‘Hey, come on,’ soothed Maddie, giving my arm a rub. ‘I didn’t want to make you upset.’
A loud sob escaped from my lips, and Maddie’s face went blurry. ‘My life took a downward turn after Sam. Flossy the Cat was put down, I was made redundant and Oli…’ I tried to say her name, but I dissolved into tears. Maddie threw her arms around me. By the time I’d finished weeping into her shoulder, there was a huge damp mark on her cashmere cardigan, along with an intricate pattern of cake crumbs.
She handed me my box of tissues. ‘Dry your eyes.’
I dabbed at my eyes. ‘Sorry, one minute I’m okay and the next I am weeping.’
Maddie nodded. ‘You need to listen to what I have to say. How do you fancy going on an all-expenses three-week holiday over Christmas?’
I cast her a puzzled look. ‘Abroad?’
She shook her head of blonde curls which were so perfect and bouncy they gave the impression she’d stepped out of a hair salon. ‘No. It will be a UK trip.’
‘Where?’
Taking a bunch of her golden curls she secured them behind her ear. ‘Frank is taking me to Malibu for Christmas and New Year.’
A year ago, Maddie had married Frank, a retired film actor and now a wealthy businessman, after a whirlwind romance. The way Maddie met Frank was like something out of a romance novel. She flew to New York and interviewed him – the CEO of this new promising media company – for the finance magazine she used to work for. After the interview, he asked her out for dinner. The next day he cleared his schedule and spent the day showing her around Manhattan. They started dating a week later as he flew her back to New York for dinner. Their wedding, which followed a few months of dating, was spectacular. It had taken the Reid family a while to recover from the lavish event and the free bar. Mum had claimed her hangover had lasted a week.
Following their wedding Frank took Maddie back to the States to live in California with him, but she had become unhappy after a few months. So he agreed to return with her to the UK. He bought a large country house in a little Surrey village called Harp Brook and filled it with beautiful and expensive things.
‘Wow – you’re going to Malibu for three weeks?’
Maddie nodded. ‘Yes. I need someone to look after Humphrey over Christmas. As you know, my darling little dog still hasn’t recovered from when Aunty Flo cared for him. Will you come, and dog sit for us? I don’t want strangers looking after Humphrey. He can be a handful at times.’
I thought about Humphrey, my sister’s beloved chocolate-coloured spaniel. The word ‘handful’ didn’t accurately describe Humphrey. He had an endless amount of energy and should have been calledHoudinigiven the number of times he escaped and ran away. When Maddie left to go live in America, Aunty Flo adopted Humphrey. She claimed the dog nearly drove her into an early grave as he went missing so many times during the few months Maddie was in America. She still joked that at one point she kept reusing the sameMissing Dogposter.
‘I don’t think he’s forgiven me for making him live with Aunty Flo.’ Maddie ate a piece of Yule log and I thought about her offer. ‘What is the likelihood of Humphrey escaping whilst you are away?’
‘It won’t happen. Frank has had the best high fencing erected around the back of the house.’
She flicked her eyes to the coffee table before I could arch my brows at her. ‘What about the front of the house?’
Maddie let out a nervous laugh. ‘Rachel, we’re not going to turn the house in Fort Knox because of my dog. He’ll be fine. I think now he’s turned four he’s calming down.’
‘Calming down?’ I stared at her in bewilderment. She flicked her blonde curls and inspected her pink nails.
We both knew Humphrey would do a disappearing act on me over Christmas.
CHAPTERTHREE
‘You’re asking me to stay in your big house with Humphrey over Christmas?’
Maddie nodded. ‘Just you and Humphrey. Oh, Frank and I fly next weekend.’
‘Me – stay in your big new country house over Christmas? The same house that you and Frank don’t fully live in because you don’t want to spoil it.’
Their new manor house was split into two – the east wing and the west wing, as my sister referred to it. She and Frank lived in the east wing. They never entered the west wing because, strangely, Maddie claimed it was too beautiful to live in.
‘How’s married life?’
Something flashed across my sister’s face. ‘He wants us to…’ She stopped.
‘To what?’
She cast me a weak smile. ‘To have a baby.’
‘Oh… I see. How do you feel about that?’
