Christmas at Lilac Cottage - Holly Martin Page 0,95
know that you are secretly an anti-social grumpy sod,’ Penny said and Daisy let out a bark of a laugh from the back seat.
‘She’s got your number, hasn’t she, Dad.’
‘More to the point, why am I doing it?’ said Penny. ‘It’s supposed to be families of staff members from White Cliff Bay Furniture Company and I don’t qualify for that.’
Daisy scrabbled out the back of the car and closed the door.
‘You will qualify soon, so stop your whingeing. Consider it practice,’ Henry said, smiling at her.
Her heart soared at the simplicity of that comment, while he clearly had no idea that he had made her entire day.
He hesitated for a moment, staring at Edward at the entrance of the marquee. He was nervous about today and she didn’t know why, but she knew it wasn’t just about doing something silly in front of an audience. Why was he so scared he would lose his job so soon after he had got it? What had happened a few days before that would make him so wary and why hadn’t he talked to her about it? He was trying to put on a brave face for her and for Daisy but Penny would rather he talk to her about his worries. She couldn’t escape the feeling that this had something to do with Clara.
After a moment, he got out and Penny followed him.
Up ahead of them Penny saw Maggie, waddling along with a boy in each hand and Daniel with his arm round her waist. Penny smiled wistfully at the proper little happy family.
She looked over at Henry and Daisy and he smiled at her over Daisy’s head. They weren’t the orthodox family of high school sweethearts like Maggie and Daniel were and they weren’t married and didn’t have children together, but Penny couldn’t be happier to be part of Henry’s family and to have Daisy as her sort of step-daughter. Maybe it was getting too far ahead of herself to imagine that after only knowing Henry for a week, but she couldn’t help it.
As one of Maggie’s boys lagged behind for a second, Maggie turned to see what had caught his attention and, spotting Penny, she waved madly. She left the boys with Daniel and waddled over.
‘You’re going down, Meadows,’ Maggie said, giving Penny a fond kiss on the cheek. ‘Our team has won for the last three years, there’s a lot riding on our title. We won’t be giving it up so easily.’
‘But you are slightly hindered this year, your little bump may get in the way of decorating and building.’
‘I’m going to be directing the boys, so we actually have the advantage as I’ll be an outsider looking in. Who’s your project director?’
‘Probably Henry, you know what I’m like with even the simplest of flat pack furniture. Quite why he picked me to be on his team I don’t know.’
Maggie linked arms with Penny and leaned in to whisper in her ear. ‘You know why.’
‘Hey, no colluding with the enemy.’ Henry came over and kissed Maggie on the cheek.
‘Oi! Hands off my wife, Travis,’ Daniel called and Henry laughed, holding his hands up innocently.
‘Maggie, this is my daughter Daisy. Daisy, this is our mortal enemy, well for this afternoon at least.’
Daisy smiled at Maggie, shyly.
‘We’ll have to all go out for a girly pampering day after Christmas, before this little one arrives. We can have our nails done and our hair and make-up, what do you think, Daisy?’ Maggie said and Penny smiled with love for her friend for including Daisy like that.
‘Yeah, that’ll be great,’ Daisy grinned.
Edward was standing at the entrance to the marquee, welcoming all the White Cliff Bay employees as they came in. Penny noted he knew everyone’s names and many of the wives and children’s names too. As they approached, she could see all the spectators filing in through a different entrance.
Maggie re-joined Daniel at the entrance and Edward chatted to them briefly before they went inside.
Edward turned to them and smiled warmly.
‘Henry, I’m so pleased you agreed to be a part of this today, we have been holding this event for years and it always makes some decent money for charity. It’s good fun too so don’t feel anyone is going to judge you on your skills today. Working with icing is very different to working with our normal furniture glue.’
‘Are you taking part, sir?’
‘Edward, please. And yes, my family and I always take part every year, we never win though.’