Текст книги "Christmas at Lilac Cottage"

Автор книги: Holly Martin

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Текущая страница: 5 (всего у книги 21 страниц)

Chapter Six

Penny was busy carving a giant angel for the forthcoming competition the next night, which had been taking a back seat for all the Christmas orders. This one was quite tricky with all the folds in the angel’s dress, the long flowing hair, and the feathers on the wings, but she loved the challenge. She was listening to her beloved Westlife album, singing – or probably wailing – as she chipped away the detail on the angel’s face. A movement caught her eye and she whirled around to see Henry and Daisy watching her from the doorway.

She quickly pulled out her headphones. ‘How long have you two being standing there?’

‘Long enough to hear your beautiful voice,’ Henry smirked.

‘And long enough to see your wonderful dancing,’ Daisy said, trying to hold back a giggle.

Penny blushed, knowing her dancing had consisted of a lot of bum wiggling.

‘I’m just checking it’s OK for Daisy to hang out with you for a few hours?’ Henry said, wrapping an affectionate arm around his daughter.

‘Of course you can,’ Penny smiled at Daisy.

‘Just tell her to clear out if she starts to annoy you, she won’t be offended.’

Daisy laughed.

‘There’s an old jacket of mine next door in the cloakroom. It’s thin and lightweight but will keep you warm. There’s also an old pair of steel-capped boots and some gloves, go and put them on and then I’ll show you a few things.’

Daisy disappeared into the cloakroom, leaving Henry standing there staring at her.

After a long while he finally spoke. ‘Thank you for doing this, you’re very kind. She has a huge passion for art, especially sculpture. She took a wood carving course over the summer so she loves stuff like this. But, seriously, if she gets in your way just tell her to get out.’

‘She won’t be in my way.’

Henry continued to stare at her. He ran his hand over the stubble on his head awkwardly. ‘Listen, about our date on Tuesday…’

‘I’m ready,’ Daisy announced, coming to stand in the freezer with her hands on her hips, looking like some kind of superhero.

Penny laughed. ‘Well, come in then.’

Daisy walked in and looked at the sculpture in awe and Penny wondered what it looked like through her eyes.

‘Can I touch it?’

‘Yes of course,’ Penny said at the same time as Henry said, ‘No.’

‘It’s fine, you can’t harm it, it’s perfectly dry too. It hasn’t been out of the freezer long enough for it to start to melt yet.’

Daisy tentatively reached out to touch it. Penny looked over towards Henry, wondering what he had been going to say before Daisy came in.

‘I’ll leave you ladies to it,’ Henry smiled at her sadly and then left, closing the door behind him, leaving Penny guessing that he had wanted to cancel their date. She tried to ignore the disappointment that twisted in her gut before turning back to Daisy.

‘So I thought you might want to have a go yourself, if I show you the basic skills.’

Daisy turned to her with wonder and excitement in her eyes. ‘Really?’

‘Yes, it’s quite easy to learn the basics and your dad says that you’ve already learned some wood carving so the skills are completely transferable. I’ve cut up a block into two smaller blocks for you to have a play with, create whatever you want. Now normally I put a template on the side of the ice and go over the lines lightly with this chisel, but you can just draw your own design with it.’ Penny hammered the chisel into a large block of ice that stood on the table. She quickly marked out a basic star outline. ‘Once you’ve done that you can go over the lines with a die grinder, which makes the outline a bit deeper, like this.’ She fired up the die grinder and very carefully used the short drill bit to go over one of the lines. She saw Daisy watching her intently the whole time, watching the angle at which she held the power tool, how much pressure was used, taking it all in. ‘I can then use the chainsaw to cut out the bits you don’t want.’

‘Can I use the chainsaw?’ Daisy said, keenly.

Penny smiled at her enthusiasm. ‘Not today. It’s very powerful and one slip and your whole hand would come off. I don’t think your dad will thank me for that. But I will show you how to use the other tools, safely. Once I’ve used the chainsaw, you can use this v-shaped chisel to scrape away the bits you don’t want. Once you’ve done that, I can show you which tools to use depending on what effect you want or what design you are making. There’s different techniques to create feathers or clothes or fur so I can show you those, depending on what you’re making. I’d go for something simple first like a bell or a Christmas tree or…’

‘An angel,’ Daisy said, staring at Penny’s piece in awe.

