What Happens At Christmas... (28 page)

‘There's probably a perfectly obvious explanation like, for instance, maybe he's got stuck in the snow. Have you looked outside recently?' Holly followed her over to the window and was quite stunned at the depth of snow that had fallen in the space of a couple of hours. And it was still falling, covering everything in the garden. The meticulously-trimmed box hedges now resembled huge snowballs and the fountain a giant pyramid. Julia pointed. ‘See. He probably left it late setting off from the coast and got caught up in all this.' She gave Holly an encouraging smile. ‘Just as well his thermostat setting's different from ours. I wouldn't want to be caught in a snowdrift.' Then she had an idea. ‘He's probably been texting you. Did you bring your phone?'

Holly shook her head. She had realised that some time ago. Her phone was lying on the kitchen table in the sparkly clutch bag she had been going to bring with her, but had forgotten.

A bit later on, Holly got a boost to her morale. As she stood, staring out of the window at the relentless snowfall, increasingly concerned for Jack, a hand landed on her arm. It was Justin and he looked as if a mighty weight had been removed from his shoulders. He drew Holly away into a quiet corner and gave her the good news. ‘Holly, it's wonderful. I've just spent a couple of hours talking to Amanda and we're going to give it another go. I just wanted to give you the good news.'

At that moment, Holly spotted Howard. He was at the dining room door, searching the room for somebody. His eyes landed on her and he hurried across to where she and Justin were standing. As he approached them, they could both see the expression on his face. He looked appalled.

‘What is it, Howard?' An ice cold shaft of premonition flashed through her.

‘What's wrong, Howard? What's happened?'

The old man caught her arm and sat her down on a sofa with her. Holly saw Julia approaching, uncertainty on her face. Howard, looking more serious than she had ever seen him, cleared his throat.

‘Listen, Holly, it may be nothing. It may still be all right. It's just that I was in my apartment, having a little rest, and the local news was on the TV.' He paused, trying to find the right form of words. ‘I'm afraid there's been a fatality at a surfing competition up at Saunton. A man in his thirties was caught by a freak wave and smashed into the rocks. Others did their best to help him, but by the time the emergency services got there, he was pronounced dead at the scene. They aren't releasing his name until next of kin have been informed.'

Holly felt as if she had been stabbed with a huge frozen icicle right through her stomach. So the sense of premonition she had been feeling had been right. She raised her eyes from her hands and stared out of the window, into the snowstorm. She didn't trust her voice so she bit her lip and did her best to keep control, but she could feel an involuntary shiver spread all over her. She was vaguely aware of Julia sitting down on the other side of her, catching hold of her hand. Howard took her by the arms and gently forced her to turn towards him.

‘Listen, Holly, we don't know it's Jack. It might be some other poor soul. There were probably loads of men in their thirties up there today. It isn't necessarily him. Do you understand, Holly?'

She nodded, recognising what he was trying to do and grateful to him for doing it. She cleared her throat. ‘It's just that he was expected here two hours ago. There's no sign of him, there's been no word. I'm afraid it's him, I'm so terribly afraid he's dead.' And, as she said that word, her eyes began to sting. Julia hugged her tighter and Holly rested against her shoulder, biting her lip, desperately trying not to burst into tears. She stayed like that for some time before Howard's voice roused her.

‘Holly, come with me. We can all go into my apartment. Come along. You'll be more comfortable there.' Justin and Howard raised her from the sofa and she found herself herded through a crowd of curious faces out into the lobby and from there into Howard's lounge. The fire was glowing and it was very warm in there, but Holly was still shivering. Julia sat down on one side of her and the old man sat down on the other. He reached up with his hand and gently caught hold of her chin, pulling her round to face him.

‘Holly, Geoffrey's been checking the internet for more news.' Holly looked up and glimpsed the chauffeur standing in the background. ‘There's quite a lot more detail coming through now. They still haven't named him, but they're saying he was a local man. Do you hear me, Holly?' His voice was sharper and she nodded automatically. ‘Jack lives well over an hour from there. That's not local. You'll see. He'll be all right. Now, we need to warm you up. Would you like a cup of tea, or a glass of cognac?'

