the box beneath the table for her. She looked around again. ‘Where is everyone?’
‘I’m not sure I follow,’ said Maud, distracted quickly when one of the other residents, clearly a friend of Maud’s, came to gush over the flower arrangement. And as Maud’s flowers drew a few other residents over and they talked about Christmas foliage and colours, Lucy moved her chair closer to Julian’s. ‘Julian, where are you parents? Your sisters?’
‘Something came up last minute,’ he said, unable to look her in the eye.
‘For all of them?’
‘You know what Bella’s like…disorganised is her middle name. And Amelia’s the same.’
‘And what about your parents?’
‘They had another commitment.’
‘More important than Maud?’ The truth was dawning on her pretty quickly now as Maud relished the attention from the other residents. ‘It’s just me and you tonight, isn’t it?’
‘Is that so bad? You like Maud, she loves you. Is it so difficult to spend a bit of time with her at Christmas?’
When he put it that way she felt terrible, but then that’s what he was banking on, wasn’t it?
She sat fuming but not wanting to make a scene. And as the others dispersed, leaving Maud to focus on her visitors, Lucy put aside her frustration that Julian had tricked her into being here. Separating had been her idea, the divorce also, and he’d never made it a secret that he would get back together in a heartbeat. Now, he seemed to be trying to get in as much time with her before this ridiculous pretence stopped once and for all. And if that was the case, Lucy was only glad she wouldn’t be doing it for much longer.
Over cups of tea Maud told them all about the debacle of the Christmas decorations at Aubrey House, how the tree had been ordered but the delivery date was messed up and when it arrived it stood there for days. She told them how the Christmas lunch menu was exquisite considering this was a place for old people and when she reeled off the list of courses, Lucy suspected it would take most of the day for the residents to get through it all.
‘We’re having a secret Santa after the Queen’s Speech,’ Maud confided, before whispering, I drew Percy’s name out of the hat and when Julian’s mum did my shopping for me she managed to find him the same brown cardigan he’s wearing now, without holes.’
Lucy discreetly looked over to where the other resident was sitting. ‘I can’t see any holes.’
‘You can when he stands up – all across the bottom, one on the cuff. He’s attached to the garment and it’s falling apart.’
Lucy kept it to herself but however much Maud complained about Percy and his sharing food around or his clothing malfunctions, Lucy wondered whether she might just have a soft spot for the old man.
‘He’d better wear the new one,’ Maud rambled on. ‘It’s the same colour so he doesn’t have an excuse.’
Lucy and Julian exchanged a smile. He was obviously wondering whether his gran might like this man too.
‘I’m impressed the tree in here is a real one,’ said Lucy when a waft of it came her way. They were close enough to see the decorations that had been carefully added to branches, the baubles all silver, the lights a static soft white. ‘There’s nothing like it…my flat smells beautiful when I wake up.’ When Julian threw her a look she realised her slip-up. ‘House, I meant house, of course.’ She laughed as though she’d made a silly mistake and Maud was off talking about how every Christmas she’d had a tree with roots and planted it in the garden once it was done with for another year.
Lucy hated this. She hated lying – that was Julian’s forte. And, it seemed, it was Daniel’s too. Tears pricked the back of her eyes at the thought of Daniel and she was so distracted she only caught the tail end of the next thing Maud was telling them.
‘…I know it’s a bit old-fashioned,’ she said, one hand on the brooch against her lapel, ‘but it’s worth something and one day I’d like to pass it down to my great-grandchild.’
Lucy’s discomfort mounted. How had they gone from talking trees to talking babies? She looked to Julian and back to Maud but all she could do was smile. And Julian, wisely for him because Lucy could very well throttle him right now for going along with this charade, made his excuses to use the