‘Yes, if you want to, but that’s quite a tricky piece to do, especially on a small scale. But go for it, if that’s what you want.’ Penny handed her a pair of goggles.

Daisy picked up the chisel and held it in her hand and then started chipping away, very carefully, onto the flat face of one of the smaller ice blocks Penny had laid out for her. Penny watched her for a moment, so she could improve her technique if she needed to, but Daisy was an absolute natural. She was taking her time, each mark she made considered and thoughtful, not going too deep. Penny smiled as what appeared to be an intricate snowflake started to appear. The girl had high hopes, but she liked that about her; Daisy obviously liked a challenge too.

‘Give me a shout when you want to use the die grinder and I’ll start you off,’ Penny said, moving back to her angel.

Daisy chipped away silently for a few minutes. It was nice for Penny to have someone to work alongside for a change. Even though they weren’t talking, it was still good to have the company.

‘So do you like my dad?’ Daisy said, without taking her eyes off the block of ice.

That wasn’t really a conversation Penny was willing to have with anyone, least of all Henry’s daughter.

‘All the women like him,’ Daisy went on. ‘I can’t see the attraction myself.’

‘Well, you’re not supposed to.’

‘Ha. No, I suppose not. But women fall over themselves to be with him. I guess he must be nice to look at.’

‘So he has a lot of girlfriends?’ Penny asked, still trying to avoid saying whether she found him attractive.

‘Yes. I mean, not girlfriends, just women that he sort of sees on a casual basis, the ones I’m not supposed to know about. They never last long though, a few dates here or there before he moves on to the next. I don’t think he has any interest in anything serious. There’ve only been two semi-serious girlfriends over the years. Rosie was lovely, but the other one was awful. He generally tries to avoid relationships because of me, which I feel really bad about. He thinks he can’t do both – be a dad and a boyfriend – but he can. He’d make someone a wonderful husband one day and I’m sure he’d like more kids, he’s so good with Bea and Oliver.’ Daisy continued to work on her block, making gentle taps here and there.

Penny bent down to smooth off some of the scratch marks from the angel’s dress. ‘How would you feel if he got married, had another baby?’

‘Honestly, I’d love it. He’s been stuck with me ever since he was sixteen, he deserves to be happy.’

‘Your dad adores you. I don’t think he would consider raising you as being stuck with you.’

‘Oh, I know he loves me, I see that every day, but I’ve obviously put a dent in the life he would have led. I want him to find someone he loves, who loves him. I always try to be understanding about him dating women as he should have a life outside of being a dad, but the last one was a complete bitch. Don’t tell him I said that, he hates hearing me swear. So I want him to choose someone lovely, though I totally get that who I would choose for him and who he would choose for him would probably be two different people. Although I think he likes you, which is a first for us both to like the same woman.’

Penny felt a tightening in her throat and she tried to clear it before she spoke. ‘Really?’

Daisy nodded. ‘But he went through a bad break-up with his last girlfriend and it got all messy because of me so he’s not looking for anything serious at the moment. I told him not to mess around with you unless he thinks he can cope with something serious and he really doesn’t do serious.’

Penny stared at her angel without even seeing it. So that was why he had tried to cancel their date earlier – because Henry didn’t want anything serious with her. Well, if he was only interested in a quick fling, then it was a good job it had stopped before it had started.

‘I didn’t say the wrong thing, did I? I just didn’t want to see you getting hurt,’ Daisy said, obviously noticing Penny’s disappointment with this new turn of events.

Was she that needy and pathetic that even a sixteen-year-old girl had noticed it?

‘No, it’s totally fine. I’m happy on my own. I like Henry, but I don’t like him.’

‘Well, that’s cool then, you two can be friends. He needs friends in White Cliff Bay and I expect it gets lonely for you up here sometimes. You’ll be good for each other.’

