Travis had barely a second to recover. Instinctively, he knew that he mustn’t act surprised or shocked – or even interested, because that’s what this man wanted. He wanted to provoke a reaction and he’d deliberately tried to distract Travis by mentioning the hare photo.
‘No … she didn’t,’ he said, trying to affect a mildly interested – but only out of politeness – tone. Inside, his guts had tightened and his mind was in turmoil. Bloody Jos had him in his sights like an eagle spotting the hare and preparing to swoop.
Jos raised his eyebrows. ‘Funny. I thought she would have.’
Travis shrugged. ‘Why would she? I haven’t had any contact with her since I went to college.’
‘Really? I thought you might at least have emailed each other or something.’
‘No.’ Travis hesitated but couldn’t help himself. ‘When was this?’ he said as casually as he could. ‘You and Freya getting married?’
‘Oh, a little while ago,’ Jos said. ‘Last summer.’
‘Last summer?’ he exclaimed. That was recent history in Travis’s book.
‘Yes. Eighteen months ago. It was scheduled for June the twenty-first.’
‘And it’s all … over now?’ Travis said.
‘I think that’s pretty obvious,’ Jos replied stonily.
‘Well, I’m sorry you split up, mate.’
‘Don’t be sorry, I’m glad it’s over and as for us “splitting up,” that sounds like it was a joint decision and it wasn’t. Freya broke off our engagement two weeks before the wedding.’
‘Two weeks?’ Travis’s exclamation echoed around the shop but it was too late to pretend he wasn’t interested now. The genie was out of the bottle.
‘Yes, obviously everything was booked. Cars, flowers, the church and the venue, of course. We’d chosen the Lakeside Hotel.’ Jos smirked. ‘Only the best.’
‘The Lakeside?’ Travis echoed ‘And Freya called it off?’
‘Yes. Rather late in the day, I think you’d agree. The wedding insurance wouldn’t pay out, of course, not for the bride getting cold feet. To be fair, Freya did offer to use her life savings to pay for it but I refused. I’m not that petty and of course, I was in a better position to take the hit than Freya and her mother,’ he added, ‘with the new branches and all.’
‘Wow …’ Travis muttered, though he didn’t care if Jos had branches on Mars and Uranus; it was the fact Freya had called off their wedding that had left him dumbstruck.
There was a silence during which Jos was staring at him, unnerving him.
‘You haven’t asked me why,’ Jos said.
‘No, I, um … didn’t think it was any of my business.’ What else could Travis say, though he had his own theory why Freya and Jos should not have married. Personally, he thought the man was arrogant and self-important, but Travis was also self-aware enough to realise that his own prejudices against Jos might – had – affected his view.
‘I can tell you’re pretending you’re not interested,’ Jos said coolly. ‘Though I suspect you are.’ He was clearly in the mood to offload, and perhaps had been in that mood since the day Freya had told him the wedding was off.
‘I don’t need to hear more—’
Jos cut him off. ‘She never really gave me a reason,’ he said, curling his lip. ‘Just some guff about not being able to offer the commitment a lifelong relationship deserved.’ He scoffed. ‘Told me I’d be grateful to her one day. Well, I must admit that made it worse – for a little while, but she was right …’ He sniffed. ‘Who wants to be saddled with a partner who isn’t prepared to give you the love and respect you deserve?’
Though stunned, Travis didn’t like his tone. ‘She must have had a good reason,’ he said, gruffly, determined not to criticise Freya in any way.
‘Yeah. Well, like I said, she’s done me a favour. And anyway …’ Jos declared. ‘You know how it feels, eh? She left you at the altar.’
‘We were eight,’ Travis said coldly. ‘It wasn’t a real wedding.’
‘Sign of things to come, though, eh?’
Jos laughed but Travis stayed stony-faced. He didn’t think the analogy was funny or fair at all, and he was furious at Jos’s nastiness towards Freya.
‘I’m sorry you feel so bitter,’ he said.
‘Bitter?’ Jos snorted in derision. ‘You’re joking, aren’t you? I’m relieved. Far better to take the hit of the cancelled wedding than end up with a messy divorce a few years down the line with kids involved.’ He rolled his eyes. ‘I probably saved myself money in the long run.’
Never had Travis seen a man with less self-awareness than Jos Beresford. Far from being over Freya, the man radiated resentment and hostility. Unease ripped through him: she’d felt enough for Jos to agree to marry him, just as she had for him. Yet he considered himself poles apart from Jos Beresford. That disturbed him.
‘I just thought I’d warn you,’ Jos said, with a sneer. ‘You know, I don’t think Freya is capable of truly loving anyone.’
The words flew like an arrow into Travis’s heart. Even so, he wasn’t going to let Jos get the slightest hint that his words had hit home and wounded.
