Magnus offered to give everyone a lift down to the pub in the limousine. When they found Mabel outside, however, the old woman declined, and Julia, with still the last nibble of a hangover, decided to walk her back to the cottage instead.
‘I … ah … guess there was a little history there?’ Julia said, catching up with Mabel, who was walking remarkably fast for a woman of her years, even if the road itself had been cleared of snow.
‘Oh, my dear, I can’t start getting involved with past flames at my age,’ Mabel said. ‘And Bob, he’s not exactly marriage material, is he?’
‘He’s … rich?’
‘Of course he is, dear. But there’s more to happiness than money. Look at the little meltdown that caused the whole debacle. Neither of the big pair showed up, did they? Goes to show it was a silly idea from the start, wasn’t it?’
‘I suppose we should go and find them.’
‘They’re both adults, they’ll be fine for a while,’ Mabel said. ‘Let’s have a cup of tea and a mince pie, and then I’ll tell you all about Lord Bob Andrews.’
Julia helped Mabel tidy up and prepare the tea things, then carried the tray for her into the little living room, arranging it on the coffee table as Mabel sat down.
‘Please, dear, tuck in.’
Julia had eaten enough mince pies to last a lifetime, but there was always room for one more. ‘These taste so good,’ she said, taking a little bite. ‘I’ve never tasted any as good as this.’
‘It’s all in the fruit,’ Mabel said. ‘Dry it for a couple of years, then marinade it in a bit of port before putting it into the mix. Gives it that little extra sweetness.’
‘How much would I need to eat before they got me drunk?’
Mabel grinned. ‘Four or five. Lucky there’s not much driving to be done.’
As they sipped their tea, Julia said, ‘You must be looking forward to getting rid of us. I heard the roads should be open today, and the ice all cleared by tomorrow.’
Mabel shook her head. ‘Not for a moment. I told you this used to be a B&B, didn’t I? It’s been lovely having people around again. I suppose, in a perfect world, Joseph would marry and have a family, and they would all live here, but having a few visitors is a decent replacement. We’re social animals, us humans. We’re not meant to live in isolation.’ She chuckled. ‘I’ve even grown fond of Elizabeth. She takes a bit more getting used to than most, but there’s definitely a human being in there.’
‘Perhaps … perhaps she could marry Joseph after all.’
Mabel chuckled again. ‘No chance of that. They’re too different. He needs a more down to earth girl. Someone like—’
—please don’t say it—
‘—that T.V. presenter. What’s her name? I think she used to do Blue Peter back in the eighties.’
Julia gave a nervous laugh. ‘I’m sorry, I don’t remember. I was busy being born in the eighties, although I missed most of it.’
‘Anyway, he needs a nice girl.’ She leaned forward, lowered her glasses a little, and peered at Julia, eyes narrowing. ‘You don’t have plans for tomorrow morning, do you?’
Julia’s face burned. ‘Ah … I’m supposed to be the Maid of Honour.’
‘Ah, it’s only a couple of steps to the side and a few more words. Then I could show you how to make my mince pies.’
Julia really wanted to go out and look for Elizabeth, or jump into a freezing lake, or pretty much anything other than be interviewed for the vacant position of Joseph’s wife, but she was stuck, so she decided to change the subject.
‘You were going to tell me about Lord Andrews?’
‘Ah, yes.’
Mabel got up and shuffled over to a sideboard. She squatted down, slid open a cupboard door, then withdrew a thick photograph album. She made room on the coffee table then opened it and began to flick through heavy pages, the plastic covers creaking over ancient black and white photographs.
‘Here we are.’
She pointed at a black and white school photograph. Julia marvelled at how smart the children looked, the boys in button up shirts and ties, the girls in knee-length frocks.
‘Can you spot young Bob?’
Julia frowned, trying to guess which of these little kids was now an elderly man who liked to run around in a bedsheet. They were all in orderly lines, staring dead ahead, except—
‘This one?’
‘Bingo.’ Mabel shook her head and gave a nostalgic sigh. ‘Any other kid would have got the cane for sticking their tongue out in the school photograph, but the Andrews family funded the school’s new gymnasium that year. Of course, it’s all long gone now. Not enough kids left around here to keep it open.’
Julia stared at the slightly blurred image of a little boy holding up his hands to his ears and sticking out his tongue at the camera. ‘So, he was the class joker?’
‘Completely. The butt of all the jokes, although he was never properly bullied because of who his family was. At that time, most of the land round here was owned by the Andrews family. It might have got worse in secondary school, but he went off to some private school up in London, then to university, then he got some job overseas in the foreign office that his dad probably set up. He’d only appear for a few days here and there, every year or so.’
‘And he asked you to marry him?’
Mabel sat back in her chair and smiled. ‘Yes. A couple of times, actually. We had a bit of a fling once, on one of his jaunts home. Just a bit of fun, and there wasn’t really anything to it. I thought he was joking the first time around, and by the second I’d got married. He disappeared for a few more years, then after his parents both died, he came back to rule, so to speak. It’s not all that special, though. His family sold most of the house off to the National Trust thirty odd years ago. He only lives in one small wing.’
