It seemed like the entire village had a hangover from the previous night’s karaoke, but Don had dusted off a pile of board games for the customers to use. Julia enjoyed beating Magnus, Joseph, and Colin—it was Kelly’s turn for child duty back at the Grange, but according to Colin ‘She was so rough this morning that she’s only just back on solids’—which made Julia feel a little smug, even if Magnus was more interested in the pub’s selection of brandies, and Joseph kept checking his watch and muttering about getting back to the wolves.
In the end, Magnus decided to stay for a nightcap with Colin, leaving Joseph and Julia to walk home. Even though Julia had drunk enough for a little Dutch courage, the first half of the journey was conducted in near silence. Perhaps it was the arduousness of trudging through ten centimetres of fluffy fresh snow on top of a crusty, lumpy under layer, but as the wine she had drunk started to make her dizzy, she finally plucked up the courage to say, ‘I didn’t get a chance to say congratulations.’
‘What?’
‘Your … ah … wedding. To Elizabeth?’
They walked on a few more steps in silence before Joseph said, ‘Oh, that.’
‘I mean, it must have been a whirlwind romance,’ Julia said, her mouth running away with her. ‘You met her two days ago. I never really believed in love at first sight, but when I saw you two together … I suppose it must be possible, mustn’t it?’
Joseph stopped walking. Julia went on a couple of steps, then turned back. He was watching her, hands on hips, his face illuminated by a nearby streetlight. He somehow managed to look both bemused and disappointed at the same time.
‘You are joking, aren’t you?’
Julia frowned. ‘About what?’
‘About what you just said. About me and Elizabeth.’
‘No. Why would I be joking? I mean, you’re clearly hopelessly in love with each other.’
‘I think you’ve drunk too much.’
Julia knew he was right, but admitting it would be admitting he was right. ‘I only had a couple of glasses,’ she said. ‘Hardly a drop. I used to … be on my university’s drinking team.’ Just shut up, her brain was telling her, but she was like a snowball rolling downhill, picking up pace.
‘In that case, it might be a good idea if you eased back a little,’ Joseph said. ‘I mean, once you hit your thirties, you’ll start to age a lot quicker. Your body won’t be able to keep up.’
‘Once I hit my … I’m thirty-five.’ Had that been a compliment or not?
‘Well, it is pretty dark, and I’m five beers deep. Celebrating my upcoming marriage and all that.’
‘I know it’s not for real.’
Joseph let out a deflating sigh. ‘Of course it’s not for real. How could anyone marry her? She’s not … human.’
‘Finally we agree on something.’ Julia stamped her foot, but it failed to have the desired effect. Instead of a hearty clump on road, she nearly tripped over on a lump of ice. ‘So … why are you marrying her, then?’
‘Not everyone gets married for love,’ Joseph said, moving again, walking past her and on up the street, leaving her to catch up. ‘It’s business. You won’t understand.’
‘I watch plenty of art house movies,’ Julia said. ‘And I don’t own a single Mills and Boon. I know what you’re doing, even if you don’t want to tell me.’
Joseph stopped again. ‘Do you know why I was in Brentwell the other day?’
Julia wanted to say something sensible, but her mouth and brain were still refusing to align. ‘Shopping for suits?’ she snapped. ‘You know, just in case some rich media starlet got marooned in your village and decided on a whim to marry you?’
Joseph sighed. ‘Yeah,’ he said. ‘That’s exactly right.’
He walked on, not waiting for her, his head lowered, and Julia felt like the world’s biggest witch. She stood for a moment watching him, her mind yo-yoing between whether to apologise or whether to berate him further. Why not kick a man when he was down? By the time she decided that she could at least give him a chance to explain, it was too late. Joseph had turned a bend in the road and was out of sight.
Afraid of getting lost, Julia hurried to keep up, attempting to jog through the dark patch between the street light behind them and the next, almost hidden among snow-laden trees on the next corner. She needn’t have worried, however, for as she reached it, the outside lights of Chapel Cottage appeared up ahead.
Of Joseph, though, there was no sign.
The snow had stopped again, and a full moon hung overhead. Julia walked up to the cottage, cleared a patch of snow off the low stone wall along the front of the garden and sat down. She looked up at the sky, briefly attempting to count the stars, before feeling rather ridiculous and giving up.
The moon was bright enough to illuminate the nearest hills. The lying snow reflecting the light made everything otherworldly, and Julia breathed it in, feeling so small yet so alive, like a caterpillar that had accidently hibernated and was only now beginning to transform. At the same time, she felt both happy and sad, at peace yet angry, filled with ideas yet content with where she stood in life. She tried to remember the last time she had felt so conflicted and failed, as though up to this point her life had been on a slow, downward slide she’d had no chance of arresting, even had she realised what was going on. For the first time perhaps in fifteen years she felt like she was grabbing the wheels of her own destiny.
