Текст книги "Christmas at Lilac Cottage"

Автор книги: Holly Martin

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Текущая страница: 11 (всего у книги 21 страниц)

Chapter Thirteen

Henry woke the next day to the winter sun pouring through the open curtains and a stark naked Penny lying asleep on his chest, wrapped tightly in his arms. He pulled the duvet over her shoulders, and resumed his hold on her.

So much for taking things slow. He’d hoped to get to know her properly, date her, spend time with her, start a proper relationship and not one that was based on sex. Two minutes kissing her in that unbelievably sexy underwear and he’d forgotten all his best intentions. He wanted this to work with Penny. She felt like the start of a wonderful new chapter in his life, one that he wanted to last a lifetime. He didn’t know how Penny felt about them, whether for her this was a long-term thing or nothing more than a fling to get back in the saddle after all this time. But one thing was for sure, he wasn’t letting her go without a fight.

She stirred and looked up at him, her conker brown hair sticking out everywhere and a huge grin spreading on her face as she clearly remembered the events of the night before.

He brushed her hair from her face. ‘Hi.’

‘Hi.’

‘I know last night didn’t go according to plan but—’

‘Last night was—’

A door slammed downstairs. ‘Dad?’ Daisy shouted. ‘Get up, you lazy sod.’

Penny’s eyes widened with fear.

‘Crap. I didn’t expect her back so soon,’ Henry whispered.

‘Dad!’

‘Yeah hang on, love, I’m just getting dressed, I’ll be down in a second.’

Shit, he was going into full-blown panic mode here. He didn’t want Daisy to know about him and Penny, not yet, and he absolutely did not want her to know that he’d slept with his neighbour just five days after meeting her, what kind of example was that to set for his daughter?

Henry scrabbled up and started throwing on his clothes. ‘Get dressed.’

Penny quickly climbed out of bed too, her gorgeous, naked body disappearing into her underwear and dress. Jesus, there was no way to explain what she was doing upstairs in his room, dressed clearly in the clothes she had worn the night before. There was only one conclusion that Daisy could come to and that would be the right one.

‘What do we do?’ Penny said.

‘I’ll take her out somewhere and then you can escape.’

A thunder of feet came racing up the stairs and Henry thanked god that the door was closed and Daisy would never just walk in out of fear of seeing her dad naked.

‘Dad, is the laptop in there? I want to Skype Melissa.’

Henry looked around and saw the laptop on top of the drawers. ‘Yes, hang on, I’ll bring it down to you.’

‘It’s OK, I was going to Skype her from my room, come on.’ She rattled the doorknob impatiently.

‘In the wardrobe, quick,’ Henry whispered and he felt a stab of guilt and pain at the look of hurt that flashed across Penny’s face as she stepped into the wardrobe and closed the door. He grabbed the bag of condoms and hid it in the drawers, quickly straightened the duvet and pillows, kicked Penny’s shoes under the bed, gave the room a quick cursory glance to make sure there was no other evidence, and then opened the door.

‘Took you long enough,’ Daisy grinned up at him.

‘I’d just got out the shower when you came in, I didn’t know I’d have to get dressed in record time.’

Daisy walked in and grabbed the laptop, sitting on the edge of the bed and firing it up.

‘How was your date with Penny?’

‘It was…’ brilliant, wonderful, fun and ended in the best sex he’d ever had, ‘fine.’

‘Fine? That doesn’t sound good, was she boring or a terrible kisser or something?’

Could the morning after the most wonderful night end more badly than this?

‘It wasn’t a proper date, you know that, so there was no kissing and no she wasn’t boring, she was great fun.’

‘But?’

‘There’s no but.’

‘There was definitely a but.’

‘There isn’t. We went for a meal, we chatted, we had a lovely time and we came back here and went to bed.’

‘Together?’ Daisy’s eyes lit up, mischievously.

‘No, of course not.’

‘Did she come on to you? Did she try to kiss you or something, because you’re acting all weird?’

‘No.’

‘Did you kiss her and she rejected you?’

‘No, what’s with all the questions?’

‘Because you never take a woman out on a date as friends, never, not once.’

‘This was your idea.’

‘I know, but I didn’t think you’d actually go through with it. Do you like her?’

‘No.’ Horribly aware that Penny was listening to every single word that was being said and he had lied to his daughter about ten times in one conversation, he needed to say something that would rescue this situation. ‘Yes, as friends.’

‘Nothing more?’

