Chapter 11 #2
All the women laughed again and Alex moved away.
So many of the townspeople had received a bauble, she wondered how St Nick had the time to make them all.
He did say that a lot of them had been painted prior to December but it was still a massive undertaking.
And surely someone would have noticed St Nick hiding the baubles around town by now, but no one had.
How was he managing to do it so secretly?
She sighed because, although the clues were helping, she was still no closer to working it out. Especially if he was throwing her red herrings like the elf hat.
She looked around as preparations were made to start decorating the house and gardens.
There were some decorations that were reused year after year, like the lights on the fences and around the windows and eaves of the house and some of the Christmas trees, but other than that there was a different theme each year.
Last year it was a space theme and there’d been lots of googly-eyed cute aliens positioned around the gardens.
Quinn had even donated some of his cute cutlery monsters.
This year the theme was ‘enchanted forest’ and lots of lanterns had been made in the shape of forest animals and, because it was enchanted, there were also fairies and unicorns.
These were currently being unpacked out of a large van and it was Alex’s job for the night to lay them out around the house and gardens in such a way that it looked like a forest scene, not just dumped out of the van.
Another van was unloading Christmas trees and other forest-type trees to help with the scene so she decided to start helping to unload those and positioning them around the house and throughout the garden.
It was a lot easier to create the enchanted forest scene once the forest itself was in place.
She went to the back of the van and climbed in. Some of the trees were quite big and she wasn’t sure she could move them by herself. Although they were fake so might be a lot lighter than they looked. She was just trying to decide which trees to move first when Quinn hopped up into the van.
‘Do you need a hand?’ he asked.
‘Aren’t you on roof duty?’
‘Yes, but they are going to clear the snow off the roof first, so I’m not needed for a bit. I can help you unload.’
‘I’m not sure how heavy they are, they are only plastic after all.’ She lifted one of the bigger ones. ‘Oh, they’re not too bad. Maybe you can help me lift them down off the van and then I can put them in the right positions.’
‘I can do that.’
They worked side by side for a while, unloading the van until there was only one tree left. Alex hopped up into the van to get it and Quinn joined her. He handed her a key.
‘The upstairs is locked.’
The upstairs of Quinn’s or rather Santa’s house was like a self-contained flat – bedrooms, bathroom, kitchen, lounge – so Quinn could continue to live there separate to the Christmassy goings-on downstairs.
The upstairs door was always locked during the day so no wayward child would find their way into Quinn’s part of the house.
Tonight there were a lot of elves going in and out of the house, helping themselves to refreshments that had been laid out in the house, using the toilet and adding last-minute decorations to the downstairs.
While they knew all the elves and no one was likely to traipse around the private part of his house uninvited, Alex knew Quinn had locked it just in case.
‘When you’re finished and people are starting to head home, just go upstairs, let yourself in and make yourself at home. I’ll be up as soon as I can to join you.’
Alex felt a little shiver of excitement at the thought of what the night held. While she understood why Quinn didn’t like the sneaking around, it did add an extra thrill to their relationship.
She nodded and pocketed the key.
‘Oh, I have this for you,’ Quinn said, pulling out an elf hat. She laughed as he positioned it on her head.
‘Where did this come from?’
‘I don’t know, one of the elves was handing them out.’
‘Which one?’ she said, probably a bit too urgently.
He looked surprised by her tone. ‘I… don’t know. Actually there were several people giving them out, I think, someone just gave me one and told me I had to wear it. Why?’
‘St Nick sent me a message to say he would be wearing an elf hat tonight.’
Quinn laughed. ‘A good mystery just wouldn’t be the same without a few red herrings.’
‘Ordinarily I’d agree, but I only have four more days left to figure it out. On Christmas Eve, if I haven’t found St Nick, he will disappear forever.’
‘You’ll solve the mystery, I have no doubt, you’re brilliant at stuff like that.’
‘When I first saw you wearing the hat, I did wonder whether it was you. Some of the clues even point to you too.’
‘Is that right?’ He didn’t seem remotely fazed by her potentially discovering his secret.
‘I can neither confirm nor deny those rumours.’
‘That’s not a no.’
‘It’s not a yes either,’ he grinned and she knew he was teasing her.
One of the elves came to the back of the van. ‘Quinn, we’re ready for you now.’
‘OK, I’ll be there in a second.’
He quickly unloaded the last tree for her, gave her a wave and headed back towards the house.
She spent a few hours moving around trees and animal lanterns, with the help of some other elves, to create the perfect forest scene. With the fake and real snow and all the other lights and decorations it looked beautiful.
People were starting to call goodbye and head home, although some were still finishing off.
Alex headed towards the house, catching Quinn’s eye as he finished off the last bit of the roof.
He nodded, subtly, then flashed his hands to show he’d be about five minutes.
She walked into the house where a few other elves were just tidying up before leaving.
She waited for the downstairs to be empty before she quickly sneaked up the stairs, let herself into Quinn’s flat and looked around.
There were a few simple Christmas decorations in here, a tree and some lights.
It looked nice, but nothing like the over-the-top Christmas grotto downstairs.
She washed her face, cleaned her teeth, got undressed so she was completely naked and then slipped into his bed, waiting for him, wondering whether to lie in an alluring pose.
She waited ten minutes and then waited some more.
The next thing she was aware of was Quinn slipping into the bed next to her, taking her in his arms and holding her close.
‘Oh, god, sorry,’ Alex mumbled. ‘I fell asleep.’
‘I could tell, but it’s OK, it means I get to do this instead which is just as good.’
Alex felt her eyes closing again as she snuggled into his chest. ‘Just give me five minutes and I’ll be ready to go for a night of passion.’
She heard him chuckle softly and kiss her head, then she knew no more.