

She stepped outside, let herself into her own kitchen and switched on all the lights. Bernard popped his head over the arm of the sofa, but seeing it was her and not a burglar he went back to sleep again. Even if she had been a burglar she was pretty sure she’d get the same reaction from him.

She sat down at the kitchen table with her head in her hands. Life was going to be pretty unbearable between them. If there had been a fledgling friendship developing between her and Henry, it was well and truly gone now.

The connecting door suddenly opened and when she looked up Henry was leaning on the door frame.

‘Are you coming for dinner or what?’

Penny stared at him. She knew the tension would be excruciating and she didn’t think she could face it. ‘No, I’m fine, I’m just going to get a sandwich.’

‘Putting up with my grumpy face has surely got to be better than sitting in here on your own. Daisy will talk to you even if I don’t.’

It was hardly the best offer she’d ever had but it didn’t seem there was any room for arguments as he disappeared back into his own home again.

She stood up and followed him in. He was already dishing up three plates of a cheesy tomato pasta bake.

‘Daisy, get your arse down here,’ Henry called, but it was said in good humour and she heard Daisy laughing from upstairs.

Henry put the plate down on the table in front of Penny. ‘Help yourself to salad and garlic bread,’ he said, gruffly. He sat down opposite her and turned his attention to his own dinner, not looking up again. Penny sat at the table and tried to force some pasta down. Really, eating a sandwich on her own was going to be better than this.

Daisy came running into the kitchen and sat between them. She tucked into her pasta and grabbed three slices of garlic bread and was halfway through the first slice when she realised that the atmosphere hanging between Penny and Henry was intense and unbearably awkward.

‘Dad, don’t be an arse,’ Daisy said.

Henry sighed and put down his knife and fork. Penny focussed on her food; there was no way she was going to apologise again.

Suddenly a piece of pasta splatted against the side of Penny’s face, sliding down her chin and landing with a plop against her shirt.

Penny looked up in shock and Daisy burst out laughing. She was surprised to see Henry fighting with a smirk.

‘Don’t ever call me a pervert again.’

‘Did you just throw your pasta at me?’ Penny said, still unable to believe that the evening had taken this bizarre turn.

‘He and his sister do it all the time, you’d wouldn’t believe they were grown adults,’ Daisy said.

Henry shrugged. ‘I think we’re even.’

Penny scooped up a piece of pasta and weighed it in her hand, taunting him.

‘No, don’t you dare,’ Henry laughed.

Penny launched it across the table and it hit Henry in the middle of his forehead. A laugh erupted from Penny’s throat, a huge genuine laugh that she hadn’t heard from herself for a very long time. Another one joined it, followed by a snort.

Henry’s face lit up at hearing it. ‘Did you just snort?’

Penny shook her head, unable to stop laughing, and just to call her a liar another snort escaped.

Henry’s big booming laugh filled the kitchen and he picked up his knife and fork and carried on eating. The atmosphere between them had vanished.

H
enry watched
Penny across the table, tucking into her food with much more enthusiasm than she had been a few minutes before. He was an ass and he shouldn’t have overreacted about her comments that afternoon. It was a perfectly reasonable misunderstanding and he should have just laughed it off.

He really liked having her here. He and Daisy so rarely had company; any women that he dated he normally did so away from his home, wanting to keep that part of his social life separate from his daughter. But this little family dinner with the three of them seemed so right. Penny fitted in with them perfectly. There was something about her that he found he was attracted to that went way beyond her looks. She was fascinating and he could have watched her all night and never got tired of it.

‘So Daisy, you’ll be going to White Cliff Senior School?’ Penny asked.

‘After Christmas,’ Daisy said, over a mouthful of garlic bread.

‘Don’t talk with your mouth full,’ Henry said.

Daisy swallowed. ‘I’m going in for a day to meet people and some of the teachers but I won’t start properly till after Christmas because they won’t have the room for me. One of the kids is leaving so it works out well for me, otherwise I’d have to go to the school in the next town and the bus ride is over an hour. And the art teacher here is fantastic, he’s had work in galleries in London.’