‘Really? I thought—’
Mabel shook her head. ‘No, no. He still thinks he owns it, but he doesn’t. Knowing Bob, though, he’ll be loving that all the staff are blocked out. He’s probably taken down all the signs and is proper lording it up there. I mean, he’s better off than we are, but not by a great deal.’
‘That’s sad.’
‘Is it? What makes you happy, dear? Money?’
Julia frowned, then shook her head. ‘I don’t know. I don’t really have enough of it to know. My cat makes me happy. My family, even the crazy ones. Meeting new people.’ She smiled. ‘Jumping into freezing cold rivers.’
‘And there you have it. Another mince pie?’
‘Sure, why not?’
They ended up eating another two each, then Mabel drifted off to sleep in her chair. Julia cleared up, draped a blanket over her, then went out for a walk.
She found Joseph where she had expected, up in the wolf enclosure, watching the pups. Already slightly bigger, they bullied at Bella’s teats as their mother lay watching them.
‘There you are.’
Joseph looked up and gave a nervous smile. ‘Hi.’
‘We were waiting for you.’
He looked like a dog about to beg for food. ‘Elizabeth?’
‘No, she didn’t show up either.’
Joseph let out a sigh. ‘I knew it was a bad idea. At least she figured it out too.’
‘Even so, a lot of people were put out. Even if we did almost see Magnus in a dress, and then Lord Andrews proposed to your grandmother.’
‘Really? Again?’
‘You know about that?’
‘He proposes practically every time he sees her. She was considered a bit of a catch in her younger days, I remember Dad once saying.’
‘Has Lord Andrews never married?’
Joseph shook his head. ‘Nope. He’s lived up there on his own for years.’
‘That’s too bad. I feel a little sorry for him really.’
‘He’s doing okay. He’s a sandwich short of a picnic, that’s for sure.’
‘So the marriage is officially off?’
Joseph sighed. ‘It looks like it. I suppose I’ll have to apologise to Dennis and practically half the village, even though it was never my idea in the first place. All I wanted to do was keep an eye on these guys.’
‘And how are they?’
‘The little one, he was struggling in the night. He couldn’t get to a teat on his own, so I had to keep nudging him. He’s starting to build his strength now. As long as I keep checking up on them, they should all be okay.’
‘That’s good news.’
Joseph looked up again. ‘I imagine in the world of delayed trains, ceremonies, and celebrity weddings, it’s of little consequence, but it means a lot to me. It’s the small things, isn’t it?’
Julia stared at him for a moment longer, then sat down on the bench beside him. She felt comforted just by his presence, even if there was a twinge of something else less pleasant—was it jealousy?
‘What are you going to call them?’ she said at last.
Joseph smiled, for the first time looking genuinely happy. ‘I called Harry this morning,’ he said. ‘I told him I’d heard about the supposed charity auction, and thanked him for his efforts. I said I’d like to auction the chance to name eight of the wolf pups, but only on the condition that all the proceeds from the naming auction go to the children’s home in Brentwell.’
‘That’s kind of you. Are you sure?’
‘We’ll survive,’ he said. ‘This business with Elizabeth … it made me realise all the things I don’t want to do. You can call it pride if you like, but there are more deserving people than us. I can sell off a field or two, that will keep us afloat for a while. And maybe we can work on expanding the petting zoo a little. These little guys will certainly bring in the kids for a while.’
Julia watched him. The way he talked with such passion about such selfless things made her heart lurch a little. It made her angry at herself to think it, but she wished he would talk about her that way. She looked at the wolf pups, so small and innocent, nuzzling against their mother. One, two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight—
‘Hang on a minute,’ she said. ‘You said you were auctioning the naming of eight of them. But there are nine.’
Joseph smiled. ‘I know. This little guy,’ he said, pointing to the smallest. ‘I want you to name him.’
‘Me?’
‘Yes.’
‘Why me?’
He took a deep breath. ‘Because, Julia … with all the crazy things that have happened over the last few days … everything began when I … when I saw you on the train.’
Julia’s cheeks and neck were burning. She wished she had a decent excuse to make him turn the heater off.
‘You saw me….’
‘Yes. And I figured that after I got off the train I’d go back to the farm and carry on, and I’d never see you again, but … you got off the train. And then you ended up staying at the cottage. And it … it was all a bit overwhelming.’
‘I don’t understand.’
‘I don’t want to get married tomorrow,’ Joseph said. ‘I really don’t. But … before you leave, I hope perhaps we can … I don’t know, take another walk together?’
Julia’s heart was thundering so hard she couldn’t bring herself to speak. She swallowed down a lump in her throat the size of an apple, and was about to force out some grunt of a reply, when the door to the shed flew open, to reveal Magnus standing there. Appearing so huge he could have lifted the shed and flung it like a caber, he leaned down and said, ‘Have you seen Elizabeth? We looked everywhere. She has gone.’