A Season in the Snow

by Isla Gordon

Genres: Friendship; Women's Fiction; Contemporary Romance; Romantic Comedy

Synopsis

'Heart-warming and full of hope. I loved it' HEIDI SWAIN, Sunday Times bestselling author

'The most beautiful, heart-warming story. Gorgeously cosy, uplifting . . . utterly lovely book' HOLLY MARTIN, bestselling author of Christmas at Mistletoe Cove

Escape to the mountains and fall in love this Christmas . . .

Alice Bright has a great life. She has a job she adores, a devoted family and friends she'd lay down her life for. But when tragedy strikes, she finds her whole world turned upside down.

Enter, Bear, a fluffy, lovable - and rapidly growing! - puppy searching for a home. Bear may be exactly what Alice needs to rekindle her spark, but a London flat is no place for a mountain dog, and soon Alice and Bear find themselves on a journey to the snow-topped mountains of Switzerland in search of a new beginning.

Amidst the warming log fires, cosy cafes and stunning views, Alice finds her heart slowly beginning to heal. But will new friends and a charming next door neighbour be enough to help Alice fall in love with life once more?

Filled with winter markets, falling snow and heart-warming seasonal romance, this is the perfect festive treat for fans of Sarah Morgan and Heidi Swain

'Dogs + snow + romance = Sunday afternoon bliss!' Fabulous

'A warm, beautiful read full of hope and friendship - of both the two-legged and the four-legged kind' Laura Bambrey, author of The Beginners Guide to Loneliness

Real readers love A Season in the Snow:

'Will warm the cockles of any frozen heart and fill you with the joy magic and sparkle of the festive season.' *****

'Perfect escapism from rainy England!' Bee Books Beauty Blog

'This is the perfect Christmas book for the dog lover in your life!' *****

'I loved this book and the way it made me feel so cosy and wintery.' *****

Release date: November 28, 2019

Publisher: Little, Brown Book Group

Print pages: 400

Sample

Alice put the world on mute, just for a moment, so she could soak it all in. A thousand colours stitched together with pink threads – from woollen hats to bright T-shirts stretched over the top of zipped-up jackets, to the splashes of paint on placards being held high into the sky, to the flushed cheeks of the women and girls and men and boys giving it their all on this frost-covered January morning.

Smiling faces, warm greetings, cold breath, little children through to elderly ladies, and even a few dogs, full of fight. There was anger here, and fury and fire, but there was also hope. There was camaraderie; a sea of strength and sisterhood. London, and the world over, was alive with the power of women. She felt ripples of optimism within her own blood.

And with that, she let in the roar. The noisy, excited, diverse, vibrant sounds of London’s Women’s March flooded her ears and she whipped around to face her circle of friends who she’d pulled along with her.

‘Are you ready?’ Alice shouted to be heard.

Jill, her closest friend in the whole world, the Amy Poehler to her Tina Fey, nodded, blowing into her gloved hands and jiggling to the loud music that blasted from erected speakers. ‘Yes, let’s get marching; anything but standing around.’

Alice handed each of them – Jill, Bahira, Kemi and Theresa – a placard that she’d been up late into the evening making, and they admired her handiwork for a moment. Alice’s skills with illustration and amusing, catchy slogans did her proud, and the women pointed out details to each other – a resistance fist here, a rainbow flag there, a few cleverly placed pussycats.

A large group of women twirled past them dressed like the female wrestlers from Glow, chanting about pussy power, catching Alice’s eye. She watched them as they laughed and jostled and placed their hands on each other’s shoulders and lower backs with such casual ease.

‘Next time we should do that,’ she called to the others, who nodded, humouring their friend.

‘Let’s go,’ said Jill.

Alice’s grin spread, and she threw her arms wide, ready to jump into the throng. ‘This is really cool, right? I know it’s freezing, but look at this history we’re part of.’

Jill laughed. Alice’s optimism had always been infectious, and the five allowed themselves to be swept into the river of wonder women.

‘Thanks for coming with me,’ Alice shouted back at Jill as she was jostled forward and nearly poked in the eye by someone’s banner, though Jill was just watching her mouth move, the noise was so overwhelming. ‘This year is going to be a good one, I can feel it.’

