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Jacob

Something had to be done, but Jacob had no idea what to say or who to say it to. He wandered around Brentwell, trying to decide what to do. He had forgotten to charge his phone yet again, so couldn’t call Charlotte, so in the end walked right across town to the hospital, where he dropped in on Rita and Nora.

He found Nora sitting up in bed, Roy perched on her lap, Rita sitting beside her bed. Nora stared at him like a stranger, so Rita excused herself and took Jacob out into the waiting room to give him an update.

‘She’s much better,’ she told him. ‘It’s a gradual process, though. It doesn’t look like we’re going to be able to take her back to the USA for Christmas, so my family is planning to come over and spend it here in England. Is there much going on in this town?’

Jacob smiled. ‘There’s a festival,’ he said. ‘Down at the park on Christmas Eve.’

‘Oh, how lovely.’

He forced a smile. ‘I hope so.’

He left Rita to go back to Nora’s bedside, and then headed across town to the children’s home. The snow was falling again, and with more snow forecast for the rest of the week, it seemed certain that Brentwell would have a white Christmas. Whether it would be a happy Christmas or not, depended on whether Jacob could somehow protect the festival from James’s nefarious plans.

The children were in the middle of a Monopoly tournament. Jacob joined in with one game, made a few poor financial decisions and soon found himself bankrupt. Lisa offered him a consolatory coffee.

‘Don’t tell me that you’re moping because you just got beaten by two hotels on Mayfair two turns in a row?’ Lisa said. ‘I used to babysit you, remember? You were always rubbish at Monopoly.’

‘No,’ Jacob said, shaking his head. ‘It’s not that.’ How could he bring it up? His stepbrother was about to destroy Christmas for all the children, and there didn’t seem to be anything he could do about it.

He gave Lisa a brief overview of what he had seen in the theatre. ‘I honestly thought he had changed,’ he said. ‘He hides it so well.’

‘He’s a professional. He’s also a master manipulator. I can remember you getting upset all the time because you couldn’t find your toys. He was moving them about, literally toying with you; excuse the pun. He doesn’t know any different.’

‘What can I do? I could call the police, but I know what Mark will say. He’s not doing anything illegal. It’s a stage show, and the committee asked him to perform.’

Lisa frowned. ‘I have no idea. But you’re resourceful, Jacob. You’ll think of something.’

‘I don’t think I’m resourceful enough to save an entire festival from turning into some demonic nightmare that will destroy Christmas for an entire generation of Brentwell’s children.’

Lisa smiled. ‘You always found your toys in the end, didn’t you? You’ll figure something out.’

It was getting late when he headed home. The wind had got up, the snow driving almost sideways. A couple of times he found himself making wrong turns because it was impossible to pick the street signs out of the snow.

By the time he made it back to his flat, he was exhausted. He stood outside for a moment, looking up at his lonely window on the first floor above the estate agent. A closure notice had gone up in the estate agent’s window just this week, which meant he would soon be living above an abandoned business. He was renting, so there was a possibility the building would be sold out from beneath him. Still, it most likely wouldn’t happen until the new year, so he would worry about it then.

He was just about to head down the alleyway to the inner courtyard and the slippery outer stairs when he heard a car door open and close behind him. He paused, taking a deep breath. If this was James, wanting some other confrontation, he was in the right mood for it. While a punch up in the snow hadn’t been on his radar for this evening’s entertainment, perhaps it would help shake out a few of his frustrations.

He turned around.

‘Jacob?’

He felt his knees tremble. Charlotte stood there, hat pressed down over her hair, cheeks flushed, already covered in snow. Jacob, who had spent the last thirty minutes hiking across town from the children’s home, could only imagine what he looked like.

‘Hello,’ he said. ‘What a nice surprise.’

Charlotte took a few steps towards him, almost tripping in the snow that rose to the ankles of her boots. She looked lovely, a beautiful summer flower left out in the snow.

‘Thank goodness you showed up,’ she said. ‘I was freezing to death in there, and I thought that I might have got the wrong place. It’s not easy to see in this snow, is it?’

He reached for her, pulling her close, holding her against him. ‘It’s the right place,’ he said. ‘For better or worse. What happened to your car?’

‘I had the engine running, and I ran out of petrol,’ she said. ‘Don’t worry, I have a coat.’

She felt freezing. He put one arm around her shoulders as he led her through the alleyway to the inner courtyard.