Page 38 of Christmas All the Way

‘Yes,’ she said, smoothing her hair.

‘And what about tomorrow?’ he asked, in a tone so grave that she knew he must be secretly laughing at her. ‘Will you decide in advance whether you can keep your hands off me or wait until we meet up?’

‘Luckily, you’ll be at Cliveden tomorrow,’ she said. ‘By the time we see each other again, I’ll be over you.’

He grinned, seemingly not the least bit offended. ‘Or maybe all over me. Now, shouldn’t you give me the manuscript in case you’re tempted to break our kissing truce before it’s even begun?’

It was the wink that almost undid her. She covered the momentary weakness by standing up to retrieve the box containing the manuscript from the filing cabinet behind the door. ‘I’ve put one of Eliza’s diaries in with it, along with several letters to her sister as comparisons for her handwriting. I’m sure I don’t need to remind you to be very, very careful with all of it.’

‘Believe me, I know,’ he said. ‘By the way, I don’t think you told me what the novel is about.’

Keeley hesitated. ‘It’s a romance,’ she said. ‘A bit different from her other works but utterly brilliant. I still don’t know why it was never published. There’s no mention of it in her diaries, or any of the letters we have.’

Xander eyed her thoughtfully. ‘You don’t think we should tell the trustees about it yet? I’m meeting Malcolm for an update tomorrow morning – I could mention it then.’

She shook her head. ‘Let’s wait until it’s authenticated first. Then we can tell them with complete confidence.’

‘Do you think there’s a chance Eliza didn’t write it?’

‘No,’ she replied, without a trace of doubt. ‘The subject might be different to her other books but the writing is classic Eliza. Even so, I’d like official confirmation before we present it to the trustees. There was a case a few years ago of a newly discovered version of The Moonlight Dance by Henrietta Wilkie that the literary world fell over itself to praise but it turned out to be an elaborate forgery produced by a gifted undergraduate student for a dare. A lot of people were embarrassed when the truth came out. Careers were ruined. Worse than that, readers were disappointed. Some of them felt cheated.’

‘Ouch,’ Xander said, wincing. ‘I can see why you want to be sure. But surely the trustees will be just as keen as you to wait for the manuscript to be authenticated before going public?’

She thought about the time Malcolm had carelessly let slip the contents of a keynote speech she’d been due to deliver at a conference, and the impulsiveness of Xander’s own appointment without any consideration of how she might feel. There was definitely a chance the trustees might throw caution to the wind when they learned about the manuscript, under the maxim that all publicity was good publicity. It was a risk she would prefer to avoid. ‘This novel has been waiting a long time to have its moment in the spotlight. A few more weeks won’t make any difference.’

He raised his hands in mock surrender. ‘Okay. We’ll do it your way.’

She kept her own hands firmly in her pockets as she saw him to the door of the cottage, only allowing herself to wave once she was certain her fingers could not pluck at his arm and betray them both. The night air was too cold to linger on the doorstep and watch until he was out of sight. Instead, she returned to her office, where the memory of their second kiss was unhelpfully fresh. Catching herself smiling, she gathered up her bag and decided it was time to go home. With a bit of luck, the memory would have evaporated by the time she returned in the morning. Except she suspected it was already too late to wipe out her attraction to Xander Jones.

And she was no longer sure she wanted to.

CHAPTER TWELVE

‘If fate cares not for us, we must take matters into our own hands. Courage, Miss Lovelock, our will may yet prevail!’

Tennyson Hall, ELIZA NORTON

Grace wasn’t sure whether she was relieved or disappointed not to have seen Raff since their encounter in the stockroom almost two weeks earlier. Part of her wanted to engage him in conversation so that she could try to work out whether Ivy had confided in him about Jesse’s proposed rent increase, but another part hoped she never had to speak to him again. And yet another part – one she tried very hard to ignore – kept replaying the moment he’d broken her fall from the ladder, conveniently forgetting that he was the reason she’d lost her balance in the first place. It was all very confusing.

She distracted herself by focusing on helping to organise the Freezy Tye Christmas celebrations. Keeley had put her in touch with Helen, who had in turn suggested she join the subcommittee responsible for stage management. ‘They’re in charge of making the village look amazing,’ Helen explained. ‘Keeley tells me that’s your forte.’

After a brief conversation with the landlord of the Golden Lion, Grace’s phone number had been added to an online group of around ten people she didn’t know, although she recognised a few names from conversations with Keeley. This year’s chosen theme was ‘Once Upon a Time’, and, at first, Grace was too shy to add anything to the group discussions about set building and lighting rigs. But then the conversation moved on to what they could do to inject the wow factor into their plans and finally she felt there was something she could contribute.

What about a miniature light trail around the village? I work at Santa’s Secret in Flaxwood and they have a Nutcracker-themed set we could hire.

The suggestion had been welcomed enthusiastically and had sparked much debate about the best locations to site potential stops around the village. Paul the electrician raised the issue of safely supplying power to the lights, and Gavin was concerned with ensuring the flow of visitors would not overwhelm any particular area. After much back and forth across several days, six locations were agreed and the route for the trail was set, to culminate in an arch of lit trees leading to the Christmas tree on the village green.

‘You could add some Nutcracker soldiers as sentries beside the food and drink stalls,’ Ivy suggested, when Grace laid the plans before her in the staffroom. ‘I don’t have any that are suitable for outdoor use but we could look into getting some.’

‘That would be brilliant,’ Grace said gratefully. ‘The committee is keen to pull out all the stops.’

Ivy considered the map of Freezy Tye that lay on top of the glossy magazine on the coffee table. A series of red dots indicated the proposed locations of each stop on the trail. ‘So the start is here,’ she said, pointing to one corner of the green. ‘This is where the rainbow light tunnel will go.’

Grace nodded. ‘The route skirts around the west side to here, where the interactive toy box will be. The next stop, with the Mouse King and the gingerbread army, is inside the churchyard. Then we have the Land of Sweets, in the garden of Bracken House on Froghole Lane – there’ll be a stall selling marshmallows on sticks and a small fire pit there too. After that, it’s on to the corner of Trotters End and Main Street, where we’ll have the dance of the Sugar Plum Fairy, before turning back along the eastern side of the green and passing through the tree arc to the Christmas tree.’

‘It sounds amazing,’ Ivy said admiringly. ‘You’ve thought of everything.’

Grace wasn’t sure about that; she’d woken up more than once in the middle of the night recently, scrabbling for the notebook she’d taken to keeping on her bedside table to write down random notes and trying not to disturb Keeley. Paul had reassured her the supply of electricity would not be an issue; apart from the light tunnel at the beginning and the tree arc at the end, all the stops had the bare minimum of lights that were constantly on and instead offered buttons for visitors to press to bring the various elements to life. Safety at the fire pit also worried her, until Helen suggested a fire warden be present each night. But top of her list of worries was the weather, the one thing no amount of planning could prepare for, and she spent far more time than was healthy refreshing the Met Office website for long-range predictions. The lights were designed for outdoor use and could withstand rain and even snow, but high winds were a risk and a storm would be disastrous. A few of the other members of the group had been at pains to point out that this was not the first time they had decorated the village, which had eased much of her anxiety, but she couldn’t help worrying all the same. ‘I hope we’ve thought of everything,’ she said. ‘Freezy Tye is such a lovely village and everyone is so committed to putting on a good show. Reading between the lines, a few of the village businesses have had a rough year and need the publicity a win will bring. I’d hate to see Flaxwood take the Most Christmassy crown just because Jesse Bairstow thinks all he needs to do is throw money at it.’