‘What about this afternoon?’ I suggested. ‘If you’re feeling up to it. You can’t miss the decorating and it’s been a tiring morning already.’
She nodded and muttered something, already falling asleep. I leant closer to try to hear her words.
‘Nikolai,’ she murmured. ‘He is such a good boy. I’m so glad.’
Before I could ask her what she meant – although I had to admit that I thought I knew – she was asleep.
She was still sleeping when the delivery arrived so, much to Sofia and India’s disappointment, we couldn’t get started straight away.
‘There’s something we can do, though,’ said Nick. ‘Now we have proper stands, we need to get the trees inside the house and out of their nets. Marilise won’t mind us doing that without her. We’ll need everyone else, though; the one for the hallway is huge.’
Personally, I was thrilled to see such a big tree; it must have been twelve feet tall. I think the largest Paulo and I had ever had was four, and that took over half the living room. He would have laughed if he could see me now, getting used to such a grand lifestyle. I could imagine him picking up his battered tool bag, off to a job, saying, ‘At least your Mum and Steph would approve! And don’t forget what I’ve taught you about wiring plugs – it’s a handy skill, even if you’re living like royalty.’ But he would have been pleased, I think, that I was finding happiness.
This huge tree would look magnificent in the hallway, and there was plenty of space for it. The Christmas pudding was now steaming, and would be for the next eight hours, only requiring occasional attention to top the water up, so Angela and Greg joined us. The smaller tree was taken through to the living room and somehow, between the seven of us, we managed to haul the bigger tree inside and raise it up into its stand. Astrid and I were deputised to remain on the landing, clinging to the top branches while everyone else joined in with snipping and pulling off the net which was wound around the tree. Next, we looped fishing wire around the trunk in several places, which Greg tied firmly to the banisters. It was hot, scratchy work delving into the branches to push the fishing wire through, and removing the fine netting was like trying to pick off a spider’s web, but when we had finished and the tree stood proudly in the hall, its branches free, it was worth all the effort.
‘Oh, it’s beautiful,’ said Astrid, wiping her eyes unselfconsciously. She grabbed Nick’s arm and squeezed him toher. ‘Look what you’ve done, clever boy, you’ve made me cry, but in such a good way.’
As Nick hugged her and glanced across at me, I thought he looked misty-eyed himself and, for the first time in a long time, the emotion that caused prickling behind my own eyelids wasn’t sadness, or grief, but joy.
‘We need someone small for the next bit,’ said Greg, brandishing a watering can.
‘Ooh, me, me!’ said Sofia, who had been capering about with excitement.
‘You’re just the person,’ said Greg. ‘I need you to go crawling about underneath that tree, first with a dustpan and brush for all the dropped needles and then with this watering can to fill up the stand. Are you up for it?’
‘Yes!’ she shrieked and, taking the things he had mentioned, disappeared underneath the tree, screaming with pleasure.
‘I wish I got that much happiness out of a dustpan and brush,’ said Angela, smiling fondly, and we all laughed.
‘I’ll go and get Marilise while all this is being done,’ I said. ‘She’ll be so happy.’
I knew that Marilise was tired, but she was determined to come downstairs and join in as much as she could.
‘Set me up with some coffee and a couple of those delicious mince pies and I’ll be as right as rain,’ she insisted, so that was what I did. She professed her delight with the tree and then asked that the tea chests of decorations be brought over next to her.
‘If you will indulge an old woman, I would like to unpack these and give them to the rest of you to hang. My days of climbing a stepladder are, I think, over.’
Greg and Nick had already wound the lights around the tree, and they twinkled merrily as we carefully hung the exquisite decorations. Some were finely carved wood, and many were made of lace so delicate that I feared it would fall apart in my hands, but most were delicate glass in every colour imaginable, which caught and reflected the lights, making the tree look ethereal.
Sofia soon got bored with the careful work, so Astrid took her to open some of the other boxes that had arrived, and soon they were cooing over the large reindeer and posing with them for selfies before taking them outside.
‘Is Astrid all right?’ asked Nick, as we both hung decorations around the back of the tree. ‘She looks a bit… strained.’
I explained what India had told me.
‘I’ll speak to her later,’ he said. ‘I can’t help feeling some responsibility for all this.’
I took his hand and squeezed it, gazing into his eyes and thinking how different he was from the man I had first met a few days ago. That man seemed inured to his family and their feelings, so wrapped up was he in nursing his own insecurities and sense of injustice, but now Nick seemed so caring. It crossed my mind that I still didn’t know him well enough to judge which was the real him, but Marilise seemed so sure that he was ‘a good boy’, and my gut was telling me the same, although, if I was being honest with myself, his kissing technique could easily be throwing any of my other instincts into the shade.
‘What are you two doing behind there?’ came India’s cheeky voice, and we jumped guiltily, then grinned at each other.
‘Just making sure everything’s perfect,’ called back Nick and we giggled. By now, the fact that something had happened between us must have been obvious to everyone, but I didn’t care.
When we emerged, Sofia and Astrid were coming in from positioning the reindeer, and Marilise’s tea chests were nearly empty.
‘What else did you buy?’ she asked, pausing her unwrapping of the last few items.
‘Half the shop,’ said Nick, and opened a couple of the boxes. ‘Ah, here are my candy canes,’ he said, extracting them with a flourish that made India and Sofia laugh. ‘More lights, and oh! Just a tiny bit of tinsel.’
