Текст книги "Christmas at Lilac Cottage"

Автор книги: Holly Martin

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Текущая страница: 18 (всего у книги 21 страниц)

Chapter Twenty-two

Penny was up in her bedroom later that afternoon, fighting with changing the duvet cover on her bed when there was a tentative knock on the bedroom door. Henry had stayed down in the town when she and Daisy had returned home, needing to do some Christmas shopping, and he probably wouldn’t knock anyway, he had already seen her in all her glory.

She opened the door and was surprised to see Daisy, her hair and make-up done flawlessly. Daisy grinned at her, though it didn’t quite meet her eyes.

‘I’m meeting up with Josh. Can you tell Dad that I’ve gone to see Rebecca or something?’

‘Daisy, that’s not fair, asking me to lie and cover for you. I feel bad enough as it is not telling him what I know without adding lies to my list of crimes too. You need to…’ Penny trailed off, seeing the worry on her face. ‘What’s wrong?’

Daisy came in and sat on Penny’s bed. ‘I told Rebecca that you called the old hut the Love Shack and Rebecca said that everyone knows it as that. She said a lot of the teenage boys take their girlfriends there to have sex. Josh suggested we hang out there. What if he wants to sleep with me?’

Penny sat down heavily on the bed next to her. There was no manual for dealing with this kind of thing. She wished Henry was here but she knew he wouldn’t deal with it in the best way, which was probably why Daisy had come to her.

‘How many times have you seen Josh now, since the ice carving competition?’

‘How many dates? Three. I think I love him.’

Penny suppressed a smile at the simplicity of teenage love, although it was never simple at the time.

‘I’m not ready to sleep with him yet.’

‘Then you tell him that.’

‘What if he dumps me because of it? I’ve never had a boyfriend before. No boy has ever paid attention to me before as if I’m not worth even talking to. And maybe I’m not if my mum left me when I was only two months old. Josh doesn’t think I’m worthless or ugly. He loves me exactly as I am and I couldn’t bear it if he rejected me too.’

Penny’s heart ached for Daisy. The damage her mum had done was far reaching and was something it would take Daisy a large part of her life to get over.

‘You are beautiful and intelligent and kind and funny and Henry loves you so much. He doesn’t think you are worthless, you are the single most important person in his life. If Henry and I ever get together and get married, I will be proud to have you as my step-daughter. Your mum missed out big time when she walked out on you but that is a reflection on her, not you. If Josh can’t see how incredible you are then that is his loss, not yours.’

Daisy stared at her for a moment and then threw her arms round her neck and hugged her tight. Penny wrapped her arms round her too, stroking her back. Finally Daisy pulled away.

‘Tell me, has Josh mentioned that he wants to sleep with you at all?’

Daisy shook her head. Penny knew how painfully shy Josh was, it probably hadn’t even crossed his mind to take it any further.

‘Have you guys done anything other than kiss?’

Daisy blushed. ‘No, we generally just talk and listen to music. We’ve kissed a bit but he is so sweet and respectful. Rebecca says that Lucas, her boyfriend, always gropes her boobs, but Josh hasn’t touched my boobs at all.’

Penny noticed the look of disappointment on Daisy’s face. ‘Do you want him to?’

‘Yes. Maybe. I don’t know. They’re a bit small.’ Daisy looked down at her chest. ‘Rebecca says it feels nice.’

Oh lord. What would Henry’s reaction be to this conversation? He would probably ground Daisy for life and stop her from seeing Josh and Rebecca ever again.

‘Does it feel nice?’

Shit. Penny had a brief flashback to Friday night, Henry kissing her breasts, taking her nipple into his mouth. ‘Yes it does but that’s not something you should do unless you feel completely comfortable with it.’

‘Sometimes I want to do more than kissing with him but I’m scared. I don’t know what I’m doing and I certainly don’t want to get it wrong. And I just don’t know whether I’m ready for all that yet. But he is so lovely and he hasn’t had a girlfriend before. I want to share my first time with him.’

‘My first time I was a lot older than you are now. I was twenty years old and it was a very quick and mostly uncomfortable fumble in my boyfriend’s bedroom before he ran downstairs to have dinner with his mum and dad. But the first time with… my second boyfriend was beautiful and sweet and far more pleasurable. I was nervous but he was so kind and gentle. He made the whole experience about me and what I wanted and needed. In many ways I wish I had waited to share my first time with him instead. Your first time should be wonderful and it should be somewhere romantic, not some wooden shack where countless other couples have lost their virginity. But most importantly it needs to be with someone you love and trust completely.’

