The Last Letter from Juliet - Melanie Hudson Page 0,78

meeting which, when combined with her threat of keeping her gin to herself this Christmas, had led to a temporary truce between the two warring parties (Percy and Noel) which was similar, now he came to think of it, to the famous Christmas Day truce between the Germans and the Brits when they had temporarily lain down their weapons in 1914.Fenella had further swayed them (Percy and Noel, not the Germans) by saying that, as the matter of the apostrophe was soon to be cleared up by ‘The Professor’ (a title that refused to be shaken off) who was busy – as she spoke – carrying out crucial research on the issue, it was time to let bygones be bygones and get into the Christmas spirit once and for all, if only for the sake of the children (I was still yet to see any) not to mention the need to keep the tourists happy (ditto) and businesses booming.

They agreed.

She also got them to agree to a reinstatement of the Boxing Day party in the village hall, where (again, inspired by our little chat) they would re-enact a wartime Christmas party and make a tidy profit in the bargain by charging gullible visiting Londoners a tenner for entry. She handed me her clipboard and pen through the open car window and said, ‘Write this down – trestle tables, a bit of dilute pop for the kiddies, cheap hock for the adults, wartime songs and paper chains. That’s all we need. Nip down to mine later and we’ll iron out the details. You can drop a flyer through all the letterboxes tonight, the exercise will do you good. And then we’ll get bottling! Park up for now and we’ll go to the pub.’

***

Two gins later, determined to search the cottage once again for the compass, I made my excuses at the pub, turned the key in the door and went into the kitchen to say a quick ‘hello’ to the elf, who was spending far too much time alone this Christmas.

My phoned pinged once the WiFi cut in.

Hi Katherine.

Thanks for taking the time to look for the compass and to visit Juliet. It’s wonderful to see that you’re enjoying yourself and I hope we will get the chance to meet before you go. I have heard so much about you from Gerald, not to mention Juliet, who has also emailed to say that you spent the afternoon together and how delightful you are.

You mentioned the notion of sensing an atmosphere of things coming to a close for Juliet, of final goodbyes, perhaps? Maybe you will understand a little more of her state of mind once you have read further along in the memoirs.

All the very best,

Sam

P.S. I can’t believe she got you to sing at the Minack!!

P.P.S. Strike that. I can!

P.P.P.S. Yes, I really did dance naked with the Hairy Bikers. It was surprisingly liberating. Orkney is a very special place for me. I hope my blog has inspired you to visit there sometime.

Two hours later, with the compass still elusive, I put my coat on and snuggled the elf into an inside pocket (he’d been on his own all day and I didn’t have the heart to leave him again) trundled down to Fenella’s, ate a massive shepherd’s pie dinner, drank and bottled copious amounts of gin, put on a ridiculous Christmas jumper (a present from Fenella) tolerated Christmas songs and made enough paper chains to wrap around Cornwall, before retiring to the pub to talk about the apostrophe with Percy, Noel and Geoffrey, who all seemed to be flagging with the thing. Fenella, with clipboard still at the ready, persuaded the local band who were performing in the pub tonight to put on an impromptu performance at the Boxing Day village party. She then wrestled me into my coat before sending me out to deliver one hundred flyers through one hundred letter boxes, before dragging me back into Percy’s house, wrestling me out of my coat and handing me a glass of homebrew cider.

Sometime later, at a very early hour of the morning, I found myself turning the key to the cottage once more, drunk, tired and happy. Which is when I made the barking-mad decision to return Sam’s email and went on to empty my heart onto the computer screen.

I told him everything – about my enforced isolation, about the past two Christmases at IKEA (for the love of God, why did I mention IKEA) – and how