Foot-sore and feeling on top of the world, the five women pooled into a Starbucks near Westminster a couple of hours later.

‘We’ll have five caramel hot chocolates please, my good lady,’ Jill said a little too loudly, the volume of the music outside still ringing in her ears.

The woman behind the counter raised an eyebrow. ‘What name please?’

‘The Five . . . ’ Jill faltered and looked at Alice.

‘Pusscateers?’ she suggested.

‘You know what,’ the barista said, putting the cups to the side. ‘I think we’ll find you. Take a seat.’

‘Thank you, sister!’ Alice said, her voice hoarse, and punched her fist in the air.

They found a table in the corner and spent a while propping up their placards and peeling off their layers of coats, scarves, backpacks and pink hats with cat ears that some of them had acquired.

‘Today was so cool,’ Alice enthused, shaking out her light brown hair. ‘Women are so cool.’

‘Women are the coolest,’ Jill agreed.

‘There were so many more people there today than I ever imagined,’ Kemi said, flopping into her chair.

Theresa stretched out her arms and legs like a cat. ‘I know, it was heaving. Fab idea, Alice.’

The drinks came and Bahira went back up to the counter to grab a bunch of cakes and cookies to go with them.

Alice bit into a slab of carrot cake and said through the crumbs, ‘Didn’t we meet some amazing people today?’

‘The old ladies dressed as suffragettes,’ said Bahira.

‘Those kids with their sassy T-shirts,’ Theresa added.

‘I just wish I could spend all day every day with every single person I met, and you guys,’ sighed Alice. ‘I think I might have eaten too many of those sweets they were handing out.’ And she chomped into another big bite of cake.

‘Do you feel like you got lots of good material for Funny Pack?’ Jill asked her.

Alice nodded, chewing on the cake, her mind whizzing with memories. She worked as a freelance cartoonist focusing mainly on political, satirical or positivity and aspirational art. But mostly she was in-house for an online magazine called Funny Pack, run by a collective of individuals motivated by finding the humour, or if not the humour then the optimism, in current affairs. Alice was a big believer in making people feel good in dark times, she was proud of her work, and she wanted to create some great depictions of the Women’s March for the magazine.

‘I’m going to head back to the flat after this and try and sketch everything out tonight while it’s fresh in my mind.’

‘That’s dedication,’ said Jill. ‘I’m going to go and lie in one of my marble baths.’

They laughed. It was an ongoing joke that Jill lived in a mansion compared to the rest of them. It wasn’t true, but due to the passing of Jill’s grandmother the year before, Jill had been gifted her three-bed semi in Forest Hill, complete with driveway and enclosed, spacious garden. Alice’s flat in Islington was the size of a box in comparison; Kemi and Theresa were both in house shares, and Bahira’s home was a gorgeous, cosy townhouse in St Albans that she and her husband (and their dog) had fallen in love with when she was pregnant with her daughter Zara a couple of years back.

They rested in the companionable silence that came with knowing each other for over ten years, or in the case of Alice and Jill, their whole lives. Inseparable since childhood, they had gone to university together and met the other three there.

‘What do you want out of this year?’ Alice asked the group from behind closed eyelids.

Bahira piped up first, a woman who always knew what she wanted. ‘A big family trip outside school holidays so I don’t have to hang out with anyone else’s kids.’

‘I want to spend more time outdoors,’ Kemi answered. ‘I’m always at work or the gym so I might try running this year, maybe along the Thames.’

‘I want to see you lot more,’ Theresa said. ‘Because you don’t laugh at me when I get messy drunk like my other friends do.’

‘We laugh at you a little bit,’ Jill said.

‘What about you, Jill?’ asked Alice.

‘A pet,’ said Jill. ‘A cat or dog, I’m not sure which yet.’

‘You want a pet?’ Alice asked, cracking open her eyes and looking at her friend. ‘What’s wrong with the orchid I got you?’

Jill laughed. ‘It’ll be nice to have some company in my mansion, and you won’t move in with me, so . . . ’

‘I like my servants’ quarters, thanks.’ Alice smiled, closing her eyes again.