‘No. Maybe the friendship could turn into something more, but not yet. I need to get to know her a bit more first.’

‘So more dates?’

Daisy looked down at the computer as she logged in, but not before he caught the flash of worry in her eyes.

‘Yes, as friends.’

She nodded. ‘I’m going to phone Melissa.’

‘OK, don’t be long, I thought we could go out, catch a film, have some lunch.’

‘Cool.’ She got up and walked to the door. ‘We can ask Penny too, if you want.’

‘I think she’s out.’

‘Her car is here.’

‘She could have gone for a walk.’

‘Bernard is here.’

‘Maybe she went out without him, I don’t know, but there hasn’t been a peep from her side of the house all morning. Come on, phone Melissa and we’ll go out in ten minutes.’

‘Make it fifteen,’ Daisy grinned and walked off into her bedroom.

Henry waited a moment and then closed the door and rushed back to the wardrobe. He opened the door and saw Penny was sitting on the floor looking angry. Shit, it wasn’t possible for it to get any worse.

He crouched down to her height. ‘I’m so sorry, about all of this. I didn’t mean…’

‘I don’t want to talk about this now, not here when I’m stuffed in the wardrobe like a terrible mistake that you’re ashamed of. We can talk about this later.’

‘I’m sorry, I—’

‘Dad, Melissa isn’t answering, we can go out now if you want,’ Daisy called from her room and Henry quickly closed the wardrobe door again. He knew he was handling this terribly but he had no idea how to handle it in any other way.

‘OK, I’ll just grab my shoes and coat, give me a minute,’ he called. He turned back to the wardrobe and whispered through the door, not wanting to see the hurt and anger in Penny’s eyes again. ‘Give us five minutes and then you can escape.’

There was no answer from inside. As he grabbed his coat and left the room, he knew he would have a lot of making up to do.

Penny was beating the eggs so furiously in the bowl that splashes were hitting the worktops. Feeling somehow dirty after it had all ended that morning, she’d had a shower, walked Bernard and tried doing some sketches for future ice sculptures, but had failed spectacularly to do even the simplest of drawings. She couldn’t do any carving either because she was too angry for that. Cake making seemed to be her best bet, she couldn’t go too far wrong with that and couldn’t really injure herself too much like she could if she was carving.

She heard a car pull up outside, doors closing and the sounds of Henry and Daisy chatting as they walked round the side of the house.

She saw them walk past her back door and then Daisy scooted back and let herself in.

‘Hey, there you are, we didn’t see you this morning. We were going to ask you to come to the cinema with us, where were you?’

‘Out.’

Daisy hovered awkwardly, clearly sensing how angry she was and not knowing why. Penny took a deep breath. She refused to be angry at Daisy, none of this was her fault.

She looked up at her and saw Henry waiting outside.

‘Sorry, just had a bad morning. Did you enjoy the film?’

‘Yeah, some Christmas fiasco, families warring thing, it was very funny. Can we do some more carving later?’

‘Not today, honey, I’m going to be really busy. We can do some tomorrow though. I promise.’

Daisy seemed satisfied with this. ‘Dad said you had a wonderful date last night.’

‘It wasn’t a date,’ Penny said, adding the eggs to the cake mixture.

‘But…’

‘Daisy, come on, leave her alone,’ Henry said. ‘She just said she was really busy.’

‘OK, are you coming for dinner tonight?’

‘No, sorry love, I can’t.’

‘Tomorrow then?’

‘Maybe.’

Daisy left, obviously knowing something was wrong and she and Henry went back next door.

She added a splash of milk and gave it a good stir as the gentle murmur of voices continued next door. She heard the thunder of feet as Daisy went upstairs and a few moments later the connecting door opened.

She glanced up at Henry as he closed the door behind him.

‘I’m really sorry about the stuff I said, about shoving you in a cupboard. I handled it terribly and I’m really sorry.’

She slammed the spoon down. ‘And how should you have handled it?’

He had nothing to say. Eventually he spoke. ‘We agreed that we wouldn’t tell her.’

‘We agreed that we wouldn’t tell her unless it got serious between us. Last night it got pretty fucking serious. It was one of the best nights of my life and this morning you bundled me into a wardrobe like I was a shag that you regretted.’

‘What did you want me to do? Bring you downstairs dressed only in my t-shirt? That was not the way for her to find out.’

He was angry now and she didn’t think he had any right to be.

‘No, but you could have had a sensible conversation with her.’