‘I do love and trust him.’

‘OK, but you’ve only been dating for a few days. Just take your time to really get to know him and when you are ready, if you trust him, maybe you can talk to him about your fears. But never ever do anything that you aren’t comfortable with or not ready to do. If he truly loves you, he will wait until you are ready.’

Daisy nodded solemnly. ‘I should go, he’s probably waiting for me.’

Daisy stood up and Penny experienced a brief moment of panic, of wanting to take her up to the loft and lock her up there until she was at least twenty-five. Should she stop her going, get her to stay at home until Henry came back and then he could deal with this in whatever way he saw fit? He was her dad after all. Penny was just the landlady.

Daisy moved to the door. ‘Thanks for this. You won’t tell my dad, will you?’

Penny swallowed and shook her head. ‘Look, wait a second.’ She moved to the drawer near her bed and pulled out a small handful of condoms. ‘I really don’t think you should sleep with Josh, not for a few weeks or months yet, not until you’re ready. But if you do sleep with him in the future, just be safe, OK?’

Daisy stared at the condoms, her pale skin blushing bright red, telling Penny that Daisy was nowhere near ready to make that commitment yet. Daisy grabbed the condoms and shoved them in her bag.

‘Just tell him you’re not ready, I’m sure he will understand.’

Daisy nodded and with a small smile, she walked out.

Penny stood in the doorway of her bedroom, watching Daisy disappear down the stairs. A few seconds later she heard the back door close. What the hell had she done?

Henry was walking back up the hill towards his home, whistling happily to himself. Life was pretty damned perfect right now. He had sorted out his problems with Clara at work, and while Edward had been in the office sacking his sister he had stumbled across Henry’s designs and had just phoned him to say he had taken them home to look at and really liked them. He was going to set up a meeting with one of the designers after Christmas and this time Edward would sit in on the meeting too. Daisy was really happy here in White Cliff Bay and he had the most wonderful girlfriend who he knew he was falling in love with. With only two days until the Christmas Eve ball, it couldn’t get any better.

He was taking a short cut over the grass, passing by the wooden shack at the end of the drive to his house, when he saw Penny a hundred yards away, walking Bernard. He waved at her and she stared at him as if he had three heads.

There was soft music coming from inside the shack and giggling. He smiled to himself; there was obviously a couple in there making the most of this secluded spot. He heard the giggle again as he passed the front door and stopped dead.

He recognised that giggle. He had heard that giggle every day for the last sixteen years. He doubled back a few paces and yanked open the door. His heart dropped into his stomach. Daisy was lying on the bench with Josh lying entirely on top of her as they kissed.

They broke apart and Daisy paled when she saw him. His eyes turned to Josh as he scrambled up off his daughter. He was momentarily relieved to see they both still had their clothes on.

‘What the bloody hell do you think you’re doing with my daughter?’ he spat, unable to control the rage that was boiling through him.

‘Dad, we were just kissing.’ Daisy sat up. Her t-shirt had fallen off her shoulder revealing her pale skin and a black lacy bra strap had also slid down her arm too. Had his hands been on her? The thought of this boy mauling her made him sick.

Suddenly Penny arrived in the hut, out of breath. ‘Henry, calm down, please.’

He barely heard her, his eyes snapping back to Josh as he wrapped his arm round Daisy’s shoulders. ‘Get your hands off my daughter before I break them.’

‘Henry!’ Penny said, incredulously. ‘He’s a child.’

‘Dad, don’t talk to him like that. Josh, just go, please. I don’t want you to get hurt.’

Josh stood up. The boy was huge and Henry’s stomach rolled with the thought of Josh and Daisy together.

Inexplicably Josh moved to stand between Henry and Daisy. ‘I’m not leaving you with him when he’s this angry. I’m not going to let you hurt her.’

Henry was staggered by this. The thought that he could hurt his own daughter was laughable. Sure, he wanted to punch or kick something but he could never do anything to hurt Daisy. But what was even more disturbing was Josh’s protective attitude towards her. Henry expected him to run away as soon as he had stepped foot in the hut but Josh clearly really cared about Daisy and that threw him even more.

