26. Snowfall
Chapter 26
Snowfall
D iane was busy in the kitchen when Amy came downstairs the next morning.
‘Good morning.’ Diane looked pointedly at her watch as though it was considerably later than eight o’clock and Amy had slept in. ‘I thought it best to get my own breakfast and be on my way. A nice early start.’
‘Yes, it’s certainly early.’
‘I didn’t want to outstay my welcome. Would you turn on the radio, please? I’d like to see if there’s any travel news so I can plan my journey.’
The radio on top of the fridge in the kitchen was about the only source of information from the outside world, other than the landline. Amy turned it onto Radio 2, which she knew was good for traffic news.
‘I’ll make some tea,’ she said.
‘Yes, you do that. I’ll find myself some food. I hope you’ll forgive my appearance, I’m never at my best first thing in the morning.’
That wasn’t true. Diane was already fully clothed and her hair was perfect; the only thing that was missing was her usual thick makeup. Amy hadn’t even seen a mirror. She put a couple of tea bags into mugs though she knew she risked the wrath of Diane who’d make a fuss about how she needed a teapot and a tea strainer but she didn’t care. Diane was going home today.
‘Here’s your cup of –’ she began, as Diane raised a hand to silence her and gazed at the radio with huge solemnity as Amy placed the cup in front of her on the kitchen table.
The travel news had begun.
The A1 north of Berwick was shut due to an overturned vehicle. There were roadworks on the M6 and a shed load on the M69 near Coventry.
‘There you are, everything should be fine,’ Amy said with relief. ‘Nothing to slow down your journey. Now, before you go –’
‘Ssh! Wait!’ Diane’s face was a picture of dismay, as the forecaster continued:
‘… spreading over the entire northern parts of the country from the west this morning, which could cause some disruption. You’re advised to check the local weather forecast before you travel. Of course you can keep up to date with all the news on your BBC local radio station, online, on BBC Sounds or even here on good old Radio 2. Now, it’s back over to you, Chloe, and I want to hear more about these guests …’ Diane turned off the radio.
‘I didn’t hear the beginning of that section because you were chattering. You need to learn to talk less, and listen more, Amy. What is spreading over the country?’
‘Heavy rain, I expect,’ Amy said, and, as if on cue, precipitation pattered on the kitchen window, blown up the valley on the wind.
Diane went over to the window and peered out.
‘I don’t think that’s rain,’ she said. ‘I think it’s snow.’
‘No, it can’t be.’ Amy flung open the back door, and a curl of wind swept into the kitchen, bringing with it a sharp but undeniable flurry of snow. She banged the door shut and leaned against it, as if trying to stop the entrance of a monster. ‘It’s snowing!’
‘I know. I need to get on the road before it starts to settle.’
‘Yes, you do. I’ll risk it and wake Matt, he can help you get ready,’ Amy said, and went to shake Matt awake, before Diane had a chanc to tell her not to.
‘Matt, it’s snowing.’
‘Amy … I …’ He blinked and seemed befuddled by the morning.
‘We need to help Diane get on her way before it starts to settle, and she gets stuck here .’
‘Oh God. I’ll get up right away and help her load her car.’ Instantly, he snapped fully into consciousness.
If Diane had been happy to eat a quick breakfast, pack her belongings as swiftly as possible and get on the road, she might have made it, but every item of clothing had to be folded neatly and wrapped in tissue paper. She couldn’t envisage driving without a decent cooked breakfast inside her, and she couldn’t eat it quickly in case she got indigestion. Worst of all, she needed to put on full makeup before she could even consider leaving the house.
At half-past-ten, the three of them stood on the doorstep of Elder Fell Cottage. Outside, the landscape was utterly changed. The ground was white already and the snow whirled down from the grey sky in huge, fluffy flakes like white feathers. The snowfall was so heavy that the mountains had disappeared. The world had shrunk to a few dozen metres around the cottage, which was all they could see through the blizzard, and then everything else was white.
‘I think I should still give it a go,’ said Diane, but everyone knew she wasn’t going to.
‘No,’ said Matt. ‘I don’t think you should. You probably won’t even make it to the end of the lane, and if it’s anywhere near as bad as this over the top they’ll close the road up onto Stainmore. I don’t think it’s worth the risk.’