‘I don’t need warning about Freya or anyone, thanks,’ he snapped. ‘And thanks for calling to wish me well,’ he added, his words laden with sarcasm, ‘but I have to get on.’
Travis moved forward, corralling Jos by the door. ‘You’re right, I should go. I probably shouldn’t have wasted my time even telling you. Freya has taken up enough of my time for a lifetime. Good luck today. I expect I’ll see you later at the lights switch-on.’
To Travis’s relief, he caught a glimpse of a tweed cap appear in the doorway of the gallery. ‘I think Brian’s looking for you!’ he declared, waving madly at the bemused Brian. ‘Yeah. Bloody hell, it’s almost time to open.’
With that, Jos was gone, leaving Travis reeling in the gallery, thoughts spilling over into a whirlpool of regrets and questions. Should he ask her why she’d split up with Jos? Get her side of the story?
Wasn’t that between her and Jos alone, even if Jos had tried to make it his business?
Couples broke off engagements all the time. Some people broke them off twice.
Jos was everything Travis wasn’t – or hadn’t been. Well to do, good family, good school, committed to staying in Bannerdale – committed to Freya. OK, he was a pompous prat, but she must have felt enough to get engaged to the man and take things all the way to the wire.
Even so, Jos’s cruel words clanged in his mind like church bells ringing out of control.
I don’t think Freya is capable of truly loving anyone.
That was bullshit, wasn’t it? The opinion of a bitter ex who was trying to wound a rival any way he could.
Damn. He was as obsessed with Freya as Jos still was.
Snatching up a box of leaflets, he marched outside, trying to paste a smile on his face in case customers were around. Although it was frosty, the sun was bright and people were already milling around the stalls. His nose twitched as the aroma of cinnamon lattes and freshly baked gingerbread wafted past – the fair was well and truly open and he’d never get a second chance to make a first impression.
While arranging the leaflets on a small table outside the gallery, Freya walked up the street towards him, smiling.
‘Just thought I’d bring you this.’ She held up a bottle bag. With her cheeks pink from the cold, and bright eyes, she looked more gorgeous than ever but Travis couldn’t stop thinking about Jos. How well did he actually know her if she’d been engaged to someone like Jos: stuffy, pompous and obsessed with money – the opposite to the way Travis thought about himself?
‘I didn’t expect anything,’ he said, trying to cover his disturbing thoughts. ‘But thank you. Come in.’
‘Only for a moment, I’m on the way to our stall.’
Inside, she handed over a card and a bottle of fizz. ‘Congratulations.’ Unlike the electrician, however, there was no warm hug or kiss on the cheek.
‘Thanks,’ he said, forcing a smile to his face. ‘I, um … appreciate it.’
‘No problem. I suggest you have it later rather than now though.’
‘I will … it’s, um, kind of you.’
‘Kind?’ Her brow wrinkled in puzzlement at his formal words. ‘It’s the least I can do, for a fellow trader.’ Her eyes shone and hinted that perhaps she wished they were much more than that.
He didn’t know how to react and he was angry at Jos and angry at himself for letting the man make him question everything he thought he knew about Freya and sour his thinking about her. It was stupid of him to be influenced but he couldn’t simply ignore what he’d heard or the way it made him feel.
‘Oh, you have customers.’ She turned to see a middle-aged couple peering through the door, deciding whether to venture inside.
He swore softly then put on his cheery customer face. ‘Do I? So soon? Bree’s not even here.’
‘Then you’d better go on the charm offensive.’
Freya marched over and opened the door. ‘Morning,’ she said as the woman clutched a leaflet.
‘Is he open?’ the man asked.
‘Oh yes,’ Freya said. ‘Why don’t you be his first customers?’
‘First ever?’ the woman said, delightedly.
‘Yes.’
‘In that case, we must come in. We absolutely love his pictures. He’s so talented …’
As they gushed, Travis could only glimpse Freya’s back as she hurried out of his doorway, the pompom on her hat bobbing. He was as poleaxed by her as he’d ever been in his youth, touched by her kindness yet nonplussed by Jos’s disclosures.
Moments after he’d sold his first prints to the couple, Bree arrived, and in no time, the gallery began to fill up with curious locals, tourists and photo nerds. Travis had no choice but to set aside the explosive revelations.
‘I am totally knackered,’ Bree declared, flopping down in the chair in the kitchenette at lunchtime. ‘Why did I let myself be talked into this?’
Travis sipped from his water bottle, parched and hoarse after a madcap morning of chatting and smiling until his jaw ached. He’d spent the morning talking cameras, signing up people for courses and selling gift vouchers for new ones in the New Year. He’d only been outside once, dashing to fetch Cumberland hot dogs from the nearest food stand.