Penny placed a hand on his arm. ‘Henry, they were just kissing.’

He ignored her and turned his attention back to Daisy. ‘Get up, we’re going home and you’re never going to see him again.’ Somewhere at the back of his head he knew he was being unreasonable but he couldn’t engage with the rational part of his brain right now.

‘Dad! We’re in love.’

‘In love? It’s been a week!’

‘So?’

His sixteen-year-old daughter was in love. How had this happened? It seemed like only yesterday he’d been putting her hair in pigtails and taking her off for her first day in school. He had to calm down, he was reacting really badly to this. It had just shocked him to find his daughter in that position. Penny was right, they were just kissing. He took a deep breath and let it out slowly.

Daisy looked at Penny. ‘I can’t believe you told him, you promised to keep it a secret.’

‘I didn’t tell him, I swear.’

Rage exploded in his gut again as he rounded on Penny. ‘You knew? You knew she was seeing Josh and you never told me?’

Penny paled guiltily. ‘I… I wanted to but…’

Henry turned away and snatched up Daisy’s bag. ‘We’re going home.’

The bag caught on the leg of a chair and the contents spilled out on the floor, including three condoms.

Everyone stared at the condoms in shock.

Finally Henry found his voice. ‘Just kissing, eh?’

‘I gave them to her,’ Penny said, quickly.

‘You gave my daughter fucking condoms? You knew she was dating Josh and not only did you let her come down here to see him, but you pushed her out the door with a handful of condoms and told her to have a good time. Who the hell do you think you are?’

Penny took a step back away from him, wounded by his words.

‘I wasn’t going to sleep with him,’ Daisy said. ‘I talked to Penny about it and she told me how wonderful her first time was with her second boyfriend, how special it was and how important it was that I waited until I was ready. I wanted my first time to be beautiful like that, I didn’t want to be like you that had a drunken fumble at a party which you regretted for the rest of your life.’

Daisy ran out and Henry went to follow her but Penny snagged his arm. ‘Wait a second.’

He removed his arm from his grasp, her betrayal burning in his gut. She should never have kept it secret. If he had known about this he could have had a civilised conversation with his daughter about sex. He should never have found out like this. His eyes strayed to the condoms again and the anger bubbled back to the surface. ‘Stay away from my daughter and stay away from me. I never want to see you again.’

He stormed out the hut, ignoring the devastation on Penny’s face.

It was hours later by the time Penny went home. Not wanting to face Henry, she had walked the cliffs with Bernard until hours after it had gone dark. She had also cried every tear she had. Finally, when the tears had subsided and only a numb pain remained, Penny made her way back home.

It was ridiculous to fall so hard, so quickly for Henry, it shouldn’t hurt this badly after only knowing him for a week, but even knowing how silly it was to have these feelings there was nothing she could do to stop it.

She let herself in through the back door and her eyes immediately glanced over to the connecting door. Their lights were off and the house was silent. Henry’s car was still parked outside so they hadn’t gone out or, even worse, packed up and left.

She grabbed her keys for her freezer van so she could unload the remaining smaller blocks that hadn’t been used at the workshop earlier back into her walk-in freezer. Luckily she had cut the normal-sized big blocks up into smaller pieces for the workshop so she could carry them on her own, even if they were still heavy.

She carried them into the cool room one at a time and then opened the freezer door. Weirdly, the door stuck but she gave it several big yanks and eventually it came away from the frame.

Inside, a large pool of water had frozen on the floor, creating a mini ice skating rink inside her freezer.

She stared in horror as the reality of the situation settled in. Not only had several large blocks of ice for future carvings melted away to nothing but so had a carving for a corporate party the following night, her competition piece for the Christmas Eve ball and a carving ordered by a man who was going to propose to his girlfriend on Tuesday night. She felt sick. Out of the three carvings that had gone, the proposal one was the worst because she knew her oversized diamond ring was the finale in a whole trail of romantic gestures the man had organised. She couldn’t let him down. If these had melted due to the power cut the night before, then the ice in the block maker machines would have melted too. And they would take three days to refreeze. They might be ready by Tuesday night but not in time for her to carve before the proposal.

She looked at the five smaller blocks sitting in the cool room. She could fuse three of them together to make one big block. The join lines would be quite prominent but she could still create a large ring out of it and surely the man wouldn’t mind as long the gesture was the same. She would refund him if he was upset with the quality but at least he would have the oversized diamond ring. She would have to call the organisers of the corporate party to cancel the other order.

