Basil looked keen for a walk in the snow, but Joseph called down the hallway to Mabel and then shut the big dog in a side room beside the kitchen. Julia watched Joseph as he pulled a dog lead out of a kitchen cupboard and then found a hat in a box beside the back door.
‘I’ll come with you,’ she said, standing up.
‘It’s not a good idea.’
‘You’re holding a lead. This wolf of yours can’t be that dangerous.’
‘Only to local sheep. Look, if you promise to stay close. The snow’s really bad out there.’
‘I noticed.’
‘Okay, give me a minute. You can’t go out dressed like that, and your jacket’s soaked.’
‘Do you have something I can borrow?’
It took a couple of minutes of rummaging through a cupboard, but soon Julia was kitted out with a thick winter jacket, hat, gloves, fresh woolly socks, and a pair of spare boots that apparently were Joseph’s old pair. It alarmed her slightly that they had the same sized feet, even that the boots were a little tight. Joseph didn’t give her time to worry much about it, though, as he handed her a torch and said, ‘Are you ready? I mean it, stay close, and do what I say.’
‘Got it. Is this wolf of yours likely to attack me?’
Joseph shrugged. ‘No … well, he might. I mean, he is a wolf.’
‘Is he more dangerous than Basil?’
‘On a scale of one to ten, with Basil as a five?’
‘Well, I suppose—’
Before Joseph could complete his answer, the howl came again, closer this time.
‘You don’t have to come. The snow’s still coming down, and it could be dangerous.’
Julia glanced over her shoulder. Down the corridor, Elizabeth was complaining about the strength of the coat hangers and the depth of the bedroom’s wardrobe.
‘I’ll come,’ she said.
Joseph took the lead with Julia following along behind. The snow had eased a little, but with the flakes reflecting the glare of the torches it was hard to see more than a few metres ahead.
At first they followed a farm lane that ran downhill behind the house, before finding themselves surrounded by trees. Rather than towering over their heads, though, most of the trees barely reached above head height, providing them no cover at all. And strangely, many of them appeared to be glowing, illuminating the snow that covered their branches with colourful lights.
‘What’s that coming from?’ Julia asked, waving her torch at the trees.
‘That’s our farm,’ Joseph said. ‘We—look! Tracks! Ah, it looks like he’s gone up to the hilltop. Typical wolf. He’s looking for a moon to howl at. Good luck with that tonight.’
The land began to incline upwards. The lines of regular trees topped with lights gave way to natural forest, the trees larger, their branches laden with snow, leaving the ground clearer and easier to traverse. Joseph seemed to be following a rough path up through the forest, his torch beam illuminating a line of tracks to the right that moved haphazardly from tree to tree as they headed uphill, as though the wolf had been marking his territory as he went.
Julia hadn’t spent much time in the great outdoors over the last few years, and found herself out of breath. Joseph, clearly accustomed to such arduous climbing, had to pause several times to let her catch up.
‘I’m sorry,’ she gasped, as she climbed up through the snow to a clearing where he waited. ‘I should have let you go alone. I’m not used to this.’
‘It’s okay,’ he said. ‘It’s nice to have some company. I think the sky has cleared. We might get a good view from the lookout point at the top, if we’re lucky. I imagine that’s where we’ll find Barry, too.’
Julia wasn’t sure what to expect from the supposed view, but five minutes of climbing later the trees parted around them, and she found herself on a bald, snow-covered hilltop which offered a panoramic view of the surrounding area. A full moon shone overhead, and the snow that covered everything for as far as they could see reflected its glow, giving the whole world a surreal, dreamlike feel. The lights of villages spotted distant valleys like speckles of fairy glitter, and a clear line through the surrounding fields indicated the railway as it passed through Birch Valley and on towards Olive Hill.
‘Ha, there he is,’ Joseph said.
He lifted his torch for a moment, but it wasn’t necessary. A shape had jumped up on to a snow-laden picnic bench on the very top of the hill, and as Julia watched, it sat back on its haunches, lifted its head to the sky, and let out a long, haunting howl. A tingle ran down her spine, and perhaps for the first time since getting off the train, Julia was pleased that circumstances had worked out as they had.
‘He’s such a show-off,’ Joseph said. Then, clicking his fingers, he called, ‘Barry, come here.’
The wolf leapt down off the table. Julia lifted her torch and her breath caught in her throat. The wolf was bounding towards them, tongue lolling, the torchlight glinting off his teeth. This was a wolf, she reminded herself, the awe she had felt moments before replaced by fear. She started to step back behind Joseph, only for him to squat down, opening his arms.
‘Come on, do the jump thing,’ he called, and Barry obliged, leaping the last few feet to land in Joseph’s arms. While not as big as Basil, he was large enough to knock Joseph back into Julia, who found herself lying on her back. A silhouette rose over her, and she gasped, the breath caught in her throat.
‘No—’
A thick, wet tongue slapped the side of her face, then a heavy panting creature sat down on top of her, paws resting on her chest.
‘He’s caught you,’ Joseph said, clipping a collar and lead around the wolf’s neck. ‘Look how proud he is.’ He rubbed the wolf’s neck. ‘Look at you,’ he said. ‘You’re a proper wolf now, aren’t you? Howling at the moon, catching a human. What are we going to do with you?’
‘Any chance you could move him?’ Julia gasped.
‘Oh, sorry! Come on, Barry. Up you get. Let her free.’
He pulled the wolf away, then reached down and helped Julia up. She climbed to her feet, brushing snow off her clothes.
‘Are you alright?’
‘I’m fine,’ Julia said, aware her voice was becoming alarmingly high. ‘I don’t think I’ve ever had a wolf sit on me before. It’s quite a … novel experience.’