‘And I want to travel more,’ Jill continued. ‘I want to be one of the Instagram goddesses that goes camping in the wilderness with their big dog and speaks in motivational quotes.’

‘That’s quite a lifestyle change, unless you were going to camp out in Hyde Park,’ said Kemi.

Jill nodded. ‘So what about you, Alice? What do you want this year to bring?’

She thought about it for a moment. ‘A long, warm summer. And to travel more, too. And Michelle Obama to be president. And a Turner Prize for one of my cartoons. And the whole Funny Pack office to be given Women of the Year awards.’

Kemi drained her hot chocolate. ‘Keeping the dreams small this year then, Ali?’

‘I think every one of those things is going to happen for you.’

‘Thank you, Jill, and I think you will get a cat-or-dog and be very happy out in the wild.’

That evening, Alice closed the blue door of her Islington flat and all was quiet again. Her home was how she’d left it, with the mug beside the kettle, the glue and scissors and paint and brushes spread over the small round table in her kitchen/living room area. Her washing was still damp on the clothes horse. If she switched on the TV, Netflix would still be waiting for her, ready with the next episode of Grace and Frankie. It was almost as if her spending the day marching through the streets of London with 100,000 like-minded souls had never happened.

So Alice sat down to work, humming the latest powerful track from Little Mix, mug of tea beside her, and looked up at the frame above her desk, like she did before every new drawing session. Inside it was her career highlight – so far: a cartoon that had been published the previous year in the New Yorker.

She yawned and rubbed her eyes while she swept her pen over numerous pages, rough-sketching ideas for cartoons before they ran out of her head, or she ran right out of energy.

Alice’s mind kept bringing her back to the conversation with her friends, and what they wanted these next twelve months to bring. Maybe it was the Women’s March, maybe it was the hope that comes with a brand new year beginning, or maybe it was just inside her, but Alice felt like she could take on the world.

Springtime in London was the first sign of the heatwave that would bathe the capital until nearly September. It was only mid-March, but coats had been hung up, shorts had been pulled out of the back of drawers and bare arms were getting the first of their yearly doses of vitamin D.

Alice walked down Kensington High Street on her way to meet Jill, having left the Funny Pack office early that Friday afternoon. The incoming lighter evenings, with the low sunshine warming her face, made the winter months worth it.

She wanted to talk to Jill, seriously, about an idea they’d both skirted around for a couple of weeks, mentioning in passing, making quips about, but never really pinning anything down. So she’d suggested they meet at a bar in the sunshine for a glass of wine.

‘Can you believe this weather?’ Jill asked as a greeting, the same greeting all Londoners were using at the moment.

‘If this can just last all summer I will have ticked at least one thing off my “what do I want to happen this year” list.’ Alice sat down and they ordered a bottle of rosé to share, because when it feels like summer you may as well go all out.

‘How was work today, honeypie?’ Jill asked, as if she were Alice’s husband.

‘Just marvellous, thank you, darling. And you?’

‘Same old, same old.’ Jill worked as a web developer, usually on long-term retainers from tech companies, which gave her the sociability of an office environment with the freedom to dictate her own hours. ‘So what did you want to talk about?’

‘Okay,’ Alice leant forward. ‘You know we both said we wanted to travel more this year?’

‘Yes, definitely.’

‘And we keep bringing it up and saying how great it would be.’

‘It would be great. You and I have a lot of fun travelling.’

Alice grinned. ‘We have had some good adventures. I was thinking, shall we just do it again? Shall we just go for it?’

‘Go backpacking again?’

‘Maybe not backpacking, but have another adventure. For a month or two, like a road trip around Europe or something.’

‘When were you thinking?’ Jill asked, sipping her wine.

‘Maybe after summer, so we have some time to save up a bit and book the time off work. What do you think?’

Jill hesitated, and Alice felt a drip of doubt sink into her. Maybe Jill didn’t want to do something like this after all. She shouldn’t have got so ahead of herself with hope.

‘How do you feel about dogs, Alice?’ Jill asked all of a sudden.

‘Oh. Okay, we can talk about that. I like them . . . I don’t know a lot of dogs.’

