Christmas at Lilac Cottage - Holly Martin Page 0,92

Daisy had gone there to meet up with her new friends Maisie and Rebecca. But that didn’t explain the two plates of cake crumbs and two glasses the night before. Her guess would be that Daisy was meeting up with Josh. Now, should she go down there and catch them in the act of doing lord knows what? Should she go and tell Henry that his daughter was currently lying in the aptly named ‘Love Shack’ with a seventeen-year-old tattooed thug, at least in his mind, or should she just pretend she knew nothing? Daisy was a sensible girl and any bridges that Penny had built with her would be destroyed if she marched straight into that hut now acting like an over-protective mum. Henry’s relationship with Daisy would be strained too if he found out and reacted in the way that Penny thought he would. And knowing Josh and his shy, sweet nature, they probably weren’t doing anything beyond holding hands. It was probably best to do nothing for now and get Daisy on her own later and maybe have a little word.

* * *

‘Come on, hurry, up, all the best trees will be gone,’ Daisy said as Penny tried to find a parking space at the tree farm that was big enough to hold her freezer van. Henry had had to help her deliver two ice carvings after dinner and it didn’t make sense to go back to the house to drop the van off. Plus as the van was so big it meant they could use it to stick the tree in the back.

‘I can’t just stick the van anywhere, plus they have hundreds of trees, I think there’ll be plenty of choice.’

‘There’ll only be little ones left.’

‘You can only really get a little one, the annexe is quite small.’

‘We always get the biggest, fattest tree we can find.’ Daisy bounced up and down in her seat like a small child. Penny loved her enthusiasm for life. ‘Will you get a tree?’

‘I’ll probably get a small one too.’

‘Noooo, you have all that space in front of the window. Or behind the sofa, you could get a massive one. I know, why don’t we get a shared one and we can all decorate it together.’

Penny parked the car and tried to dispel the huge lump of emotion that had lodged in her throat with that simple statement of togetherness from Daisy. She had accepted Penny into their little family so easily and readily.

Penny nodded. ‘OK.’

‘Yayyyy!’ Daisy bounced out the van and set off at a sprint towards the plethora of trees.

As soon as she was out of sight, Henry leaned across and kissed her sweetly.

‘She adores you,’ he whispered. ‘And I do too.’

He got out and lumbered across the grass after his daughter. Penny smiled as she watched him go. This was turning out to be the best Christmas ever.

She got out and walked across the grass. It was snowing lightly again and she looked up at the occasional star that shone through the cloud-filled sky as the soft flakes dusted her cheeks.

She caught up with Henry and had to shove her hands in her pockets so she wasn’t tempted to hold his hand.

The trees were stacked in size order and she watched as Daisy walked past the smaller ones and headed straight for the big ones at the end of the farm.

They reached the part that sold the biggest trees and, although all of these were way too big for the house, she didn’t have the heart to say anything, not when she had been inducted into their little decorating team. Daisy was going from tree to tree, feeling the needles, smelling them, looking at the labels. Penny had never bothered to look at the trees before, she had just bought the first smallest one she had seen and that was it.

‘Surely all the trees are the same,’ Penny said.

‘No, definitely not,’ Daisy said. ‘There’s three main types: a pine, a fir or a spruce. The spruce is generally rubbish. There are several different types of fir and pine trees and we want one that has a good needle retention, even without water. You want soft needles too and something that smells good. Generally we are looking for a Nordman or a Noble fir but I’d settle for a White Pine.’

Penny glanced at Henry as Daisy disappeared round the back of the tree. ‘She knows her trees?’

He nodded. ‘She takes this part very seriously, and the fact