A Winter's Dream by Sophie Claire

Author:Sophie Claire [Claire, Sophie]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Hodder & Stoughton
Published: 2020-09-30T18:30:00+00:00

Thursday, 11 December

‘Are the roads open yet?’ Alex asked over breakfast. Not that he had any means of transport. Still, once they did reopen he might be able to arrange to rent something.

Liberty looked up from her laptop and sighed. ‘Every time you ask me that you make me feel like you’re desperate to get away from me.’

‘Not from you. It’s being stuck indoors I don’t like. Being static. I need …’ He cast around for the word.

‘Speed?’ she suggested.

‘I was going to say purpose.’ He supposed what he was missing was having a goal, direction, and being snowed in only made the feeling of being adrift more acute.

Liberty tilted her head as if to think. ‘There is something you could help me with, if you like.’

She had piqued his curiosity.

‘But it doesn’t involve speed or danger so you might not be interested.’

‘What is it?’

‘There’s a tree farm on the other side of the village. We could pick a Christmas tree.’

‘Normally I don’t do this until the fifteenth of December,’ said Liberty, as they put their boots on. She’d explained it was an hour’s walk to the farm. ‘But since we’re snowed in we can bring it forward a little.’

‘The fifteenth of December?’ He fought a smile. ‘Not the fourteenth or the sixteenth? Why this date?’

‘Because it’s the middle of the month and real pine trees shed their needles if you bring them indoors too soon. I like it to look fresh on Christmas Day.’

He zipped up his jacket and chuckled.

‘What?’ she asked.

‘You and your routine,’ he teased.

Her face fell. ‘It’s dull and predictable, isn’t it?’

‘No. It’s charming. And it’s you. It’s how you are.’

She blushed.

He went to open the door.

‘Wait!’ she said, as if she’d just remembered something. She ran to her sewing room and reappeared seconds later with a pair of mittens. ‘I made you these – for the snow. So your fingers don’t go blue again.’

They appeared to have been made from an old pair of jeans with a cream fleece lining, so they were soft and warm. ‘Thanks,’ he said, touched by the thoughtfulness of the gesture. When he’d first arrived, he’d been suspicious of her offers of help, but now he knew that she simply wanted to look after everyone around her.

‘So you just point to a tree and they cut it down for you?’ he asked, when the pine-covered hillside came into view.

Liberty grinned. ‘Yes. Amazing, isn’t it? Still think Willowbrook is a bad place to live?’

‘I didn’t say it was a bad—’

‘You thought it,’ she cut in. His mouth snapped shut. Okay, he’d thought it. ‘Here we are,’ she said, as they arrived. She pushed open a wooden gate.

A surreal scene greeted him as he followed her in. Beneath a gazebo, a long table had been set for a celebratory meal, decorated with greenery and candles, and beyond that was a circle of trees glowing with fairy lights and baubles that caught the light as they spun in the breeze. A wide sofa was pushed up against them, with a stack of extravagantly wrapped gifts piled up either side.

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