‘Well, you know I said I wanted to get a pet this year?’

‘Yeah.’

‘I think I’m going to get a dog. This summer. In like, July.’

‘That’s exciting news,’ Alice cried. ‘Congratulations! Why July, specifically?’

‘Because my puppy is already, um, baking, in its mum’s tummy.’

‘What?’ laughed Alice. ‘What kind of puppy is it? How did this happen?’

Jill looked a little relieved that Alice was taking this so well. ‘A friend of a friend has a lady Bernese Mountain Dog and they wanted her to have one litter of puppies. Long story short, we got in touch and the friend said I was welcome to have one of them if I wanted.’

‘What’s a Bernese Mountain Dog?’ asked Alice. ‘They sound big.’

‘They are big.’ Jill grinned. ‘Black and orange and white, sort of like a smaller St Bernard. With big paws and a big nose and a really lovely personality. It’ll be born in May, and it’s best to take home a new puppy eight weeks after. So, July.’

‘That’s so exciting you’re going to have a puppy!’

‘Thanks for not being mad at me!’

‘Why would I be mad? Oh – because of the travelling thing? Don’t worry about that, it was only a really vague idea, I hadn’t even thought about it much.’ Alice didn’t mention that she’d wanted to meet here so they could hop straight over the road to a travel agent afterwards and start planning their route.

‘I mean . . . ’ Jill swirled the wine in her glass and stared into the distance for a moment. ‘I did think it would be pretty cool to be one of those Insta-chicks who travels with her dog.’

Alice sat up a little straighter. ‘You’d want to take him with us?’

‘It’s not the stupidest idea I’ve ever had. Where in Europe where you thinking?’

‘I don’t know. If we took a puppy I guess it would make sense to do more a countryside, beach, mountains-kinda tour than a bunch of cities strung together.’ She paused and drank some wine. ‘But that’s definitely not a bad thing.’

‘Could we do it by car? I don’t know the logistics of taking puppies on planes.’

‘A car might be a bit tight, but we could think about a campervan?’

Jill looked at her friend, a smile on her lips. ‘Are you serious? Would you really be happy doing this plan with a dog in tow?’

Alice shrugged. ‘What could go wrong?’

‘Absolutely nothing.’

‘It could be pretty funny.’ A campervan filled with two women and a puppy, making their way around the Continent. It wasn’t quite what she’d had in mind when she’d walked into the bar, but she was open to it. ‘I think we should do it.’

‘I think we should too!’ Jill cheersed her glass. ‘We have a lot to think about and plan. Where do we even start?’

Alice looked around, super-casual. ‘Ohhhh, I don’t know. I guess we could go over to that travel agent’s and get some brochures?’

Alice and Jill’s travel plans were coming along nicely. They’d leave in September, when the sun was still warm but the French and Italian coasts had taken a breath after the August heat. Their route would then take them for a jaunt through the Croatian mountains, then up through Slovenia, Austria, Germany and the new puppy’s home country of Switzerland.

Alice was working hard from her desk in the Funny Pack office, where the air conditioning was broken so all the windows were wide open letting in what little breeze there was on this stifling June day. She was on overdrive trying to get as many illustrations in the bank as she could so that the impact of taking two months off at the end of the season wouldn’t be too noticeable. With the political unrest at home and overseas, plus the changes in the air from ever-growing social movements, she had plenty of material.

‘This is your fault, you know,’ Kemi said, calling her out of the blue.

‘What did I do?’

‘You wished for a long, hot summer,’ she panted down the line. ‘I just tried to go for a lunchtime run and have had to stop for a Frappuccino.’

‘I take full responsibility for global warming,’ Alice replied, taking a drink from her water glass and leaving yet another red lipstick print on it. Today was an endless cycle of hydrating, weeing and putting lipstick back on. ‘Hey Kemi, have you heard about that outdoor concert they just announced for the summer?’

‘I don’t think so.’ Kemi took a long slurp. ‘What is it?’

‘It’s being put on by a women’s rights charity in Brookwick Park in the first week of August. I thought I might go. Shall I ask everyone?’

‘You can ask, but I think Bahira and her family are away that week.’

