Chapter 57
FIFTY-SEVEN
The Christmas holidays were a welcome respite and Nancy and Lara took to the hills with a flask of hot chocolate, covering miles.
On one of these walks, Nancy noticed something that filled her with an unexpected joy.
Lara was happily chatting away to her as they climbed a hill.
Six months ago she would have been wheezing and unable to breathe.
Tears welled up in Nancy’s eyes, which she quickly brushed away.
But it was good. It was better than good, she thought, it was bloody miraculous.
When the weather was wet, they camped out in the new studio Nancy had put together in one of the empty rooms in the house. They played with clay, laughing as they threw it on the potter’s wheel and attempted to make something resembling a pot.
Christmas Day dawned with pale pink and mauve skies that blended into a bright azure blue as the sun rose.
Nancy and Lara walked along the edge of Heron Water, amongst the reeds and bullrushes, just the dark brown seed heads visible on tall, slender stems. Much of the bird population had migrated for the winter but the herons stayed, and Nancy and Lara watched as one took off from the bank, flying low over the water.
Back at the house, they opened presents and Lara squealed with delight at the new iPad Beth had bought her. It was her second-favourite present, she declared, as nothing could top the kitten Nancy had got for Lara a few days beforehand. Lara and Pebbles, a little tabby, were already inseparable.
They wished Beth a happy Christmas via video call and hid their giggles when Martin’s mother, Angela, complained that the Brussel sprouts weren’t up to last year’s standard (when she had spent Christmas Day with her daughter).
It was a good day, quiet but happy. She and Lara had lit a paper lantern for Sam and reminisced, laughing, about how a few years ago he had insisted on his own chocolate advent calendar after he’d been caught red-handed pinching from Lara’s.
After Lara had gone to bed, Nancy settled down in front of the deep red embers of the fire with a glass of wine and thought maybe she hadn’t done so badly after all.
It had been one of the hardest years of her life, holding everything together after Sam’s death, and on the second Christmas anniversary, she had been dreading a return of the awful pain of the first. But Lara and she had done OK; they had even had fun.
They’d remembered Sam with fondness and had started to make memories of a new type of Christmas, just the two of them.
January came around quickly and the new term beckoned. On the first day back, Nancy approached the school gates with an element of trepidation. But it was fine. Lara settled back in and Rosie left her alone.
It wasn’t until the end of the week that things started to go wrong.