‘We did. And we’ll laugh some more this Christmas. Deal?’
‘Deal,’ Janey said. ‘There!’ Janey held the wreath out in front of her, twisting her head this way and that to look at it. ‘That’s just about done. Mustn’t over-gild the lily. Less is more sometimes.’
‘It’s beautiful,’ Lissy said. ‘Once it’s on the door it will feel like Vonny is here welcoming us back in from wherever it is we’ve been.’
Initially full of misgivings that she’d made too rash a decision inviting them all for Christmas, she was changing her mind by the minute. This house needed people in it. It needed laughter, and friendship, and … and love.
The doorbell rang then.
‘Oh, blast. Who can that be?’ Lissy said, her hands, covered in raw pastry. An Amazon delivery perhaps? Her mother always sent presents via the internet and she’d not received anything from her yet. To run her hands down the sides of her apron and answer the bell or not? Janey had that second picked up a pair of dangly crystal earrings and was attaching them to the bottom of the wreath. ‘Can one of you get the door!’ Lissy yelled in the direction of the sitting room and Xander and Bobbie.
She heard movement. Good, they’d heard her.
‘Will do!’ Bobbie yelled back.
Bobbie’s heels clacked on the hall tiles as she hurried to the door. And then Lissy heard them again as she scurried back towards the kitchen. She stood in the doorway.
‘For you, Janey. There’s a man at the door asking for you. He …’
‘No!’ Janey said, cupping her hands over her mouth. She swayed on the high stool, slumped forward.
‘Oh my God,’ Bobbie said rushing to catch Janey as she slid towards the floor. ‘I was going to say,’ she went on, turning to look, shocked, at Lissy, ‘I asked what he wanted but he said he had something of hers and he needed to see her. Who the hell is he and what has he done to this poor woman?’
‘You see to Janey,’ Lissy said. ‘Xander and I will sort this out.’
‘Xander!’ Lissy yelled, tearing across the hall. ‘I need you.’
There was a very tall man – sixties? – in her hall, the front door shut behind him. He was holding something in his hand. A smartphone?
‘Who are you?’ Lissy asked as Xander came to stand by her. He put an arm on her shoulder as if to say, ‘I’ll protect you, don’t worry’. That simple gesture put a lump in Lissy’s throat. ‘Oh, I remember you now. You’re the taxi driver.’
‘The very same. Sam. Ace Taxis. Forgive me for taking liberties closing the door but you were paying to heat the street with it wide open.’ His smile was broad and, Lissy decided, genuine. But he looked embarrassed now.
‘I don’t think anyone’s ordered a taxi,’ Lissy said, the hint of a question in her voice.
‘Not me, anyway,’ Xander said. He put slight pressure on Lissy’s shoulder as though to remind her he was still there.
‘No, no they haven’t. But the thing is I brought a young woman here earlier today. Before lunchtime it was. Fairish hair down to here.’ He put the side of his left hand halfway down his right arm to show where her hair had come. ‘Wearing a black coat, she was. Swamped in it. Anxious. I’ve got her phone.’
‘Oh,’ Lissy said, a massive sigh of relief taking the tension from her. ‘Is that all?’
‘Well, not entirely,’ Sam said. ‘I need to make sure I give this phone to the right person because …’ He lowered his voice, looked into the distance behind Lissy and Xander and then towards the staircase. ‘Where is she?’
‘Janey,’ Lissy said. She could see this man – Sam – meant Janey no harm now. ‘She’s in the kitchen.’
‘Yes, that would be the name,’ Sam said. ‘I sensed there was something up with her the second I picked up the fare. She looked lost in that coat of hers like it was two sizes too big in the first place or she’d shrunk two sizes since buying it. And scared, she looked scared. This confirms it.’ He waved the phone towards Lissy. ‘She must have dropped it down beside the seat. I was just parking up for the night when I heard its ringtone. Frightened the life out of me it did. On and on it went. I know I should have switched the thing off but curiosity got the better of me. Anyway, whoever it is was was threatening her with all sorts. Filthy language like you wouldn’t believe. Sounded drunk to me.’
‘Oh, poor Janey,’ Lissy said.
‘Got a daughter the same sort of age, I have,’ Sam went on, as though he was in no hurry to leave. ‘Stuff’s happened to her over the years, poor maid.’
Lissy couldn’t help smiling at Sam’s use of the Devonshire term ‘maid’. Vonny had used it all the time when Lissy had been younger. ‘You’re more drowned than a drowned rat, maid,’ was what she always said when Lissy had come back dripping and covered in sand from the beach.
‘I’m sorry you’ve had to deal with this, Sam,’ Lissy said, aware now how Xander’s arm was still around her and how good it made her feel. Safe. Cared for. But it was only the sort of gesture anyone would make to comfort another in a time of stress. ‘But I’ll take over now. Thank you for your concern. Not many would have bothered.’ She reached out a hand for Janey’s phone and Sam handed it to her.
‘Some Christmas it’s going to be for her, poor woman,’ Sam said. ‘I’ll let myself out.’ He turned to go. Then he turned back again. ‘Got it lovely in here, you have. All it needs, in my humble opinion, is a stonking great floor-to-ceiling tree, decorated to within an inch its life, in this barn of a hall. Maybe two. And that’s me sticking my nose in where it’s not wanted.’
‘D’you know,’ Xander said. ‘I think you’re right. We’ll go and get one tomorrow, shall we, Lissy?’
‘I think we must,’ Lissy said.
‘Happy Christmas anyway, you guys,’ Sam said.
‘Happy Christmas,’ Lissy and Xander said as one.
Janey
‘I lied,’ Janey said. ‘Stuart and I haven’t separated. Well, not legally. I’ve left him. I left a note under the tin with the teabags in it.’
‘When?’ Bobbie asked gently. She sat beside Janey on the couch – one of Janey’s hands held between both of hers – where Xander had half dragged, half carried her, after she’d come round from her faint. ‘When did you leave?’
‘This morning.’
‘Does he know you’re here?’ Lissy asked.
‘No. Not unless he’s hacked into my emails and found the details but I doubt it. He was still in a drunken stupor from the night before. As always. Well, not always. He drinks moderately in the week in termtime. He can hardly turn up drunk at nine o’clock for his first maths pupils, can he? But he goes on benders at weekend and in the holidays. I couldn’t take any more. I should have left him years ago.’
Janey felt her shoulders drop down from somewhere near her ears just saying the words – words she’d thought for years but never thought she’d utter.
‘Lots of us stay in relationships longer than is good for us. Sometimes it’s just too scary to go it alone,’ Lissy said.
Is that what it had been like for Lissy, Janey wondered, surprised at Lissy’s comment, because the emails they’d exchanged