She quickly brought the smaller blocks into the freezer, wet the ends and clamped three of them together to make one big block. It would be ready for her to carve by the next day.

She walked out into the kitchen and saw Daisy waiting for her.

As soon as Daisy saw her, she burst into tears.

Penny rushed over and quickly took her in her arms as Daisy sobbed against her.

‘Hey, what’s with all these tears?’ Penny said, stroking the back of her head.

‘I’m so sorry. All of this is my fault. I should never have hid it from Dad and I should never have asked you to cover for me…’

‘You have nothing to be sorry for.’

‘But now my dad hates you.’

It was like a punch to the gut all over again. Henry did hate her, she had seen it in his eyes. That was the worst part of it, seeing that look in his eyes had confirmed that he had never felt for her what she felt for him. Penny hadn’t manipulated Daisy into thinking that she liked her or used Daisy to get to her dad or even told Daisy a nasty pack of lies like Henry’s previous girlfriend had. Although Henry had every right to be angry at her, she didn’t deserve that kind of anger. She had done the best thing she could for Daisy, but Henry was treating her like she was the lowest form of scum.

She swallowed down the pain as she prepared to lie to Daisy. ‘He doesn’t hate me. He was angry and he had every right to be.’

‘I thought you two would get together and I’ve ruined that now.’

‘You’ve not ruined anything.’

‘I’m not talking to him if that helps,’ Daisy said.

Penny somehow found the energy to smile slightly at that. ‘Honey, I don’t want you hating your dad over this. This is between me and him and I never want to be the person that comes between you two.’

Daisy held her tighter as she cried. ‘Will you forgive him? When he apologises, which he will because I’ll make him. You will forgive him, won’t you?’

Penny pulled back slightly and kissed Daisy’s forehead. ‘Whatever happens between me and Henry, me and you will still be friends, you don’t ever need to worry about that.’

Daisy stared at her for a moment before fresh tears filled her eyes. ‘You won’t forgive him, will you?’

Penny decided for once she was going to be honest with her and she shook her head. ‘I don’t think I can.’

‘Why?’ Daisy cried.

Anger suddenly replaced all the pain she was feeling. ‘Because my last boyfriend treated me so badly and I’m not going to put up with it again. Your dad always told me I deserved better and I do. No one gets to treat me like a piece of shit and then come crawling back and apologise for it later. If you care for someone, you’d never treat them like that in the first place.’

A noise at the connecting door made them both look up. Henry was standing there but, silhouetted in the darkness, Penny had no idea what expression was on his face.

‘You better go,’ Penny said to Daisy. ‘But remember what I said, it’s not going to change things between us.’

Daisy sniffed and nodded and then she walked towards the door.

Penny didn’t wait to see if Henry would say anything to her once Daisy had gone upstairs. She turned away and went to bed.

Penny woke to movement in her kitchen the next morning and wondering if it might be Henry – maybe even half hoping – she pulled on her robe and walked downstairs. She was only slightly disappointed to see Jill banging around and making breakfast.

Jill smiled hugely when she saw her and gave her a big hug. She pulled back slightly and her face fell.

‘You’ve been crying, what’s happened?’

Penny shook her head. ‘It doesn’t matter.’

‘It obviously does.’

There was a noise from upstairs in the annexe as clearly someone got out of bed and suddenly Penny didn’t want to be there. Either Henry was going to come downstairs and shout at her some more, apologise profusely or ignore her completely and she didn’t want to be there for any of that.

She still had that proposal carving she needed to do, but that could wait until later.

‘What did you have planned for today?’

Jill picked up on her urgency straight away. ‘I… was going to take you out for the day.’

Penny smiled with love for her. ‘I’d really like that.’

‘Well, go and get dressed then, while I put these breakfast things away.’

Penny nodded with gratitude and ran upstairs.

The amazing scents of the Christmas market in the next town of Apple Hill could be smelt from the very back of the car park and it was all the more magical with the snow that was falling quite heavily around them, settling on the car roofs and in the grass.

They walked through the marquee entrance and were met with a wall of warmth and the rich smells of sweet honey, spiced wines, fruits, chocolates, fudge, breads and so many other things that Penny couldn’t discern them.