And that was true. She hadn’t rented out the annexe with the hope of finding a man, she’d done it with the hope of finding a friend and it seemed that she had done that with Henry and even with Daisy. She would be grateful for that.

‘You should come ice skating with us tonight.’

Penny couldn’t think of anything worse than being the pity date, even if the alternative was a night in watching old reruns of Quantum Leap with a tub of Ben & Jerry’s. ‘I can’t really skate.’

‘My dad will help you, he’s really good, he used to have lessons when he was younger. That’s how he and my mum met apparently, at the ice rink. She was so impressed with his skills that… well, nine months later I arrived.’

Penny blinked, surprised at her candour. ‘Do you ever see your mum?’

‘No. Thank god. Apparently she’s heavily involved in drink and drugs. Lucky escape for me.’ She gave the ice a hard whack.

‘Henry told you that?’

‘No, my aunt Caitlyn did, my mum’s sister. I still see her and my grandparents from time to time, though they never see my mum at all. Whenever they come round they always pick holes in the way that my dad raises me, but at least he stuck by me, didn’t run off to Australia as soon as I was born.’

There was bitterness there and Penny just wanted to hug Daisy but she didn’t know her well enough to be able to do that.

Daisy stepped back to inspect her work. ‘I think I’m ready to use the die grinder now.’

Penny picked up the power tool and moved to have a look at what Daisy had created. The sketch of the snowflake was beautiful and very intricate. It would be unlikely that Daisy would be able to carve it successfully but it would be a great design for practising several different skills on. She powered up the die grinder and went over one of the lines that Daisy had made with the chisel.

‘Don’t push too hard, just let the grinder do the work for you,’ Penny explained before carefully passing the tool to Daisy’s greedy hands. She watched Daisy push the drill bit carefully into the ice. ‘That’s it, just go really slow and then you shouldn’t stray from the lines.’

‘What if I make a mistake?’

Penny shrugged. ‘Most mistakes can be incorporated into the design. Besides, it’s your first time, you’re going to make mistakes. Just don’t panic if you do.’

She stepped back to watch Daisy move the die grinder with all the concentration of a Grand Master at a chess match. Satisfied that she was doing it safely she moved back to the angel on the pretence of doing her own work, though surreptitiously keeping an eye on Daisy at the same time, but Daisy’s focus didn’t waver once.

She watched her work and felt her heart ache. Daisy’s mum had missed out on this beautiful child growing up into a wonderful, talented, smart young lady. How could she have turned her back on that? Henry had done an incredible job on his own and Daisy was someone he could be very proud of. But it was very clear why he didn’t want a serious relationship. He didn’t want anyone to hurt Daisy like her mum had.

As disappointing as it was, Penny would accept the friendship and not hope for any more. She ignored the ache in her heart that told her that would be easier said than done.

Henry popped his head around the connecting door later to see if Daisy had emerged from the cool room. He knew Daisy was very easy to get along with but he didn’t want her outstaying her welcome. Jill was cutting into a huge loaf of bread and looked up and smiled when she saw him.

‘Hello there,’ she said, resuming her carving. ‘Can I make you some lunch?’

‘Oh no. I’m fine. I was just making sure Daisy wasn’t getting on Penny’s nerves.’

Jill gestured for him to sit down at the table and, recognising that she wasn’t the sort of person that you ever argued with, he did as he was told.

‘Penny hasn’t got a bad bone in her body, I think she is physically incapable of thinking bad of someone. Daisy could pitch up in her house every day and I don’t think Penny would ever get annoyed with her, she just hasn’t got it in her.’

‘Yes, she’s very sweet.’

‘You like her.’

It wasn’t a question and Jill seemed to command honesty. ‘Yes.’

‘She’s not someone you can have a fling with. She is fragile and I never want to see her get hurt again.’

‘She told me briefly about Chris and the baby. I bet she was devastated.’