‘How? She was standing outside my bedroom door and you were standing there in last night’s clothes and just-fucked hair. What could I have said, “Hey Daisy, I know me and Penny have only just met but last night we slept together and it was the best sex I’ve ever had in my life.”’

Penny stared at him in shock and he moved round the table towards her. When he spoke his voice was softer. ‘Should I have told her that when I made love to you I could honestly see myself doing that every night for the rest of my life?’

She was horribly aware that she looked like a fish as her mouth moved but no words came out.

‘Come in the lounge and let’s talk.’

He waited for her and she led the way, sitting down on the sofa. He sat down next to her.

‘She’s happy here. She hasn’t been really happy for a long time. We’ve moved around a bit in recent years because of work and one reason or another. She was bullied at the last two schools. I’m not sure whether it was because she was the new girl or because sometimes she’s a bit shy. Teenagers are cruel and they just have to get a whiff of vulnerability and they attack like a pack of wolves. Having a mum who abandoned her a few weeks after her birth, well, that kind of stuff is like gold dust to a bully. Lots of kids come from single parent families but somehow it’s different that she was raised by her dad and not her mum. Your mum is supposed to be the one person that sticks by you through thick and thin. There were comments about her being an ugly baby and how no one wants her, even comments that she wasn’t mine because she’s so blonde and I’m so dark.’

Penny gasped. ‘Is that true, she might not be yours?’

Henry shrugged. ‘I don’t know and I don’t care. It didn’t occur to me at the time when she came to live with me, it was only later when she started school that a few of the other parents made snide comments about our differences. Her mum has dark hair too. But I’ve raised her ever since she was three months old; she’s mine even if she isn’t biologically.’

Penny stared at him, feeling her heart fit to burst with love for him.

‘It hurts her though, when the other children pick on that. Another layer of doubt to add to her abandonment worries. If I’m not her dad then why would I stay? It breaks my heart. I think the only saving grace through all the bullying was her relationship with Rosie, my ex. I think Daisy saw her as her only friend at the time and it really upset Daisy when I broke up with her. I tried to make it up to her by bringing Emily into our life. She was all sweetness and light to Daisy in front of me but behind my back she brought her down, stomped on her confidence, said some absolutely horrible things. She told her things I’d supposedly said about how Daisy had ruined my life and I regretted having her and that I wished Tina had had an abortion and that I didn’t think she was mine.’

‘No!’ Penny felt tears spring to her eyes. ‘How could anyone say that to a child?’

‘I don’t know. I would never even think those things, let alone say them. Jesus, every insecurity Daisy has ever had, Emily played up to every single one of them. I’m not sure if Daisy believed her at the time or whether she didn’t want to tell me because I was happy with Emily. I had no idea what was going on but Daisy ran away from home. She went off to school one day and never got there. She made her way down here instead, caught the train some of the way, walked a lot of it. Took her three days, she slept rough for two nights. It absolutely broke my heart. The police were out looking for her, it was horrible, the worst days of my life. I’m scared of it happening all over again. She got so lucky last time, no one found her or hurt her. She might not be so lucky if she runs away again. I promised her no one would ever come between us again. It’s harder because this is her home, and you’re part of it and I never want her to feel in the way in her own home.’

‘I understand.’

‘No, you don’t. Last night it did get serious between us – it wasn’t just sex, you know that. There was a connection there that I’ve never felt before. But this is all happening way faster than any of us could have imagined. She specifically asked me not to date you and I went ahead and did it anyway and I really don’t want to upset her when she’s smiling again for the first time this year. I just need to give her some time to get used to the idea. If you come round for dinner most nights, come out with us, she will get used to having you as part of our life, she will see how good we are together and trust that I’m not going to hurt you and then I can introduce the idea of us seeing each other. After last time with Emily and Rosie, I just want to tread carefully with Daisy this time.’

Penny took his hand and he sighed with relief. ‘I understand not wanting to tell her, but if she finds out we’ve been sneaking around behind her back and lying to her she is going to be even more hurt.’

‘I know. I would just like to get to Christmas without upsetting her. I like seeing a smile back on her face again.’

‘OK.’

‘And we’ll just be really careful for the next few days.’

She nodded.

‘Now let’s have a quick shag, whilst she’s on the phone to her friend.’ Henry reached for her, and she laughed, batting away his advances.

Henry chuckled. ‘Come for dinner tonight. I’ll cook you something special.’

Penny nodded. ‘I’ll bring some cake.’

