I Wish It Could Be Christmas Every Day - Milly Johnson Page 0,130

she’d moved down to work for her, but Bridge couldn’t have been nicer about it. Although she made Mary promise that she would not return to work for Jack as his PA. So she rejoined Butterly’s as ‘executive office director’, which was a newly created position with a wishy-washy job description because she had carte blanche to make it what she wanted. Her first duty was to spend some serious money on updating the offices: new desks, paint, carpet, blinds, flooring. There was an upgraded canteen too with smart tables and chairs, though Edna refused to relinquish the command post of her hatch but did allow the addition of a dishwasher to her den. Now when Mary sat in meetings, someone else took down the minutes and served the tea. Kimberley decided her talents were best served elsewhere and gave in her notice.

Robin was coming up to bring the new year in with them, and so was Bridge. And if Bridge came, Reuben would be there too, because they couldn’t keep away from each other and they were a perfect match: she made him laugh loads, he turned her to a total love-mush. Ben was asked but couldn’t join them, as he was off cruising in the Bahamas with a bunch of Midnight Moon author pals. Jack had invited Luke and Carmen over too, but they wanted a quiet one at home with Jorge Felipe Palfreyman, the world’s most gorgeous baby. He had Carmen’s olive skin and Luke’s pale-blond hair and the bluest, brightest eyes. They saw quite a lot of Luke as Plant Boy had commissioned a range of their vegan fruit scones. Plans were afoot for vegan cheese scones (red cheese not white) and other flavours to be decided. What with the Plant Boy orders and Mrs Anmitsu doubling her order, Butterly’s production output was now pushing two and a quarter million scones every day. And, thanks to some nifty negotiations via video conference, they now had four distributors in the US and two in Australia as well. Mary had brokered half of those deals.

Mary had moved in with Jack last month. Her family really liked him, they liked the respectful way he treated her. Sean couldn’t believe she’d managed to make the posh Boy from Ipanema not only stop from walking by, but sit down with her on the beach towel, rub in some factor twenty on her back and buy her ice-cream. Jack smiled a lot these days and Mary didn’t deny herself the credit that she’d put that smile there. She made sure these days that any due glory was hers for the taking.

She had been defeated in the one duty she wanted to fulfil before she left Bridge though and that was to find who owned Figgy Hollow, because Bridge wanted to make an offer for it. The Diocese of York said that English Heritage owned it, English Heritage said it was the Church. No one seemed to know. She’d tried the Land Registry, but they took their time even with straightforward queries, never mind one this complicated. So Bridge made a trip up there to ask around in person. She’d hoped that local Hollybury Farm, which supplied the inn with foodstuffs, might have been able to shine some light on the issue, but to her confusion she learned that it had been demolished years ago and a well-established housing estate now stood on the land.

Bridge had told her that when she’d gone back to Figgy Hollow, she’d found it unrecognisable, to the extent that it would have been impossible for them to hole up in the place now. The inn was completely derelict, the church forlorn and roofless, the cottages mere stones held together by luck and fair wind, the bridge over the stream collapsed; all too far gone to renovate without spending a small fortune, and nowhere near the picturesque spot she’d remembered it to be. She’d given up trying to find who it belonged to after that; it was as if it didn’t want to be bought, she said. Besides, her energies had been otherwise engaged this year.

So much had happened that last Christmas seemed like a lifetime ago. They had all changed so much for being trapped in an old inn with a bunch of strangers. Robin’s landscape was wholly different now and he was taking tentative steps into a new life. Bridge and Luke were in a relaxed state of armistice; she’d given him a great deal on some