‘She was, but Chris was an asshole. You’ll never hear me swear but there is no other word that I can use to describe him. Well, there are plenty of worse words. I think she would have been fine had he stayed with her just for a month or two after the miscarriage. She would have been upset for the baby, of course, but for him to leave her just two days after the miscarriage was the worst thing he could have ever done. She found out later there had been someone else too, which was a double betrayal. But the worst part of it was how he acted afterwards. The people of the town realised what he had done and so many of them were angry with him and to save face he bad-mouthed her to anyone and everyone who would listen, told everyone she was deranged and crazy, said some really horrible things about her. Although most people didn’t believe it and he ended up just making it worse for himself, there were some that did, especially his friends. Her parents protected her from most of it but it was still a tough blow for her when she was dealing with everything else. There has been no one for her since and I know it’s because she doesn’t want to get hurt like that again.’

‘I’m not going to hurt her. I’m not sure what will happen between us. I’d like to be her friend more than anything. Maybe in time that friendship will turn into something more, and maybe not, but I have no intention of ever hurting her.’

Jill nodded seriously and then blushed. ‘My apologies, it was wrong of me to talk to you about her like this, I’m sure she won’t thank me for it. But if you spend any length of time in her company you will see what a truly wonderful person she is. I love her like she was my own daughter and I only want the best for her.’

‘I want that too.’

‘Oh, let’s change the subject, she’ll kill me if she knows I’ve said all this. Do you want tomatoes on your sandwich?’

Henry nodded and watched as Jill busied herself with making the food. The truth was he had already seen what kind of person Penny was and he was having a hard time coming up with reasons why he should stay away. Something serious was not good for Daisy, not so soon after the disaster with Emily, but any kind of relationship with Penny was only ever going to be that.

‘Come on.’ Penny ignored the pout from Daisy, after telling her that they had to stop. ‘We’ll have some lunch and then we can go back to it later this afternoon. It’s important to take breaks when working at low temperatures and it’s not exactly warm in here. I normally give myself a maximum of two hours of carving before taking a long break. Your snowflake will still be here later.’

Penny moved to admire Daisy’s work. ‘This is really good. If you ever wanted a job, I’d be happy to employ you. I turn down so many jobs because I just don’t have the time to do them.’

‘I would love that!’ Daisy almost shouted and Penny regretted saying something before checking with Henry first. It was an offhand comment, but Daisy clearly did have the talent for it and Penny could easily teach her the skills she didn’t know; she was obviously a fast learner.

‘Well, we’ll chat to your dad, if he’s OK with it then you could help out at weekends, providing it didn’t interfere with any homework. I can help you with any tricky bits and I’d pay you of course.’

Daisy had the hugest grin on her face as Penny pushed both sculptures back into the freezer and then walked out into the kitchen.

Penny smiled when she saw two plates of sandwiches waiting for her and Daisy. Jill had obviously made lunch for them. But her smile grew even more when she saw Henry sitting at the table, drinking a mug of tea. She quickly tried to wipe the smile away and that feeling him being there gave to her.

Henry looked up and flashed her a huge smile and she hated that something as simple as that warmed her from the inside.

‘Jill made us all lunch. She just left and she didn’t want to disturb you by saying goodbye. She’s a gem that one, isn’t she, where did you find her?’

‘She was our live-in housekeeper, cook and nanny growing up. She’s never stopped coming round, even though it’s only me here now. I feel bad, especially when I’m more than capable of cleaning myself, but when I once tried to stop her she laid the biggest guilt trip on me about everything that she’d done for us and then didn’t speak to me for over two weeks, despite all my apologies. Then one day she turned back up here cleaning again as if the whole argument had never happened. We’ve never spoken about it since nor would I ever suggest that she didn’t clean again. I love her, she’s literally like a second mum to me.’

‘Maybe she needs the money.’

‘Her husband is probably one of the richest people in the area so I doubt that. He owns the White Cliff Bay Furniture Company.’

Henry paled significantly, clearly backtracking over every comment he had made to Jill to make sure he hadn’t said anything untoward.

‘Oh, don’t worry, he has nothing to do with the company any more. He took early retirement from being CEO many years ago. He still has shares in the company and he’s on the board of directors but he leaves all the management side of things to his son and daughter.’

Penny watched Daisy grab her sandwich and take a massive bite before even sitting down but at a glare from Henry she sat at the table. Penny washed her hands and then joined her.