‘Have yourself a merry little Christmas …’
‘I love this one!’ Bree declared as the Ralph Blane classic started up again from the speakers. She took the hot dog from Travis and licked the ketchup from the end. ‘Bliss. Lunch I haven’t had to make. Thanks.’
‘Least I could do.’ He leaned against the counter, tucking into his own hot dog. ‘It won’t be like this every weekend, I promise. It’s just the novelty of me being here and the Christmas rush. You’ll probably be bored sick once January comes.’
‘I don’t think so. There’ll be framing and the admin to do.’
‘Having second thoughts?’ he said.
She laughed. ‘No. Even though I’m knackered, I’m enjoying it. It’s so lovely not to have to talk about nappy rash and kids’ TV – and actually, I like enthusing about where I live. People love your work, Trav. I’m quite enjoying basking in your limelight of a celebrity photographer.’
Travis rolled his eyes, embarrassed. ‘I’m not a celebrity, I’m not even well known.’
‘You could have fooled me. At least a dozen people have said they adore your work and have seen it in wildlife and photography magazines.’
‘There’s always some diehards. I’ve seen three people who’ve been on my courses before. They all signed up for more. I even got a booking for the Iceland tour.’
‘I gave out a ton of leaflets and we’ve sold quite a bit of stock.’
Ping
The shop bell rang.
Bree was halfway down her hot dog and chewed furiously.
‘Don’t rush,’ Travis ordered. ‘Finish your lunch. I’ll go. I recognise the woman. She’s been on some of my other courses.’
Travis showed the lady in, resigning himself to a cold hot dog. While she signed up to his Landscapes of the Lakes trip, Bree came back out to serve an elderly man wanting to buy a large canvas of his favourite scene as a Christmas present for his wife.
‘I asked her to marry me up there,’ he said wistfully, while Bree arranged for the print to be sent to his home.
‘That’s romantic,’ Bree said.
‘Not really. She turned me down.’ The old guy grinned. ‘I asked her again a few months later while we were queuing for some chips and she accepted. This will make her laugh. She can’t claim I didn’t try to be romantic the first time.’
The afternoon went by in a flash. Every time Travis tried to grab a moment to go outside, in the hope of seeing Freya, he was pinned down in the gallery.
The sun had sunk and dusk was falling, and the torrent of customers slowed to a trickle. Bree wandered over to the kitchen to make a coffee and came back with two mugs and a raised eyebrow. ‘I see Freya dropped by before I came.’
‘Yes, she brought a good luck card.’
‘And the bottle of fizz with the tag marked “Best wishes, F”?’
‘Maybe.’ He waited a few seconds before his next comment, knowing it could lead to more questions from his sister that he wasn’t prepared to answer.
‘You might have told me she’d been engaged to Jos Beresford.’
Bree paused, the stack of cards in her hands. ‘Why would you even want to know?’
Travis looked at her. ‘Touché.’
‘You showed no interest in her whatsoever when you left. You never asked about her or looked her up on your rare visits so I assumed you’d moved on long ago.’
‘I have moved on.’
‘Then why would you care that she’d been engaged to Jos?’ Bree scrutinised him. ‘Did she tell you?’
‘No, he did. He said she broke it off two weeks before the wedding.’
‘That’s true … but I’ve never spoken to Freya about it, or any of her mates. I’m older than her so we were hardly likely to be friends at school, and nowadays I don’t have anything to do with her other than to say “hello” if we happen to bump into each other in the shops or out walking.’
Travis wondered if there was a slight edge to Bree’s tone. ‘OK. It’s fine. Forget I asked. It doesn’t matter, anyway.’
Bree had abandoned the card stacking and fixed him with the kind of steely gaze that used to spell trouble when he was younger.
‘I saw how hurt you were when you and Freya split up and I know that was what made you take off.’
‘It wasn’t only her,’ Travis said curtly. ‘It was a long time ago.’
‘Exactly. You were kids and I don’t hold anything against Freya now. She seems a nice enough person and she’s done well for herself.’ Bree gave him the laser eye. ‘I take it that you are still interested in her now, though?’
‘No. As a matter of fact, I’m not. We probably wouldn’t have crossed each other’s paths if she hadn’t been at the cabin when I arrived, or at the traders’ meeting.’
‘Or pulled the electrician and roofer off other jobs to help you?’
He tried to laugh. ‘She didn’t as far as I’m aware. How do you know that?’
‘Araya told me.’
‘Jesus, this place …’ he muttered. Bree was hitting very close to home and she didn’t even know Freya had spent two nights helping him.
‘It’s a small town. You did grow up here so you know what it’s like,’ Bree said. ‘As long as you’re OK with the situation. I don’t want you to get hurt again.’
‘I don’t intend to,’ he muttered, which wasn’t the same as ‘I won’t’.
A loudspeaker blared out and Travis seized the opportunity to end the conversation. ‘Come on, let’s close for a few minutes so we can see the switch-on. Customers will all be watching it too.’
