The Merry Christmas Project

by Cathy Bramley

Genres: Marriage & Divorce; Romantic Comedy

Synopsis

Christmas has always meant something special to Merry - even without a family of her own. This year, her heart might be broken but her new candle business is booming. The last thing she needs is another project - but when her hometown's annual event needs some fresh festive inspiration, Merry can't resist._x000D_
Cole loves a project too - though it's usually of the bricks and mortar variety. As a single dad, his Christmas wish is to see his kids again, so getting the new house finished for when they're all together is the perfect distraction._x000D_
But this Christmas, magic is in the air for these two strangers. Will it bring them all the joy they planned for . . . and take their hearts by surprise too?_x000D_
After all, anything can happen at Christmas. . .

Release date: October 14, 2021

Publisher: Orion

Print pages: 384

Sample

It was a glorious summer’s day. Even high up in the Derbyshire Dales, the air was warm and sweet. The smell of ferns and flowers on the hillside and blackberries growing wild among the hedgerows was divine. Daniel and I were hiking for the first time, and I felt on top of the world.

With one last surge of effort, I reached the summit of Wysedale Peak only a second or two behind my much fitter boyfriend. Daniel was fit in all senses of the word. He was handsome, with pale blond hair, blue eyes and on his days off, like today, a smattering of golden stubble. He was lean and lithe too, thanks to his daily run. I admired his self-discipline. I tried to do a twenty-minute online workout in the mornings but invariably I ended up watching it instead, while getting dressed and hunting down a matching pair of trainers.

‘Look at that view,’ I said, as Daniel wrapped an arm around my waist. ‘Aren’t you glad I prised you out of bed this morning for an adventure ?’

He grinned. ‘I am. This is a great start to the Bank Holiday weekend. Who needs a lie-in anyway ?’

‘Not us, that’s for sure.’ I leaned against him, glad he had agreed to my spur-of-the-moment suggestion.

He had to get up at the crack of dawn every day in order to open Good Earth, his specialist greengrocer’s. Today was a rare day off and he would have been completely within his rights to turn down my suggestion of setting off early for a picnic. But here he was.

We stood together, in a silence broken only by the occasional brush of wings from birds flying overhead. The scenery looked almost too beautiful to be real. The deep, deep blue of the wide sky, the lush green hills which seemed to stretch into infinity, intersected with ribbons of silver, streams heading downhill to join up with the wide river in the valley below.

Home. Me, Daniel, my new business … I sighed happily. Life didn’t get much better than this.

It felt good to relax after such a hectic couple of weeks. A lot had happened, and my head was spinning with all the upheaval. Being here, out in the countryside, just him, me and miles and miles of green, was perfect.

‘Quite a nice surprise, actually.’ He took a swig from his water bottle and passed it to me. ‘In the year we’ve been together, you’ve never once suggested going walking. I didn’t have you down as a hiker.’

‘Neither did I,’ I said. The only time I’d ever done any hiking was during a very wet geography field trip in Wales, in kit borrowed from the school lost-property box. The boots had given me blisters after five minutes and my second-hand cagoule had a large rip in its hood, which I only discovered once the heavens had opened. It hadn’t been an experience I’d wanted to repeat in a hurry.

I drank some water and handed the bottle back to Daniel. ‘Some kids have outdoorsy families who do Sunday walks and camping holidays. I didn’t have that sort of childhood, so I assumed it wasn’t for me.’

Daniel smoothed the hair back from my face gently. ‘I know it was hard for you, but don’t let your childhood hold you back. You don’t need permission, or to wait to be asked. There is nothing that is not for you. You’re a gorgeous, intelligent woman in charge of her own life.’

He made comments like this from time to time. I knew he meant well, but he’d never really understand. My rocky childhood wasn’t something I could just cast aside in adulthood ; it was part of me. Daniel had shared a bedroom with his brother until he left home. I’d lost count of the number of rooms I’d had and who I’d shared with. And that was just one difference ; there were a thousand others.

‘I know,’ I replied diplomatically. I took some sun cream out of my bag and dotted it onto my face. ‘Besides, I had two options for today and I thought you’d prefer this one.’

‘What was the other one ?’ He rubbed a blob of leftover sun cream into my cheek.

‘A visit to an animal shelter. How would you feel about us getting a kitten ?’

I scanned his face, hoping for a positive reception to the idea. I’d always wanted a pet and had never lived anywhere where animals were permitted until now.

