Just before Christmas it was decided that Hattie and Ernie would join the girls for Christmas dinner at the café. It would be easier for them all to eat in there because of the seating and soon Colleen was busily baking mince pies. She also had a Christmas pudding soaking in brandy and was determined to do them all a traditional Christmas dinner.
‘I’ve ordered us a nice fat goose from t’e butchers,’ she told them the day before Christmas Eve. ‘And I’ve to pick it up tomorrow. But I’ll not be volunteering to pluck it though, ugh!’
Hattie frowned. ‘But what can I bring? I don’t want to leave everything to you girls.’
‘Just bring yourselves,’ Flora told her with a warm smile. ‘We don’t know what we would have done without you and Ernie these last months. Giving you Christmas dinner is the least we can do.’
But Hattie wasn’t happy. ‘In that case if you don’t want me to cook anything I’ll bring us a couple of nice bottles of wine.’
Later that evening as Flora cleaned the café, she couldn’t help but feel sad. This would be the first Christmas she had ever spent away from her family and her thoughts flew back to Christmas Eve the year before when Jamie had presented her with a little silver locket before leaving London on Christmas Eve to spend Christmas Day with his family back in Nuneaton. Sadly, it had been lost when the Titanic went down and now she bitterly regretted that she hadn’t worn it all the time. She pictured her little brother Timmy, creeping downstairs in the early hours of the morning to peep beneath the tree and into the stocking his mother would have hung on the mantelshelf to see what Santa had left for him and her eyes welled with tears. She wondered who would find the shiny silver sixpence her mother always hid in the Christmas pudding. Her hands became still as she leaned on the table she had been wiping and let her thoughts drift further back to Christmases gone by.
She started when a voice suddenly asked, ‘Why you so sad, Flora?’
‘Oh! … Jia Li, I didn’t see you there.’ Flora smiled apologetically. ‘I was just thinking about my family. I’ve never been away from them at Christmas before and I suppose I’m feeling a little homesick.’
Jia Li frowned as she sat down and stared at her friend thoughtfully.
‘Perhaps it time you go to see them?’ she suggested but Flora shook her head. Despite what her mother had told her in her letter she was still afraid of what repercussions she might face for impersonating Connie.
‘No.’ Her voice was weighed with sadness. ‘I have to make my life here now.’
‘And if that what you decide it will be good life,’ Jia Li pointed out as she spread her hands to encompass the thriving little business that Flora had created. Only that week Flora had put a large amount of money away towards buying the café … and yet she found no joy in her achievement. Her biggest concern had been that once the bad weather set in her customers might dwindle but it had been quite the opposite.
It seemed that the inclement weather made people more determined than ever to come in for a warm drink and every night now it was all they could all do to keep up with the demands for Hattie’s delicious chicken casseroles and stews and Jia Li’s mouthwatering curries. Women from the surrounding factories and warehouses poured in each evening with dishes big enough to feed their families, to the point that Flora was seriously considering taking on yet another member of staff to help them keep up with demand.
Flora looked over at Jia Li. Her friend’s eyes were sparkling and it pushed the gloomy thoughts from her mind. It was good to see her looking so content and she had a feeling that things would go well for her now, she certainly deserved them to. She just wished she could say the same for Colleen who was clearly still smarting over her break with her boyfriend. She put a brave face on things, but Flora had come upon her softly crying the other day and she wished she could take her pain away. But only time would do that and for now, they had Christmas to look forward to and she was determined that she would make the best of it.
The following day was Christmas Eve and Flora had decided that the café would not open again until the day after Boxing Day. Colleen went out to collect the goose and she also brought home a Christmas tree that Bai planted in a sturdy bucket of earth for them. It was given pride of place in the corner of the café and when they weren’t preparing the Christmas dinner Colleen and Jia Li spent every spare minute cutting out colourful crepe paper so they could adorn it with little streamers. In the meantime, Bai plucked the fat goose while Hattie set to making her secret stuffing recipe and Colleen cooked yet another batch of mince pies and prepared the vegetables.
