When Freya arrived back at the cabin after work that evening, Travis was standing by the fridge, hands on hips.
‘Hello!’ she called, walking in. He turned guiltily. ‘What’s the matter?’ she said.
‘I was going to cook but I’m afraid dinner’s going to have to be a couple of ready meals from a petrol station shop.’ He laid the two cartons on the countertop. ‘They only had turkey meals left in the chiller cabinet …’
Freya was amused by his sheepish expression. ‘That’s fine. It’ll be my first Christmas dinner of the year.’
‘Phew. I grabbed them on the way home from the gallery. I went into do some processing and time flew by. It’s been non-stop since I took Seb on the shoot.’
She shed her coat. ‘How did it go? We – er – didn’t get round to discussing it earlier.’
He drew her into his arms. ‘I had other things on my mind.’
‘I was supposed to be changing the bed, not testing it out.’
‘Did it pass?’
‘Oh. I think so though I’m not sure the springs will hold out if we keep using it so, um, energetically.’
Travis laughed. ‘I’ll get you a drink.’
‘Better do, before we end up there again. I want to hear about Seb. I’ll admit it was a long shot and I didn’t think he’d agree.’
‘Nor me but it went far better than I’d hoped. The light was great and Seb managed to grab a fantastic squirrel picture. I was pretty pissed off to be honest.’ He smiled. ‘Not really. I was stoked for him. I’ll probably have it made into cards for the gallery.’
‘I’m really pleased. You did well to persuade him to come.’
‘I was amazed he agreed. Even more amazed he managed to get out of bed at six a.m. in the dark and freezing cold. He seemed … more like his old self by the end of the afternoon. Thanks for the suggestion. Sorry I can’t repay you with anything better than a ready meal.’
‘You don’t owe me anything. Neither of us owe each other anything.’
‘No.’ A shadow crossed his face but he soon chased it away with a grin. ‘You lay the table while I rustle up this gourmet fare.’
Why had she felt the need to subtly – or none too subtly – remind him of the terms of their ‘relationship’? Was it because things were getting far too cosy between them? After dinner, Freya curled up on the sofa while Travis showed her some of the pictures from earlier. He’d had a beer but she’d stuck to a zero-alcohol brand so she could drive home. With the wood burner glowing and the wind howling outside, the prospect of heading back to the cottage alone was becoming less appealing by the minute.
‘What was that?’ Travis exclaimed, as a loud crack came from outside.
Freya winced. ‘A branch might have come down. Some of those trees are pretty close.’
‘I’d better check,’ he said.
‘I’ll come with you.’
‘No, you stay inside.’
While he shrugged on his coat and boots, Freya tugged the curtain aside and tried to peer into the night. Flakes swirled but it was so dark she couldn’t see how thick the snow was.
Travis opened the front door and an icy blast made the fire in the wood burner flicker. From the window, she saw his torchlight picking out snow on the car roofs and branches shaking in the wind. The snow was certainly starting to settle, and if she was going to leave, it would have to be soon.
He came back in, snowflakes melting in his hair. ‘A big branch has come down behind the house and there’s a blizzard out there!’ Hastily, he closed the door.
She laughed. ‘You’ve been away from Bannerdale too long if you call this a blizzard, but I agree, if I don’t go now, I might not get out of here tonight.’
‘And you have to get up for work in the morning?’ he said.
‘No, as a matter of fact – technically, if Mimi doesn’t call in a panic, it’s my day off …’
‘Then, don’t go,’ he said, taking her in his arms. ‘Stay the night with me. What harm can it do?’
Not quite a blizzard … The morning brought postcard-blue skies, with a few centimetres of snow lying around the cabin, undisturbed by footprints of any kind. The sun was just rising over the high fells, lending them an Alpine look.
Travis handed her a second coffee after she’d already demolished a plate of toast.
‘Pretty spectacular, isn’t it?’ he said, staring out of the window beside her.
‘Stunning.’ It couldn’t have looked more Christmassy, she thought. ‘The guests are going to absolutely love it if they can make it to some of the more remote cottages. I’d better be ready to step in if Mimi and Hamish can’t cope.’
‘I thought it was your day off.’
‘It is but if you hadn’t noticed, I need to go home and change into clean clothes just in case.’
‘That could easily be remedied.’
‘Don’t you have to open up the gallery?’ she asked.
‘It doesn’t open until ten-thirty. That’s plenty of time.’ His tone held a hint of sexy promise.
Freya tore herself away from the heat of his gaze to the snowy scene outside. She remembered his childhood reminiscence about the sledges and had an impulse to re-enact it for him, even if at the time, the experience had been bittersweet.
‘Actually, I had a different kind of activity on my mind,’ she said. ‘How do you fancy going sledging?’
‘Sledging?’ He frowned. ‘What, now?’
Despite his bemused reaction, Freya ploughed on. ‘Yes. The owners keep a couple of old toboggans in the shed behind the cabin. I thought we could take them to the field below the woods.’
