Читать книгу The Mills & Boon Ultimate Christmas Collection - Мишель Смарт, Kate Hardy - Страница 27

Chapter Fourteen

Mom and Aunt Bessie arrived wearing old clothes and workboots, ready to tackle the garden with Isla. I watched Mom’s reaction as she wandered the grounds, her face pinched, her shoulders slumped. As soon as she was out of earshot I said to my aunt, “What happened in the maze?”

My aunt’s mouth tightened. “It’s a long story, and not mine to tell. But she has her reasons. She got the shock of her life when you turned up announcing yourself as the new owner of Cedarwood. We didn’t see that coming! Tread carefully, Clio. This is a huge step for her, coming back here.” Aunt Bessie’s jovial nature was gone, replaced with quiet concern. But still, what was with all the secrecy?

“Why won’t anyone tell me what happened? I’m not a little girl any more, I’m sure I can handle it.”

She patted my hand. “It shaped her life, and it almost broke her. So let her tell you in good time, OK?”

“I don’t see why she just can’t confide in me.” I tried not to be petulant, but really, what could be so bad?

Aunt Bessie shrugged. “You think she’s aloof, cold, but she’s not, not really. It’s a way to protect herself, her heart. She loves you more than you could ever know…”

I frowned. “She’s got a funny way of showing it.”

“It’s self-preservation.”

I could read between the lines, and understand what my aunt meant, but sometimes it was hard not to be bitter about it all. I didn’t see the need for secrets, for hiding behind smokescreens, but I guess it was Mom’s way. That distance wasn’t a new thing; she’d been like that my whole life.

My aunt gave me one of her face-splitting grins. “I promised your dad I’d always look out for you both. He’d have been really proud of you, you know.”

I smiled, trying to conjure a memory of his face to mind, but only recalling a fuzzy picture of a man with a smile like my aunt’s and the same big, blue eyes. “I hope so,” I said. “Sometimes I feel like there’s a presence next to me here. Just every so often, when I’m alone, the shadows deepen… I wonder if it’s him?”

“Could be. When we were kids he always promised he’d haunt me if I didn’t give him half my marbles. Of course, he was still alive back then so I paid him no mind…”

We laughed and continued into the lodge. “Let me show you around.” Would the secret come out by itself? I wondered whether perhaps, if I found the maze, the secret would reveal itself to me, the mysterious event that happened there so many years ago and made my mom the person she was today.

***

I woke to the bleating of my alarm clock. I hit the buttons until the screeching stopped, and pulled the rugs back over me, settling down. Until I remembered. The party!

Today!

I threw the covers to the side, and raced to the shower. There was no time to fill the claw-foot bath for a proper soak, so I quickly scrubbed myself awake, eyeing the gold faucets, the regrouted tiles, and the ornate antique mirror hanging over the vanity. As I applied makeup, my phone pinged with a message from Amory: Good luck for tonight, darling! Show them how it’s done! xxx

Her message gave me the boost I needed. I texted back: Thanks, Amory, wish you were here xxx

Ten minutes later, dried and dressed, I fluffed my un-Carrie Bradshaw curls, and took the stairs two at a time down to the lobby, almost taking out Kai, who stood at the foot, folder in hand.

“Whoa, where’s the fire?”

“FIRE?” I screeched. “Not again!” Wild-eyed with terror, I sniffed the air, only detecting the scent of Kai. Woodsy, spicy, and manly.

He grabbed my hand. “It’s just an expression… albeit a bad choice under the circumstances. I need you to breathe, to take five deep, centering breaths.” His beautiful, serene lips twitched, like he was making a joke of his own foibles.

I kept my eyes on his and pecked him on his beautiful lips. He let out a little shocked gasp and I laughed. “Breathing, schmeathing.” I was too excited to regulate anything except my caffeine intake and even that would have to wait. “Kai, let’s breathe later. We have to dress the room, and about five million other things!” I pulled him by the arm into the ballroom. Had I just kissed him, even in jest? A tingle of belated longing raced through me, but Kai was right there once again, talking to me about something.

