Chapter 17
Ollie is pacing between the foyer, the entrance hall, and front door where he keeps looking out to see if the cars are arriving yet. ‘They’re going to be here any minute!’
I feel like a staff member in Downton Abbey, lining up outside to greet visiting royalty.
The Kintyre drizzle means everyone else is waiting in the entrance hall, except for Brian who has taken Rocco on a last-minute shopping trip to choose a present for Mira, and the darkened skies mean even the outside lights are shining through the dullness of the day.
‘You’re worrying too much, Dad. You guys are going to do great – we’ve trained you well!’ Rory and Maisie give each other a fist-bump.
‘We met in an online book group.’ Ollie ignores Rory’s encouragement and keeps repeating our fictitious history to himself. ‘A Christmas Carol. Chatted for years, I invited you here, fell in love with my library. Married on the grounds. Your parents were there. Rory was five, Maisie was three.’
‘Relax.’ I reach out for his arm and pull him to a stop. ‘We’ve got this.’
He rests his head against mine, being careful to avoid the reindeer antler headband I’m wearing, and takes a deep breath. ‘I can’t believe I let you talk me out of putting on a shirt and tie and doing my hair. They’ve never seen me without my hair done.’
I reach up and make his hair look even more dishevelled. ‘Good. You want to sell the idea that you’re a family man, and you’re at home with your kids and in-laws. No one’s wearing a suit on Christmas Eve Eve.’
He looks even better in the Christmas jumper he is wearing, and I’ve put my best non-work jeans on and borrowed a black jumper with stripes of sparkly gold thread and silvery taupe.
Mum took a photo of us all together, and we look like a proper little family.
Rory and Maisie were over the moon to meet their English grandparents, and the castle could not possibly be any more decorated or ready for the guests who are about to descend.
Mum, Dad, Mira, Nancy and Hamish are all gathering as a welcoming party.
Our bedroom doors are locked, lest anyone venture in and realise that neither me nor the kids live here. We are ready.
The bosses have come from their respective areas around Glasgow, met at the Tarbert office and followed each other the rest of the way, and it isn’t long before the first of three cars turns into the driveway, followed by another two. They all look like they cost more than a small house.
Maisie and Rory shelter at the top of the steps while Ollie and I walk hand in hand down the driveway to greet everyone in a flurry of shaking hands and loud air kisses.
‘Happy Christmas!’ I throw my arms out wide. ‘Welcome to our home!’
‘Oh, wow.’ Orla looks around in awe. ‘When everyone said Oliver owned a castle, I imagined something less impressive than this.’
‘Well, well, well, this is quite the place, isn’t it?’ Clint looks around like he’s appraising every inch of it, while Gisela embraces me and starts freeing their twin boys from the car, who immediately chase each other around while making dinosaur noises.
From Ollie’s notes, I know they’re nine years old, and I glance up at our two and see Rory roll his eyes and Maisie give him a shove like she thinks he should join in with the dinosaur chasing.
‘Come in, everyone,’ Ollie shouts to be heard over the chaos. ‘Maisie and Rory are so excited to meet you, and Lu’s family have arrived unexpectedly too, so we’re quite a houseful!’
Maisie and Rory are by far the most splendidly behaved offspring who have ever been hired, and they greet everyone in such a delightful way that Halston congratulates us on having such charming children and shoots a look at Clint’s twins, who are too busy screaming like pterodactyls at each other to get the hint.
‘Oh, you’re here!’ Dand says when he meets my parents. ‘Usually Lucy comes to visit you, yes?’
‘We couldn’t let a Christmas pass without seeing our daughter and wonderful son-in-law!’ Mum trills like she’s been practising.
‘It must be such a relief after all poor Lucy’s health issues.’
‘Health issues?’
Oh, no, we didn’t go into that with them. I try to catch her eyes behind his back, but she realises and says, ‘Yes, health issues, it’s lovely to see her looking so healthy and happy now. True love heals us all in the end!’
I’m impressed by the way little white lies can roll off my mum’s tongue, although I don’t think love, true or not, has that much medicinal power, given my numerous battles with fictional ailments, but Dand nods like it was the right thing to say.
After the chaos of introductions, even the grand entrance hall feels small with everyone crowded into it.
‘Right, I’ve got a batch of mince pies coming out of the oven in twenty minutes,’ Nancy announces over the noise. ‘Why don’t the lord and lady of the manor give everyone the grand tour, and then we can meet in the guest lounge and you can take the weight off your feet. You’ve all had a long drive!’
‘Worth it though for these views.’ Dand is looking back out the main door, admiring the mist-shrouded distant hills.
‘Didn’t realise quite how remote you were, Oliver.’ Clint’s got a sneer on his face. ‘You’re probably lucky to have electricity, never mind the internet. I prefer something more civilised myself.’
‘Luckily, I find civilisation comes from within, Clint,’ Ollie says without missing a beat.
‘And he’s got his lovely wife, what more does a man need?’
‘Exactly, Dand.’ Ollie’s eyes find mine over the tops of their heads and he grins at me, and I give him a nod in return, because they’re right… For somewhere so remote, being with Ollie makes it feel the furthest thing from remote at all.
