Page 24 of A Merry Little Christmas

‘Genau. Exactly. So,’ she said, nodding to the house. ‘Enough of me, today is about you and your home.’

Merry made a mental note to bring this subject up again. Of course, Astrid should move back to Germany if that was what she truly wanted. There was something lovely about returning back to your roots; the full circle of life, she supposed. But after forty years? Surely it was better to stay here, where she already had a full life, surrounded by people who loved her? And, selfishly, Merry wanted Astrid to have the role of grandmother that nobody else could come close to fulfilling.

‘It has such a nice face, don’t you think?’ Merry said, drinking in her new home.

It was a substantial symmetrical house built from yellow stone, twin-fronted with bay windows flanking the porch. Above, three slender Gothic arches formed the bedroom windows either side and a smaller version sat directly over the front entrance. The pitch of the roof was steep, hiding wonderful attic space which Merry intended to use to create a grown-up room for Harley. There were four chimneys in total, one on each corner, all with slightly different brickwork, which always made her think of Mary Poppins for some reason, and her favourite feature was the run of lacy white wooden fascia boards which finished off the perimeter of the roofline like bunting.

‘A lovely welcoming face,’ Astrid agreed, turning off the engine.

‘I knew you would understand.’ Merry smiled at her. ‘Cole can’t see a face at all. He sees bricks which are difficult to match, mortar which needs repointing and roof tiles which have slipped.’

‘And that is why you two make a good team.’ Astrid leaned behind her seat to collect her bag. ‘Now, you sit there until I open your door, the ground is icy, and I do not want to have to scrape you up off the ground.’

Merry decided to do as she was told for once. She’d agreed with Cole that she wouldn’t go into Merry and Bright today, and she had promised that she wouldn’t drive anywhere on her own. But as long as she was careful, she didn’t see what harm a trip to the new house would do, especially if she was accompanied by Astrid.

‘We’re so close to being ready to move in. One last big push and …’ She held on to her friend’s arm and took a couple of steps towards the house when she realised something was missing and frowned. ‘Oh. There are no vans here.’

‘Lunch break, perhaps?’ Astrid suggested.

‘They usually bring food with them and eat here.’

Once inside, it was clear that none of the workmen had been there all day. There were no tools left out, no obvious work in progress.

Merry went from room to room downstairs, taking in the exposed brickwork on the internal walls where the plaster had been stripped off. ‘I don’t understand,’ she murmured. ‘These should all have been plastered by now.’

Upstairs, Astrid was shouting down to her about the incredible light and how she would be able to see both sunsets and sunrises from up there.

But Merry wasn’t listening, she was calling Cole.

‘Darling, I’m at Meadow View and there is no one on site,’ she said without preamble.

‘What are you doing at the house?’ Cole exclaimed. ‘There are trip hazards everywhere, Merry. Please go home.’

‘I’m fine. Astrid is with me,’ she said defiantly.

‘What did the midwife say?’

Pip had paid her a house visit this morning after hearing about her trip to the hospital and had made Merry promise to call her night or day if anything untoward were to happen between now and her induction date.

‘Baby’s heartbeat fine, blood pressure stable, temperature normal, so nothing to worry about, I promise. Cole, there is not a plasterer in sight. I thought I should let you know.’

‘I already knew. The plasterers aren’t there because I cancelled them for this week.’

‘What?’ She was horrified. ‘Why would you do that? It’s three weeks until Christmas. You said we needed to leave it as long as possible to decorate after plastering to give it time to dry out.’

‘We do,’ Cole replied. ‘But the walls can’t be plastered until the first fix of the electrics has been done.’

‘Oh.’ Merry was confused. How had the schedule slipped so far without her knowing about it? ‘So why hasn’t that been done?’

‘Well, um, long story.’

She could almost hear him squirming from across town. ‘I’m listening.’

‘Because they had to do another job.’

‘That is not on,’ she fumed. ‘Call them up and tell them they’re in breach of contract. We’ll fire them and get someone else.’

‘Darling,’ Cole cleared his throat. ‘You’ve done a fantastic job designing the kitchen, the bathroom layout and selecting colour schemes for the bedrooms.’