A Kiss in the Snow - Rosie Green Page 0,13

sister I was only going away for a week. She’d kill me if I stayed longer. We’ve never spent a Christmas apart in all of our twenty-nine years.’

‘You must be really close.’

‘Twins.’

‘Really? How wonderful.’

‘We’re fraternal twins, not identical. Although we do look really alike.’

She nods, fascinated. ‘I’ve never really understood the difference between identical and fraternal.’

‘Identical twins happen when a single fertilised egg divides into two, so they share the same DNA.’ I reel off the explanation, having been asked the same question dozens of times. ‘And fraternal twins are when two separate eggs are fertilised during the same pregnancy.’

‘Ah, lovely. My friend, Pamela, has two-year-old twins. Fraser and Gregor. Fighting all the time, mind you. And I can never tell which one is which.’ She smiles. ‘It must be special, though. To have that twin connection. You’d never be lonely, I shouldn’t imagine.’

I laugh. ‘That’s true. I can’t imagine life without her,’ I say truthfully. Even though recently, she’s been rather less than perfect company. But maybe I’m just bitter because of Adam…

Just then, the door bursts open and an older woman bustles in on a freezing blast of air. ‘What a day! Apparently, we’re going to have snow like we haven’t had it in years.’

Anita smiles. ‘So they say, Maud.’

‘I bought my Wilfred a new winter coat but will he wear it? Oh no, insists on going out in his birthday suit, even in weather like this.’ She looks in her seventies, white-haired with glasses.

Anita shakes her head, and I take a quick glance out of the window, half-expecting to see a naked man marching past.

‘He’s a proper bugger for rooting around under the snow, digging things out, and it proper turns my stomach, I can tell you,’ Maud is saying. ‘He found a half-eaten doughnut yesterday and I told him not to, but down it went anyway.’ She picks up a basket and puts on her glasses to choose items from the shelves.

‘Wilfred is Maud’s cockapoo,’ murmurs Anita.

‘Ah.’

‘So have you seen inside the cottage yet?’

I nod, noticing Maud’s ears twitching as she swings a rack of greetings cards. ‘Maddy brought me along to have a look last week. It’s gorgeous.’

‘Where’s that?’ Maud asks.

‘Snowdrop Cottage?’

She turns with a frown. ‘Snowdrop Cottage? Ooh, you’d better be careful.’

‘Why?’ I ask, feeling vaguely alarmed by her grim expression.

Maud taps the side of her nose. ‘Let’s just say there’ve been some very weird goings-on at that house next door. Personally, I wouldn’t want to live anywhere near that Moon Cottage place.’

‘Maud,’ murmurs Anita warningly.

‘What weird goings-on are you talking about?’ I ask, bemused.

‘Well.’ Maud sets her basket down and moves closer. ‘Moon Cottage was bought two years ago by a woman called Reenie Lennox,’ she murmurs in a conspiratorial fashion. ‘By all accounts, her husband Frank was violent and she fled here to Silverbells to escape from him. But one day…she vanished. Just like that.’ Her eyes widening, she adds in a stage whisper, ‘Here one day, gone the next. And no-one knows what’s become of her.’

‘So where did she go?’ I glance at Anita, puzzled. ‘This Reenie Lennox?’

Anita shakes her head, smiling. ‘There’s really no mystery to it, Carrie. Reenie went to live with her sister.’

‘Yes, but did she really?’ Maud’s tone is sinister, and in spite of everything, a little shiver runs along my spine.

Anita laughs. ‘Of course she did.’

‘Hm, well.’ Maud sniffs. ‘I still say no-one knows exactly what happened up at Moon Cottage.’ She looks around. ‘Do you have matches, Anita, or did your mother forget to order them?’

‘No, Maud, she didn’t forget. She’s more organised than I am, even though she’s in her sixties. There’s some matches in the back.’

‘Wonders will never cease. She forgot my magazine order the other week.’

‘No, she didn’t. The carrier was late delivering them, as I think she explained.’

Maud throws her a look of disbelief. ‘Old age comes to us all. You might want to think about getting her a dementia test.’

‘Thank you, Maud.’ Anita’s face hardens as she disappears into the back.

‘Just trying to help,’ says the older woman, looking at me with a smug expression.

My mind is still on Reenie Lennox and Moon Cottage, which is apparently right next door to where I’ll be staying. And in spite of my instinctive dislike of this Maud, I can’t resist asking what she meant about the weird goings-on there.

‘So it was August just gone,’ she murmurs, glancing over her shoulder and stepping closer. ‘Hottest day of the year. The postman heard yelling