The place was packed, Christmas Eve was tomorrow and everyone was running around trying to take care of last-minute shopping and preparations.

Over a breakfast of bacon sandwiches made with a special whisky bread, which tasted amazing, Penny told Jill what had happened the day before.

Jill finished off the remains of her sandwich and licked her fingers. ‘My lovely Penny, although that was a massive overreaction from him, being a parent does funny things to you. I guarantee you that he is regretting what happened yesterday afternoon right now and working out a way to apologise to you.’

‘He can stick his apology up his arse, I’m not interested.’

Jill shook her head. ‘I don’t know a single parent who has never overreacted when it came to the safety and protection of their children. The first child is the worst – by the time you’ve had two or three you become much more mellow. But Henry never had that, he only ever had one and she is his entire world, you can see that. I never had children but I love you and your brother as if you were my own and I would quite simply die for you if it meant you were happy, healthy and safe. One day you might have children of your own and you shouldn’t judge a parent until you’ve walked a mile in their shoes, until you’ve felt that unwavering, all-consuming love for a child that makes you act rashly and insensitively at times. It was a shock for him to find his daughter like that and it must have hurt him that you didn’t tell him.’ Jill raised her hand to stop Penny interrupting. ‘Though I understand why you did it. Any relationship has arguments and rows, but you forgive each other and you move on, you don’t throw away the man you love at the first hurdle. When he apologises, tell him he is an ass, tell him how much he hurt you, but then forgive him and never look back.’

Penny shook her head. She couldn’t forgive Henry, not yet anyway. She was still too angry for that.

Jill patted her on the hand and stood up. ‘Come on, I want to see the delights this market has to offer.’

There was no more mention of it after that; Jill knew when to sow the seed of what Penny should do and when to leave her alone to think about it. Instead they moved from stall to stall admiring the wonderfully scented candles, tasting all the fudge, chocolate, honeycomb, sweets, breads, sweetened nuts, jams and cheeses. Penny drank lots of hot spiced apple cider and mulled wine, enough to make her feel warm and contented. There were several stalls selling mince pies, all of them with different flavours and spices and unique ingredients and Penny bought and ate several tiny chocolate mince pies. They admired the tree decorations made from glass, wood and even the tacky plastic ones, and they all reminded Penny of the wonderful tree sitting in her lounge. There was even a stall that sold gingerbread house kits and some beautiful ready-made ones. It was almost as if Jill had deliberately brought her here to remind her of all the wonderful memories she had shared with Henry in the last week.

By the time they left, Penny had eaten her weight in free samples, had gone back for several more glasses of the delicious spiced hot apple cider and was weighed down with bags of purchases she had no recollection of buying.

By the time Jill dropped her off at home, she was feeling a little bit drunk and certainly not in any mood to face Henry in whatever mood he was in so she dumped her bags in the lounge and went off to bed for an afternoon nap.

She woke later and it was already dark outside, the snow still falling heavily outside the window.

Her head was still feeling a bit fuzzy and she quite fancied staying in bed until Christmas was over. Tomorrow was Christmas Eve, the night of the ball. She could easily stay in bed for two more days. No one would care anyway.

Suddenly she remembered the proposal carving that she needed to do before tomorrow night. As she had agreed to help Maggie with a lot of the setting up for the ball the next day, she couldn’t lie in bed feeling sorry for herself any longer.

She got changed into slightly warmer clothes and went down to the freezer.

She opened the freezer door, the bloody thing sticking again, and looked inside. Once the proposal carving had been delivered she would have to defrost the whole freezer and clean the door and the floor before she put any more carvings in there. The pool of frozen water in the freezer was dangerous.

She looked at the three blocks of ice she had clamped together the night before and sighed. In her haste to rectify the situation, and with her mind still on Henry and Daisy, she hadn’t put the block on top of her trolley. As it was too heavy to lift on her own and there was no way she was asking Henry to help her move it, she resigned herself to carving it in the freezer. The diamond ring carving at least would be fairly easy and quick to carve so she wouldn’t be in there too long and once the ice had been carved away so it was hollow in the middle, she was confident she would be able to move it on her own the next day.

She grabbed the tools from the cool room and shut herself in, not totally confident that the three blocks of ice, forged into one piece, would hold together once she started working on it. At least in the cold of the freezer they would be less likely to break.