‘Oh, Merry.’ Daniel’s eyes shimmered with laughter. ‘There’s no way I’d trust you within five miles of an animal shelter.’

‘Why not ?’ I asked, only half pretending to be insulted.

‘Because you’d want to bring them all home. And instead of a kitten, you’d fall in love with a great big geriatric hound with halitosis and only three legs.’

‘Possibly,’ I admitted.

He had a point. Those adverts about dogs who’d been living in shelters for years because no one wanted to adopt them broke my heart. It was a bit too close to home for me. It crossed my mind to point out that he’d just said I didn’t need permission to do stuff, but as it was his house, he had the final say.

‘But just so you know,’ I added, ‘from that discussion, I’m taking away the fact that a kitten would be preferable to a dog.’

‘I’m starving,’ said Daniel, with a deft change of topic. ‘Shall we sit down here and have our lunch ?’

‘Sure.’ I dropped my rucksack to the ground and sat down. My legs were aching from all that climbing and I massaged my thighs and tilted my face to the sun while he unpacked the picnic.

‘About getting a pet,’ he said, taking out several plastic tubs, ‘I’d rather not if you don’t mind. I’ve just about got used to sharing my house with you, let alone anything else. I’m not a fan of mess, as you know.’

Was he implying that I was untidy, or that a dog would be messy ? I wasn’t exactly famed for my organisational skills. I glanced at him. ‘If you’ve changed your mind—’

He cut off my protests by kissing the ticklish part of my neck below my ear. ‘Not at all. You’re a great housemate and you make the best …’ he inspected a sandwich. ‘Peanut butter and … ?’

‘Nutella,’ I supplied with a gush of relief. Housemate wasn’t the most romantic title I could think of, but at least I was great at it.

He laughed, shaking his head. ‘You make the best peanut butter and Nutella sandwiches in the world.’

‘Thank you.’ I needed to hear that ; it made me feel less like I was imposing on him.

He shared out the sandwiches, placing them neatly onto folded squares of kitchen paper and I poured us both tea from a flask.

Everything about Daniel was neat and tidy. I was grateful to him for making room in his house for me and I made a solemn vow to myself not to jeopardise the arrangement by leaving my stuff all over the place. Moving in together hadn’t been one of those carefully planned scenarios where two grown-ups talk about taking their relationship to the next level. It had come about because a few weeks ago I’d left my job at Tractor World clutching a small redundancy payout and a vague plan to turn my hobby of candle-making into a business. I’d called it Merry and Bright and I had lots of ideas for it, but it would be a while before I made a profit.

‘I’ll throw all my energy into it,’ I’d told Daniel. ‘And if I can’t make it pay in a year, I’ll go back to having a nine-to-five job.’

‘I love your determination,’ he’d said, ‘and I’m sure you’ll be a great success, but in the meantime, why don’t you move into my house to reduce your outgoings ?’

That had been a month ago and now I was fully set up at Daniel’s house and he had cleared out the garden shed for my candle-making. It was a risky move, setting up a business instead of looking for another job, but I wasn’t scared of risks. My best friend Nell was in awe; she couldn’t believe I’d decided to do something so major, so quickly. And in truth I’d have been in a bit of a pickle if Daniel hadn’t been there to prop me up. But I had a feeling that starting Merry and Bright was exactly the move I needed.

‘This is great,’ said Daniel now, indicating the view and the picnic, ‘but I’ll have to do some work tonight when we get back. If I don’t keep on top of it—’

‘I know,’ I supplied, ‘you’ll be playing catch-up all week.’

Along with keeping a tidy house, keeping on top of things was his perennial concern. Daniel had an ambitious streak and his plan was to open another store in the next town, and if that did well, another and another. My career ambitions were more modest : I didn’t really have a plan other than making as many candles as I could and selling them , but I admired his forward-thinking.

I popped the last bit of crust into my mouth and jumped up to take a picture of the lovely vista below us with my phone. Unfortunately, my foot slipped on some loose stones and I twisted my ankle and fell backwards, landing with a thump on my bottom.

‘OUCH. Shit. Ouch.’ I bit my lip and tried not to cry.

‘Merry Shaw, what am I going to do with you ?’ Daniel sprang to his feet to help me up.

‘I didn’t look,’ I said, blowing out in short bursts, breathing away the pain like I’d seen in birth documentaries.