‘Well, if making cakes is your response to getting annoyed with me, I’m going to be as big as a house.’

‘Then don’t annoy me.’

Henry smiled, peered over her shoulder at the still closed connecting door and reached forward to give her a brief, soft kiss, before walking out the door.

Chapter Fourteen

Henry pulled his car into the furniture factory car park and got out. The car park was nearly deserted.

He had been surprised to get a phone call from Audrey, Clara’s assistant, half an hour before, asking him to come in and discuss his designs with Clara and Edward. It was one of the things Henry had brought up in his interview, that he would love the opportunity to design his own furniture. Edward had seemed really interested but hadn’t been sure whether at that stage they would be looking to design anything new when their current lines were selling so well, but he had promised to talk to the design team. Henry hadn’t expected to hear any more about it and certainly hadn’t expected to get a phone call from Clara so late on a Wednesday night just a week before Christmas, especially because, according to Daniel, although Clara headed up the design team, she basically did a big fat lot of nothing. But it wasn’t an opportunity he was going to miss: designing and creating ideas from scratch was something he was passionate about. He loved building a piece that was individual and not like anything that could be bought in shops.

He grabbed his portfolio from the car and walked into the factory just as Daniel was walking out.

‘Oh hey, mate, what are you doing here so late?’ Daniel asked, shrugging on his coat and pulling his hat on over his messy hair.

‘I’ve been asked to come in and talk to Edward and Clara about my designs for some new furniture.’

‘Oh, that’s cool. I hope they like your designs. Oh, before I forget, Maggie wants me to invite you round for dinner tomorrow, you can bring Daisy too if you want.’

‘Thank you, I’d love to. I’ll ask Daisy though I’ll doubt she will come. What time?’

‘About seven thirty is good. I’ll see you then.’

Daniel left and Henry looked at his watch. The nice dinner and evening he had planned with Penny was quickly disappearing. She had been out walking Bernard when he left so he had asked Daisy to start dinner and to pass on a message that he had been called into work but he would be back soon. He only hoped that this meeting didn’t take too long.

He raced up the stairs and walked into Audrey’s office, which led through to Clara’s office. Audrey was just getting on her coat and scarf to leave too.

She looked at him apologetically. ‘I’m sorry to call you in so late, but she insisted,’ Audrey whispered as she walked past him and out the door, leaving him alone.

He approached the door to Clara’s office. Clara was sitting behind her desk, a huge thing that took up almost the entire room. The whole room was covered in dark wood that matched the desk and modern art pictures that were slashes of brown and beige. There wasn’t a single slash of colour in the room, in stark contrast to Edward’s office, which was pale wood, lots of colourful photos of sunsets and beaches and even a little Christmas tree in the corner. There was nothing that indicated that it was Christmas in here.

Clara’s desk lacked any kind of work paraphernalia at all. It was devoid of all the papers that had littered Edward’s desk. It was hard to see what she did with her time all day. Maybe she spent a lot of it on the phone, but he would still expect to see some kind of notes from her telephone conversations. The computer was switched on and she was working on it but there didn’t look like there was anything work-related on there; in fact the screen was filled with lots of photos of expensive-looking dresses.

He knocked softly on the door and she looked up and flashed him a huge smile when she saw him.

‘Henry, do come in, shut the door behind you.’

He did as he was asked but, looking around, he could see they were alone, whereas Audrey had made it sound like there would be members of the design team there too. He took his coat off and left it over the sofa that was in the corner of the room, though he instantly regretted it when he turned to see her appreciative gaze raking over his body.

‘Are Edward or the designers joining us?’ Henry said, hesitantly.

‘Edward has already left for the evening,’ Clara said, coming round the desk towards him. ‘He asked me to arrange a meeting with you and one of the designers but, as the managing director in charge of the design team, I wanted to look through your designs first. We are very hands-on at the White Cliff Bay Furniture Company. Something I’m sure you will appreciate about working here.’

Henry cleared his throat, not at all comfortable with the way she was staring at him like she wanted to eat him.

‘Let’s see what you’ve got,’ Clara said, without taking her eyes off him.

He opened up his portfolio and pulled a few sheets from the folder, spreading them out on her desk as she stood just behind him.

‘I know you’ve just started doing a range in chairs but I thought about maybe expanding it. The chairs we sell are very functional and nice but I think we could make them into something more.’

She moved in next to him, her body pressed close to his, though her eyes were still on him and not the designs. He subtly moved away a few inches.

