grumpy or embarrassed like me, or a bit of both. I handed Chloe my cup and walked over to Luke and Kate with Finn following close behind. I really hoped Luke wasn’t going to force us to say anything. Public speaking was definitely not my forte.
‘All you have to do is press this down,’ said Luke, pointing to a switch on what I guessed was some sort of external power pack. ‘Okay?’
‘Okay,’ Finn and I said together.
‘Here we go!’ Luke shouted, turning back to the group while Finn and I got ready to hit the button. ‘Ten, nine, eight…’
As soon as everyone shouted ‘one’ we pressed together as instructed, our gloved fingers briefly touching, and the tree became a beacon of brightly lit bulbs. Everyone cheered and clapped and we took a step back to admire the festive view.
‘It’s beautiful,’ said Kate, coming to stand next to me while Luke went to the opposite side and nudged Finn out of the way because he was blocking the view for at least half of the crowd. ‘Isn’t it pretty?’
‘It’s gorgeous,’ I told her.
‘Happy Christmas, Freya,’ she smiled, kissing me on the cheek.
‘Merry Christmas, Kate,’ I said back, ‘and thank you, for everything.’
And then everyone was kissing and hugging. Somehow, I managed to avoid both of the Stanton brothers and made my way back to Chloe to admire the green, blue, red and yellow lights which reflected on to the baubles and bathed the whole square in a bright and seasonal glow.
‘Isn’t it wonderful?’ said Chloe.
There was something in her tone which made me look at her properly and I was shocked to find her eyes filled with tears.
‘I’m all right really,’ she said, sniffing hard and shrugging off my attention with a watery smile as she handed back my cup of wine. ‘It’s just Christmas, you know. It’s tough.’
With her usual gusto and get-up-and-go enthusiasm, it was all too easy to forget that she was a widow harbouring a broken heart.
‘Yes,’ I said, carefully pulling her into my side so as not to crush our drinks, as I felt sympathetic tears prickle my eyes too, ‘I know.’
We stayed like that while Luke delivered the rest of his speech, filling us all in with a quick update on Winterfest.
‘Practically every spot for every session is filled now,’ he announced, with a big smile. ‘Which shows us that there’s definitely a demand for this sort of thing and if it doesn’t get us all in the mood for Christmas, then nothing will.’
‘We’re already in the mood!’ called John, making everyone laugh.
‘Well, that’s good,’ said Luke, ‘let’s see if we can keep that feeling going right the way through to spring, shall we?’
We all had enough to do to keep us occupied and I couldn’t image Graham, who was standing next to Carole and looking flushed from the wine, would have time to feel anything like as low as he had the winter before. At least, I hoped he wouldn’t. If push came to shove in the garden, I still had every intention of drafting him in to help.
There might still have been over a month to go before the official opening on December twentieth, but I could have quite easily filled double that time with what I wanted to achieve, and that was even before we had worked out where to place Finn’s sculptures. Without thinking, I swallowed down a mouthful of wine as I ran through the long list of jobs which still had the power to make my heart canter and my nerves prickle.
‘I’m going to be checking through everything tomorrow,’ Luke finished up, ‘and if any of you who are involved could come along, I’d really appreciate it.’
Everyone seemed happy with the request and I thought it was a good idea to get us all together to share our plans and give a flavour of what to expect. I was really looking forward to Winterfest now, even the part that I was going to play in it.
‘It’s exciting, isn’t it?’ I said to Chloe, who I was happy to let go of, now I had banished my nerves again and she had recovered from her understandably emotional moment.
‘It is,’ she agreed. ‘Hannah and I have signed up to do one of the sessions.’
‘Hannah?’
‘My friend who works in The Dragon.’
‘Of course, which one are you doing?’
‘The bread- and chutney- making that Mark and Poppy are running.’
‘That sounds wonderful,’ I nodded, my mouth watering at the thought of warm crusty bread topped