‘You are the expert. If you say I shouldn’t drive, then I won’t,’ Diane said, the relief in her voice obvious. ‘I shall have to impose on you for another day at least. Oliver will be pleased, won’t he? Matt, I wonder if you would take my bags back upstairs to my bedroom for me? And as I’m not going anywhere, perhaps it’s time for a nice cup of coffee, Amy?’
‘Cursed be the path, cursed be the hearth, cursed be the bed,’ muttered Amy to herself as she put the kettle back on the stove, ‘and cursed be the bloody weather forecast.’
The adults may have been dismayed by the snowfall, but the boys were delighted. They didn’t want to wait for it to stop and they scrambled into their boots and coats and went outside to catch snowflakes in their mouths and throw snowballs. Matt and Amy soon followed them out, but Diane preferred to stay indoors, cradling her cup of coffee between her thin hands. She watched through the mullioned window, a brooding presence that made Amy think of grey ladies and curses. But once outside and with her back turned towards the window it was possible to feel like herself again.
‘I love snow!’ Oliver proclaimed, throwing a snowball at his dad’s head and missing spectacularly as the snowball bounced over the roof of Diane’s car.
‘Perhaps it won’t stop snowing tomorrow. Perhaps it’ll snow and freeze and the lakes will be frozen over, and we’ll get an extra-long Christmas holiday like in the Titty and Dick book –’
‘Please don’t call it that.’
‘–’cos we can’t drive back home. Perhaps we’ll have to live here forever,’ Harry said.
‘Can we skate on the tarn?’ Oliver asked.
‘No,’ said Matt. ‘It isn’t safe.’
‘We could find a North Pole, like in the book There must be a one somewhere we could find,’ Harry suggested.
‘Morning.’ A voice greeted them out of the snow, and Peter Thompson appeared. He carried a pile of empty plastic sacks under one arm and two of the dogs followed at his heels. A lichen-green coat, that would usually make him blend into the landscape, made him stand out today as one of the few things that wasn’t white with snow.
‘The boys are enjoying the weather,’ Amy said.
‘Ay. Thought the lads might like it. I brought these old plastic sacks for you. Didn’t think you’d have sledges, like, so you can use these for sledging if you want. Used to do that meself when I were young. Keep out of my good meadows down the dale, mind. Plenty of steep bits up the track there just right for sledging. Watch out for the rocks, though. Hard on the backside if you sledge over one.’
‘Thanks, Peter.’
‘And if you old ones want to give it a go, I’d suggest some bracken or straw in the bags first. Cushion your bums a bit.’
Both of the boys found it absolutely hilarious that Peter had referred to their parents as old ones as well as saying bums .
‘Where are you off to?’ Amy asked.
‘Check on the sheep. They can get buried if the snow drifts, then you lose ‘em. Don’t want that to happen.’ He leaned on an old-fashioned shepherd’s crook with a smooth, horn handle. ‘They’re sensible, Herdwicks. Find the driest, sheltered spots to hide. They can manage under the snow a fair while. Old Tom from the next dale over always liked to tell that once in a snowstorm some of his sheep got buried, but they ate their own fleeces rather than starve. I still like to keep an eye on them. I’d prefer it if they had some hay rather than mouldy old wool to eat.’ He glanced over the stone wall where some of his sheep could be seen clustered round the metal feeder.
‘Can I come with you?’ Harry asked Peter.
‘Nay, lad, not today. Takes an experienced pair of hands, and it’s hard going. I wouldn’t want to have to turn back if you couldn’t make it.’
‘But I could make it.’
‘Not today,’ Peter insisted. ‘And today’s not a day for going up to the tarn to scatter your mam’s ashes neither. Wait for fairer weather.’
‘No, not today.’ Amy looked at the sky.
‘Have the puppies come?’ Harry asked.
‘Not yet. I’ll tell you when they do. Dad’s keeping an eye on Jess today, though he doesn’t like it. He’d rather be out, even in weather like this, but our mam won’t let him.’
‘Can’t say I blame her,’ Amy said.
‘You could signal to us from the farmhouse. We’ve got a secret code for the puppies have come . I could teach you –’ Harry said.
‘Or I could ring you on the phone. I’d better be off. Lots to do. Need to take the snowplough out when this stops.’ Peter looked upwards into the whirling flakes .