‘I’ve designed a chaise longue which is classic but with traces of more contemporary styles at the same time. The chaise longue is a most sought after piece with many women, it’s romantic and will make a great addition to any lounge furniture or even the bedroom.’

‘What would you do with it in the bedroom?’ Clara said, raking her fingers seductively over the curves of the chair, her eyes returning to him almost immediately.

‘Well, you would sit on it and read or…’ He trailed off as her fingers skated over his knuckles as he leaned over the desk. He removed his hand from under hers. ‘I thought we could make it from white, black or beige leather as that will fit in with most colour schemes and we can add silver or gold to the legs to make it more—’

‘Will it be big enough for two?’ She stared up at him through long lashes as she ran her fingernails up his arm.

Henry glanced over to the closed door, a sick feeling of panic rushing through him. This was not good. She hadn’t brought him here for the designs. There was only one portfolio she was interested in and it wasn’t the one in his black folder but the one that was mere centimetres from her ever encroaching hand.

In a last-ditch attempt to change the subject and put the conversation back on track, he rifled in his folder for another drawing to show her, moving subtly away from her gold-painted talons.

‘I have some other designs too.’ He grabbed the first design that came to hand and laid it on the desk. His heart sank as soon as he saw which design it was. The two chairs facing in opposite directions, joined together by the S-shaped curves of the backrest and arms, was a very popular style in the late Victorian period and Henry’s design was a modern twist on that but the name was vastly inappropriate for what Clara had planned for this meeting.

She glanced at it briefly. ‘A love seat?’

‘Yes. Also known as a tête-à-tête.’

‘Face-to-face,’ Clara whispered and Henry cringed because the literal translation was not helpful either.

‘They are making a comeback in garden furniture and I think we can—’

‘I wouldn’t have a love seat in the garden. Besides, these armrests between the couple are not exactly conducive to a romantic setting. I prefer a lover’s chair with no boundaries,’ Clara said, leaning up and pressing her lips to his throat.

He immediately took a step back. ‘Clara, I’m flattered but I have a girlfriend.’

A girlfriend who was sitting at home waiting for him, someone he should have been having dinner with at this very moment. This whole meeting was a huge waste of his time.

‘Yet you’re here with me and not at home with her.’ Clara cocked her head to one side, in what she clearly thought was a flirtatious move, running her tongue across her teeth as she surveyed her prey.

He took a step to grab his designs but she moved in between him and the desk.

‘I came for purely professional reasons, working in design is important to me.’

She stepped forward, placing a hand on his chest. ‘How important?’

He wanted to push her away, her perfume settling round him making it hard to breathe. He wouldn’t touch her. Just the two of them in a closed room, she could claim anything had happened and it would be his word against hers. He took a step back, but her fingers had already closed over one of the buttons on his shirt and as he moved he heard the small tear of material as the button came off in her hand.

He stared at her in shock before he turned and grabbed his coat. ‘If Edward is serious about looking at my designs then I’ll make an appointment to see him.’

He opened the door and stormed out. He should have seen through the façade from the second he realised it was just going to be the two of them. He should have told her where to stick her inappropriate advances and most importantly he should have stayed at home with his lovely girlfriend.

He got in the car and drove quickly back towards Lilac Cottage. Rain lashed down on the windscreen and storm clouds rolled across the sky, lighting up the heavy clouds with periodic flashes of lightning, reflecting his mood perfectly. As he approached a little hut used for birdwatching, he nearly ran over a hooded figure who was cycling quickly away from it, dressed all in black, silhouetted against the rainy night sky; the boy was almost impossible to see. He cursed as he mounted the grass to avoid him and then turned down the driveway to his home, wanting nothing more now than to wrap his arms around Penny and know that there were still good people in this world.

He pulled up outside the house and strode straight into Penny’s kitchen. She looked up from a book she was reading and gave him a half smile. He had let her down by not being there for dinner as promised.

‘I made you and Daisy spaghetti bolognese, but it’s probably all dried out now,’ Penny said, moving towards the oven.

‘I was going to cook for you, I’m sorry, something came up,’ Henry said, catching her arm. She didn’t shrug his hand off her but she distinctly moved out of his reach. Her stomach suddenly gurgled hungrily and he felt another wave of guilt. ‘Have you not eaten?’

‘No, pathetically, I thought I’d wait for you.’

‘Where’s Daisy?’

‘She went out, about two minutes after you left.’

