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‘Sorry, am I late?’ Sitting down, Poppy took a mug from Susan. ‘Thank you.’
‘No, no, lovely.’ Flora laughed. ‘Alex is just a little enthusiastic about making a start.’
Poppy nodded and took a long sip of coffee, the bittersweet taste warming her throat.
‘So, first on the agenda is fundraising.’ Ginny shifted in her chair to face Poppy. ‘We had our Christmas Fayre early this year in the hopes that we’d get more visitors. Last year, a few people had mentioned they’d have loved to have come but were too busy with other plans in December.’
‘Yes, it worked, too. We had the best turnout ever, didn’t we, Ginny, lovely? Thanks, in part, to the huge success of the Family Fun Day during the summer, people were excited to come to another one of our events.’ Flora patted Ginny’s hand.
Ginny shifted in her chair, her cheeks reddening. ‘But there’s always more money to be raised…’
Flora looked down into her mug, a shadow of worry briefly clouding her face.
‘… So, as we do every year, we’ll be joining West Par’s village council and walking around the cove carol singing behind Santa’s sleigh.’
Poppy frowned as Flora grinned again. Had she imagined Flora’s worried look? She shook her head and looked across at Ginny. ‘Santa’s sleigh?’
‘Yes, a tractor pulls Santa…’ Ginny indicated Percy ‘… around the cove, house to house, and villagers join us singing carols and collecting money.’
Poppy nodded. That sounded sweet. She remembered tagging along with Ben’s niece to something similar back home. Ben had worn a whole elf costume and moaned at her for being boring and only donning a red Santa hat. That was the difference between the two of them. He’d been the outgoing one, always striving to be the centre of attention, whereas she’d longed to fade into the background, unnoticed and quiet. Their personalities had been polar opposites, but it had worked. For a time, anyway. Maybe they’d just been too different in the end. Maybe separation had been the only possible outcome, the logical ending to a rocky relationship. And to think, Ben, the biggest Scrooge she’d met, had pranced around in an elf’s costume. All to be the centre of attention, the best. He hated Christmas more than she did.
She took another sip of coffee.
‘… and I’ve sent Mr Thomas another letter urging him to give up at least some of his dogs into our care, so I’ll follow it up with a home visit in a couple of days’ time. Give him the space to mull things over and come to a decision.’ Flora crossed her fingers. ‘And now, for the time Alex has so patiently been waiting for. Alex, would you like to take over?’
‘I do. I do.’ Alex picked up a red beanie hat from the work surface behind him and cleared his throat. ‘It’s that time of year again, folks. Secret Santa time!’
A small round of applause erupted around the table.
‘Thank you, thank you.’ He shook the woollen hat. ‘Who would like to pull a name out of the hat first?’
‘Oh, me. Me, please. I’ll take my chances at pulling the first name.’ Percy pushed his mug away.
‘Of course.’ After giving it a final shake, Alex held the hat across the table towards Percy.
Percy stroked his white beard before plunging his hand into the hat and swirling it around.
Poppy smiled. With his natural beard, she could well imagine him dressing up as Santa.
‘In your own time, Percy.’ Susan laughed.
‘I have a good feeling about this one.’ He pulled a small slip of folded paper from the hat, unfolded it, and hiding it with his other hand, he looked at the name.
‘Who’s next?’ Alex shook the hat again.
‘I’ll have a go.’ Flora nodded.
‘Oh, hold on. Sorry, just a moment.’ Percy waved his piece of paper in the air. ‘Can I just have a quick swap? Got my own name.’
He took another slip of paper, which he checked, smiling, before dropping the first name back into the hat.
Taking her turn, Poppy plunged her hand inside the hat and hastily pulled out a name, glancing at it quickly before slipping it into her pocket. She’d be buying for Susan. She was happy with that.
Alex passed the hat around the rest of the room before pulling out the last slip of paper and throwing the beanie hat back onto the work surface. ‘Right, we all know the rules, don’t we? We buy a present for the person on our slip of paper. We usually spend about ten pounds. Buy anything you think the other person will like, something funny, personal, whatever, and we’ll swap them on Christmas Day. Oh, and the most important rule…’ Alex looked pointedly at Susan. ‘Do not tell anyone whose name you have. Okay?’
‘Yes, yes. Okay.’ Susan grinned and held her slip of paper to her chest. ‘In my defence, Alex, last year the gift I’d bought was just so good I couldn’t keep the secret to myself any longer.’
Alex raised his eyebrows at her before shaking his head, a glint in his eye.
