It was another crisp and beautiful morning. Julia, who had left her curtains open, woke up to the sun streaming in across her bed. Outside, barely a wisp of cloud marked the sky, but the snow had obviously closed in overnight as the garden was once more a flawless blanket of white.
She took a shower before heading downstairs. It was a little after eight o’clock and she found Mabel alone in the kitchen.
‘Ah, there you are, dear. I’m afraid the rest of them have already gone out. Well, except Joseph, who’s still out with the wolves.’
‘I can take something out to him if you like,’ Julia said.
‘Oh, would you, dear? That would be lovely. What are your plans for today?’
Julia smiled. ‘My arms are killing me from digging all that snow yesterday, so I’m hoping I get something else on today’s roster. Making paper chains, perhaps.’
‘Well, it’s good to see you looking so cheerful. And if you need to do a bit of a stretch out, you can borrow one of my Doreen workout DVDs if you like.’
‘I’ll probably be alright by the time I walk down to the village.’
‘That’s good. Just a day until the big event,’ Mabel said. ‘Well, events, plural, I suppose, if you count this ridiculous sham wedding.’
‘I talked to Joseph last night,’ Julia said. ‘I understand why he’s doing it.’
Mabel sighed. ‘He’s a good boy,’ she said. ‘His heart’s in the right place. Even if his brain is bouncing down a road somewhere, about to crash into a brick wall. I don’t know what he’s thinking. We’ll survive, somehow. We always do.’
Julia had something to eat, then took a tray of cornflakes and toast out to the wolf enclosure. Joseph was sitting where she had left him the night before, watching over Bella and her pups.
‘Good morning,’ he said, a little bleary-eyed. ‘Is that for me?’
‘For Bella,’ Julia said, then at Joseph’s crestfallen look, she smiled. ‘Of course it’s for you. I’ll go back and get some coffee. You look like you need it.’
‘I barely slept,’ he said. ‘One of the pups was struggling.’ He leaned over the fence and pointed at a little one now sleeping beneath Bella’s front paw. ‘I had to keep pointing him in the right direction. I think he’ll be okay now.’
‘Bella looks tired,’ Julia said, as the wolf, lying on her side, watched her. ‘But she looks happy at the same time. Have you got names for them yet?’
‘I don’t want to get too attached to them, just in case. I’ll wait a couple more days. What have you got planned for today?’
‘I’m going to go down to the pub in a minute, find out what I’ve been assigned to do today.’ She rolled her eyes. ‘Probably clearing fallen trees or digging out blocked drains. Maybe climbing electrical poles to fix broken wires.’
Joseph laughed. ‘Harry obviously thinks you’re capable.’
‘I was hoping for something easy.’
‘Fixing the community centre’s roof?’
Julia shrugged. ‘Something like that.’
‘I’m sure you could do it.’
‘I can also make paper chains, and thanks to your grandmother, I know how to crimp a mince pie.’
‘Cross your fingers,’ Joseph said. ‘If you like, once I’ve made sure all the little ones have drunk enough for the morning, I’ll come down and help you.’
Julia looked at him. As their eyes met, she got a little lump in her throat, and for a moment couldn’t bring herself to answer. She looked away, and when she looked back, she found he had also looked away, but then looked back at the same time too. They both smiled awkwardly.
‘That would be great,’ she said.
When she reached the pub half an hour later, the news going around was that the snowstorm had finally passed, and Birch Valley was set for a week or so of clear, warmer weather. Snow ploughs from Scotland had reached Devon, and were slowly clearing the roads around the village. By tomorrow, it was likely that the roads would be clear enough for traffic, and the first train was scheduled to depart from the station at 6.30 p.m. tomorrow evening, the 24th of December. Elizabeth and Joseph’s wedding would be held at 11 a.m., with the village founding celebration now starting at two, brought forward in case any of the guests of honour wanted to make a hasty exit on the same day.
To her surprise, Julia’s initial reaction was one of disappointment. By tomorrow evening her adventure would be at an end, she would be boarding a train with an onward ticket to Olive Hill, back to her family. Her brief sojourn in Birch Valley would be over, and the process of forgetting all about Joseph, the wolves, Elizabeth Trevellian, crazy lords in bedsheets, and the rest could begin.
Except she didn’t want to forget about them. Even Elizabeth, she realised with a smile. To her surprise, on the day’s roster she found herself in a group that just said, ‘Meet at the Grange at 2 p.m.’, with no other details given. It was not even eleven o’clock, so she decided to have a walk around the village beforehand.