‘Mr Cartwright?’

Daisy’s face lit up. ‘Yes, you know him?’

‘He used to be my teacher too. So you like art?’

‘I love it, just to be able to watch something brought to life with your hands is just wonderful.’

Henry smiled as he watched his daughter come alive as she talked about her passion.

‘Dad said you were an ice carver?’

‘I am.’

Daisy started bombarding Penny with a hundred questions about the process and Henry watched as Penny explained in detail about how she did it. It was clearly a great passion for Penny too. He liked that Penny was talking to Daisy like she was an adult, she wasn’t dumbing down any of the explanations. Most of the women he had been with still spoke to Daisy like a child and she hated that. Lots of people didn’t know how to behave around a teenager, but for Penny, it was the most natural thing in the world. She had behaved the same with Bea in town; there was no singsong voice or cutesy face like Jade.

He finished his dinner and was standing up to take his plate to the sink when there was a knock at the door. He looked up to see Jade outside. He sighed – speak of the devil. She clearly hadn’t gotten the message earlier in the café. She looked like she was about to go on a glamour shoot dressed in a red clingy dress and high heels.

He opened the door and Jade immediately leaned into him, engulfing him in a sickly cloud of perfume. He took a step back and she pouted slightly.

‘Henry, I brought you some dinner. I figured you’d be tired from all the unpacking and I went to The Olive Branch and got you some Italian. I figured we could share it together.’

‘That’s very thoughtful of you, thank you, but I’ve just eaten, though me and Daisy can reheat it tomorrow. We still have a ton of unpacking to do so this will be a huge help.’

He heard Daisy snigger at his polite rebuttal and he tried to suppress a smile.

‘Daisy?’ Jade asked in confusion.

‘My daughter.’ He gestured to the dining table. Jade hadn’t even registered there was anyone else in the room with them. He didn’t know whether to be flattered by that or annoyed that she hadn’t even acknowledged Penny and Daisy.

Jade looked over and Daisy smiled with pasta hanging out of her mouth. Henry scowled at Daisy’s rudeness but had to keep the laughter that bubbled in his throat under control.

‘Oh, she’s so cute.’

She still hadn’t acknowledged Penny, which annoyed him and he didn’t know why.

‘Penny, do you like Italian?’ Henry called over to her. ‘Looks like Jade has brought a ton of food here, you can come and share it with me and Daisy tomorrow.’

Penny nodded in confusion. She’d gone very quiet again, scuttling back inside her shell just as she was starting to come out of it.

Jade laughed nervously at the new cosy arrangement that Henry had created with Penny.

‘I hope you are settling in OK, is there anything I can do to help?’ Jade said, curling her hair around her finger, leaving him with no doubt as to how Jade would like to help him settle in.

‘Well, actually there is. Me and Penny are going out on a date on Tuesday, would you be able to babysit Daisy for me?’

Daisy choked on her pasta. It had been a long time since he’d needed a babysitter for her. He glanced over at Penny who was looking like a rabbit in the headlights.

‘I’d normally ask my sister but she’s busy with the new baby so could you do it, Jade? I know how much you love children.’

Jade’s sultry smile slipped from her face. ‘You’re going out with Penny?’

She said it with such disgust that he felt anger slam through him at her reaction. He bit back the retort he wanted to make. It had been kind of Jade to bring him dinner even if she had an ulterior motive.

‘Yes, we just hit it off the moment we met. It would be so kind if you could babysit?’

‘I, erm… I’m busy that day.’

‘Ah, that’s too bad, I’m sure we can find someone. Thanks for this, did you want to come in and share dessert with us all? We have Funny Feet ice lollies or I think we might have a Magnum or two at the bottom of the freezer.’ Henry moved to the fridge, knowing Jade would be the last person in the world to sit down at the table with Daisy and Penny and suck on a Magnum.