Christmas at Lilac Cottage - Holly Martin Page 0,49

he was a complete creep. But it seemed she was the only one who thought like this. He made all the women in the room swoon.

‘Bella donna,’ Fabio said, kissing Penny on both cheeks in some exuberant European gesture. ‘Sooo pretty, ze stars they are nothing compared to you.’

Daisy stifled a giggle next to her. Penny had always thought that Fabio wasn’t a real Italian, his accent sounded terrible and he was a walking stereotype, but she hadn’t dared call him out on it. It certainly didn’t do him any harm with the ladies.

‘How are you, Fabio?’

‘I am alls the better for zeeing you. When will you agree to marry me and make beautiful babies?’

When hell freezes over. Probably not even then. Fabio had been begging her to marry him for years, ever since she started doing these competitions. She had never taken it seriously because at the end of the night he always left on the arm of a different woman.

‘Ah, I’m always so busy with work, I have no time for making babies,’ Penny shrugged.

‘When I win tonight, will you marry me then? These sculptures are nothing in comparison to mine.’ He swept his hands out in a theatrical gesture and for a split second it seemed that tiny crystals flew from his hands, covering Geoffrey’s dragon in a sprinkle of sparkling magic before they vanished from sight. Penny blinked. Had she imagined it? Dust was easier to spot under the translucent lights and the shafts of lights around the room showed hundreds of particles swirling in the air, so maybe it had just been dust from his clothes.

‘You must come and zee, you will love it.’

Fabio took Penny’s arm and guided her across the room. The crowd parted and Penny stared at it in confusion for a few seconds before she gasped in horror. Captured in ice was a life-size sculpture of her, naked and in a passionate embrace with Fabio. It was intricately carved with wonderful craftsmanship and was quite possibly the creepiest thing she had ever seen.

Daisy burst out laughing next to her and Josh quickly averted his gaze but Penny couldn’t take her eyes off it.

‘Do you like it, bella donna? It is you, sì?’

‘I… Why?’

‘Because I am in love with you and I want to marry you.’ He got down on one knee in a theatrical gesture and the spectators around them gasped and then cheered. Penny glanced over at Daisy, who was filming the whole thing on her phone.

Just then there was a shout and a cry of pain from across the room. All eyes swivelled from the bizarre marriage proposal to Geoffrey, who was also on his knees in front of his dragon. Though Geoffrey’s cry seemed to be made out of despair as his sculpture melted and bubbled like a fountain. Within seconds the six-foot dragon was reduced to nothing more than a small lump of ice and a big pool of water.

Penny had never seen anything like it. As much as she disliked Geoffrey for his rudeness, no one really deserved to have their hours of hard work dissolve in front of their eyes. Who would do that?

Although she knew one person who would be quite happy to destroy the other competitors’ work. She looked down at Fabio who was still kneeling at her feet. He gave her a wink and she snatched her hand from his, not wanting any part of his pettiness.

‘YOU! You did this,’ Geoffrey roared, a livid rage boiling behind his eyes as he charged across the room towards Fabio.

Josh was quick to move Daisy out the way and Penny stepped to one side as Fabio leapt up and Geoffrey bulldozed into him. They both crashed into Fabio’s pornographic ice sculpture, which tottered on the table. Fabio punched Geoffrey in the stomach and Geoffrey pulled Fabio’s hair, pushing him back against the table again. This time the sculpture wobbled and fell in slow motion onto the floor, smashing into a thousand pieces.

This was at least enough to stop the fight as Fabio wailed in horror.

The police finally made a move, obviously finding the whole spectacle far too entertaining to actually want to stop it. As Fabio launched himself at Geoffrey again, they pulled the two of them apart and dragged them both out the building.

‘Get off me!’ Fabio yelled in a perfect Essex accent as he struggled for his freedom.

The door closed behind them and the room fell into silence. Suddenly people started clapping and