Page 106 of The Merry Christmas Project

It was such a lovely gesture that it brought fresh tears to my eyes.

‘Thank you, I’d like that.’ I leaned my head briefly on his shoulder and then I slipped away to find Fred.

‘Any sign of Cole ?’ I whispered.

Fred shrugged and squeezed my hand. ‘He finds this sort of thing difficult when his own kiddies aren’t here.’

I nodded, trying to quell my worries ; what if something serious had happened to Harley ?

‘And now to finish,’ Mrs Flowers announced, ‘“We Wish You A Merry Christmas”.’

But before she could count the children in again, the noise of a diesel engine pulling up behind the stage drowned out the sound of her microphone. I looked across to see Cole’s van with a trailer attached to the back of it. I ran to the front of the stage.

‘Give me a few seconds, Mrs Flowers !’ I called and she gave me the thumbs-up.

Cole had come back. I didn’t know what he was up to, but I didn’t care. He’d come back and that was all that mattered. I ran through the snow to get to him. Olek was already there, helping him unload stuff off the trailer.

‘What are you doing ?’ I shouted up to Cole over the noise of a clattering engine.

‘Setting up some lights,’ he shouted back, ‘which I’m going to run from this generator. Grab this and put it over there as close to the stage as you can get.’

My chest felt tight as I realised what he was doing. He handed me a tall lamp on a tripod stand. It was heavy and cumbersome, and I panted with effort to do as he asked. Cole and Olek did the same a little further along. Once all three were in place, Cole plugged them into the generator.

‘OK, fingers crossed this works,’ he shouted.

I held my breath as Cole flicked the switch and immediately the stage was flooded with light. Everyone cheered and clapped, and seizing the moment before anything else happened, Mrs Flowers waved her arms and the children launched into a rather fast version of ‘We Wish You A Merry Christmas’, and this time absolutely every member of the audience joined in.

‘Sorry I was gone so long,’ Cole murmured in my ear, his breath warm on my cheek. ‘I knew I had to act fast if I was going to get those lights set up in time and there was no way I could call you without a signal.’

‘When I couldn’t find you, I thought you’d left.’ I could feel a lump forming in my throat. I was so full of emotion that I couldn’t work out if I was happy or hurt or relieved. Maybe I was all of them.

He put his arm around me. ‘I shouldn’t have disappeared without telling you, especially leaving you in the dark.’

‘I coped all right in the end,’ I said, realising that somewhere along the line I’d stopped being scared.

The song ended and the applause went on for ages and Mrs Flowers and her choir took several bows before leaving the stage. It was over.

‘Bravo !’ shouted someone who sounded very like Astrid. ‘Sehr gut gesungen !’ Definitely Astrid.

‘Bravo,’ I whispered to Cole. I pulled his face towards me until his lips grazed mine. ‘My hero.’

A camera flashed somewhere, but I didn’t look up.

‘Did I just save Christmas ?’ he murmured, his breath hot against my mouth.

‘Technically, I saved it first with my candles, but I suppose I could share the limelight.’

‘What a team,’ he said, stepping closer until I could feel the warmth of him through our layers.

‘Have you heard how Harley is ?’

He nodded. ‘I managed to get a signal from the van. I’ve spoken to Lydia and to Harley. He has broken his ankle. He’s had a cast put on it and he’s on painkillers for now. They’re keeping him in overnight to check for concussion, although he sounded OK to me. Apart from being really fed up because they can’t go to that mansion anymore and they’re stuck in their apartment for Christmas.’

‘Poor Lydia,’ I said, feeling desperately sad for all of them. ‘And the kids. How miserable for them.’

‘Yep, all their plans ruined.’

‘Hmm.’ I had just had a thought.