‘Before you leapt ?’ he teased. ‘Not like you.’

‘If giving birth hurts more than this, I’m not sure I want to do it.’

‘Give birth ?’ Daniel laughed nervously. ‘What makes you say that ? You’re not … are you … ?’

‘No, of course not,’ I said, wincing. ‘It was just an observation.’

‘That’s all right then.’ His shoulders relaxed. ‘You had me going for a moment.’

The utter relief in his voice was unmistakable. But surely it wouldn’t have been that much of a disaster ? OK, it wasn’t planned, but we were in a long-term relationship and in our thirties. We could easily accommodate a child into the life we were building for ourselves.

‘So, for clarity,’ I swallowed, fiddling with the turn-ups on my shorts, ‘me being pregnant would be terrible news ?’

‘Seeing as you’ve just slipped on rocks up a mountain, twenty miles from the nearest hospital … if you were pregnant, I’d be worried about what was going on in there,’ he said, pointing to my stomach.

My heart lifted . He was just being practical, as ever ; of course he was.

I laughed softly. ‘Phew, for a moment there I thought—’

‘Although I have to be honest,’ he said casually, ‘it wouldn’t be ideal, would it ? You’re trying to get a new business off the ground and I’m putting all my energy into the shop.’

‘I guess not.’ He was right, but I couldn’t help feeling disappointed. ‘I definitely need to focus on Merry and Bright.’

I sat back down gingerly, my ankle still aching, and Daniel joined me.

‘Watch out, world,’ he said, giving me a kiss. ‘Merry is going to set you alight with her candles. Get it ?’

‘Very good.’ I smiled weakly. It was on the tip of my tongue to say that from what I’d read and heard, there was never a right time to start a family and if we were to wait for a time when Daniel wasn’t putting his energy into his greengrocer’s, we both might have retired. Before I had chance to word it in a way that didn’t provoke him, his phoned beeped loudly with a text message.

‘I didn’t think I’d get a signal this high up.’ Daniel frowned as he whipped his phone out. ‘It’s from Tom.’

I pulled away from him while he read his younger brother’s message and I picked up some crisps.

‘Cheese and onion or beef ?’ I asked, holding out the choice to him. ‘Or would you like some hummus and … Daniel ?’

He was miles away, gazing out at the hills below us, the hand holding the phone still out in front of him. I felt a wave of fear.

‘Daniel ?’ I said again. ‘What’s the matter ? Everything OK ?’

‘Um, yeah.’ He blinked a couple of times before briefly looking my way. He pressed the button on the side of his phone to lock the screen. ‘Tom says they’ve recruited a new head teacher finally.’

The head teacher at Wetherley Primary School where Tom was the deputy had suddenly gone on long-term sick leave before the summer holidays and there’d been a scramble to recruit a replacement before the start of the new school year.

‘Oh, good. Anyone we know ?’ I asked.

‘Yes. Well, I do. You don’t,’ he laughed awkwardly and shoved the phone back in his pocket. ‘It’s a woman. Tasha Sandean.’

‘How do you know her ?’ I said, crunching on a crisp.

He rubbed his fingers along his jaw. ‘Friend from school, primary and secondary. She left Wetherley to go to university and never came back. Very bright girl. Top set for everything and brilliant at French because her parents were from Mauritius. They moved back there when they retired, I think. I haven’t thought about her for years.’

He was certainly thinking of her now, I noticed, because he appeared to be blushing. Had she been a friend, or more than that ?

‘We can invite her round when she moves back; you can get to know her again,’ I suggested, testing my theory. ‘Reignite the old friendship.’

‘Maybe.’ He opened the beef crisps and chomped on a large handful. ‘Funny story. When we were seventeen, we both got temporary Christmas jobs at a garden centre working in Santa’s Grotto. I asked if I could kiss her under the mistletoe, but she dodged out of reach.’

‘Aw, poor Daniel,’ I teased, dotting his nose with my fingertip. ‘Spurned and still sore about it.’

‘It took a lot of courage, I’ll have you know,’ he said, grinning. ‘It’s not easy for boys ; trying to work out whether girls like them or not.’

I raised my eyebrows. ‘So you had a crush on her ?’

He looked wistful for a moment.

‘Everyone did.’ He polished off the rest of his crisps and pinched one of mine. ‘But we made a joke of it. She said if I wasn’t married by the time I was forty, she’d kiss me then.’

