Chapter Six #2
“Yes,” Olivia said, snuggling up against Cat.
Cat wrapped her arm around the little girl and gave her a squeeze. “What would your mum do if she were here right now?’
“Oh, she’d give Jilly a proper telling-off for being rude. Mum’s a softie, unless you’re rude. She hates that sort of behavior.”
“What else would she do if she were here?”
Olivia thought for a moment, her gaze skimming the room. “She’d make it look like a proper English Christmas. We’d have a tree, and stockings, and something pretty on the mantlepiece—Mum always does.”
Cat looked around the sitting room with the fire that had nearly burned out. “It doesn’t look very festive, does it?”
“No. Everything here is old and tired, like no one really lives here.”
“It is a holiday self-catering cottage. Lots of people come and go.”
“It looks like it too.”
Cat checked her smile. “We could spruce it up, you know. We’ll be here for three more weeks.”
Olivia sighed. “I wish we could go back to London.”
“Do you have a Christmas tree there?”
“No. Daddy said there was no point since we’d be here.”
“Hmmm.” Cat pretended to think. “That doesn’t leave us a lot of options then, does it?”
“No,” Olivia said sadly.
“I guess we’ll have to buy one for here.”
“What?” Olivia turned to Cat and grabbed her hand. “Do you mean it?”
“Don’t you think we should have a tree here?”
“Yes.” Olivia jumped off the couch. “Let’s get a big one.”
“This isn’t a very high ceiling, Olivia.”
“So when can we do this? Can we go now?”
“It’s stopped snowing but it’s slushy out, and it’s getting late for us to walk to town. What if we go tomorrow morning? After your dad goes to work? We could walk into Bakewell and get a little tree and surprise him when he returns home.”
Olivia clapped her hands. “That would be the best surprise.”
Jillian must have been listening on the stairs because she suddenly flounced down the remaining steps and walked into the sitting room. “Stop acting like you are part of the family, Cat. Because you are not, and will never be—”
“I’m not trying to be part of your family,” Cat interrupted, patience shot. “I don’t want to be part of your family,” she added, leaving the couch for the kitchen where she scooped up dish towels and carried those to the tiny laundry room attached to the kitchen.
Unfortunately, Jillian followed her. “Why don’t you want to be part of our family?”
“Because you’re not very nice, that’s why.”
“Wait until my mum finds out how mean you are to me.”
“Wait until I tell her that you were awful not just to me, but to poor old Miss Pettigrew!”
“Miss Pettigrew wasn’t that old. She’s like forty or something.”
“Even worse. Rather than being with her family for the holidays, she agreed to be with yours, and then you scare her off. I feel sorry for her.” Cat faced Jillian. “Furthermore, you can’t scare me off. You’re not very scary. You’re just bratty.”
Jillian’s jaw dropped and she gasped.
“So, here’s how it works,” Cat continued, crossing her arms. “You don’t have to like me, and I don’t have to like you.
I just need to make sure you’re still in one piece every day when your dad returns, and I am confident I can do that.
” Cat threw the dish towels and several damp bath towels into the washing machine, added soap and turned the machine on before glancing back at Jillian.
“Let’s face it, that’s what he’s paying me for. ”
“Charlotte would never say anything like that to a child she was caring for.”
“Charlotte sounds like a much nicer person than me. But then, I also don’t think you harass Charlotte and try to make her life miserable.”
“Have I made your life miserable?” Jillian asked, hopefully.
Cat stifled a laugh. When Jillian wasn’t being a bully, she could be very funny.
“No. I’ve got a thick skin and a lot of practice with disappointment so I doubt you could make me miserable but go ahead and try.
I will enjoy reporting your efforts to your father.
It will give us something to discuss each night when you’re in bed. ”
The girl stiffened. “You wouldn’t do that. That’s gossip and uncharitable.”
“Not if I’m telling the truth.”
Jillian glared at her. “He should have never hired you.”
“Oh well. Adults do the strangest things. Fortunately, it’s only for a couple weeks and then your Charlotte will be back, and life will be perfect again.”
“But the holidays will be over, and I’ll be back in school.”
“That is how school holidays work.”
“What about Olivia?”
“What about her?”
“Are you going to be rude to her too?”
“No. She’s kind to me. Respectful. And she’s only ten. Now, why don’t you find something to do that doesn’t annoy me, hmm?”
The phone rang a half hour later as Catriona was moving the laundry forward in the small room.
Cat glanced at the phone hoping it wasn’t Rhys because she wasn’t in a good mood and she might just blurt something less than flattering about his beastly twelve-year-old-going-in-fifteen.
But it wasn’t Rhys; it was Sarah, and Sarah was just what Cat needed.
