AllFreeNovel
Share Us
Chapter Twenty-Six
Fallen Mistletoe
Alex had been right about the clean-up already being underway up at the Big House, but Minty was nowhere to be seen.
‘She’s still in bed?’ Leonid quizzed Izaak as they dragged the huge mistletoe boughs into the ballroom.
‘I knocked on her bedroom door; she told me she wasn’t to be disturbed.’
Leonid shrugged. ‘That is not like her at all.’
‘So where am I putting these?’ Izaak asked, lifting his two spheres of mistletoe. They’d found them scattered all across the lawns this morning, blown from the estate’s oaks.
‘They’re festive, yes?’ said Leonid. ‘Minty will want them to be saved, for decoration.’
Izaak agreed she probably would. ‘You know it’s for kissing under?’ he asked his husband as they hung the boughs off the rusty sconces along the ballroom walls.
Izaak held one over his head and Leonid obliged him with a slow kiss to the side of his smiling mouth.
‘It’s supposed to be good luck if you hang it over your bed on your wedding night,’ Izaak told him. ‘I know we’re not newlyweds now, but should I keep one for us?’
Leonid looked at the white berries on their fragile bracts, tangled like a green chandelier. ‘You know they are poisonous?’
Izaak looked at the berries. ‘You’re sure?’
‘And they’re parasitic. They love a dying tree most of all. They thrive while it slowly decays.’
‘That’s not romantic at all,’ said Izaak.
‘Let’s have one anyway,’ Leonid told him. ‘Here, this one is good. Hang it over our bed.’ This time Leonid held aloft the ball of greenery, pulling his husband closer.
Their kiss was interrupted by the sound of Jowan stirring on the put-up bed by the fireplace at the deepest end of the room. The Christmas tree near his feet sparkled brightly in contrast to the dull look in his tired eyes.
Aldous lifted his head lazily from the covers and immediately decided he deserved a longer lie-in after the rough night they’d had.
‘Jowan? We thought you’d left already,’ Izaak said, stepping apart from his husband.
Jowan was on his feet, glancing around the room, piecing together his memories of the night before. ‘Where’s Minty?’
‘Not to be disturbed,’ Leonid told him. ‘She vants to be alone,’ he added wickedly in his best Greta Garbo voice.
Only Izaak chuckled. Jowan seemed stricken.
‘I’ll get you some coffee,’ Leonid offered, but Jowan refused and gestured to the mistletoe.
‘Windfalls?’ he asked. ‘Is the estate as bad as I think it is?’
‘Worse. The whole chapel has crumbled,’ Leonid replied. ‘I’ve left messages for Bovis to gather his men, get it cleared as much as we can, before Minty sees it.’
‘She’s already seen it,’ Jowan told him, his eyes cast down.
Leonid and Izaak exchanged glances.
‘You should get home, check your cottage roof is all right,’ said Izaak.
‘I’ll stay, if you don’t mind. Put me to work,’ replied Jowan, his dry eyes turning watery. ‘Please. I need to work today, and I promised Minty I’d help her with the estate more, so that’s what I’ll do.’
The husbands led Jowan outside to where the wheelbarrows and shovels were already lined up. Jowan cast an eye over the untidy lawns. ‘To the chapel, then?’
‘To the chapel,’ Izaak replied, and the men pushed their barrows in silence along the path that led to the unsalvageable ruin behind the House. The gentle seascape was strangely altered in the chapel’s absence. Where yesterday there had been a vaulted roof peeping out through the rhododendrons, there was now only grey winter sky.
Arriving at the spot where Minty had stood horrified last night, Jowan set his barrow down and pushed up his coat sleeves. ‘Let’s fix this mess as best we can,’ he said.
The chapel walls and roof were beyond saving but, with effort, the tiled floor might be preserved, possibly the altar too. Perhaps even a few pews could be repaired but, Jowan brooded, his place in Minty’s affections looked far less salvageable than the sorry scene before him. Broken bricks and slates were one thing, but the ruins of his friendship with Minty was something else entirely. Where would he even begin fixing the mess he’d made of things?
Minty had been right. He had kissed her and regretted it. She’d told him she was afraid of losing his friendship and he hadn’t listened. He’d wanted to kiss her with a desperation that had shocked him, and yet the guilt that had hit him in the moments afterwards had shaken him even more. Now Minty wouldn’t get out of bed. Unheard of, especially when there was work to do and people waiting for their orders. He’d really blown it.
With a heavy heart, he bent his back and set to work.