‘Every room has got a Christmas tree ready to be decorated with your own families. Presents can be left there or put under the tree in the entrance hall.’ Ollie begins the tour from where we’re standing.
Hamish insists on taking suitcases upstairs, while Nancy and my half of the family disappear to the kitchen, and Maisie and Rory tag along with us.
Between us, we show them where to leave their coats, around the dining hall, and to each of the bedrooms.
‘This is how they met, you know,’ Rory announces once we reach the library. ‘An online book group. Dad asked for recommendations and Mum told him to read A Christmas Carol and not just watch the Muppets doing it on TV. Here it is, look, the very book that started it all.’
He’s got an old copy of the book that’s displayed on a stand in the library at his and Maisie’s insistence, and everyone crowds around to have a look. I catch Ollie’s eyes and he flashes his eyebrows at me with a grin. The story is so well rehearsed that it almost feels true.
‘Oh, you two are simply adorable.’ Gisela catches the look between us.
‘Mummy and Daddy are sooooo in love,’ Maisie says. ‘They’re sooo romantic, it’s embarrassing!’
Clint’s twins make vomiting noises, and we’ve already lost the teenagers who have gone in search of the Wi-Fi password and a better phone signal.
‘I’d always wondered how you two met. Oliver’s never mentioned it.’ Clint is leafing through the well-read book like it might give him some clues. ‘In fact, he hardly talks about you at all, Lucy. It’s almost like you didn’t exist until this month, and then you just appeared out of nowhere.’
I try to ignore the jolt of panic that reignites inside me because I am, once again, certain he knows and is looking for a way to prove it.
‘We’re big on keeping our work and home lives separate here, Clint.
Ollie doesn’t come home and talk about work for hours, so why should he go to work and do nothing but talk about home? It’s called being a professional.’
I’m not usually very good at comebacks, but that one is enough to shut Clint up for the time being, although I can envision his hackles rising even further and I suspect I’ve just given him more incentive to prove there’s something untoward going on between us.
‘It must be your first Christmas together in years, what with him always being away with us and you always being at your parents’,’ Halston says to me as we file down the tower stairs and show them the far less interesting linen cupboard with instructions to help themselves to anything they need.
‘Yeah.’ I look over my shoulder and catch Ollie’s eyes where he’s standing a few people behind me. ‘I’d forgotten how much I love spending time with him.’
‘And making him blush like a lovesick puppy.’ Dand is standing near enough to elbow him, making everybody look between the two of us.
My cheeks are burning as much as Ollie’s are and he laughs, raises his hands to cover his face without taking his eyes off mine, and one of them gives him a shove until he steps across to me, takes my hand and drops a kiss on my temple.
‘That airline cock-up really is a blessing in disguise.’ Orla repeats something similar to what she said at the office party. ‘It’s lovely to see you two together and we’re honoured to share Christmas with you.’
‘We’re thrilled to have you,’ I say easily, trying to sound as at home here as possible and Ollie jiggles our joined hands but doesn’t let go as we walk them around the rest of the castle.
In the guest lounge, I put Maisie and Rory in charge of handing out festive headbands and Santa hats with the theory that no one can say no to a child, and Ollie and I meet Hamish and Nancy in the kitchen to make God-only-knows how many cups of tea, glasses of orange squash, and the ‘something stronger’ requested by both Dand and Orla.
As all four of us carry trays of drinks back in, I’m glad to see everyone wearing something festive, and only the twins having a battle with their antler headbands.
There’s a big TV on a cabinet in one corner, a suite of two- and three-seater leather sofas that look like they’d be uncomfortable for sitting on for very long, unlike Ollie’s cosy couch in our little living room, and plenty of gold-and-glass coffee tables, a hearth where Hamish has got a fire going, and it’s actually nice to see everyone sitting around and socialising.
Dand and Halston are chatting away to my dad, while my mum is holding court with Orla and Michelle, and Gisela has made a friend in Mira. Only Clint is mooching around like he’s inspecting the decorations while ignoring Gisela telling him to sit down.
‘This place really is exquisite,’ Michelle says when everyone has been served their drinks. ‘You must be so proud.’
‘Proud of my wife who made it all happen.’ Ollie’s arm wraps around my shoulders and squeezes me against him, and I slip my arm around his waist and return the squeeze.
I’m not complaining about the show we have to put on, because it gives me more excuses to touch him, and I try to ignore that niggling feeling of time running out.
They’re here now. This is what we’ve been building up to.
Within days, this will all be over. Completely over.
‘Do you know what I haven’t seen?’ Clint turns back to us from his examination of the mantelpiece. ‘A single wedding photo. Actually, come to think of it, I haven’t seen a single photo at all. You’d think someone with a family as perfect as yours, Ollie, would be keen to show them off.’
I bristle at his use of Ollie’s nickname, something I’ve yet to hear anyone from work call him.
‘We’re not big photo people. I’ve told you before that my family are camera shy, no matter how much I try to talk them into posing occasionally.’
‘Hmm.’ He looks us up and down like he’s trying to analyse our body language, and I squish closer to my pretend husband.
Clint is going to be a problem this week, I’m sure of it.
I look up and meet Ollie’s eyes again, and not a single thing about it feels pretend. If we believe that, there’s no way they can fail to believe it too… not even Clint.