Page 56 of The Cotswolds Christmas Fair

Amy smiled and waved to Julia’s phone, then spun around in a little pirouette and gave a wobbly bow. They all clapped and cooed, and George slid off the sofa to go and hop around with her in a little dance.

Afterwards, Jen got the children all togged up in their snowsuits and they went out to the village street. The sky was clear but the snow still lay thick and smooth on the ground. There were already some children on the street, and Amy and George ran over to them.

‘Train Lady!’ Lottie called when she saw Jen.

Jen laughed. ‘What’s happening here?’

‘We’re making a snowpeople,’ Oscar said, his tongue poking through the gap in his front teeth.

‘Let’s make a family!’ Amy cried.

And so they did. With Jen encouraging and praising and helping, the children had soon rolled enough giant snowballs to make a family of snowpeople. There was also a cat – George had been in charge of making the balls for this, which had mostly involved him trotting around after Amy shouting ‘Me-Me’ while Jen encouraged him to roll a bit of snow.

She took them all back to the house, and they raided the kitchen for carrots, the coat stand for hats and scarves, the hod for nuggets of coal. Julia and Dan helped, laughing, and came out to see the finished works of art.

And Jen, crouching in the snow, her feet wet and her fingers frozen, helped the children choose where to put the features. The faces were a little wonky, with mismatched eyes and noses that were too low or off to one side.

‘Let’s get a photo for the village WhatsApp,’ Dan said.

The children gathered, sitting on the wet ground in front of their snow family.

‘Train Lady!’ Oscar called. ‘You need to be in the picture.’

‘I’ll get her,’ Amy said, glaring at him. ‘She’s not your Train Lady, she’s my Auntie Jen.’

She dragged Jen over.

‘Will you be here for all the best things, Auntie Jen? For the Christmas fair and for when we actually all decorate the village tree? You’ll help us, won’t you?’

She turned her big, eager eyes to Jen. And Jen, who’d had no intention of staying in Babblebrook longer than the reunion weekend, who had hoped to avoid seeing Julia and the children altogether, nodded.

‘Of course,’ she said. ‘I promise I’ll be here for it all.’

And she sat down, the cold seeping through her jeans, with the children all leaning into her, their warm bodies and cold cheeks pressed against hers.

‘Say cheese!’ Dan said.

They did, and just as he was taking the picture, George trotted over and sat on Jen’s knee. ‘Ee-ee!’ he shouted, grinning.

Jen wrapped her arms around him, feeling his solid warmth in her lap, and the weight of the children that leaned against her. She was tired, wet and cold. And so very happy, so deeply settled. As she hadn’t been for years.

Dan looked at his phone to check the photo and nodded. ‘Good job, Auntie Jen,’ he said.

Chapter Twenty-Five

She’d been avoiding Ted since they’d disrupted Sarah’s art class, but that couldn’t last for ever. Eventually Amy persuaded her to take her to school – the inflatable Santa was safely back in place, she noticed – and he caught her there.

‘I’ve been meaning to talk to you,’ he said.

And that was how she found herself having dinner at his house, with him and Sarah.

She hadn’t bothered dressing up for this; it was just Ted, and she’d come straight from the café, where she’d been making cardboard snowmen with the children.

She was already telling him all about it as she stepped through the door, shrugging out of her coat and pulling her boots off.

‘Yeah, I heard about that,’ he said. ‘And the snow-family you helped the kids make. Everyone snows about it!’

She groaned. ‘My God, that was terrible! Even for you.’ She grinned and nudged him. ‘You can do better. I believe in you.’