‘Like one of those marriage pacts to be each other’s stand-by if you’re still single by thirty or whatever ; that’s so funny !’ I laughed, although something about the look in his eye niggled me. Then I remembered. ‘Hey, you’re forty this December.’

‘I know.’ He rummaged in the rucksack. ‘Got any chocolate ?’

‘No, sorry,’ I said vaguely, imagining him as a love-struck teenager mooning over a girl. ‘Daniel ?’

‘Hmm ?’ he said, biting into an apple.

‘If Tasha is going to be back in Wetherley this Christmas, maybe she’ll want to kiss you under the mistletoe. If you’re not married.’

I was only half teasing. I wasn’t the jealous sort as a rule. But I didn’t want some very bright girl, top set in everything, former crush of my boyfriend thinking she could just turn up with a sprig of mistletoe and expect him to pucker up for old times’ sake.

He looked at me, amused. ‘I’m sure she won’t even remember it.’

‘You remembered it,’ I pointed out.

‘She might be married,’ said Daniel, laughing. ‘Let’s change the subject. It was just a silly story ; I wouldn’t have told you if I’d known you’d take it so seriously.’

‘OK,’ I said meekly.

But my mind wouldn’t drop it, because an idea had just occurred to me. A spontaneous idea, the sort I specialised in. What if he was married by Christmas ? To me. I couldn’t imagine anything more romantic than a wedding in December. For as long as I could remember, all I’d wanted was for a proper family Christmas and if we were Mr and Mrs, well that would just be the icing on the Christmas cake.

If I proposed to him right now, it could actually happen. All it took was a question. Just one simple question. I felt the prickle of heat all over my body as the idea took shape and my insides began to tingle with adrenaline. Could I do it ? This was the perfect setting, the perfect occasion and we loved each other. Admittedly it was a bit spur of the moment, but ever since we met, I’d been practising my married signature, just in case. And it would be so exciting and romantic !

You don’t need to wait to be asked. Those had been Daniel’s exact words just a few minutes ago. I hoped he meant it. Right. I blew out a sharp breath. I was going to do it.

‘Daniel ?’ My pulse speeded up as I reached for his hand and dropped onto one knee.

‘Yes, Merry.’ He looked bemused. ‘What are you up to now ?’

‘I love you with all my heart and I want to be with you for the rest of my life.’ I swallowed, aware that my mouth was suddenly dry. ‘So, will you marry me ?’

The air around us was so still, the moment so heavy with tension that for a few seconds I forgot to breathe. I watched his eyes dart left and right as a succession of emotions crossed his face.

He gave a hollow laugh. ‘It’s not February twenty-ninth, is it ?’

‘No,’ I said lightly, ‘but you don’t really believe that women only have one day in four years to propose and men get – whatever it is, do you ?’

‘One thousand two hundred and sixty-five,’ Daniel supplied quietly. He was brilliant at mental arithmetic. ‘And you’re right. It isn’t very fair.’

We held eye contact and I could read his thoughts as clearly as if they were tattooed across his forehead. The fact was that all those possible days had gone by when he could have asked me to marry him. But he hadn’t.

The seconds ticked away and it was clear I’d said the wrong thing. As the size of my mistake grew bigger, my heartbeat grew faster. If I could have taken back my proposal I would have, but now it was out there like a big, embarrassed elephant flapping its ears in the breeze between us.

‘Merry,’ he murmured, reaching a hand to my cheek. ‘I’m really flattered. Honoured to be asked.’

‘Good, because I don’t plan on ever doing it again ; it’s nerve-wracking,’ I said shakily, ready to brush the whole fiasco under the carpet and rewrite it as a joke.

‘Now you know how I felt under that mistletoe,’ he said, attempting a joke of his own.

I gritted my teeth, wishing he hadn’t brought her up again. ‘Except you were a boy asking a girl for a sneaky kiss ; I’m your girlfriend asking you to be my husband. It’s not in the same league of commitment.’

‘I suppose not,’ he mumbled, looking down at his feet.

‘So ?’ I attempted a casual smile. ‘What do you say?’

‘Look, Merry, I do really love you, but …’ He drew in a breath and rubbed his hand through his hair distractedly. ‘I’m sorry, I just don’t want to be tied down at the moment. Not through marriage, or babies or even a kitten. In fact, now that you’ve brought it up, I’m fairly sure I never will. I really am sorry.’