Joseph pointed the torch down at the wolf now sitting at his feet. ‘Don’t tell him, but he’s only part wolf. His mother was a Siberian Husky. He’d be heartbroken if he knew.’
‘Can I ask why you even own a wolf?’
‘It was my grandmother’s thing,’ he said. ‘She’s been keeping them for years. She trains them and then rents them out for film work. Barry here has starred in roughly a dozen different films over the last five years.’
‘Oh my god, really?’
‘Yes. Although work is drying up. Most films these days use stock footage or CGI. It’s not very exciting. They film him running about in front of a green screen for a couple of days, then they edit the footage into their projects.’
‘That’s still pretty cool.’
‘He’s mostly just the star attraction of our little farm petting zoo. Well, at least until the pups are born.’
‘How exciting. I had no idea there was anything like this going on in Birch Valley.’
‘Most people tend to blink and miss it as they pass through on the train, but they miss a lot.’ He started forward. ‘Come on, let’s go and have a look at the view before we go back down.’
They walked to the hilltop, where Joseph cleared the snow away from what was indeed a picnic table. The snow was so deep that they had to sit on the top with their feet on the seats. Tied to one of the legs, Barry wandered about in the snow nearby.
‘It looks how I imagined Norway or Canada might look,’ Julia said, shaking her head. ‘It’s … beautiful.’
‘Can I show you something else?’
‘Sure.’
They climbed down from the table. Joseph untied Barry and they headed back the way they had come, but instead of taking the footpath down into the woods, Joseph took another one that headed to a second, slightly lower lookout point on the eastern side of the hill. Here, the surrounding hills were closer, blocking their view of the distant countryside, but as the valley below opened out, Julia gasped.
Everywhere, thousands upon thousands of lights twinkled in the branches of hundreds of trees.
‘I saw some on the way up, but I didn’t realise … it’s so pretty. Wow.’
‘That’s my family’s farm,’ Joseph said. ‘We farm Christmas trees.’
‘They come with lights?’
Joseph chuckled. ‘No, that was kind of my pet project. They’re solar powered. I thought it would be nice for people to see how their tree might look. It took forever to string them all. This is possibly a one-off experience, though. All the sensors are now buried, so they won’t light up again until after the snow starts melting off.’
Julia took another step forward to peer further down the slope, and at that moment, her foot caught on something buried under the snow. As she stumbled, she stuck out a hand, reaching for whatever was closest. It turned out to be Joseph’s wrist. She had dropped her torch at the same time, and it somehow landed beam upwards, illuminating them both. She hadn’t really had time to study him before, but up close his green eyes were filled with kindness, he had a nice smile … and she could feel the strength in his arms. They didn’t live so far apart, and they were about the same age. His eyes held on to hers as he helped her up, then the torch sank in the snow and he became a silhouette against the sky once more.
‘Sorry,’ she muttered, letting go of his arm. ‘Thanks for … helping me.’
‘It’s alright,’ he said, his voice sounding a little strained, as though it was suddenly hard to speak. ‘We should … we should head back.’
They barely said anything as they followed the footpath back down the hill, through the trees, and along the road to the cottage. Joseph muttered about being careful a couple of times, and Julia grunted monosyllabic responses. As the lights of the cottage came in sight up ahead, Joseph stopped.
‘Are you okay from here? I need to put Barry back into his enclosure. Much as I’d like to let him into the house, he tends to play with Basil, and the result is utter chaos.’
‘Sure, I’ll be fine.’
‘See you later then?’
‘Sure.’
As Julia headed back to the cottage alone, she wasn’t sure whether she was walking on air or wading through mud. She had felt that little tingle as she looked at Joseph in the torchlight, that feeling that told her she was attracted, and now she just felt uncomfortable. Unless he was hiding a wife or girlfriend somewhere, he looked single, and so was she, even if it was only a few months since her last failed relationship had ended.
With seasonal familiarity, the doubts began to creep in. They were worse as she got older, she had found; once she wouldn’t have cared about anything except what was in the minute, but now everything was about the future: was he interested enough, would it last, were they suited? Did she want to be with a man from the countryside who ran a Christmas tree farm, or should she hold out just that little longer?
She couldn’t help it. Getting out of a bad relationship at thirty-five had left her more fragile than she liked to admit.
She went into the house, took off the boots and hung the coat up on a hook. The corridor was dark, but a thin glow beneath the door meant a light was still on in the kitchen, so she knocked lightly on the door, then opened it and peered inside.
Mabel was standing by the kitchen worktop. Beside her, impossibly large, stood Magnus, wearing a floral apron so small it looked more suited to a doll, the strings so stretched they’d used a clip to hold the ends together. On the other side of Mabel, X was standing with his camera, angling it down at the worktop.
‘And you crimp it like this, but don’t press too hard or the pastry will be too compacted. You want a nice, soft crimp so that the pastry bakes a little flaky.’
‘Sorry to interrupt,’ Julia said. ‘We … ah … went out to find Barry.’
Mabel turned to her and smiled. ‘Oh, he’s a pesky one,’ she said. ‘He’s out at the first opportunity, howling away at the moon. He thinks he’s a proper wolf. Why don’t you come and join us? The empress has turned in because apparently she needs fourteen hours of sleep per night, so we’re having a bit of a cooking lesson. Have you ever made a mince pie?’
Julia shook her head. ‘I’ve only ever bought them from a shop.’
‘Well, now’s your chance to learn. Grab an apron from that cupboard over there. Right, Magnus, it’s your turn. Remember what I said about the crimping….’