“Oh, Sarah,” Cat cried, “thank God it’s you.”
“It’s going that well, is it?”
“I wouldn’t say that.”
“But you are still alive,” Sarah answered, her voice lilting and amused. “And that counts for something.”
Cat groaned. “Barely. It’s harder than I imagined, and I’ve only been here for what? Three days?”
“Oh, grand altogether,” Sarah said dryly. “That bodes well.”
Cat gave a short, humorless laugh. “Let’s just say goodwill toward men hasn’t reached this far north.
The older girl, Jillian, she’s deliberately pushing every button.
She wants to be impossible. But the younger one, she’s very sweet, but at the same time she’s nervous that she’ll earn her sister’s displeasure if she’s too friendly with me. ”
“Tweens, aren’t they?” Sarah said. “I’d have rather wrestled a badger at that age myself.”
“I don’t think Jillian enjoys being this angry. She just doesn’t know what to do with all of her energy and emotions. Her mum’s off somewhere sunny, and I’m the stranger hired to keep them busy until they return to school.”
“So not the Christmas of their dreams.”
“No. Not at all. And I see why they’re unhappy. If I were in their shoes, I’d be upset as well.”
Sarah made a sympathetic sound. “You’re doing your best, Cat. That’s all anyone can ask.”
“I don’t know. I think I could do better. I’d like to do better. It isn’t very festive around here. No holiday anything. I suggested we get a tree, but Jillian told me it’d be pathetic without her mum.”
“And Olivia?”
“She wants a tree. She wants all the fun things, but her sister keeps squashing her plans, and so it’s all quite dramatic and would be entertaining if I didn’t feel so dang tired.”
“God love them both,” Sarah said softly. “Still, you can’t fill that kind of space. You can only stand beside it.”
Cat was quiet for a moment. “Yeah. That’s what it feels like—standing beside their grief, trying not to get in the way of it.” There was a pause, comfortable and familiar. “Anyway,” Cat said finally, “enough about me. How’s London?”
Sarah hesitated, then said, almost shyly, “Actually … I had a date.”
Cat blinked. “You what?”
“A date,” Sarah repeated, and Cat could hear the smile in her voice. “First one in—well, a scandalous amount of time.”
“You? Out on a date?” Cat said, grinning despite herself. “I don’t believe it. Who was the lucky gentleman?”
“Oh, just a fella from work. Asked me out for a drink after the staff do.”
“And?” Cat leaned forward, hungry for something good.
Just talking to Sarah put everything in perspective. She was just the childminder, just here for a few weeks. This wasn’t her family. These weren’t her problems.
“Come on, don’t you dare leave me hanging.”
Sarah laughed. “It went pretty good, I must say.”
“Pretty good? That’s all? Now you’re holding out on me.”
“Won’t say too much yet,” Sarah teased. “I’m not jinxing a thing. You’ll get the full report if he rings me again.”
Cat laughed properly this time. “Look at you, out living a life while I’m here refereeing tween warfare.”
“Ah, stop. The universe needs balance, doesn’t it? You with your chaos, me with my pint and a smile.”
“Good for you, Sarah. You deserve it.”
“Go on with you,” Sarah replied fondly. “Now put your feet up and get some rest before you break.”
They said their goodbyes a few minutes later, and when Cat hung up, she felt lighter, the weight on her shoulders eased. Sarah hadn’t changed anything, but hearing her voice, and laughing with a friend, reminded Cat that she was all right. Everything here was … fine. And for now, fine was enough.
*
It had been a productive day for Rhys, and he returned to the cottage feeling good. He’d worked longer than he intended, but it had been so long since he’d been able to really focus and write and edit that he stayed with it until the light began to fade.
Entering the cottage everything looked picture perfect—the pillows perfectly plumped on the sitting room couch, the wool plaid blanket folded and draped precisely on the back. Everything wasn’t just spotless, but quiet. Maybe too quiet.
Rhys hung up his coat and stepped into the kitchen. Olivia sat at the table with a coloring book, her tongue between her teeth as she shaded the outline of a reindeer. Jillian was reading, posture stiff, attention fixed on her book. Cat stood at the sink, drying a mug.
“Did I see a snowman out there?” he asked, approaching the table.
The girls’ heads lifted, perfectly neutral smiles met him. And in the still, careful kitchen atmosphere he knew something had gone very wrong today. But what?
“Cat and I made it,” Olivia said as Rhys drew out a chair at the table and sat down.
Her glance darted toward Jillian before dropping back to her coloring.
“And you, Jilly, love, what did you do?” he asked casually, aware that Cat was polishing the same mug once again.
“Nothing fun,” Jillian answered, refusing to look up from her book.