‘What?’ Henry looked outside into the inky black night, rain coming down in curtains as it ripped across the cliffs. ‘And you let her go out in this?’

Penny stared at him incredulously. ‘I was out walking Bernard when I saw you both leave. And I certainly don’t have any authority over her.’

Suddenly the kitchen door banged open and Daisy came in with a huge grin on her face. She was soaking wet, and little stalks of grass were stuck to the legs of her jeans. Her trainers were covered in mud.

‘Hey Daddio,’ she sang, sitting down at Penny’s table as if it was the most natural thing in the world.

‘Where have you been?’ Henry tried and failed to keep the angry concerned tone from his voice.

‘Nowhere. I was in the shed chatting to Melissa.’

‘You got that wet running from the shed to the house?’

‘I slipped over on the grass.’

She was lying and he didn’t know why.

‘Penny said she saw you go out.’

Daisy stared at Penny for a moment. ‘I was… trying to get a signal down the drive but then it started to rain hard and I remembered that Penny said I could get a good signal in her shed so I came back a few minutes later. Penny must not have seen me. Is dinner ready?’

‘The dinner I asked you to start for me,’ Henry said.

Daisy shrugged, still unable to wipe the huge grin from her face. ‘The phone call took a bit longer than I thought.’

‘It’s fine, I made dinner,’ Penny said, deliberately stepping between them with a huge dish of bolognese.

He sat down and watched as she dished it up onto three plates and then sat down at the opposite end of the table to him. This was not how he had planned his evening at all. Outside the storm raged on, thunder rolling across the night sky, lit up periodically with spectacular forks of lightning. But inside the tension between the three of them was almost as tangible as the storm outside.

Henry sat staring at his spaghetti bolognese with as much concentration as he could muster for a plate full of meat and pasta. He glanced over to Penny who was focussing on the art of wrapping a string of spaghetti round her fork as if it was the hardest job in the world.

Daisy looked between the two of them in confusion. She knew something was going on even if she had no idea what that something was.

‘Did you guys have a row or something?’ Daisy said.

‘No, sorry honey, it’s just been a weird day,’ Penny said.

Henry cast around for a suitable topic of conversation. It was ridiculous to sit in silence when conversation had flowed so easily whenever they’d been together before.

‘Hey Dad, did you tell Penny about the huge penis we saw in town?’

Penny choked on her drink

That certainly wasn’t a suitable topic of conversation, especially after what had gone on between them the night before. But Daisy wasn’t to be deterred.

‘It was hilarious, some woman dressed in this huge seven-foot costume chasing men down the streets and hugging them. White Cliff Bay is a little weird, eh? I bet it’s a right little den of sin, people sleeping with their neighbours or having orgies.’

‘Hey,’ Henry reprimanded.

Daisy laughed. ‘Orgy isn’t a swear word.’

‘It’s not exactly an appropriate subject for the dinner table though, is it?’

Penny stifled a giggle and he sensed the mood between them was on the verge of passing. ‘I’ve seen people do stuff like that before, I think it’s to raise awareness or money for cancer. So don’t judge our little town too harshly just yet.’

Henry needed to change the subject away from people having sex with their neighbours. He latched on to something Edward had said to him on Monday.

‘Oh, that’s what I wanted to talk to you about. Edward said there was some Gingerbread House competition on Saturday, he asked if I wanted to come with my family and form a team. I don’t really know what it’s about, but it’s for charity. Daisy, do you want to do it?’

‘We make a gingerbread house? Do we get to eat it afterwards?’

Penny laughed. ‘It’s the annual Giant Gingerbread House Race. The White Cliff Bay Furniture Company holds it every year. Everybody in the town goes to watch. But it’s not real gingerbread, they use plastic walls and foam and plastic sweets and decorations. The gingerbread walls are six-foot panels and I’m pretty sure the icing they use isn’t edible. There’s normally around eight teams and you have about an hour to build your house into something wonderful. It’s great fun.’

‘So you can be in our team too,’ Henry said, decisively.

‘I can’t, it’s families of employees only.’

‘You can be part of our family,’ Daisy said simply and Henry smiled that his daughter had just given her seal of approval so readily and unknowingly.

‘Edward isn’t going to care too much about who is on my team, he won’t exactly be demanding to see a marriage certificate before he lets us in,’ Henry said.

‘I’ll do it if you do it, Penny,’ Daisy said. ‘And it is for charity so you can’t really say no.’