‘Oh.’ My eyes burned with mortification. This was … earth shattering. Why had we never talked about this before ? He didn’t want anything that I wanted. Nothing. ‘I had no idea that was how you felt.’

He looked uncomfortable. ‘I suppose it’s never come up.’

I looked at the stony ground through eyes blurry with tears. ‘But I’ve mentioned kids before, I’m sure I have.’ Although, now that I thought about it, he’d always changed the subject.

He reached for me, but I moved back quickly.

‘What’s wrong with me ?’ I said this out loud but it was as much to myself as to him. Regret started to seep into my bones. We’d been having such a nice day ; trust me to do something impulsive and ruin it.

‘Nothing. Nothing at all !’ he insisted. ‘You’re amazing. This is all on me.’

I shook my head ; there was no way I could accept that. A familiar feeling of rejection gnawed away inside me ; I’d thought Daniel was the one I would be building a future with, putting down roots, making a home, a family …

I stood up, not sure what to do with myself. He got up too and took hold of my shoulders. ‘I do love you though; you do believe me, don’t you ?’

I nodded, aware of the tickling sensation of fresh tears on my cheeks. I’d never doubted that he loved me. I thought we were meant for each other, that we wanted the same things. Until today.

‘Good.’ He kissed my forehead. ‘This doesn’t have to change anything.’

‘Sure,’ I murmured, swallowing down the lump in my throat.

But of course it did. Inevitably it changed everything.

As I’d predicted, everything changed : from that moment on the hillside, our relationship had been a ticking time-bomb. Although my proposal had been on the spur of the moment, as soon as the idea popped into my head, I knew that what I craved was the certainty of us. I’d needed to believe that I’d found someone who wanted the same as me, who above all else wanted me. Despite Daniel’s attempts to carry on as before, it was obvious to me that we couldn’t, that at some point, we would have to go our separate ways to have the lives we wanted. As my hopes for the future fizzled out, so did our relationship and by the end of September, we were little more than housemates.

True to form, I hadn’t planned the break-up; it just sort of came out all in a rush. One minute he was making a barbed observation about the number of cardboard boxes blocking the hall (I’d left it too late to take them to the post office) and the next, I was telling him of my decision to move out. I’d held my breath ; this was his moment to say he’d had a change of heart and that he’d do anything not to lose me. But he hadn’t tried to persuade me to stay.

It only took me two weeks to find somewhere else to live, which was why today, Nell’s van was fully loaded with my belongings, and we were turning into World’s End Lane, a long leafy road on the outskirts of Wetherley.

‘The thing is,’ I said, indicating to Nell that she should continue straight on, ‘that if you’re madly in love with someone and they propose, the only acceptable response is a big joyful YES. I don’t want someone who loves me just enough to tolerate living with me. Although to be honest, I think he was having second thoughts about even that level of commitment. I want someone who can’t imagine a future without me in it. And if I said please can we adopt this three-legged dog with halitosis, he wouldn’t even think twice.’

‘You’ve lost me.’ Nell glanced sideways at me, frowning.

‘Yes. I’ve lost Daniel too,’ I said with a sigh, not bothering to relate the animal shelter conversation. ‘Part of me worries that I might have thrown away the best relationship I’ll ever have. But there’s a little part deep inside me that says I’ve made the right decision and that’s the bit I’m listening to.’

‘Gut instinct is rarely wrong,’ Nell pronounced, slowing down to peer at the cottages as we passed by. ‘I listened to mine and ended up married to Olek.’

Her husband was a gentle giant who had moved to Derbyshire from Poland as a teenager with his parents. They’d been married for four years and as far as I could tell were still in the honeymoon period.

‘I still love Daniel. But I want an Olek of my own. We’re almost there.’ I pointed to the very last house on the lane. ‘You can go straight up onto the drive.’

Nell whistled as she pulled up in front of the very last house. ‘This one ?’

I nodded in confirmation.

‘It’s gorgeous, Merry !’ she gasped. ‘I love it !’

I smiled at my best friend, grateful to have her boundless enthusiasm to propel me into this new chapter in my life, then I looked up at my new home: a small stone cottage with an ivy-covered porch and a wonky chimney, surrounded on three sides by trees.

‘Me too,’ I said, bravely.

I brushed away the thoughts of the life I’d left behind and forced a smile. Today was all about new starts ; I was trying not to dwell on what might have been.

