Page 30 of A Merry Little Christmas

‘As long as he keeps coming back,’ Merry replied, patting his hand. It was icy cold, so she tucked it inside the covers. ‘I want him to meet this baby. I want a picture of them together, so I can say, look, this is you and your granddad. Does that sound mad?’

‘No,’ Emily said softly. ‘It sounds like something a loving mum would say to her child.’

Merry wasn’t so sure. A loving mum would be following doctor’s orders and not wishing she was running a candle-making workshop rather than staying at home to take care of her soon-to-be-born baby.

Chapter 11

Nell

The day of the first candle-making workshop had arrived and Nell was a bag of nerves and regrets. She wasn’t sleeping well at the moment, which didn’t help. There was so much whirling around in her head and lying beside Olek listening to his deep, easy breaths only increased her anxiety. The closer the hands of the shop’s clock crept towards the 2 p.m. start time, the more she began to doubt herself.

What had she been thinking? She wasn’t anywhere near experienced enough in the art of making candles to impart knowledge to others. Merry made it look so easy; she could judge when the molten wax was ready to pour into the glass jars just by looking at it and her candles were perfectly flat on top, while Nell’s invariably developed more craters than the dark side of the moon.

She paced up and down the shop, debating whether to call everyone booked onto this afternoon’s session and make up some excuse. She could tell them the wax melter was broken, or she’d come down with a vomiting bug in the last half-hour … They’d have to refund everyone’s money, but the way she was feeling right now, she’d gladly do that from her own pocket.

From the other side of the closed studio door, the sound of a Michael Bublé Christmas song blared out and, a second later, Woody started singing along in falsetto.

She erupted into laughter, and the music went off.

‘I heard that,’ he yelled. ‘Just testing my technology. Two ticks and I’ll be ready for the grand reveal. You are going to die!’

Imminent death notwithstanding, her new friend’s enthusiasm must have been contagious because Nell gave herself some stern words.

Come on, Nell. You can do this. Woody will be there to gee up the participants. And, more importantly, Merry will be on hand via Zoom to pick up on any major errors. What’s the worst that could happen?

Thank goodness for Woody, that was all she could say.

He’d been an absolute diamond since his arrival, he’d already made himself at home both in the flat and at Merry and Bright.

Nell was particularly talented at listening to customers’ requirements and selecting the most appropriate product, regularly managing to unintentionally upsell to them. She was also pretty hot on keeping an eye on stock levels and shelf replenishment, if she did say so herself. Woody talked far too much to every customer and Nell had had to have a word with him about throwing in freebies when he got on particularly well with someone. And then there was that unfortunate incident of setting fire to the sleeve of his own jumper with a lit candle. But, on the plus side, he was the fastest and neatest gift wrapper she’d ever met, while simultaneously getting customers to add their details to the mailing list, following Merry and Bright on social media and, his masterstroke, persuading them to take a selfie with their purchases, post it on Instagram and tag them.

‘Okey-dokey, Nell, close your eyes, I’m opening the door,’ Woody shouted.

‘My eyes are shut!’ she replied.

For the last two hours, she’d been banned from the studio while he worked his magic. He’d told her to trust him, which, even though she hardly knew him, she did.

The door opened and, at once, the scent of Christmas trees hit her. Woody took her hand and led her in.

‘You may open your eyes,’ he said. ‘Ta-dah!’

‘Oh my goodness!’ She turned in a full circle, taking it all in.

‘Careful, the floor might be a little bit slippery,’ he said with a wince. ‘I dropped a bottle of essential oil near the sink.’

‘Noted,’ said Nell, adding ‘scrub floor’ to her job list. ‘But I forgive you, because this room is incredible.’

The studio had been totally transformed from a neat and clinical production area to what could only be described as a wintry scene from Narnia. Snow-sprayed branches, garlands of holly, spruce and ivy, strings of lights … everywhere Nell looked, there were touches of Woody’s genius. The work table had a big bunch of mistletoe suspended above it and had been set with eight workstations, each with a small tote bag on which Woody had written the participants’ names in glitter pens. A festive floral and candle centrepiece gave the finishing touch to the space.

Woody clasped his hands together under his chin. ‘You like?’

‘I love!’ Nell nodded. ‘You’ve worked wonders. It’s obvious you’re an expert at this sort of thing.’

‘Thank you,’ he said with a bow. ‘I’m honoured.’

He gestured towards the wax melter, where Nell had previously set out the essential oils for the attendees to make the lemon, lime and rosemary candle, which Merry had selected because it was her first-ever product. Those oils had been replaced with different ones.

‘I’ve had a little swap around,’ Woody admitted. ‘I know you advertised making one of the original products. But as it’s Christmas, it’s got to be Mistletoe Kiss.’