They had all bought each other small gifts and before they went to bed on Christmas Eve they placed them beneath the tree ready for opening on Christmas morning. It had started to snow heavily during the afternoon and that evening as Flora peeped out of the window she was shocked to see how deep it already was. Everywhere looked sparkling clean as if some great unseen hand had painted the world white. The dusty, dirty streets were transformed but despite how pretty it looked Flora just hoped that Hattie and Ernie would be able to get there the next day.
She woke up the next morning to an eerie grey light and crossing to the window she drew aside the curtains to find the inside of the window frosted over with a lacy pattern. Breathing on a small corner of the glass she rubbed at it with the sleeve of her nightgown until a small part of it had melted, then she peered through it to the street below. The snow was still falling with no sign of stopping and lay crisp and deep on the strangely quiet streets. Usually the sounds that echoed from the docks and the tramp of people’s feet as they made their way to work woke her each morning but today she could have been the only person left on the earth.
A little bubble of excitement began to grow in her stomach as she dragged her dressing gown on and went to bang on Colleen’s bedroom door.
‘Come on, sleepyhead. It’s Christmas Day and if you don’t get up now you won’t have time for a cup of tea before you have to go to church.’
Colleen had told her the evening before that she wanted to attend mass the following morning but she was concerned about leaving everyone else to cook the Christmas dinner.
‘Don’t be silly,’ Flora had told her with a broad grin. ‘Everything’s prepared so we’ve only got to pop it into the oven. You go, we’ll be fine.’
Colleen and Flora made their way downstairs and Flora put the kettle on the hob.
‘Do you think you’ll be able to get to church through this lot?’ Flora asked dubiously as she peered through the window.
Colleen laughed. ‘Sure I will.’ The kettle began to sing on the hob then and she hurried over to warm the stout brown earthenware teapot before she made the tea. Soon after, all done up in her Sunday best, Colleen set off, leaving Flora to get ready at her leisure.
By the time Hattie and Ernie arrived and Colleen had returned from church, Jai Li and Flora had the meal cooking and the café was filled with the delicious smell of roasting goose, so they all sat down to open their gifts. Outside the snow continued to fall but inside all was warm and cosy and the room was filled with laughter. And if Colleen and Flora were thinking of their families far away they hid it well. Christmas dinner was a jovial affair, and when they’d all eaten as much as they could, they sat back, happy and replete.
‘Oh, I think I not eat again for a hundred years,’ Bai groaned as he clutched his full stomach.
Jia Li giggled as she stared at her husband adoringly. ‘It serve you right, you eat too much,’ she teased and Bai couldn’t argue with that, but it had been so tasty that he’d had second helpings of almost everything.
At that point, Ernie brought out his mouth organ and played Christmas carols while they all sang along.
‘I’d like to raish a toast,’ Hattie slurred some time later. She’d had rather too many glasses of wine and was feeling quite merry. ‘To the newlywedsh! May this be the firsht of many happy Chrishmashes they spend together.’
Everyone raised their glasses and as Flora looked around at their smiling faces she thought how lucky she was that fate had brought them all together. Part of her was still far away with those she loved in England but the people gathered in this room had come to mean a great deal to her too.
‘What shall we do for the New Year?’ Colleen asked the next day. She and Flora were curled up at either end of their sofa in front of a roaring fire. Outside the snow was still falling but they felt safe and warm. ‘I thought we might go to see a show or something?’
Flora instantly felt nervous. She still never liked to venture far for fear of bumping into Alex or Toby.
‘Oh, I shall be quite happy to just spend it quietly here, but you could go out,’ she answered.
‘But that wouldn’t be much fun on me own, now, would it? You know what they say, Flora, all work and no play makes Jack a dull boy!’ But then seeing the nervous look on her face, she said quickly, ‘But I dare say there are t’ings we could do here. We could have a game o’ cards, if you like. I promised to teach you how to play patience, did I not?’
‘You did,’ Flora agreed.
And so, once the last of the customers had left the café on New Year’s Eve, Flora and Colleen stayed safely within their own four walls to see the New Year in, each hoping that it would be a good one for all of them.
As the clock chimed midnight, Flora closed her eyes tight and wished that sometime soon she might be reunited with Jamie and her family, although she feared deep down that there was very little chance of the wish ever coming true. But still, it didn’t hurt to dream!