‘Ah, they couldn’t get a week outside school holidays in the end?’

‘No, she said that was wishful thinking. But send over the date and info and we’ll see.’

Alice hung up and sent the details straight over to her circle of friends. She was feeling fuelled by the same optimism she’d felt way back in January, but she just couldn’t put her finger on what she wanted to do about it.

As it turned out, Bahira was away, Theresa didn’t want to splash out on the ticket and Kemi had a family barbecue pencilled in with all her relations that day. Jill, though, good old Jill, was more than happy to chip a bit off their travel fund to go along with her. Before either of them could change their mind, Alice bought the tickets. Now she had something fun planned for August, before the big something fun that was planned for September.

Okay, back to the grind . . .

Alice had a car that she kept parked on a quiet street near her home that was used once in a blue moon. So the following week she was designated driver to head over to Tunbridge Wells with Jill for the first puppy visit, along with Theresa, who’d begged to come too.

‘On a scale of one to ten puppies, how excited are you?’ asked Alice on the journey.

‘A million puppies. Apparently the mum had three, two girls and a boy, and the girls are going to family members. So ours will be the little gentleman.’

‘Ours?’

Jill laughed. ‘Yes, ours.’

‘How old are they now?’ asked Theresa from the back seat.

‘About five weeks. I’m so sorry if I cry my eyes out or just make a run for it with all three.’

‘Well, don’t leave us there,’ answered Alice. ‘I don’t know these people. Are you sure it’s going to be okay you being away for the evening of the concert?’

‘In August? Yes, definitely. Sam will be home from uni then so I’m going to ask him to come and stay for a few nights.’ Sam was Jill’s younger brother, and little did he know he was being lined up to be a dog sitter.

They pulled into the driveway of a large home, where they rang the bell and were ushered in by a grinning, but sleepy, gentleman who introduced himself as Max and showed them out into the shaded garden. He opened a door and out of the house came the most ginormous dog Alice had ever seen: glossy dark fur bouncing sunlight, paws as big as side plates and a tail like a plume of smoke rising from a chimney. Her chest was coated with the thickest white fur and she had orange splodges on each ankle and above her eyes.

She woofed at the three women, a low, warning woof that echoed around Tunbridge Wells.

‘Sorry about that,’ said Max. ‘This is the mum, Betty. She’s just being a bit wary and protective because of the pups.’

Betty woofed again and then went up to each of them in turn to have a sniff and peer up at them with big eyes that said, can I trust you? Alice sat on one of the garden chairs and Betty seemed to like this, turning her back to Alice and sitting a million kilos of dog on her feet.

‘You’ve passed the test,’ Max grinned. ‘Shall I let the puppies out now?’

He opened the door again and three stumbling, chunky bear cubs tumbled out, their legs shorter than the threshold, their noses squished in and guinea-pig like. Jill almost fainted with happiness, and Theresa’s phone camera began working on overdrive.

The puppies picked their way over the grass, bumping into chair legs and each other, clamouring over feet, chewing on each other’s ears and trying to climb on Betty, who’d flopped down to lie on Alice’s trainers by now.

Max scooped up the roundest of the puppies who was barging his way through the bowl of water that sat outside. ‘This one’s your little lad.’ He handed the puppy to Jill.

Tears popped straight into and out of Jill’s eyes. ‘Oh my God. Hello, you.’

The puppy licked her face. Freckles were just visible in the folds of his snout, and he had a two-inch white splash of fur decorating the back of his neck, like somebody had spilt cream on him when they’d walked past.

After he’d cleaned away Jill’s impromptu tears, the puppy wriggled free and scurried over to his sisters to push one of them over with his nose.

‘So they’re all healthy, they’re all okay?’ Jill asked Max.

‘They sure are. And by the time you pick him up in three weeks all their vaccinations will be up to date and I’ll give you a pack I’ve been putting together about his food and all that.’

‘That sounds perfect.’

‘Let me get you all a cup of tea,’ Max said. ‘And then you can get to know them all a bit better.’

‘You’ve changed your mind, haven’t you?’ Alice joked to Jill when Max had gone inside.