She couldn’t sleep, not yet. She thought about going for another—shorter—walk up the road, then changed her mind at the faint sound of a voice coming from around the side of the cottage.
The wolf enclosure. Julia walked down the path through snow-covered flowerbeds and out to the little shed. A light was on inside, and she heard Joseph’s soothing voice coming from inside.
‘Joseph?’
She gave the door a light tap, then stepped back, not wanting to alarm him. After a moment, it opened and Joseph peered out, backed by a single dim bulb hanging from a cord in the ceiling.
‘Julia?’
‘I’m sorry. For what I said. I was just … drunk?’
She shrugged and smiled. Joseph looked at her a moment, then gave her a wide grin. ‘Come in,’ he said. ‘There’s plenty of room, and there’s a little heater too.’
He stepped back for her to enter, Julia closing the door behind her. She found herself in a little standing space with a wire fence separating her from two brick-walled animal pens a few paces across. Small curtains hung across entrances in the opposite wall that led outside to the running enclosure. In the nearest, an empty dog basket lay in one corner, a bowl of water and an empty food bowl in another.
‘Barry’s outside doing wolf things,’ Joseph said. ‘But Bella’s right here, nursing the pups. Come and take a look.’
He pulled up a low wooden stall, then adjusted a little paraffin heater so that Julia would feel the benefit of its heat. Then he pointed into the second pen. Bella, grey furred and majestic, lay on her side in the middle of another large dog basket, a cluster of small grey shapes that resembled sausages shuffling and shifting around her belly. The wolf was awake but looked exhausted. As her eyes regarded Julia, she gave a brief, tired howl as if in greeting.
‘They’re so small,’ Julia said. ‘Your grandmother said there were nine?’
‘That’s right. It’s a pretty big litter. She’s struggling a little, but I’m doing what I can to help out. Barry’s being a bit of a nuisance so I’m keeping her gate closed for the moment, but once Bella’s out of danger, we’ll let him visit his little ones.’
‘She’s in danger?’
‘She’s a little weak, but she should be alright. If it gets too much, I might need to hand-rear a couple.’
‘Can you do that?’
Joseph nodded. ‘Put them on the bottle. The longer they stay with their mother, the better, though. I’m just out here to make sure there’s no trouble and that she’s eating and everything.’
Julia glanced over her shoulder and saw a camp bed folded up in a corner.
‘Are you sleeping out here?’
He nodded. ‘For the time being. It’s convenient. Magnus snores louder than an avalanche anyway, and I let Xavier have my bed because perhaps his ears have gone beyond sound or whatever. For the first few days, I need to be with Bella, just in case there are any problems.’
Julia said nothing. The harsh way she had spoken to Joseph on the road was already haunting her, and she feared making it worse. In the end, all she could mutter was, ‘Sorry.’
‘What for?’
‘You know, for what I said.’
‘It’s alright. My grandmother reacted pretty much the same when I told her. Pride doesn’t pay bills though, does it?’
‘So what were you doing in Brentwell?’
‘I had to visit an estate agent about what to do about the farm. It’s likely I’ll need to sell off the land, but if I can, I want to keep my grandmother’s cottage. She grew up here. I can’t make her move somewhere else now. This is her home. The truth is, though, that we’re sinking.’
‘You can’t afford to run it anymore?’
Joseph shook his head. ‘We’re in debt up to our eyes. No one wants real Christmas trees and the petting zoo was only ever a side project. Taxes and rates have gone up, and our income has gone down. I was hoping to get away with just selling off some of the land rather than the whole property.’ He let out a little chuckle and shook his head. ‘And then Elizabeth made me an offer. I thought she was joking at first.’
‘About what?’
‘Getting married. I thought she was making fun of me, but she wasn’t. She was completely serious. Apparently she lives in a world I didn’t even know existed, and some magical, fairytale Christmas wedding will send her popularity through the roof. And with popularity comes money. She offered me more than I can refuse, enough that I could hold off on a decision on the farm for another year.’ He sighed. ‘It might make me a laughing stock around here, but what am I supposed to do? I can’t make my grandmother move to some retirement flat in Plymouth. I might as well dig a trench and throw her straight in. Getting married is a ridiculous idea, I know that. But only a fool would turn it down.’
‘So you’re going to do it?’
Joseph sighed. ‘Yes. The day after tomorrow, whether I like it or not, I’m going to marry Elizabeth Trevellian.’