‘Yes,please, Uncle Lando. We haven’t been in the snow yet and we want to build a snowman and have a snowball fight and make snow angels.’
‘Well then,’ I said, ‘if we’re going to fit all of that in, we’d better get moving.’
Half an hour later, the four of us were standing in the studio looking at the figures.
‘There are an awful lot of them,’ I said. ‘Do you think we can carry them all?’
‘How many are there, Uncle Lando? About a hundred?’
‘Not that many! Shall we count them together?’
With all the various people and animals, the final tally was eighteen, and although they weren’t huge, the wood was heavy.
‘Hmm,’ said Lando, ‘what to do? Well, I suppose I do haveoneidea…but it means you two having an early Christmas present. Do you think you could bear it?’
‘Yes, yes, oh yes, please! Can we really? What is it?’
Lando took a cloth off a large, wrapped present and beckoned the twins over to open it. They needed little encouragement to rip off the coloured paper and screamed with delight when they saw what it concealed.
‘A sledge, oh, it’s a sledge!’
‘That’s amazing,’ I said, going over to look at the beautiful wooden sledge with its elegantly scrolled runners and padded velvet seats. It was painted bright red, with glittery green holly leaf details. ‘You didn’t – did youmakeit?’
Lando tried and failed to look modest.
‘I did. It’s my first attempt at something like this, so I hope it works okay. If it does, I’m thinking about making them to sell next year. We usually get enough snow round here to make it worthwhile.’
We lifted the sledge carefully out into the snow and loaded it up with the wrapped wooden figures, then gave it a tug. It slid along joyfully, as if it were pleased finally to be fulfilling its purpose in life. Looking across at Lando chatting and laughing with the children, I knew exactly how it felt.
The vicar, Richard was waiting with his wife, Molly, at the church.
‘Welcome, all of you,’ he said, ushering us inside. ‘Come on in, it’s beautiful out there but freezing, and we can’t wait to see the Nativity.’
‘We’ve put the old one away,’ said Molly, giving the twins a hug and letting them have a peep at the sleeping baby snug in a sling on her front. ‘Apart from the regrettable paint job, it had been rather nibbled by woodworm and mice, so it was definitely time to retire it.’
‘I have put protectant on these,’ said Lando, as Richard gave him a hand to carry the laden sleigh into the church, ‘but it’ll need doing again every so often. I’ve written down instructions.’
‘Good job,’ said the vicar, ‘with you moving away to Greece. You won’t be here to advise us.’
‘Well, actually,’ said Lando, ‘I’ve decided to stick around for a bit longer, so maybe I can do it for you.’
Richard’s experienced eyes didn’t miss Lando and me beaming goofily at each other and he squeezed my shoulder and patted Lando heartily on the back.
‘Wonderful, wonderful. I’m glad to see a bit of Christmas magic still doing its work. Now, here’s the stable, that’s okay as you know. Shall we start setting it up?’
The six of us carefully unwrapped each beautiful figure and set it in place, then stood back to admire our work. Tears sprang to my eyes, and as I glanced around, I saw that everyone was looking rather misty as we gazed upon the lovely, moving art that Lando had produced. He reached for my hand and squeezed it, but I also felt like pinching myself, so impossible was it to take in the fact that my dreams had come true.
TWENTY-SIX
NINE MONTHS LATER
It was the most glorious day for a wedding, clear and bright with that slight autumnal nip in the air that gives you an excuse to wrap up in a warm but still glamorous pashmina. Mine was a rich emerald green, which sat beautifully against the coppery russet of my silk dress. As Lando and I walked into the church, I remembered the Christmas before, gathered around the Nativity with the twins and thinking how purely happy I was. The time in between then and now had only cemented that happiness. I had handed my notice in but decided to see out the school year rather than doing anything in a rush. It had taken Lando and I so long to find one another, and now that everything was so perfect between us, what was the point in hurrying? I had finally learnt not to push for my happy ending, but to let it come to me. We had split our time between my little house and Lando’s not-so-little house and found ourselves equally happy in both, but since the end of term in July, I had put mine on the market and moved down to Dorset permanently. For now, anyway. Who knew where life might blow us in the future?
‘I’ll see you later, darling,’ said Lando, kissing me. ‘I’d better make sure Xander has got the orders of service properly in hand before I go back to the house to collect Dad.’
‘Perfect. I only wanted to check that the flowers were all in place, so I’m going straight to the Curious Badger. I’m sure Daphne is as cool as a cucumber about everything, but I said we’d walk to the church together, along with her sister.’
Daphne made the most stunning bride. Having shunned white (‘I really don’t think anyone’s going to believe that, do you?’) she had chosen to wear an elegant ensemble of a deep cream, knee-length dress with a long, hot pink jacket over the top, embroidered with colourful birds and flowers.