Almost entirely encircled by hills, there wasn’t far she could go before she came to snowdrifts blocking the narrow lanes heading out. Down by the train line, however, she found a path leading alongside which had been well trodden by dog walkers, leading through snow-covered fields with the river flowing gently alongside. The snow had melted enough that the river was no longer frozen, and to her surprise, Julia heard voices coming from a stand of trees up ahead. Cries of excitement were followed by laughter, the sound of feet running on wooden boards and then the splash of large objects hitting water. More screams and laughter.
Cautiously, Julia approached the trees, until she caught sight of a wooden shack standing on the edge of a pool perhaps twenty metres across. A boardwalk extended out from the shack’s door over the water’s edge. A group of people were sitting around, or splashing in the water. As she watched, the shack’s door opened, someone came running out, and a moment later they jumped off the edge of the boardwalk and landed with a wild scream in the water.
‘Julia!’
She had been about to run away, but Kelly had spotted her. ‘Come and have a look at this! Is this not the best thing ever?’
Julia followed a path through the trees until she came out by the pool. Fed by the river, it was sandy-bottomed, just deep enough to swim in. Despite the snow, a couple of people were doing just that, sculling through the water, their breath puffing out in front of them. The shack was a little bigger than an average garden shed, and smoke was drifting languidly out of a chimney. Just behind it, a tall tree hung out over the pool, a tyre swing hanging from a protruding bough. A group of children in swimming costumes were taking turns to swing out and bomb into the water.
Kelly, in a swimming costume with a towel around her shoulders, came running over. ‘Isn’t this amazing?’
Julia stared at her. ‘It’s the middle of winter. What on earth are you doing?’
Kelly pointed at the shack. ‘That’s a sauna. It belongs to Lord Andrews. Go in there and warm up for a bit, then jump in the water. It’s amazing. No one’s had a heart attack yet.’
‘I don’t have a swimsuit.’
Kelly nodded. ‘Come with me. None of us do. There’s a communal box. Don’t worry, they’ve been washed.’
Kelly led Julia over to the shack, where she retrieved a box and fished out a swimming costume. ‘That’s about your size, isn’t it?’
‘It’s at least a couple of sizes too small!’
Kelly laughed. ‘Nonsense. You’re half my size. Come on, there’s a little changing room around the back, and Lord Andrews brought clean towels. I’ll get you sorted, then we can divebomb together.’
Around the pool Julia recognised several people from the train as well as a couple of locals. Once she was changed, Kelly took her inside, and they sat together in the baking heat of the sauna, where Julia realised what she had thought was smoke rising out of the chimney was in fact steam coming from a water heater in the corner. The sauna, big enough to seat about fifteen people, was so hot she was sweating within moments.
‘Isn’t this great?’ Kelly said. ‘Apparently, it’s imported from Finland. Bob said they have more saunas than people.’
‘Bob?’
‘Lord Andrews. We’re on first name terms now.’ Adopting a sudden posh accent, she added, ‘Although it’s officially Lord Robert Andrews, the Seventh Earl of Brentwater.’
‘Brentwater?’
‘The river’s name.’
‘He’s the lord of a river?’
‘Supposedly. Although he might have been having a laugh. Difficult to tell. He’s quite obviously bonkers.’
‘Is he here?’
‘He was, but he’s gone back up to the Grange to organise lunch. He drove us all down here on the back of a tractor and trailer. Honestly, I’ll be sad to leave this place. We’ve never been able to afford a proper Christmas holiday for the kids. Fingers crossed it starts snowing again.’
Julia smiled. ‘Alright. Shall we go divebomb, or what?’
‘On three,’ Kelly said. ‘Don’t think about it. Just run and jump.’
‘Got it.’
‘Three!’
Kelly was up and running, laughing as she took Julia’s hand and pulled her along. They burst out of the sauna, almost knocking into two people just coming in, and ran across the wooden boardwalk. Julia stared with sudden horror at the pool of freezing water, aware it was surrounded by mounds of snow and still had patches of ice floating on its surface.
‘Don’t think about it!’ Kelly screamed.
‘It’s all I can think about!’ Julia screamed back, and then she was hitting the water, her whole body exploding with cold. She gasped as her feet touched the bottom and she stood up, the water coming up to her chest. Kelly was flapping about in the water nearby, and a couple of other people—including the family she remembered from the train—began to cheer. Then she was taking Kelly’s hand and climbing back out of the water to sit, dripping and freezing on the side of the pool.
