The Willowbury Series Books 1-3 by Keenan Fay

Author:Keenan, Fay
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Boldwood Books
Published: 2023-12-01T00:00:00+00:00

25

After the euphoria of the performance of Much Ado About Christmas, Florence found herself pulled into the end-of-term celebrations at school. It had always been her favourite time of year to be in school, even if the near-constant chorus of ‘can we watch a video this lesson, Miss?’ got a little wearing after a while. It was a time for winding up pieces of work, talking to students about their Christmas plans and handing out more Haribo than she could reasonably carry single-handed.

With only three days left of term, the majority of students were excited for the holiday, and Florence found herself getting in the mood, writing Christmas poems with her classes and sneaking in the odd Christmas-themed film.

As the last day of term beckoned, Florence reflected on the kind of Christmas Day she was going to have. Her parents had indeed opted to spend the holiday abroad, and were already in Australia with her brother, who’d emigrated ten years ago. Turkey on the barbecue hadn’t really appealed to Florence, so she’d decided to stay at home on her own in Bay Tree Terrace instead of flying out to join them when term ended. In another year’s time, when the loft extension was complete and the house was more shipshape, she’d volunteer to do the hosting at her place, but for this year it was just going to be her, her sofa, a fridge-full of party food and Love Actually on Netflix. She was content enough with this choice; after all, she’d had a lot of happy times in this house when Great-Aunt Elsie was alive, including one memorable Christmas Day when her mother had been rather over generous with the sherry and Aunt Elsie had been so tipsy she’d taught them all to play poker in the afternoon.

She did, however, find herself wondering what Sam and Aidan were going to be doing for the holidays. She figured that Sam was bound to be on shift for at least some of Christmas, but, even during their breakfast together, he hadn’t really said much about his movements over the holiday period. She tried not to be offended or unsettled by this; a childhood of being on military bases, and more than one Christmas of missing her father dreadfully when he’d been deployed in places far away from home, meant that she was accustomed to the uncertainty of jobs like this, and the circumspect nature of those who did the jobs. Sam may not be in the navy any more, but a career of being guarded about his movements seemed to still be having an effect on his communication skills.

Struggling to her door on the day that school ended for the Christmas holidays, she nearly didn’t notice the envelope that was sellotaped to it at eye level, with its festively attached sprig of holly in one corner. She put down her box of holiday marking on the dividing wall in order to gently remove the envelope. On the front was simply her name.

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