He tried to get me to focus on his face. “Clio, I get that you’re excited. It’s a big day for the lodge. But it’s quarter past six in the morning. At least have a decent breakfast, some herbal tea, and then we can get moving. Definitely do not have any coffee. You’re already wired.”

A manic laugh escaped me. This was my favorite part of being an event planner. The day of. It’s where everything (hopefully) came together, the room alive with decorations, the champagne glasses polished to a shine and waiting patiently to be filled. Fairy lights were strung, glittering in each window… but today was even more special, more sentimental than any party I’d done before, and I only hoped Edgar and Imelda loved every second of it.

“OK, yes. No coffee, good idea.”

In the kitchen, Kai brewed a pot of tea, and I surveyed the newly installed kitchen, making sure it was spotless and ready for Georges. It was shiny and new but still I felt a twinge for the older kitchen, which was now relegated to the scrap heap.

It dawned on me how early Kai was. It was a record, even for him. “Why are you here already, Kai?”

“I wanted to go over everything, make sure it’s right, in case we need to touch up paint or anything else before the party. I’m nervous too. I don’t want anyone tripping over an uneven floorboard or brushing up against wet paint, if we retouch.”

I nodded. “Yes, good idea. One last safety check. Though I moved all the tables and chairs into the ballroom last night.”

He raised a brow. “You moved them all? By yourself?”

I laughed. My legs felt like lead today after all that heaving. I hadn’t banked on them being solid oak. “I couldn’t sleep. It was one less thing I’d have to do today. I meant to get them moved yesterday, but we ran out of time.” I flexed my bicep, which was actually more concave than convex. “All part of the job,” I said.

He shook his head. “You should have asked me, I’d have helped.”

“It’s OK. Let’s go over our list.”

An hour later, Micah and Isla found us in the ballroom, setting up the framed photos of Imelda and Edgar and their family and friends. Kai was placing them in a pattern along the walls, with temporary hooks. Their smiling faces buoyed me, as they stared from each grainy photo.

“That looks amazing,” Isla said. “I love the different sizes.” She walked up to survey the biggest photo, the one that took pride of place in the middle. “Is that their wedding day?” Imelda wore a simple shift dress and Edgar a suit with pant hems that sat just above his ankle, no doubt a borrowed suit in which he still managed to look debonair, despite its being stretched to fit over his lanky frame. It wasn’t their clothes you focused on, it was the light in their eyes. Happiness radiated from the picture – it gave me goose bumps, trying to imagine that they’d shared fifty years of wedded bliss from that day forward. Their separation in the war only made their reunion sweeter, for how lucky they must have felt when Edgar made it home alive… unlike so many of his friends.

“Yes, they were married in the chapel at Cedarwood,” I said. “See the lake in the distance?” I pointed to a patch of glittering water that was gray in the photo.

Isla’s eyes filled with tears. “They still look the same,” she said. “Sure, they’ve aged, but they’ve both still got those same smiles, like they’re sharing a secret.”

I slung an arm over her shoulder. Edgar and Imelda were firm favorites with everyone who worked here, not just for their graciousness in thanking everyone, and inviting them to their anniversary party, but because they were good, honest people, who made everyone feel like they mattered. “The secret is their love. Can you imagine knowing you’ve got someone on your side, no matter what, for the rest of your life?”

Micah stood just off to the side of Isla, and they exchanged a look, one of longing and hope. I moved away, not wanting to intrude on whatever was passing wordlessly between them. I could have been totally wrong, but I had a feeling there’d be another wedding at Cedarwood soon…

Kai sensed the moment too, and said, “Clio, could you help me in the lobby for a minute?”

Like children we dashed into the sumptuous room, and covered our mouths, giggling. Kai composed himself first. “Is there something in the water here?” he joked. “Sends everyone into a tizzy of romance?”