‘Can we go sledging now, Mam?’ Harry asked.
‘I saw a brilliant spot near the observatory. We could go dead fast!’ Oliver added.
‘Just as long as there aren’t any rocks,’ Matt said.
‘’Cos they might hurt your bums.’
‘Your precious bum-bums!’ The boys laughed uproariously.
‘Perhaps we’d better tell Diane.’ Amy turned back towards the cottage, where the spectral figure in the window had gone. Diane was probably sitting beside the fire with a glass of Matt’s port. ‘You take the boys, I’ll let her know what we’re doing.’
‘I can take a message, if you like. I’ll be going right past,’ Peter offered.
‘No, it’s fine, I’ll do it,’ Amy said. She wanted to have a chat to Peter, so they set off down the hill while the boys and Matt headed upwards with the bags.
‘Did you manage to talk to Matt yesterday?’ she asked as soon as the others were out of earshot.
‘I did. It was when we were through in the back kitchen getting some beer from the fridge. I asked him if there was owt bothering him.’
‘And was there?’
‘Ay,’ he said portentously.
‘And?’ she prompted.
‘And he wouldn’t tell me what it was.’
Oh. ‘Thanks for trying.’ She tried to stop her disappointment showing, but from the look of compassion that flickered across Peter’s face she must’ve failed.
‘Cheer up. It’ll all come right in the end, I’m sure. You belong together, anyone can see that. And he’s a lucky man – you’re your mam’s daughter after all.’
He looked at her with a certain tenderness, that made her wonder if sometimes Peter did think about what they might have been to each other had circumstances been different all those years ago.
‘Thank you. I appreciate your help,’ she said, as they stood in the lane outside the cottage.
‘Ay, well. Better get on.’
‘I hope the sheep are okay!’ she called after him. He nodded and headed up the other side of the valley. He hadn’t even reached the corner of the lane before his sturdy figure was lost in the swirling, dancing snowflakes. Her mind was swirling just as wildly as she wondered what it was that Matt hadn’t told Peter.
She opened the cottage door to find Diane seated in her usual spot next to the fire.
‘Matt and the boys have gone up the hill. Peter gave us some sacks to slide down on. We might be longer than we thought at first, so don’t worry.’
‘It’s kind of you to let me know.’ She cleared her throat. ‘Actually, I wanted to have a little word.’
The last thing Amy wanted was another of Diane’s little words just then. ‘There’s no need. I think you said everything you wanted to on Christmas Eve.’
‘I didn’t mean that,’ said Diane. ‘I wanted to apologise.’
‘Apologise?’ Amy came closer and perched on the end of the sofa. It was too hot to sit near the fire when she was still wearing all her outside clothes. ‘What do you mean?’
‘I should have said thank you. For your gift. It was very thoughtful.’
‘Oh, I see,’ Amy said. ‘You’re welcome.’ She almost told Diane that there was no need to apologise to her but that wouldn’t have been strictly true.
‘I must admit these few days have been hard. It’s much more difficult than I expected seeing Matt and Oliver here … without Stella.’ She spoke slowly and carefully, pausing to make sure she chose the right words, all the time looking out of the window towards the hillside where the boys and Matt hurtled down the slope towards the cottage, yelling with glee – or terror. ‘I may have made a few mistakes. It’s been hard. And whatever else, I should have thanked you for your gift yesterday. I was really touched. It’s a long time since anyone other than Oliver has given me a gift that I will really, truly treasure.’
‘You mean you liked it? I thought I’d offended you.’
‘It was more than I could bear yesterday. I needed some time alone, that’s all. I gave things a lot of thought and I realised afterwards how ungrateful I must have seemed. I mean, how ungrateful I’d been. I have my faults, I know, but I’d like to think that ingratitude isn’t usually one of them. Can you forgive me?’ She looked up at Amy, suddenly small and frail in the harsh light from the snow-bright fells which reflected through the window onto her upturned face.
Amy took a deep breath. ‘Of course I can. I’m glad you liked the gift.’
‘Thank you, Amy. Now, off you go! You and Matt and the boys enjoy your sledging. I shall be fine right here. I’ll keep the fire going. Just the kind of day for a nice warming port, don’t you think?’
Her hand trembled slightly as she reached for her glass.