Twelve Days The Beginning - By Jade Reyner Page 0,141

talk about than the present.

True to his word, Dale prepared the turkey and the vegetables and they sat down to eat a traditional Christmas meal together for the first time in five years. In deference to the day, Dale had opened a bottle of wine but up until then, he had stayed clear of any alcohol and Elise was immensely proud of him. She herself indulged in a glass of wine, but decided to leave it at the one. She still didn’t trust this new side of Dale and she didn’t want to dull any of her senses in case she would have to draw on them later on in the day. She hated herself for doubting him – he had given her no cause to today – but there’s was such a long and complicated past that it would take more than this one day for her to let go and trust again completely.

At the end of the meal Dale drank a toast to them and to the future and Elise raised her glass so as not to arouse suspicion. It felt horribly hypocritical and she hated every moment of lying to him; she was so sick and tired of the lies in her life.

Dale had downed the rest of the bottle of wine by himself during the meal, which didn’t escape Elise’s notice. In the back of her mind she could hear the faint ringing of alarm bells, however she also knew that it would take a hell of a lot more than one bottle of wine to get Dale drunk. He was a hardened drinker and although he had had a few days off, she doubted that a handful of days of sobriety would have made that much difference to his drinking capacity. He was a long way away from being a danger to her and so she pushed her misgivings to one side.

This time she volunteered to clear away and Dale didn’t argue. The wine had begun to mellow him and she could see that he was keen to relax. Expecting him to turn on the television, she left him to it and a short while later, after she had finished tidying up, she went back into the lounge to join him.

The first thing that she noticed when she re-entered was the large bottle of whisky that was stood on the side table next to Dale and a tumbler full of the liquid in his hand. Her senses went on to high alert as she registered the old Dale making an unwelcome return and judging by the size of the glass in his hand, he was back with a vengeance.

He looked up as she entered the room and if he noticed her nervous glance at the glass in his hand he didn’t let on; he merely patted the sofa beside him to indicate that she should sit down. Elise sat, and the second thing that she noticed was that both of her presents had been moved from under the tree and were now on the arm of the sofa next to her.

“Pressie time!” Dale declared and already Elise could hear the slight slurring in his words and she wondered how much whisky he had managed to down whilst she had been in the kitchen.

For want of continuing with the distraction and not drawing attention to his newly inebriated state, Elise took the presents and placed them on her lap ready to open.

Instantly, she was reminded of the presents that Vaughn had given her and hated herself for comparing the standard of the wrapping. These from Dale had been thrown together using last year’s Christmas paper – at least some things didn’t change – whereas Vaughn’s had had matching bows and tags and beautiful lines. She supposed he could have had them professionally wrapped but somehow she doubted that. He didn’t seem to be the kind of man who would get others to do his work.

The first present was a familiar size and box shape and she opted to open that one first. In order to prolong this moment she took her time opening first one and then the other end before slipping the paper open at the middle to reveal the same box of perfume that Dale had bought her every year. In the early days, she had had perfume plus other things that had differed each year. But in the last five years, it had dwindled down to just the perfume – nothing else -