‘They’re just so ugly,’ she laughed back while one of the sisters chewed on the loose ends of Jill’s hair.

Theresa stroked a passing fluffball. ‘I want one too.’

‘You can come over and play with this one whenever you want.’ Jill was rolling a tennis ball gently towards her soon-to-be-puppy and watching him approach it curiously. Alice watched her friend, happy for her.

She looked down at the giant dog on her feet. It was a good job Jill had a big house.

On the seventh of July, Alice picked up Jill at eight in the morning, hoping to avoid being in the car while it was too hot while they brought home Jill’s new puppy. At eight weeks old, he’d grown into a squat little bear cub, with thick legs, round paws and a spindly tail. His nose, though still squashed, had distinct dots scattered on it and his fur was crumpled and plentiful.

In the car on the way home Jill cooed and chuckled over him as he settled himself into the foot well by her legs without a care in the world.

‘He is possibly the sweetest puppy in the whole world,’ Alice commented, glancing away from the road for a second. ‘You’re not going to be able to go anywhere without people wanting to stop you and pet him.’

‘I know, but I get to have him all to myself for a month before I can take him out for walks,’ Jill replied, obsessively playing with his silky ears. ‘Oh my God, you are such a little bear.’

‘What are you going to call him?’

‘Bear probably, because that’s how I’ve been referring to him over the past two months.’

‘Like when pregnant people call their unborn babies “bean” or “pip”?’

‘Yep.’

‘Well, Bear certainly suits him,’ said Alice, and Bear stared at her and started hiccupping. ‘Hey, Bear, if you like this car journey, you just wait two months and you’re going to go in a campervan.’

‘That’s right!’ said Jill. ‘Bear, we have big plans for you. You’re going to see lots of the world, because Alice and I are having an adventure, and you’re coming too. Are you excited?’

Bear looked up at her and yawned, before falling asleep against her ankles.

‘He’s excited,’ confirmed Jill.

As July rolled forward, Alice took advantage of the long summer evenings to take her work outside. She loved summer in the city. Yes, the heatwave was prickling and the Tube was uncomfortable, but London was alive with tourists having a great time. Colourful outfits swirled in the streets, office workers made the most of short hours on a Friday, and ice-cream vendors popped up around the capital’s beautiful parks.

And there was so much going on that she wanted to be a part of – film festivals, photography exhibitions, panel discussions, fundraising evenings – it felt like getting involved was always within reach here, and in such vibrant ways, and she loved it.

Even more so, she loved the ever-closer extended holiday she and Jill were going to be taking. By the start of August all details were nearly finalised, and they were hanging out at Jill’s big home one late afternoon to choose the accommodation for their last stop in Switzerland.

‘I definitely think somewhere in the Bernese Oberland,’ Jill was saying as they got to her back door after taking Bear for his first ‘outdoors’ walk. ‘It would be a nice ending, you know? Especially if they had snow there already.’

‘Doesn’t Vanessa live somewhere around there?’ Alice asked.

Vanessa was a girl she and Jill had met on their gap year, on a South American tour. They’d become close friends on the trip, and had stayed in touch since, but the ten-year gap between seeing each other meant they’d naturally drifted apart somewhat.

‘It would be so good to see Vanessa again,’ Jill enthused. ‘Let’s get in touch and find out exactly where she is.’ She entered the house and then laughed, her hands on her hips, while Bear sat down on his tufty, muddy bottom and grinned up at her. ‘Look at the state of you. It’s the middle of a beautiful summer and you found the one puddle of mud in all of London.’

‘You can’t even see the white blob on his neck any more,’ Alice said, gingerly moving some of his fur aside. He turned around and dug pin-like teeth into her hand. ‘Ow!’

‘Sorry, he’s chewing everything at the moment. He doesn’t mean anything by it. Just don’t roll your sleeves down, he’ll never let go.’

‘You’re a menace to society,’ Alice said, booping Bear on the nose.

‘There’s only one thing for it, mister, you need a bath. Will you help me bath him?’ Jill pleaded.

‘Sure . . . where?’

‘In the bath.’

‘Oh, in the actual bath?’

‘What did you think I meant?’

‘I assumed you’d use the hose. . .