She scrolled through the tunes on her iPhone until she found something that was not remotely Christmassy and then started to carve. She marked out the basic ring shape and then used the chainsaw to chop off the bits that she wouldn’t need, including the middle. She made the ring a lot thicker than she had originally intended because she needed the strength of a thick ring. She spent a while getting the ring part as flawless and smooth as she could but it really was cold in here and her fingers were becoming numb, even through the gloves.

She pushed on, knowing she needed to finish it tonight and at least whilst she was in here, focussing on the design and the carving, she wouldn’t have to go out there and think about Henry and how this might actually turn out to be the worst Christmas ever. She was undoubtedly going to spend it alone and, although in previous years, when she had been alone, that had been fine, being in love with a man who hated her and being dumped by him just a few days before the big day made things infinitely worse.

She was feeling sleepy now, the alcohol no doubt still leaving its mark. She rarely ever drank so when she did she always felt hungover a few hours later rather than the next day. She would finish here and go back to bed.

She ignored the cold that was settling into her body and took her time with the detail of the claw that would hold the giant diamond, making sure the facets of the diamond were smooth and polished.

Finally she stepped back to admire the finished piece.

It really was cold in here and maybe it was the time she had spent in there but it felt a lot colder than it should. Her arms and legs were almost painfully cold, her fingers were practically numb, her eyes felt heavy. She had never had such an adverse reaction to working inside the freezer before.

She checked the temperature gauge by the door and swore. After the power cut on Saturday the freezer had reset itself at its coldest temperature, which was about twenty degrees colder than it should be. No wonder she was in so much pain. It also explained why she felt so tired; it wasn’t the alcohol, her body was shutting down.

She needed a nice warm bath – she knew that going from extreme cold to extreme heat would not be good for the body so she’d have to warm herself up gently.

She picked up all her tools and pushed the door, but it didn’t budge. Confused, she tried the door again and it still didn’t move. She put the tools down and tried again. It didn’t shift an inch. Shit. She threw her weight against the door in a panic, it still didn’t move. The handle wasn’t turning properly from the inside, partly frozen from the intense cold and her hands were too numb to apply any real pressure to it.

Leaning onto one of the shelves, she tried to kick the door handle with her feet, but that didn’t work either.

She banged on the door and shouted as loud as she could, but there was no noise from the room outside and no one came to rescue her.

She banged again, shouting, yelling, throwing her weight against it time and time again but she was trapped.

She quickly dug her phone out of her pocket and scrolled through her contacts. Who could she call? Henry or Daisy were the obvious choices; if they were next door they could come and let her out but Henry wasn’t speaking to her and she didn’t have Daisy’s number.

Maggie was twenty minutes away, Jill would be about half hour and her brother was a good fifty minutes from her house.

The phone beeped feebly to say she was running out of battery. Shit, could anything else go wrong?

She quickly dialled Henry’s number. He would be angry but he wouldn’t leave her in here to freeze to death.

It rang a few times and to her surprise he answered straight away.

‘Hello?’

She tried to judge his tone – was he still angry, upset, regretful? Now was not the time to get into any of that.

‘Henry, are you in your house? I need your help.’

‘No.’

One-word answers weren’t good, he clearly hadn’t forgiven her yet. She was so mad at him, she didn’t even want to speak to him right now. And if he was out then he couldn’t even help her.

The phone beeped, indicating that it was about to die any second.

‘How far away are you?’

His voice softened slightly with concern as he sensed the panic.

‘What’s wrong?’

‘Is Daisy at home?’

‘No she’s at Anna’s, what’s wrong?’

‘I’m trapped in the freezer.’

‘How are you trapped?’

‘The door is stuck. After the power cut the freezer reset itself and it’s colder in here than it should be. I had to carve in here and I’ve been in here for nearly two hours and now I can’t get out.’

Henry was silent for a moment and then the phone rang off.

She stared at the phone in horror. Was he coming, was he not coming?

She tried to phone him again but before the phone even rang her phone died.

Crap.

She had to get out of here. She threw herself at the door a few more times but it just didn’t move at all.

OK, so she had to remember how to survive extreme temperatures. She had looked into it once when she had been trying to find out how long it was safe for her to work in the freezer. She didn’t think moving around was a good idea because that kept blood pumping around the extremities but away from the vital organs, so she just had to stay still. She sat down in the corner of the room and curled herself up into a tight ball, knees up to her chest, her arms wrapped round them.