The Secret Christmas Library: a funny and romantic seasonal treat from the feel-good phenomenon! by Jenny Colgan

Author:Jenny Colgan [Colgan, Jenny]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Hodder & Stoughton
Published: 2025-10-09T00:00:00+00:00

29

Jamie led them to the boot room, a large space with a stone floor, lined with Wellingtons in all sizes, and jackets on the wall – hunting, tweed and old Barbours. There were boxes of gloves and riding boots too.

‘Just pile everything on, I should say,’ said Jamie. ‘There are some waterproof trousers too.’

Esme, it turned out, had about six per cent left on her phone. There was a corner of the grounds nearest the village where there was occasional signal. Naturally it was absolutely miles away, at the very edge. It might not be possible to get there, depending on how thick the snow was . . .

Jamie disappeared suddenly while Mirren shrugged herself into even more layers of very old clothes. They smelled of the house itself; not a bad smell, not really. Just old. She added another jumper and a padded jacket and a huge overcoat, and Theo gave her something which appeared to be waders. She shook her head.

‘Oh, my God, I’m going to look like Coco the Clown,’ she said, laughing.

‘Even more than you do already?’ said Theo. ‘Anyway, I like it.’

‘You do not!’

‘I do’ he said. ‘It’s very cute, plus it’s completely impossible to tell what you actually look like underneath it all. Thrilling.’

‘Stop it,’ she said. He had found an enormous waterproof cape and swathed it around himself, and a huge soft hat. ‘You look like Doctor Who,’ she said.

‘Which one?’

‘All of them put together.’

‘Good,’ he said. ‘I shall stride out for adventure.’

Eventually, Jamie returned. He was covered in dust and had a spider’s web in his hair.

‘SPIDER!’ hollered Mirren.

He frowned at her. ‘What?’

‘You have a . . . ’

He went to the old, spotted mirror above the butler sink, then smiled and shook his head upside down, gently, letting the spider land in his hand. Then he popped it out of the door.

‘See,’ he said. ‘Spider-free. For now.’ He turned back. ‘This is not really a house you want to be in if you’re frightened of spiders.’

Mirren winced.

‘Spiders are great,’ he went on, suddenly enthused. ‘They eat bugs and keep flies away. What have you got against spiders?’

‘Their terrifyingness?’ said Mirren.

‘Oh,’ he said, looking a little saddened.

This is a man who wouldn’t kill a spider, thought Mirren. Interesting.

‘I wouldn’t kill them, though,’ she said, quickly, not adding that this was only because she would be running too fast in the other direction. But he wasn’t listening, instead bringing out, from a large wicker basket he had hauled down, something that Mirren at first took for tennis racquets.

‘What the hell?’ said Esme. ‘Oh, no way.’

‘Come on, Ess,’ said Jamie. ‘They’re fun, remember?’

And he pulled out old, slightly busted snowshoes – wooden frames, with large leather buckles, designed to go over their shoes.

‘They’re not fun, they’re ridiculous,’ said Esme.

‘Can you think of a better plan?’

‘Yes,’ said Esme. ‘Live in a city and go back in time and stop our stupid family squandering all our money.’

Jamie smiled. There was no light in the boot room at all; the window was completely filled up with snow.

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