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‘And I you.’ He kissed her again, hard and passionately, before sitting up in bed. ‘And I hate to bring things down to a more mundane level but I’m so hungry I could eat a horse.’
She smiled at his rueful face. ‘I presume in all this planning you’ve been doing you stocked the fridge and freezer?’
‘Oh, yes.’ He grinned complacently. ‘And there’s plenty of champagne and wine to see us over the Christmas break. I’ve thought of everything.’
She didn’t doubt it.
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‘We’ll eat and then I’ll show you the rest of the house and the grounds.’ He slid out of bed, reaching for one of the two thick, fleecy robes which again Miriam recognised from the apartment, throwing it to her before pulling on his own. ‘Come on, woman,’ he said teasingly, ‘into the kitchen where you belong.’
The next few days were heaven on earth. The house was wonderful and even before she’d seen each room Miriam had agreed they would put in an offer to Jayne’s friends.
Once Jay knew she had fallen in love with the magnificent old house he admitted the couple who owned it were looking to move out soon, the husband having just been told he’d secured a terrific job in the States close to his elderly parents, who were beginning to get quite frail.
Christmas Eve afternoon they spent making a family of snowmen in the garden like two excited children, returning to the warmth of the house as the sun set in a river of red and gold, turning the tranquil, frosted-pearl sky into a blaze of breathtaking colour.
That night they made love again before falling asleep in each other’s arms, sated and happy, waking up on Christmas Day to the sound of church bells and more snow. The trees in the grounds at the back of the house were a Christmas-card wonderland and they stood wrapped in each other’s arms once again, gazing out into the wintry beauty for some time before having breakfast and then walking to the small parish church for the Christmas service.
Jay had bought her heaps of presents, which he’d piled around the tree. Some were silly, funny gifts to make her laugh—a pair of Rudolph slippers with massive red noses that bobbed when she walked and a Father Christmas hat that sang ‘When Santa Got Stuck up the Chimney’ when you pressed the pompom on the top of the hat. Others, like the sexy black underwear and finely wrought gold and diamond bracelet, were more expensive. Miriam phoned her mother to wish her a happy Christmas and the two of them laughed and cried together, promising they would all get together for a meal very soon.
Boxing Day they spent in bed, a day of pure indulgence, the need inside them raging and overpowering. Miriam found she couldn’t get enough of Jay and she knew he felt the same. The taste, the smell, the feel of him was all-important to her, and she found it hard to believe she’d managed to get through the last twelve months without being able to run her hands over his hard body and sleep curled close into his warmth each night.
Jayne and Guy called by the day after Boxing Day, inviting them to a New Year’s Eve party they were holding so they could meet all the neighbours. Jayne was already looking prettily pregnant and the pair of them were touchingly proud of the small, compact mound in her stomach.
Miriam had wondered how Jay’s sister would be with her when they met again but she needn’t have worried. It was as if they had only seen each other the day before.
‘Come early on New Year’s Eve,’ Jayne said as they hugged goodbye on the doorstep. ‘I want to show you the baby’s room. We’ve decorated it in cream and yellow—I didn’t want to know whether it was a boy or a girl.’ She wrinkled her small nose. ‘I said to Guy I want a surprise at the end of all the hard work.’
‘I don’t blame you,’ said Miriam, laughing, and silently blessing Jay’s sister for her sunny, forgiving nature. It would be lovely to live so close to them.
New Year’s Eve was crisply cold and frosty, and as Miriam got ready for the party she was thankful she had splashed out on a couple of new cocktail dresses for the proposed holiday with Clara. The silk-mix red dress strewn with pearls brought out the highlights in her chestnut hair, and with Jay’s bracelet on her wrist and simple diamond studs in her ears she felt elegant for once.
Jay whistled admiringly as he zipped her into the dress. ‘You look a million dollars,’ he murmured softly, dropping a swift kiss on the back of her neck. She’d looped her hair on top of her head, leaving a few wispy curls to soften the style, and now he wound a tendril around one finger, adding, ‘But I prefer you in that gorgeous birthday suit of yours.’
Miriam giggled. ‘I think Jayne and Guy might have something to say if I turned up at their party stark naked to meet the neighbours, don’t you?’
‘You could still wear my bracelet.’
‘Of course. Why didn’t I think of that?’
The snow had gradually dispersed in the meagre warmth of a winter sun over the last two or three days, although evidence of it still remained where snow ploughs had banked masses at the side of roads, and their family of snowmen in the garden were still there, albeit just formless lumps now. Jayne and Guy’s house being a fifteen-minute walk away, they decided not to take the car.
It was late afternoon when they left, wrapped up warmly against the bitter cold. Jack Frost had already been hard at work and a glittering coating of white adorned the bare branches of trees and bushes, creating a carpet of diamond dust on the ground. There had been another magnificent sunset earlier, but now the night sky was a soft indigo, the fragrance of burning leaves and woodsmoke in the still air.
This was almost too beautiful, too perfect. As Miriam held tightly to Jay’s arm and looked up at the star-studded sky she felt a moment’s fear prick her happiness before she told herself not to be so silly. They were together again and they loved each other. Nothing could get in the way of that.
Jayne and Guy’s house was a large semi-detached Victorian property in the heart of the small village near by, and after Jayne had shown her the baby’s room and Miriam had oohed and ahhed over the collection of tiny vests, sleeping suits and other paraphernalia they went downstairs to join the two men, who were sitting in front of the fire with a drink in their hands. Jay slipped his arm around her as she sat down beside him and Guy poured her a glass of wine, Jayne wrinkling her nose at the orange juice she had been drinking since her pregnancy had been confirmed. ‘Not that I mind really,’ she added quickly—as though anyone had doubted that.
They spent a pleasant hour until the first of the guests began to arrive and soon the party was going with a swing. The neighbours turned out to be a pleasant group of people on the whole, and Miriam was just laughing at something one of Jayne’s old university friends had said—a rather zany girl who was eight months pregnant and reminded her of Clara, but with a bump—when she glanced across the room as the latest guests arrived.
The smile froze on her face. She blinked, but the tall blonde woman hanging on the stout older man’s arm remained. Not an hallucination, then. Belinda Poppins really was standing there as large as life, looking absolutely marvelous in a skin-tight black dress with a plunging neckline that ended in a gather at her waist.
‘Wow.’ Clara with a bump followed her gaze. ‘She’s got some nerve, even with the modern miracle of invisible tape. Still, if you’ve got it, flaunt it. Isn’t that what they say?’
She must have made some reply, although she didn’t know what. Jay was talking to a young couple on the other side of the room and as she looked across at him he glanced up and caught her gaze, smiling before his face straightened as he took in her expression. Instinctively her eyes went back to Belinda and as he followed the direction she was looking she saw him become very still for a moment. Then he was making his way towards her, his tawny eyes intent on her white face.
‘I didn’t know.’ As he reached her he took her arm, pulling her into him with his back to the rest of the room, so shielding her. ‘I had absolutely no idea Jayne knew her; to my knowledge she’s never met her. You believe me, don’t you?’