Visions of whizzing down a steep slope, shrieking with excitement and terror, filled her mind.
‘I haven’t been sledging since …’ he said, swallowing. Freya held her breath for a second, hoping she hadn’t soured the moment.
‘Of course,’ she ventured. ‘If you’re too scared …’
‘Scared?’ Travis exclaimed. ‘You must be joking!’ He clapped his hands together. ‘Come on, then, bet I can go faster.
‘Wheeeomigod!’
She was going way too fast. The slope was far too steep. She was never going to stop. ‘Helpppp …’
The sledge hit a drift and Freya fell off, shrieking with laughter. A second later, Travis was flat on his back alongside her, whooping like a schoolboy. ‘That was brilliant! Shall we do it again?’
‘You bet!’
They hurried back up the hill, boots sinking in the snow, breathing heavily. The field was so much steeper than she remembered from her childhood yet it was still exhilarating.
‘Race you this time?’ she said, laughing at the way Travis dwarfed the red plastic sledge.
‘One, two, three … go!’
She launched herself and then careered downhill, trying to steer the sledge while also trying to go as fast as she could.
To her dismay, Travis appeared beside her, a whisker ahead, making her lose her concentration. The sledge veered off course and flipped her into a drift, and she face-planted into the icy snow.
She levered herself up from the snow, blinking moisture from her eyes. Travis’s grinning face appeared above her. He extended his hand. ‘Are you OK?’
She let him help her to her feet. ‘Yeah, apart from you cheating.’
‘I did not cheat!’ he cried.
‘You set off on “three” not on go.’
‘No way!’
Her skin stung with the cold but her body was buzzing with endorphins.
Travis took off his glove and brushed snow from her cheek. His eyes were concerned, and his touch was gentle, fingers warm against her chilly skin. ‘Are you sure you’re OK?’
‘Absolutely fine!’ she declared, grabbing the toboggan leash. ‘Best of five?’
Travis snatched up his own sledge. ‘I won’t need five!’
In the end, they lost count of the runs and who’d ‘won’. Her jeans were soaked, her hands were cold despite the waterproof mitts and her thighs were burning from hauling the sledge up and down the hillock.
After the final run, once they’d pulled themselves out of the snow, Freya pointed out other people trooping up the path to the field, dragging sledges in their wake.
‘We’re not alone,’ she said to Travis.
‘I’m surprised we had the place to ourselves this long on a snowy morning.’ He checked his watch. ‘Talking of which, it’s almost ten o clock.’
‘Really? I can’t believe it.’
‘Time flies when you’re having fun.’ He smiled. ‘Sadly, I should go to the gallery or Bree really will kill me. It should be a busy day with so many people arriving for Christmas looking for gifts.’
‘You’d better get a move on and I have to go too. I’m soaked,’ she said while they walked back to the cabin. ‘I need to get home to the cottage and have a hot shower.’
‘I’d like to join you.’
‘Don’t tempt me!’ Freya cried. ‘Thanks for the sledge idea. I had the best time. And I did beat you.’
‘Oh really? I thought we lost count?’
‘Maybe … see you later at my place?’
‘Sure, I’ve a workshop tomorrow but I can come over tonight.’
‘Why don’t you stay?’ The invitation had tumbled out before she’d had time to think and the surprise in Travis’s eyes was unmistakable.
‘If you’re sure, I’d love to. I’ll make sure I have all my kit and a change of clothes so I can make an early start.’
Freya went into the cabin only to collect her handbag, before jumping in the car and gingerly driving down the track into the village. The streets were filling up with families and walkers, cramming into the cafes and browsing the shops, with their windows decorated for the festive season. The backdrop of the snowy fells made it look impossibly Christmassy and she was still pulsing with endorphins after the sledging.
Today had been the happiest she’d been for a long time … pure unadulterated joy.
She had to stop for a pedestrian crossing outside the solicitor’s where Jos Beresford was talking to a woman she assumed was a client. He saw her and nodded curtly. She remembered the Christmas meal she’d spent at his parents’ house, sitting around their table not long after they’d become engaged, and a chill came over her.
In hindsight, that was probably one of the earliest moments when she sensed something wasn’t right between her and Jos. Ignoring that niggling feeling had led to so much hurt for him and herself. It was one of the biggest regrets of her life that she hadn’t recognised the signs earlier – hadn’t known herself much better. She should have learned from the way she allowed herself to be persuaded to break off her engagement with Travis. No wonder she now felt she couldn’t let any man get too close, commit to anyone.
Then there was Travis: being continually let down by his father must have left scars deeper than she’d even realised. Was that why he was so angry and upset when she’d broken off their overnight engagement? She’d been too young to fully understand back then.
Was the accusation Jos had flung at her when they’d split up true – that she was ‘toxic’ as far as relationships were concerned? Or had it only been ‘right man, wrong time’ – then wrong man, right time?
And now?
Wrong man, wrong time … How did you know?
What if she did overcome her fears and want more? She’d issued an ultimatum to him that now felt impossible to go back on.