Page 34 of Winter Magic on Railway Lane

She groaned and shook her head. ‘No more chocolate,’ she sighed. ‘It’ll never be enough.’ Instead she pushed him away slightly and staggered along to look up at the first railway carriage. ‘What about the inside?’ she asked.

‘That at least is finished,’ he told her, opening up a door and showing her inside. He was pleased with the result. The seats were clean and the woodwork as polished as it could ever be. It seemed to be holding up, with the odd spot of patching up here and there still needed.

Libby clambered up the steps and looked along the corridor. ‘Wow,’ she murmured, before staggering into the first compartment. ‘This is amazing.’

‘Yes, it is,’ he told her, with a yawn. He had been working long days and was really quite tired now. ‘Come on then. It really is time to get you home, ready for your hangover tomorrow.’

But, to his surprise, she sank down on the seat instead, with a miserable expression. ‘But when I wake up there won’t be enough chocolate again,’ she told him, her words slurred.

He went to sit next to her. ‘What’s going on, Libs?’ he asked. He couldn’t make sense of what she was trying to say.

‘It’s all too much,’ she said. ‘I need a hundred more Libbys.’

‘A hundred more Libbys?’ he repeated, with a grin. ‘What a terrible thought.’

But Libby wasn’t smiling back at him. ‘You didn’t even want one of them,’ she muttered.

‘It was never about not wanting you,’ he told her. ‘It was about my own mess, not you. You were as perfect as you’ve always been.’

She shrugged her shoulders, her long blonde hair spilling all around him. Then she pulled her knees up to her chest, shivering in the cold air.

She seemed very sad, very low and he couldn’t stop himself from hesitantly putting his arm around her and drawing her near. Just for a moment, he promised himself.

She leant her head on his shoulder and he was taken back to a time when he had held her just like that, after one of the many arguments with her dad in her teenage years. Back when he was still pretending to be her friend and yet wishing it was so much more.

He felt her move her head and look up at him in the almost darkness.

‘I’ve missed you,’ she whispered.

His heart lurched at her words before he reached out to remove a stray lock of her pale hair that had got caught on her long eyelashes.

Her face was so close, her lips so near to his. It wouldn’t take much for him to lean forward and kiss her.

Ever since the prom, she had kept pushing him away, apart from that one memorable night in Las Vegas. Finally he thought that they had been true to each other, that they both felt the same way. But when he had woken up, she had left and they had never spoken of it since then.

He had missed her too. Missed her so much that he ached inside for her. So just to hold her at that moment felt like bliss. A dream.

They locked eyes in the darkness before she moved once more, snuggling her head into his neck. He pulled her closer and wrapped his coat around them both. For a long while, they remained like that. Then, feeling her breath steady and slow, his eyes grew heavy and they both fell asleep in the darkness of the railway carriage.

21

Libby awoke with a start and immediately felt a blinding headache. She also had a stiff back where she had obviously lain awkwardly.

She became aware of someone lying next to her and turned her head to come face to face with Ethan.

She took a sharp intake of breath, trying to work out where they were and what had happened. For a brief second, it felt just like all those years ago in Las Vegas when she woke up after they’d got married. She even checked her ring finger, but thankfully it was bare. So where was she?

Ethan moved slightly and murmured, ‘Good morning,’ to her.

She gave him a half-hearted shove and sat up, staring around. She realised that they appeared to be in one of the old railway carriages, lying together on one of the long seats. What on earth had happened last night?

She had started off going to gin night with the girls but didn’t remember a whole lot after that. She must have drunk an awful lot to block so much of the evening out. But perhaps there was awhisper of a memory of being with Ethan in the darkness. Was that in the train carriage where they’d somehow ended up?

She was just about to ask him what had happened when she became aware of a massive jolt that ran through her whole body. Was this the worst hangover in the world ever?

Then she realised that it wasn’t just her. The whole of the compartment was moving.

They both sprang up at the same time and rushed to the window.