Twenty-nine
Rachel was wakened on Christmas morning by squeals of delight. For a moment, she wondered if it was Verity who had somehow transformed overnight from the shy little girl she’d been since she arrived into a regular three-year-old. Then she realised the sounds came from not one, but several voices. Jess and the girls were already here. For the first time since she could remember, Rachel had overslept and on Christmas Day of all days.
After a quick shower, she dressed hurriedly in the orange dress she’d hung outside the wardrobe ready for today. A quick application of makeup and a comb through her hair and she was ready.
‘Grandma, finally!’ Gemma and Indie yelled in unison, then Gemma added, ‘Mum said we could open our stockings but had to wait till you were here for our presents. Look what Santa brought us. And Verity got one too!’
Rachel blinked at the sight of three tiny pink bicycles standing on the living room carpet. They had definitely not been there when she went to bed, and although Santa would have visited the twins at their house… She swivelled round to meet Alexander’s eyes. He winked. How had he managed it? But it was definitely a success. Verity was more animated than on the previous two days. Pelican Crossing was working its magic on her. Or was it Molly? Verity did love playing with her. The dog was dashing about among the girls and having a good old time.
‘Why don’t I fix us some breakfast so we can get started?’ she said.
‘No need,’ Alexander said. ‘Steph and Chloe have it covered. He had barely finished speaking when Chloe appeared with a platter of French toast, followed by Steph carrying glasses of orange juice for the girls and buck’s fizz for the adults.
‘I thought we could have it here,’ Chloe said, setting the platter down on the coffee table along with a pile of paper napkins.
‘Yum,’ the twins said in uncanny unison, each grabbing a piece of toast, while Verity followed more sedately.
‘Be careful, girls,’ Jess said. ‘Sit down while you’re eating. Verity could show these two how to behave,’ she said to Alexander, who beamed.
It wasn’t long before the food disappeared, Rachel turning a blind eye when a chunk of eggy toast was fed to a delighted Molly.
‘Can we open our presents now?’ Gemma asked, clearly tired of waiting.
‘Yes, I think it’s time.’ Rachel said, smiling with happiness. She loved times like this – her whole family around her, everyone full of joy. The only one missing was Kirk. She forced back the tears which threatened as they always did at moments like this. ‘Why don’t you and Indie start, Gemma?’
As the presents were duly presented to their owners and the floor became covered in torn Christmas wrappings, someone turned on a playlist of Christmas carols and the house rang with music, laughter and more squeals of delight. Even Verity managed to join in the ruckus, competing with the twins to get Molly’s attention, the wily dog managing to evade the little girls’ hands.
‘Look,’ Gemma said, ‘there’s one present left, on the tree.’
She was pointing to the gift Rachel had wrapped for Molly and purposely put out of Molly’s reach, certain the little rascal would sniff it out. Rachel could barely speak for grinning.
‘I wonder who it’s for,’ she said, ‘why don’t you take it down and have a look?’
With the everyone watching on, Gemma shuffled forward on her knees and reached up to dislodge the gift from its perch.
She turned to face her audience and read from the gift tag. ‘It says, For good girl Molly. Love from Santa .’
Molly barked upon hearing her name and the twins cheered.
Seconds later, Molly was tearing at the loosely wrapped gift, soon revealing a new multicoloured tugger rope.
‘Santa is so thoughtful,’ Verity said, playing tug with Molly as the twins cheered them on and Emily giggled at the spectacle.
Buzzing with joy at their antics, Rachel left them to their fun, and went into the kitchen to make a start on lunch, glad she’d already done a lot of the preparation the day before.
‘We’re all going for a swim, Mum. Do you want to join us?’ Steph popped her head into the kitchen. ‘Verity’s gorgeous. Alexander’s very lucky.’
‘Isn’t he. No news for you on that front?’
‘Too early to tell, but Chloe and I have our fingers crossed.’ She held up two crossed fingers. ‘We’ll let you know as soon as we do. Wouldn’t it be fun if we had a girl too?’
Rachel chuckled at the thought and hugged her daughter. ‘Pandemonium comes to mind,’ she said. ‘Thanks, but I won’t join you. I have a lot to do here.’
‘Do you need help? Chloe and I could…’
‘No, off you go. Enjoy your brother’s company. Who knows when he’ll be back now he has Verity to care for.’
‘True.’ Steph looked as if she wanted to say more. ‘See you later, Mum,’ she said, hugging Rachel again. ‘We’ll take Molly,’ she added, seemingly as an afterthought.
What was that about ? Rachel stared after her daughter, positive there was some hidden agenda, something Steph didn’t want her to know. But she’d find out. She always did. None of her children had been able to keep things from her for long.