‘I got the impression that Jill didn’t have any children?’

‘She doesn’t; Clara and Edward are her step-children, from Thomas’s previous marriage. She was housekeeper for them too which is how she and Thomas met. When his wife died she was there for him a lot. A year later he married her and they’ve been happily married ever since.’

‘I think I met Edward at the interview,’ Henry said, thoughtfully.

‘I’m sure you did, he is very hands-on. He knows everyone’s name at the factory and oversees everything that happens. He seems a lovely man.’

‘Don’t think I met Clara, though.’

‘You probably didn’t. I don’t think she gets involved in that side of the business at all. She’s joint CEO but I think her role is more design or publicity or something like that. Well, her team is in charge of that. I’ve never met her but by all accounts she isn’t a nice person.’

Penny looked at Henry’s empty plate in front of him. ‘Did Jill make you lunch too?’

He nodded. ‘I popped by to see if Daisy had finished about half an hour ago and she insisted I stayed for lunch. Sorry, we’ll be eating you out of house and home at this rate. But you can come for dinner tonight before we go ice skating. We have that Italian that Jade kindly brought round.’

Penny bit into her sandwich, her stomach twisting with a sudden unease. What had he and Jill been talking about for half an hour? Jill was a wonderful friend and she’d never say anything bad about her, but she did wonder how far Jill’s over-protective streak for her might stretch in her conversation with Henry.

‘We had a lovely chat about the cruise she and Thomas went on this year,’ Henry said, as if reading her mind.

She tried to relax a little bit, but the way that he was staring at her left her in no doubt that she probably came up in conversation at some point.

‘I’ve invited Penny to come ice skating with us tonight,’ Daisy said before she stuffed the last piece of sandwich in her mouth.

Henry hesitated before speaking just long enough for Penny to think he didn’t really want her to come.

‘Of course you should come with us.’

‘Oh no, it’s fine. I have work to do here and there’s a movie I really wanted to see on TV…’ It sounded lame and pathetic even to her ears.

‘Come on, it’ll be fun. It’s Christmas, you have to enjoy the festivities,’ Daisy insisted.

‘No, I don’t want to intrude, I think it’s lovely that you two are going together. But I’m very happy staying here.’

‘But—’ Daisy started.

‘Daisy, if she doesn’t want to come then we’re not going to force her,’ Henry said.

Penny frowned as she sipped her tea. Although she couldn’t think of anything worse than going with Henry because his daughter had forced Penny on him, she was a bit sad how quickly Henry had closed down the topic of her going. He was clearly relieved that Penny had said she wouldn’t come.

‘But she’s only saying no because she can’t skate. Of course she doesn’t want to be sitting up here on her own, while the rest of the town is enjoying the festivities.’

‘Is that true, you can’t skate?’ Henry asked, his soft grey eyes watching her intensely.

‘I know, it’s kind of ironic, isn’t it, being an ice carver and all, but no I can’t.’

‘Well, I can teach you, if that’s the reason.’

‘No really, I don’t want to be in the way.’

Henry leaned across the table towards her, his eyes focussed only on her. When he spoke his voice was low. ‘If you want to come then come, if you don’t then don’t, but don’t not come because of any other weird reason floating around in your head about me not wanting you there, because I do.’

Daisy stared between them as if she was watching a tennis match.

‘OK,’ Penny said, quietly. She wasn’t entirely sure what the right answer was. She did want to go but she didn’t want Henry to be forced into taking her.

‘OK, you’ll come?’

Penny nodded, feeling suddenly very silly for making such a fuss.

‘Good,’ Henry said. Putting his mug down, he got up and walked out.

‘I’m sorry about him, he has no patience at all. But if he didn’t want you to come, he would say so, look how he was with Jade the other night,’ Daisy said.

‘Daisy, get your arse in here and let Penny have some peace for a few hours,’ Henry called through the open door and Daisy smiled with love for her dad.

‘I’ll see you later,’ she said and ran quickly after him. After a few moments Henry appeared in the doorway, flashing Penny a brief tiny smile before closing the door.

Penny sat staring at the door in confusion. What the hell had just happened?