I nodded and said seriously, “Yes, I do a special love dance when there’s a full moon, and Gemini is rising in Taurus. Seems to be working so far.”

He shook his head and laughed. Gazing at Kai from under my lashes, my heartbeat sped up, but it was just the idea of love that caused it, the thought of having something like Imelda and Edgar. Or something like what was blossoming between Micah and Isla.

Maybe I was destined to be single? Perhaps the wedding planner who made other people’s wedding days perfect – and had the biggest dream-wedding board on Pinterest – wasn’t capable of love herself.

“I’m going to miss this place,” he said.

Kai had got the call the day before – another job awaited him in Vermont. He was leaving the day after the party. And after the Vermont job he was heading to San Francisco for a job over the Christmas period. I wanted to say so many things, to beg him to stay and help renovate the chapel and make me climb the godforsaken mountain… But I didn’t say a word, because what did we have? A friendship, and that was all. I had no claim on him and I couldn’t stop him from taking good, paying work for a whim of mine, much as I wanted to. “I wish you could stay.”

He cast his eyes to the floor. “I’ll be back one day to visit… and you won’t remember me, you’ll have so many faces passing through.”

Silence filled the space. As if I’d ever forget Kai.

“Let’s go back and hang the tulle from the ceiling,” he said eventually, his eyes not shining the way they usually did.

Micah and Isla were unpacking boxes of candles, ready to adorn each table. Isla jumped up when she saw me and inched over to the door, motioning me to follow. “I told him a few days ago,” she whispered. “You were right. About everything.”

I gave her a hug, and resisted the urge to jump up and down. “I knew it!”

“You know the offer you made?”

“About staying on?”

She nodded. “I’d love to, if it still stands. And not only because of Micah. I don’t want you to think I’m the type of person who clutches on to any man…”

I thought of her racing around the streets on her motorbike – she wasn’t the type to let a man dominate her. “I know that.”

“It’s more that I finally feel like I fit. I can stop running for a while and make friendships that will last, you know?”

I smiled, understanding she’d found a place to put down roots, to make a life with people she trusted, who wanted so much to be there for her. “I totally get it, Isla. And I’m so glad you chose us.”

“OK, I’d better get back to it.” She couldn’t hide her happiness, it radiated from her.

But it was all hands on deck inside, a flurry of activity, and I moved to help them, heart bursting for Micah and Isla.

I took the lengths of golden tulle from the trestle table; it was soft as silk in my hands. Kai carefully extended the ladder to the ceiling so he could bolt the fabric from the middle point, and we could drape it along sections of wall. Under the lights, it would shine luminously and break up the monotony of the wood, giving the room a touch of old Hollywood glamour.

I handed a section to Kai and he climbed up the ladder. “Here?” he asked, gathering the material.

“A little to the left… more… yes.”

With quick steps, he was back down the ladder, attaching the bottom half to the wall above the pictures we’d hung.

After double-checking the preparations I sent everyone off to rest and get ready for the party, and headed to my suite.

Upstairs, I ran a bath, figuring I could steal ten extra minutes to soak the anxiety away as best I could, before a long night on my feet. Though my limbs were heavy, I was full of energy. All the hard work had been done – and in this case, renovating the lodge thrown into the mix – and now we could enjoy the fruits of our labors, by making sure Imelda and Edgar had one of the best nights of their lives.

I undressed and stepped into the rose-scented bath, trying my hardest to relax, but my body wouldn’t cooperate, thinking of this and that I’d forgotten to do. Groaning, I climbed out, toweled myself dry and debated what to wear.

Eventually I decided on a navy-blue jersey dress that hugged my frame and gathered on one side. I stepped into a pair of wedges of the same hue, and applied makeup and a slick of gloss. I was eager to get downstairs, and didn’t bother with any more primping and preening. It was almost as though I could hear Amory’s voice. She’d be admonishing me for not making up my eyes, and fussing with my hair. I really missed her. We’d always hosted parties as a team, but I’d make her proud, doing this on my own in my dream location. My beautiful old lodge.