‘Yes, I’d love to, maybe I can find Gav and the kids. They must be somewhere.’
After locking up, he followed Bree into the street, though it was difficult to make their way to the market square where hundreds of locals and tourists were crowded in front of the stage area. Under clear skies, the late afternoon had turned bitingly cold and everyone was bundled up in padded coats and woolly gloves which lent a very festive atmosphere. Some folk were gathered around a glowing brazier roasting hot chestnuts or clutching steaming cups of mulled wine.
Small children shrieked with excitement from a traditional carousel. Was that Dylan waving from one of the toy cars? He wasn’t sure but had a misty memory of riding in one himself, turning the wheel like a racing driver … He must have been barely older than Dylan was now.
With the carousel organ blending with the carols, Travis was transported back in time. The lights might be eco-friendly LEDs but that was about the only change from his youth. He remembered wandering through town with his arm around Freya’s back, excited because he’d saved up enough to buy her a ring from the catalogue store.
That evening, in her room, while her mother was out, he’d proposed and the next day she’d given him the ring back – he’d been so stunned by her change of heart, that he’d refused to take it.
‘There they are!’ Bree said, waving in excitement as she spotted Gav and the children. ‘Looks like they’ve been to the doughnut stall – and I told him not to let them have too much sugary stuff!’
Travis hid a smile and followed his sister to join the rest of the family. Rosie looked impossibly cute in a reindeer hat. Bree took her and planted a kiss on her rosy cheeks.
Dylan held up a half-eaten doughnut in his sugary fingers. ‘Don’t want any more, Unca Tardis,’ he said.
Gav laughed. ‘Uncle Travis might not want it.’
‘Oh, I do,’ he said. ‘Haven’t had these for years.’
Dylan giggled as Travis popped the rest of the doughnut in his mouth and made exaggerated sighs of ecstasy while he chewed it, much to Dylan’s delight.
‘Mmm. Delicious,’ he said when he’d swallowed it.
Dylan was laughing hysterically and Rosie squealing with excitement at a balloon vendor when there were crackles from the stage microphone. The piped music ceased and faces turned towards the stage, a hush of expectation descending on the crowd.
Wearing a Santa hat and a suit, Jos was holding the microphone and in earnest conversation with Brian and a woman Travis didn’t recognise.
‘Jos looks as jolly as constipated bulldog,’ Bree whispered in Travis’s ear. ‘I don’t think festivity suits him.’
He smiled but was struck by an uncomfortable thought. At least Jos had made his life in Bannerdale, while Travis had been absent. No matter how much he disliked the man, Jos had been there for Freya while Travis had got as far away as possible.
He moved forward a little and caught sight of her with Mimi, standing at the side of the stage, in a cream bobble hat, looking gorgeous. Should he be relieved or glad that she and Jos had never made it up the aisle? Would he have been just as wrong for her as Jos? Had it been Jos’s stolidness – his predictability – that had appealed to Freya?
‘Hello, everyone,’ Jos intoned. ‘This is finally the moment when Bannerdale lights up. I’d like to invite Councillor Gabril to push the button.’
The councillor stepped up, and Jos started a countdown that everyone joined in with.
Ten, nine, eight … three, two, one!
Applause and cheering rang out as light and colour lit up the streets and the tree flicked into life. Bulbs were strung across the main street, and the lampposts were decorated with illuminated Santas, stars and holly leaves. Dylan was beside himself and asking if it was Christmas Day yet. Bree was pointing out the Christmas tree to Rosie who was reaching up as if she could catch the star at the top.
Freya was only a few metres away and Travis caught her eye. She smiled. His stomach did a flip. He was in serious trouble if she had the power to melt him with a look.
She threaded her way towards him. After a brief conversation about how the day had gone in the gallery, she issued an invitation.
‘There’s a load of us meeting up at the Tap Room around eight-thirty. It gives time to clear away some of the stalls before the erectors move in, or should I say the de-erectors.’ She giggled. ‘Oh God, I sound like Brian again. Must be the mulled wine I had from the WI stall.’
Travis laughed then hesitated. ‘I was going to go home and have an early night.’
Her face fell and he felt bad. ‘Well, we’ll be in there if you change your mind. When I’ve helped Mimi and Hamish clear our stall, I’m off home for a long hot bath and a bite to eat before I go out again. Actually, Mimi’s waving to me now. I’d better go. See you later – maybe.’
After locking the gallery, Travis went back to the cabin for a shower before heading again for the twinkling lights of the village, trying to put Jos’s vindictive comments into perspective. He shouldn’t be influenced by the tainted opinions of a bitter ex … Even so, coming home had been so much more complicated than he’d ever dreamed. So much more disturbing and emotional – he’d kidded himself that it was Seb who needed the support, it was him.