A Christmas Hideaway by Harvale Emily

Author:Harvale, Emily [Harvale, Emily]
Language: eng
Format: mobi
Publisher: Crescent Gate Publishing
Published: 2015-11-23T08:00:00+00:00

Chapter Seventeen

Gabriel was exhausted. He wasn’t used to manual labour and he’d been doing nothing else for the last three hours. But he had to admit it was worth it.

The Christmas Market could hold its own against one of its European counterparts with the flat-pack, wooden chalets, where local traders sold their products, standing on a bed of ice.

Gabriel had helped erect those wooden chalets. He had also helped lug the bales of straw and bags of grit which had been scattered liberally along the thoroughfares between each row of chalets. He’d also helped with that, making sure there was enough of the frosty white surface visible under foot, to give the illusion of a dusting of snow.

He had helped various vendors carry boxes of their products to their particular chalets; helped hang myriad strings of multi-coloured fairy lights over and between each of the chalets.

He had even helped find an elf costume suitable for Janet Gilroy’s Red Setter, Merlot and helped Gramps persuade Merlot to wear it. Once the dog had got it on, she seemed only too happy to play her part and Gabriel had taken several photos of her sitting proudly beside Gramps, who was dressed as Father Christmas.

If Janet Gilroy had told him two months ago when he’d booked Ivy Cottage, that he would be spending the Sunday morning before Christmas like this, he would have either gone to the Alps with his father, or jumped on a plane to Hawaii with his sister. Either would have seemed preferable. And yet he couldn’t remember the last time he had had so much fun or felt so good. With the exception of last night, of course.

When Kev the Rev suggested it was time that Gabriel and some of the other helpers went to lunch, Gabriel wasn’t sure what he was looking forward to most. Sitting down with a hot meal, or telling Holly about his morning.

He walked into The Snowdrop Inn with a huge smile on his face but as soon as he spotted Holly, he burst out laughing.

‘Don’t say a word,’ she said. ‘Not one word.’

Gabriel shook his head. He couldn’t. He was laughing too much. He couldn’t even tell her what he wanted for lunch when she asked, or what he wanted to drink. It was only when she threatened to throw a pint of beer over him that he managed to subdue his merriment.

‘I’ll have a pint of beer, please but in a glass, not over my head. You look as though you could use a drink, so get one for your elf.’ He simply couldn’t resist it.

‘Ho, bloody Ho,’ Holly said, pulling him a pint. ‘I’m going to make Mum pay for this, that much you can count on. If she hadn’t told me we were dressing up for charity, there would be no way she would’ve got me to wear this.’

‘You should see Merlot,’ Gabriel said. ‘In fact you can. I took some pictures on my phone.’

He pulled out his iPhone and, when Holly placed the pint of beer in front of him, he showed her the pictures.

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