Holly shook her head and sat upright. Howard's words had helped. Of course there was still a chance Jack might be all right, wherever he had got to. She turned to one side and saw Julia there, both hands still clutching her arm. Holly cleared her throat. ‘It's all right Jules, everybody, I'm all right now. I'm sorry if I caused a scene.' She turned back towards Howard and took a deep breath. ‘You're right, Howard. He may still be all right.' She ran a hand across her forehead, suddenly feeling very, very tired. She looked up. ‘I think the best thing would be for me to go home now, if you don't mind. My phone's at home and there might be a message on it for me. I don't suppose somebody could give me a lift.'

Justin's face appeared in front of her, Amanda alongside him. ‘We'll take you; we were just going. Come along with us and we'll get you home.'

Holly shook off the supporting hands and stood up unaided. She took a few more deep breaths. ‘Thank you all so very much. I'm terribly sorry for getting so emotional. It was just the shock, the surprise. I'm all right now. Howard, thank you very much indeed for inviting me to the party. I hope I haven't ruined it for you.'

‘Of course you haven't ruined anything. Don't be silly. Now, if I hear anything, I'll call you, and you do the same for me. All right?'

Holly nodded wearily. Justin and Amanda led her out into the lobby. Julia arrived with their coats and helped Holly into hers. Once she was buttoned into it, Holly caught hold of Howard and kissed him warmly on the cheeks. He hugged her tightly in return.

‘It'll be all right, Holly. You'll see.'

Justin had brought his car right to the bottom of the steps and had left it with the engine running. Inside it was warm and comfortable and Holly did her best to sit up straight in the back seat alongside Julia. She leant forward as Justin turned the car round in the deep snow and attempted normal conversation, but it wasn't easy. ‘I'm so delighted you two have been talking. It'll all work out, you'll see.' Amanda turned her head round and smiled at her.

The big car gripped reassuringly well, crunching through the snow as they drove back to Brookford. Under other circumstances, it would have been a delightful scene as they reached the village, the trees all covered with a canopy of snow and the Christmas lights on the church reflecting in the snowflakes as they fell, turning them all the colours of the spectrum as the crystals caught the lights. They drove down past the green and turned into the little lane in front of Brook Cottage. Holly looked out through the car windows as they approached. She had left the light on in the kitchen for Stirling and the glow through the curtains turned the snow-covered bushes in the front garden a ghostly green. As the car came to a halt, it gradually dawned upon her that the lights were also on in the house next door; Jack's house.

‘Holly, were Jack's lights on when we left?' Julia had noticed as well. Holly couldn't speak a word. She shook her head. Jack's house had been in darkness earlier on. Did this mean..? Acting on sheer instinct, she unclipped her seat belt and opened the car door. She stepped out into six inches of snow and her feet disappeared from sight. She didn't care. She set off at an ungainly run for his gate in her heels, reached it and hurried up the path to his front door. As she was running she could hear herself repeating over and over again. ‘Please make it be him. Please make it be him.' Just as she reached his doorstep, her left heel caught in something and she went flying, landing with a thump against the old wooden door, banging her elbow on the ground and her cheek on the door. She was struggling to get back up so as to reach the doorbell when the door opened and she saw his face. It was him and he was all right. She sank back into the snow, a wave of overwhelming relief washing away whatever self control she had been able to establish.

As he bent down towards her, all she could say was, ‘you aren't dead,' over and over again.

‘We could see what was happening from the beach. It was late afternoon and the competition had finished about half an hour earlier. Most of us had changed out of our wetsuits and were standing around on the beach, waiting for the prize-giving.' Jack looked across at Holly with a little smile. ‘I won twenty-five quid. First place veteran, that's me.' She did her best to smile in return, the bag of frozen peas against her left eye becoming increasingly uncomfortable.