*
Lunch was almost ready when everyone came in from the beach, the kitchen redolent with the mouth-watering aroma of turkey and all the trimmings of a Christmas lunch which gave no concession to the fact it was close to forty degrees outside. The table in the dining room was set with the plates and napkins which only came out at Christmas and each place was decorated with a piece of artificial holly and a Christmas cracker.
Rachel poured herself a well-earned glass of champagne when the others were showering and changing, knowing it would be her last few minutes of peace that day. Molly, seemingly exhausted by the beach trip, had collapsed onto her bed, only moving when she heard Rachel fill her bowls.
‘Wow, don’t you all look pretty!’ Rachel said, when all four little girls appeared in the kitchen wearing the party dresses which had been in some of the parcels under the tree.
‘Thank you, Grandma,’ Gemma and Indie yelled together, Emily lispingly joining the chorus.
‘Thanks, Grandma,’ Verity whispered. She looked lovely in the pale green dress Rachel had chosen for her. It complemented her red curls as the pink dresses complemented Gemma and Indie’s blonde locks and the lemon Emily’s darker tresses. They’re like a bunch of pretty flowers , she thought, my lovely granddaughters .
The adults appeared as Rachel was taking the turkey out of the oven. ‘Let me help,’ Alexander said, while the women took the salad makings out of the fridge.
‘Thanks, Alexander. You’ll need to let it stand for about half an hour. The veggies should be ready by then, and the ham’s in the fridge ready to be sliced.’
‘I can take charge of drinks, Rachel,’ Paul said.
Rachel shot him a grateful look. Paul didn’t say much. With a household of four women, even though three of them were children, she supposed he didn’t get much of a chance. But he was a good husband and father, and a kind and generous son-in-law.
‘Why don’t you sit with the children?’ Jess said. ‘You’ve been busy all morning. It’s time you had a rest.’
‘Thanks.’ Rachel included both Jess and Paul in her glance, though she wasn’t sure how time with the twins would be restful. But it would give her an opportunity to see if Verity had become more outgoing after their trip to the beach.
Rachel went through to the living room with the girls. This time, Molly remained behind, the smell of the turkey too enticing for her to leave the kitchen. ‘What shall we do, girls?’ she asked, taking a seat on the sofa.
‘I know,’ Gemma said. ‘Can we watch cartoons? Grandma has the Disney channel,’ she told Verity with a sense of superiority. ‘What’s your favourite?’
Verity appeared puzzled.
‘On television,’ Indie said helpfully, while Emily played happily with a piece of tinsel which was hanging from the tree.
‘I used to watch the nature channel with my mummy,’ Verity said at last, making Rachel realise Verity had experienced a very different upbringing to the two terrors.
The twins stared at her for a moment, then Gemma said, ‘Our favourite is Puppy Dog Pals . Molly likes it too. Can we see that one Grandma? You’ll like it, Verity,’ she said confidently.
Amused, Rachel turned on the television as requested, while the girls settled themselves on the floor, lying on their stomachs, careless of their new dresses. With her granddaughters engrossed in the antics of the two cartoon dogs, Rachel leant back and closed her eyes, pondering on the fact that this was the first time Verity had mentioned her mother and wondering if it was a good sign. She was almost asleep when Steph came in to tell them lunch was ready.
Verity’s eyes widened at the sight of the table when she entered the dining room, and her thumb went to her mouth again, but Rachel was pleased to see her remove it when she caught Gemma staring at her. It was as she’d thought, the twins were good for her.
Lunch went well, the turkey and roast vegetables done to perfection, the ham succulent, and the three women had produced excellent salads. When they had all finished, and even Molly was satisfied with the morsels she’d been fed surreptitiously by the twins, it was Alexander who said, ‘Who’s up for a game of beach cricket?’
There was a series of groans from all the adults except Paul, who appeared keen, and loud whoops of delight from Gemma and Indie. Verity sent a questioning glance to her dad sitting next to her.
‘It’s an Australian tradition,’ he explained to her. ‘After Christmas lunch we all go down to the beach for a game with a bat and a ball. It’s a lot of fun. Molly usually joins in and tries to steal the ball.’
Verity’s eyes widened again. Rachel could see she was having to learn a lot of new things since coming here, but she seemed to be coping reasonably well. ‘You girls had better change from your pretty dresses,’ she said. ‘You don’t want to get them spoiled with sand, and you’re most likely going to get wet too.’
As they ran off to change, and the others began to clear the table and load the dishwasher, Rachel thought again how much she enjoyed Christmas, and how lucky she was to have her whole family around her. She just wished… No, she wouldn’t get sad about Kirk today. Today was a day for celebration. And she was loving every minute.