As if reading my mind, Nell reached for my hand and squeezed it. ‘You’re going to be happy here, I can feel it.’

‘Come on,’ I said, dismissing the prickle of tears in my eyes and pulling open the door of the van. ‘Let me introduce you to Holly Cottage.’

We let ourselves in and I gave her the tour of my new abode. Nell didn’t let me down, oohing and ahhing in all the right places. She admired the exposed oak beams, and the original flagstones in the hall, smooth in places where countless pairs of feet had worn grooves in them. Together we explored every nook and cranny, from the soot-stained stone fireplace in the sitting room, which promised cosy nights in front of the wood stove, to the deep window seat perfect for curling up on with a book. Upstairs the main bedroom under the eaves was pretty, with rose-sprigged curtains and a wooden dressing table, which we decided I could use for taking photographs of my candles. According to the lettings agent, the cottage was more than five hundred years old, hence there not being a single straight wall in the place. The house was on a slope too, so there were steps from the hall into the kitchen. I led Nell down them and she cast her eye over the pine dresser and the old-fashioned sink and dated kitchen cupboards.

‘I know it’s not exactly modern,’ I said. ‘But I like it all the more for its charm.’

‘Absolutely,’ Nell agreed. ‘It’s brimming with quirkiness and character. Suits you down to the ground. It’ll be even better once we get your stuff in here.’ She jingled her keys and together we went back out to the van to get started.

Half an hour later, all we had left to unload was the double bed. Holly Cottage was furnished, like all my previous rental homes had been, but I did have my own bed which I’d been storing in Daniel’s spare room. We were still dissecting my break-up.

‘He’s been really good to me,’ I told her, as we manoeuvred the mattress over the doorstep and up the stairs. ‘Wouldn’t accept any money for bills or anything so I’d have enough to see me through.’

‘It’s the least he could do,’ Nell said, pushing the mattress up as I pulled from above, ‘after the way he’s behaved.’

‘At least I found out before I’d got too comfortable living with him,’ I said, panting with effort.

With a final tug, I managed to pull the mattress onto the tiny landing and rested it against the bannister.

She wiped a hand across her brow. ‘Found out what, that he’s an arsehole ?’

I laughed despite myself. ‘No, that a wife, kids, the whole shebang is not for him.’

‘He doesn’t have the brains he was born with. I mean who in their right mind would not want to marry you ?’

‘Exactly,’ I said staunchly. ‘He’ll probably never get a better offer.’

‘Unless,’ she added with a glint in her eye, ‘do you think deep down he might be gay, and he hasn’t come to terms with it ?’

‘Nell ! No !’ I gasped, laughing despite myself. Between us we lifted the mattress onto the bed base and both collapsed onto it with relief. ‘He might be scared of commitment, but he is definitely not gay.’

His brother Tom, who was gay, had come round for supper at the beginning of term, with his partner Chris, full of admiration for the new head teacher, Miss Sandean. What a breath of fresh air she was, and how popular she was with the parents and children etcetera, and Daniel had hung on his every word. It had been quite annoying, actually.

‘Well, I wouldn’t have let you go that easily, if I was him.’

‘Ah, bless you,’ I said. ‘For that, I’ll make you some coffee.’

‘Finally,’ Nell groaned, stretching her arms above her head. ‘I’ll just lie here while you find the kettle.’

‘No, you don’t,’ I said, pulling her to her feet.

I tasked her with the easy job of hanging my clothes in the wardrobe and headed downstairs in search of refreshments. I found the box which Daniel had labelled ‘kettle etc.’ and unpacked it.

As much as he assured me that he was sad to see me go, I couldn’t help noticing how much he had enjoyed clearing the surfaces of all my framed photographs, plants and the vast collection of scented candles I’d had all over the house. He had offered to help me today, but I’d declined. Instead, Nell had come round once Daniel had left for work and we’d done it between us. It was less awkward this way and I knew Nell would like to be involved.

I filled the kettle and switched it on to boil while gazing through the large window to an overgrown cottage garden and beyond that a thicket of trees.

So, this was it, I was officially single and living on my own again. Money was going to be tight for a while, but thankfully orders were coming in from my new website and Nell had started selling my candles on her market stall too. As long as I was careful, I should just about manage. The rent here was low, due to the fact it was only a short-term lease. Apparently this had put other potential tenants of. . .