‘How was it?’ Kelly gasped.
‘Cold.’
‘You’ll get used to it. Back into the sauna for five minutes, then we do it again.’
‘Is it safe?’
‘Who cares? It feels great.’ Then, cupping her hands around her mouth, she shouted to Caitlin and Josh, who were splashing about at the pool’s far end, throwing a ball back and forth. ‘Don’t get cold! Warm up every five minutes, please!’
They did a couple more brief swims, and then towelled off as the rumble of a tractor coming across the adjacent field indicated the arrival of lunch. Lord Andrews, dressed in a ridiculous checkered suit waved out of the window as he pulled the tractor and trailer to a stop in the snow. To Julia’s surprise, Magnus and Xavier were among a handful of people who climbed down from the trailer, then started unloading portable paraffin heaters and hampers of food.
‘What happened to Elizabeth?’ Julia asked as Magnus and Xavier climbed up a set of wooden steps on to the boardwalk, putting down a heavy plastic cooler which Magnus had obviously been carrying the bulk of. ‘Is she here?’
‘She’s at the church, having the … how you say? Melt down,’ Magnus said, expressing it as two clear words. ‘I think we both lost the job.’
‘Really?’
Xavier nodded. ‘It might be temporary, depending on her mood and the availability of replacement staff. It wouldn’t be the first time. She’ll probably rehire us later with a small salary increase which will be her way of saying sorry.’
As Julia listened, she became aware of Kelly watching her. ‘I thought you said he couldn’t talk,’ Kelly mouthed, loud enough to make Xavier smile, even as he pretended not to hear.
Julia was about to reply when Lord Andrews climbed up on to the boardwalk and clapped his hands together.
‘Lunchtime, everyone!’ he shouted, louder than was necessary and in a way that suggested he didn’t spend much time around people. ‘Eat your fill, as the heathen commoners might have you clearing snow again in the afternoon.’
‘I think he’s joking,’ Kelly whispered. ‘But you can never tell. He’s a bit odd. I think it goes with the territory of living in a manor house all on your own. I imagine it would drive me crazy too.’ Then, cupping her mouth again, she hollered, ‘Colin! Can you get the kids out and dried?’
Everyone got involved, setting up the heaters around the boardwalk and laying down picnic mats before opening the boxes of food and sharing everything out. Julia could barely believe it as she found a cup of hot mulled wine thrust into her hands, and a plate piled with sliced turkey, roast potatoes that were still warm, stuffing balls, pigs in blankets, and even a massive Yorkshire pudding filled with gravy placed in front of her. She was still looking at it when a large platter of mince pies, sliced Christmas cake, and a whole, steaming Christmas pudding with a bowl of clotted cream beside it was put down in the middle of her group.
‘Don’t touch any of that until you’ve cleaned your plates,’ Kelly told Josh and Caitlin, as the kids eyed up the dessert.
‘This is a smorgasbord from the gods,’ Magnus said.
Lord Andrews, mingling among the crowd, clapped him on the shoulder. ‘Eat, my friend, eat! You think three potatoes taste good? Four tastes even better!’
‘You have a good sense of the logic,’ Magnus said. ‘You are a man who knows the maths, no?’
Lord Andrews looked unsure how to respond, so instead turned to Julia. ‘Ah, I hear you all are staying up at Chapel Cottage.’
‘That’s right.’
Lord Andrews tugged at the Christmas hat he was wearing, pushing a bouncing curl of grey hair back underneath. ‘Ah. Tell me, how is dear Mabel?’
Julia glanced at Kelly, who lifted an eyebrow. When she looked back at Lord Andrews, he wasn’t looking at her, but rather shifting from foot to foot like an uncomfortable child waiting for the toilet.
‘She’s fine,’ Julia said.
Not looking up, Lord Andrews muttered, ‘That’s good. Dear of her.’
Then, as though regaining his composure, he muttered, ‘Have a good meal!’ rather louder than was necessary, then moved off across the crowd to talk to another group.
‘Well, that was odd,’ Kelly said.
‘He hides the secret love,’ Magnus said. ‘He is the boy who cannot speak to the girl.’
‘That describes most of them,’ Kelly said. Then, standing up, she added, ‘Right. Who’s for another dip?’