I Wish It Could Be Christmas Every Day - Milly Johnson Page 0,19

to sign our divorce papers.’

‘Oh, I’m so sorry,’ said Robin, hoping he hadn’t said anything to put his foot in it.

‘I’m not,’ answered both Bridge and Luke together.

‘It’s very… mature that you can go your separate ways amicably,’ said Robin, trusting he was saying the right thing now.

‘Mature, ha,’ Bridge said with an added tut of sarcasm.

‘Amicably.’ Luke echoed the word as he squeezed the top of his nose, a small laugh escaping from between his lips.

‘It’s fine,’ Bridge added breezily, not wanting any of the others to feel discomfited. ‘Just dotting the “i”s and crossing the “t”s. It’s all very dignified.’

‘So dignified that we’re both up for a Nobel peace prize,’ said Luke with the sort of smile that Rock Hudson used to give Doris Day when he was being playful.

Bridge knew that he knew she had a short fuse so she would not give him the satisfaction of his match reaching the full pack of her dynamite.

‘Here you go,’ said Mary, passing Luke a plate of some of the remaining sandwiches and a mug of soup. The look on his face as he tucked into the first was that of Henry VIII tucking into a roasted stag’s leg.

‘Oh my, that cheese is good. It’s very good in fact,’ he said, through a full mouth of food. ‘I haven’t eaten since last night.’

‘How stupid,’ said Bridge, who wouldn’t have missed the opportunity to say so.

‘Did you see any more cars on the road?’ asked Jack.

‘None. Apart from one – abandoned. It was mad out there. The satnav was no help, leading me one way and then changing its mind.’

‘Same happened to me,’ said Bridge.

‘And us,’ said Mary.

Did it? thought Jack. He’d been oblivious to that, trusted implicitly in Mary to get them where they should be and never thought she’d encountered any difficulty. Fred, his usual chauffeur, would flap at the merest hint of a problem of course.

Jack held out his hand to introduce himself to Luke. ‘Jack Butterly. And this is Mary, my PA.’

Why not just Mary? thought Bridge. Why do you have to introduce her as the hired hand? Posh twat. She elevated him from twit.

‘Hello, Jack. And Mary,’ said Luke, with a wave at her.

‘I’m Charlie and this delightful young gentleman is Robin.’ Charlie inclined his head by way of greeting while Robin gave Luke his best jazz hands. ‘We were en route to Scotland for a snowy mountain Christmas.’

‘I heard on the news before it cut out that Scotland was strangely devoid of snow,’ said Luke.

‘Yes, just our luck,’ said Charlie. ‘Good job we found this place. I’ll have nightmares thinking about what would have happened if we hadn’t.’

‘What are we doing about paying for everything then?’ asked Mary. ‘I have a notepad and a pen in my bag… should we write down what we’ve eaten and drunk and then settle up with the landlord when we can get hold of him?’

‘That seems the best solution,’ said Bridge. ‘I don’t think he’ll blame us for making a small dent in his supplies. And if he does, tough. He’s not getting them back.’

Robin stoked up the fire for Luke. The newcomer was very pale and Robin wasn’t sure if that was his natural skin colour or all the blood had rushed away from the surface to keep snug and warm in his nucleus.

‘This is bliss,’ said Luke, through another mouthful of sandwich. He didn’t add that it would have been even better were his fiancée there and not his wife. So far this was the longest time in the past five years that he and Bridge had been in the same room together without trying to kill each other.

‘Happy to help,’ said Robin. ‘I hope you remember where you left your car for the morning.’

‘Don’t think this weather will have gone by then,’ replied Luke. ‘And yes, it’s safe enough, I’m sure. I hope.’

‘What are you driving these days?’ asked Bridge.

‘A boy toy,’ said Luke with another grin.

Bridge tutted. ‘Don’t tell me…’ she started to da da-da-daaa the James Bond music and when Luke clicked his tongue and stuck up his thumb, Bridge shook her head resignedly. ‘Quelle surprise.’

He wouldn’t have bought any old Aston Martin, she thought, he’d have picked the one he used to dream of owning, the vintage one. In which case, he was doing really well. Maybe she should have carried on fighting for a chunk of his fortune.

‘So… sleeping arrangements?’ enquired Robin, noticing that Charlie looked tired. ‘I think we’ll have