I said. ‘And I don’t want to.’
Chin squeezed my arm. ‘I know, darling, I know.’
Embarrassingly I felt tears squeezing into the back of my eyes, and my throat constricted. I stared at the portrait of my great-great-grandmother and thought about how she would have celebrated Christmas in this house, nearly a hundred years ago. Had she loved her husband so much it almost hurt? Had she been afraid of her own happiness when she moved into this beautiful house? I looked at the non-committal dark eyes, at her hand on her silk lap with one finger marking the page of a book. She met my gaze, as she always did.
‘Ooh, crisps!’ Chin exclaimed, and passed me the bowl as Mum clinked two glasses together.
‘I can hear the carol singers coming,’ she said.
‘Wha-hey!’ Gibbo yelled.
We stared at him, and Jess peered out of the window. ‘Yes, they’re at the gate,’ she said.
We processed outside and stood in the porch. The night was bitterly cold and a frost was creeping over the lawn. The carol singers, several of whom I recognised from the church in Wareham, stamped their feet and called greetings to Mum as she hurried forward to open the gate and let them in. We could see their breath rising in the air, wispy in the torchlight, as they formed a little knot, the children in front, muffled up with hats and scarves, eyes shining with the excitement of staying out so late.
They started with my favourite carol, the one that sums up Christmas for me, especially Christmas Eve and arriving home.
‘It came upon the midnight clear,
That glorious song of old,
From angels bending near the earth
To touch their harps of gold.
“Peace on the earth, goodwill to men,
From heaven’s all gracious King.”
The world in solemn stillness lay,
To hear the angels sing’
‘Nice carol,’ I heard Gibbo inform Chin in a stage-whisper. ‘Look at the bloke on the left with the big brown beard – it sticks out from his chin at like forty-five degrees! What a guy!’
Having been a little nostalgic and sad – in the way that happy family occasions can sometimes make you feel – I was suddenly overtaken with a fit of the giggles.
‘And that old girl there. Look at her! She’s mad as a bag of snakes.’ Gibbo nudged me now, his eyes on Mrs Thipps, the organist’s wife, who opened her mouth incredibly wide on every word and shut it with a snap as she sang.
When the choir struck up with ‘Whence Is That Goodly Fragrance Flowing?’ and Gibbo said rather loudly, ‘What the hell are they singing about now?’ Kate turned and said, ‘Be quiet, you fool.’ Amazingly, Gibbo smiled, said sorry, and was as quiet as a mouse for the rest of the recital. At the end, Mr Thipps came forward with a velvet cap and we all put in some money while Dad stepped forward with a tray of paper cups filled with sloe gin.
‘A Nice Change From Mulled Wine,’ enunciated Mrs Thipps, as she gulped hers down.
Gibbo turned back to the house, fighting hysteria, and as he did I saw Kate catch his eye. My aunt is a fierce creature, someone who doesn’t smile a lot, but when she does she’s beautiful. Her lovely dark green eyes sparkled and she patted Gibbo’s hand. I was glad she liked him.
‘Thank you, all, so much,’ said Mum, as the group turned to leave.
‘Yes, thank you,’ we echoed. ‘Happy Christmas! See you at church!’
We hastened, shivering, back into the warmth of the house. The wind was getting up now, and the french windows rattled. Tom threw another log on to the fire, and sparks hissed out on to the carpet.
‘Supper’ll be ready in a few minutes,’ said Mum. ‘Time for one more glass?’
If catchphrases were written on headstones, that one would do for both my parents.
‘I’ll do it,’ said Tom, picked up the decanter and went round with it.
‘Are you all right?’ I asked.
‘Yes, of course I am.’ He looked surprised. ‘Why wouldn’t I be?’
‘You’re a bit quiet,’ I said.
‘Oh, God.’ Tom laughed. ‘I’m fine. I was just thinking about something I didn’t do at work.’
‘I’d like to make a toast,’ announced Dad. Jess and I groaned. Dad loves to make toasts or little speeches – it’s part of his ceaseless quest to reclaim the title ‘World’s Most Embarrassing Dad to Two Teenage Girls’, which was his for several years during my adolescence.
‘Shut up, girls,’ said Mum, even though I know she agrees with us.
‘Yes, shut up,’ said Dad, placing his glass on the table. ‘I would like to say a couple of things. It is wonderful to have you all here tonight. Lizzy, Jessica and Thomas, you’ve come away from all the important things you do in London, and we’re all very proud of you and glad you’re here. And my little sister, Chin, doing so well with her scarves and bags that not only have Liberty taken some more I hear a shop in…’ he paused before he said the words, then pronounced them as if he were a judge asking who the Beatles were ‘…Notting Hill – yes? Is that it? – wants to do the same.’
‘Oooh,’ we all murmured.
‘Leave it with the J.R. Hartley impressions, John,’ Chin said, bashing his thigh.
The mulberry tree’s branches rattled against the window and the logs crackled on the fire. Dad went on, undaunted, clearing his throat: ‘I’d like especially to welcome Gibbo. It’s great to have you with us for Christmas, and while this year you’ll be substituting, ah, raincoats for sunblock, we all hope you don’t feel too homesick’ – honestly, that’s the best Dad’s humour gets – ‘and we’re very pleased to meet you. So, to us all, happy Christmas, and welcome home!’ He raised his glass and drank, and we were about to follow suit when there was a loud crash in the hall. (Later, after the excitement was over, we found that a window had blown open half-way up the stairs and sent a little jug filled with holly flying on to the floor, where it smashed into tiny pieces, with one of the boughs of pine.)
We jumped, and Kate and Mum grabbed each other and screamed, like spinster sisters in a horror film.
Then the french windows swung inwards.
This time we all screamed. A shadowy, windswept figure stood outside. Dad brandished his minute gin glass at it, as if it were a gigantic blunderbuss. We all took a step back. The figure came into the room and flung off its trilby. ‘Happy Christmas, everyone! I’m so sorry I’m late, but I’m here! God, it’s good to be back! Is that a new armchair?’
‘Mike!’ Jess yelled, the first to recover. ‘You’re here! This is fantastic.’
‘Damn you, Mike,’ Kate said crossly, as we all breathed a sigh of relief.
‘Suzy…’ Mike threw his hat on to the sofa and gathered my mother into a hug. ‘Look.’ He fiddled with his coat. ‘Oh. Damn…I wanted to be able to produce them with a flourish, you know. Ah, here they are. Ouch. Fuck. Sorry.’ He pulled a limp, cellophane-covered bunch of motorway service-station roses out of his sleeve.
‘It’s lovely to see you, you annoying man. Thank you.’ Mum beamed and moved to close the french windows. She started. ‘Oh…my God. Is someone else out there?’
As the wind whistled and the chimney belched smoke into the room, Mike said, ‘I’d like you all to meet Rosalie.’
He grinned rather shiftily, and a second