for her bravery. Perhaps if she’d seen the way they’d looked at each other in the pub the other night or heard about their confrontation outside she might have thought twice about this.
Lucy waved over to Melissa, who was chatting with another couple, and then headed back to her flat. She had twenty-six cards to write and she wanted to do them all tonight, post them in the morning and then she could relax. All her gifts were bought, not yet wrapped, and so she was slowly getting ready for Christmas. And when she finished work she intended to take a long-awaited break and hibernate. Although whether she’d hide away when waffles and Daniel’s company were on offer she wasn’t sure.
She was about to go through the little gate and up her path when she saw a young woman loitering on the other side of the road near the bend and the guesthouse. Talking into a mobile phone, she was looking around her as though she was lost. Her winter coat flapped open to reveal a decent-sized baby bump and she had long dark hair with a thick-cut fringe and the sort of European skin that was likely the same nutty brown all year round – she was beautiful. But before Lucy could offer her help or some directions, the woman must have realised she wasn’t in the right village at all because she got into her car on Lucy’s side of the road and drove away.
Lucy, still full from the waffles, got straight on with the cards as soon as she’d hung up her coat, fed Shadow and turned on the tree lights. She started with her parents, selecting a traditional design of a village scene from days gone by, complete with red phone box and a classic car you didn’t see much of these days. She sent similar designs to other relatives and when she’d finally addressed all the envelopes, restless and eager to move, probably because she’d eaten so much, she changed into her dungarees and headed down into her workshop. She had an idea and wanted to work on it right now.
She flipped through the photographs of some of her projects that she kept in case clients needed inspiration and found the picture of the tortoise she’d made for the little boy. When Daniel had told her the story of Speedy tonight he’d tried to act as though it was all ancient history but she had a picture of him in her mind’s eye as a little boy, distraught at how his dad had brutally treated the pet he loved.
Now, with a design in mind, she knew what she was going to do. She was going to make a tortoise for Daniel. He could keep it at home on the window sill or at the waffle shack, or wherever he liked – he could keep it outside if he preferred. All she wanted was for him to have a special something and she hoped it might help in some way.
And as she worked with the metal her mind drifted as much as her concentration would allow, wondering how Daniel was going to react when he saw that it wasn’t only his mum out to see the tree tonight but his estranged brother too.
Carol’s stunt could only spell trouble, and, deep down, Lucy knew she was already invested in Daniel being a part of Heritage Cove again. She liked it even more here now he’d come back for good.
Chapter Seven
‘Mulled wine?’ Carol asked her son as they walked from the Little Waffle Shack across to the big village tree, passing the cart run by the pub on the way.
Daniel knew it was likely to be Benjamin’s recipe so he wasn’t going to say no to that. ‘Let me get them.’ He asked for two and both he and Carol took a polystyrene cup between their hands as they went over to the giant Norway spruce decorated with hundreds of coloured lights.
‘Are you going to put a small tree in your waffle shack?’ his mum asked after an approving sip of the warming wine mixture.
‘I think I will. There’s a Christmas tree farm just past the florist, isn’t there?’
‘There is, and I know they deliver.’
It was only as they got closer to the village tree and Daniel could see faces lit up in the glow of the lights that he spotted Harvey. ‘Mum, what are you playing at?’ he groaned. ‘This is such a bad idea.’
‘He’s your brother,’