Page 39 of Winter Wishes at Pennycress Inn

Scarlett stood in the doorway to the sitting room with her hands on her hips as she took in the mess the little O’Sullivan boy had made. How come it looked worse now than it had thirty minutes ago? She realised the coffee splatters weren’t just on the rug but somehow on the sofas too, and the mantelpiece looked suspiciously empty so she assumed that beneath the mound of branches and fallen ornaments lay the photo frames and candlesticks that had once adorned it.

Where did she start? Gingerly, she walked across to the tree. If she could stand this back up, then at least she’d be able to see what the damage was. Bending, she wrapped her hands around the crown of the tree, wincing as the dry needles dug into her palm, and pulled. As it lifted, she realised she wasn’t going to be able to stand it up properly on her own, it was too heavy. She’d just have to wait until Nicola came in.

As though she’d read her mind, Scarlett heard the front door click open and Nicola’s cheerful voice calling out, ‘Morning.’

‘In here.’ Letting go of the Christmas tree, Scarlett watched as a cloud of needles sprung from its branches as it landed back into position with a thud.

‘Wow, what on earth happened here?’ Appearing in the sitting room doorway, Nicola dropped her bag to the floor.

‘Seb O’Sullivan. That’s what happened here.’ Turning, Scarlett looked down at the tree. Its branches sported huge bare patches, needles having cascaded across the floorboard, the rug and the sofas.

‘What’s happened to the branches?’ Stepping forward, Nicola bent and ran her hand across one, more needles falling into her palm.

Scarlett shrugged. ‘I guess they’ve come off because it’s fallen?’

Shaking her head, Nicola inspected the needles in her palm. ‘No, it’s dry.’

‘Ohhh,’ Scarlett groaned as it dawned on her that she hadn’t quite been covering everything on the list that Laura left her. ‘I’ve not been watering it.’

‘Ah, that’ll be why then.’ Nicola grimaced. ‘Sorry, I should have taken over and watered it when Laura and Jackson left for their holiday, it just hadn’t occurred to me.’

‘No, it’s not your fault. It was on the list, I’ve just not thought about it.’ Scarlett chewed at the cuticle on her thumb. ‘We’re going to need a new one, aren’t we? Even if we had the entire world’s supply of glue, it’s not going to be enough, is it?’

‘To stick them back on?’ Nicola laughed. ‘I think we’d need the glue and a million years to spare too.’

‘True.’ Lowering her thumb from her mouth, Scarlett sighed as the doorbell rang through the inn. ‘Come in.’

‘I think we’re definitely going to need a new one.’ Nicola turned as the front door clicked open.

‘Hello?’

Scarlett grinned as Rowan’s voice reached them. ‘In here, Rowan. Come through.’

‘Hi, I was just…’ Walking through to the sitting room door, Rowan came to a halt just as Nicola had, his eyes widening as he looked around the room.

‘Welcome to the Mad House.’ Scarlett laughed, resisting the urge to run across to him and kiss him. ‘I bet you wished you’d never popped by now?’

‘Just pretend you’ve not seen me.’ Rowan glanced behind him and began walking back to the door before twisting on the spot and grinning. ‘Seriously, though, that’s some mess.’

‘Haha, tell me about it. The perils of working at an inn, having kids around, and forgetting to water the tree, I guess.’ Scarlett shrugged. ‘In my defence though, I’ve never had a real Christmas tree before and I’m not the best at following instructions, even if it’s all written in a list, so… Anyway, who knows of a good place to get Christmas trees from? I can’t remember where Laura and Jackson said they got this one from?’

‘I know a good place. There’s a huge Christmas tree farm out towards Nettleford. It’s where I got my one from and I have a couple of hours before I need to open the coffee cart if you want some company?’

‘That’d be great. Let me just do something with this lot and I’ll be ready.’ Scarlett waved her hand towards the mess. As much as she was tempted to just shut the sitting room door on this particular disaster, she couldn’t risk guests walking in on it.

‘I can do that while you go and get another one.’ Scooping her bag from where she’d dropped it on the floor, Nicola walked towards the other end of the sitting room and placed it on the other coffee table before turning back.

‘Why don’t we all chip in and we can get this lot cleaned up in no time then?’ Rowan shrugged out of his coat before rolling up the sleeves of his jumper.

‘If you’re sure you don’t mind, that’d be great.’ Nicola pointed to his jumper, depicting two robins sitting on a branch on a pale blue background. ‘Love today’s jumper.’

‘Thank you.’ Looking down at it, Rowan grinned.

Scarlett smiled. That was one thing she’d fallen for Rowan for, his confidence to wear what he wanted and do what he wanted.

26

‘Oh, this is lovely and not at all what I expected a Christmas tree farm to be like.’ With her hand in Rowan’s they walked along a gravel path meandering between rows of fir trees. Although the low winter’s sun was shining, fairy lights strewn between the branches of the trees were still lit and every so often life-size statues of reindeer peeked through the gaps in the trees.