Julia came over from the stove with a mug of hot chocolate and set it down on the table in front of her. Jack's tone became more serious. ‘The guy was over to the east side of the beach, right by the rocks. He wasn't part of our competition, but we'd all been watching him, wondering what on earth he was doing there. The waves were getting really big by this time and increasingly messy. A couple of the organisers of our event were even gesturing at him to come in, when a really massive wave came along. You get them from time to time; twice the height of the other waves and, if you aren't looking out, they can be dangerous. The guy was picked up like a cork, his board thrown into the air and then he was smashed head first into the rocks.' He reached for his hot chocolate and gave Julia a grateful look. She sat down beside Holly, looking across the table at Jack.

‘So how come your phone ended up in the sea?'

Jack smiled apologetically. ‘Because it was in my pocket when I went in to try and help. A couple of us started to swim out, but we were barely waist deep when first his board and then his body were spat right out of the waves at us. Mikey, the guy with me, was gashed across the forehead by the fin, but I was all right. Apart from my phone, that is.'

‘You mean you went into the sea just in your ordinary clothes?' Julia was appalled.

Jack smiled. ‘And then had to drive home in them.' He turned towards Holly. ‘I might need to get that thermostat of mine recalibrated. The drive home took almost three hours as I kept getting held up by numpties sliding all over the roads. I even had to drive through a field at one point to get past a jam. Anyway, I was frozen stiff by the time I got back here. First thing I did when I got home was to change out of my wet gear. I wanted to phone you, Holly, to tell you I wouldn't be coming to the ball, but your mobile number was on my phone and it's kaput. I didn't realise at that stage that news of the accident had been on the TV. I phoned the Castle and spoke to Howard only about thirty seconds before you head-butted my door.'

Holly put the bag of peas down on the table and shrugged the blanket off her shoulders. The cocoa, the wood-burner and the news that Jack was still alive had finally stopped the shivering and she had started to warm up again. She caught his eye.

‘I'm glad Howard knows the good news. He was very worried, like we all were. But that sounds like an incredibly brave thing to do. You could have drowned.'

‘Or caught your death of cold.' Julia still sounded appalled.

‘It wasn't brave, Holly, it was instinct. I just did it. Brave is when you're terrified and you do it all the same. It was bloody cold though, I'll give you that. Anyway, the reason I was so late was that when we came out of the water, Mikey had lost a lot of blood, so I volunteered to ride in the ambulance with him to Barnstaple Hospital.' He drank some more of the hot cocoa. ‘Once he'd been given some stitches, we then had to wait ages for transport to get us back to our cars and by that time the snow was piling up and the roads were a mess. Hence the fact that I didn't get back here till quite recently.'

He raised his head and looked around. Holly followed his gaze. Justin and Amanda were getting ready to leave now. Stirling was sitting at Holly's feet, his head resting on her lap, very concerned by what had happened. From the moment Jack had half-carried her in, the dog had been at her side. If Holly had needed any further proof that she and the dog were now an item, this was it. She dropped one hand down to stroke his head. Her own head was clearing now and the bruised area didn't even ache too badly. She glanced out of the window and saw the snow still coming down heavily. Greta was invisible under at least a foot of snow. She looked across at Julia.

‘Somehow I think you'll be having Christmas lunch here with us tomorrow, Jules.' Julia nodded.

‘That sounds like a lot of fun, especially if we can build a snowman first.' She looked at the clock. ‘Eleven-fifteen. I'll ring my parents in a minute. They'll still be up, I expect. Anyway, they won't mind.'

Holly looked across the room to the door. Justin already had his hand on the handle. ‘Amanda, Justin, will you two come here for lunch with us tomorrow?' She caught Jack's eye before repeating the invitation. ‘We'd both be really pleased if you would. And we've got loads and loads of food.'

Amanda and Justin exchanged glances. He answered for both of them. ‘We'd love to. That would be super. Thanks.' He smiled across the room. ‘Holly, Jack, I'm delighted everything's all right after all. See you tomorrow.'

After they had left, Jack looked across the table to Holly. ‘Looks like you won your bet about those two getting back together. Impressive. I won't ask how it happened, but I'd bet big bucks you had a hand in it. Maybe there's a whole new career path opening up for you. How's the head?'