A Proper Family Christmas Read Free Page A

wondered if she should be keeping a clear head. She alone was responsible for dealing with anything that might happen now. Would she be capable of seeing off Jehovah’s Witnesses, or mending a fuse, or saving the neighbours from a fire, if her faculties were numbed by alcohol? And with music on, one couldn’t be sure what other sounds it was disguising. A host of burglars might be tramping through those supposedly empty rooms above her.
    She really had meant it when she’d told Daniel that she didn’t mind spending Christmas alone, that evening, weeks ago it seemed, when he’d first mentioned the climbing scheme. Since Ben’s death they had always gone to friends or a small hotel, making a rather over-conscious effort not to let the season get them down, but she still found Christmas one of her worst times. The idea of ignoring it altogether had seemed infinitely appealing.
    â€œYou’ll have to go to someone’s for Christmas Day,” Daniel had warned her. “It’s all very well saying it’s sentimental rubbish, but when there’s sod all on telly and you see everyone else in the street playing happy families round the Christmas tree… well, you’ll miss Dad like buggery, for a start.”
    â€œAs if I didn’t already!” Hilary had made a face.
    â€œPhone Julia and Tony. They’d adore to have you!” He imitated Julia at her most gushing. “It’ll be the real thing - you know how Julia loves all that Christmas crap. You can see it through in an alcoholic haze. Good pressies, too, I shouldn’t wonder.”
    â€œOh yes, and have Tony taking me into corners and asking me how I am all the time, and Julia telling poor little Posy not to bother Auntie Hilary, as if I was an uncertain-tempered cat, and everyone avoiding the subject of husbands and feeling guilty if they laugh by mistake…”
    â€œOkay, okay!” Daniel had grinned. “Trash the Wimbledon idea. But I still think you’ll want to go somewhere, when it comes to it.”
    â€œNonsense. I shall just put my head down and let the whole thing pass me by. It’ll be heaven.”
    Well, here she was, just as she had wanted it - alone for Christmas.
    â€œSod it!” she admitted out loud. “I’m lonely already.”

CHAPTER 2
    William was getting his tea, an operation as full of ritual and long-standing custom as any ceremony in Japan. He had put the kettle on some time ago - the proper kettle, not that stupid electric thing - and now it was spluttering on the old gas stove with just the right kind of hiss that told him it was time to open the toffee tin with the bent spoon he kept for the purpose and get out a teabag.
    His daughter-in-law had once spent some time explaining to William that if he didn’t fill the kettle completely, it wouldn’t take so long to boil. William, as always, had listened with polite interest to her discourse on freshly-drawn water, energy conservation and the prevention of limescale build-up, and continued to do as he always had, quite failing to see the point of making extra trips to the sink, when a good full kettle might last him several days.
    Not that he was totally behind the times. William had recently discovered round tea-bags, and he paused a moment to admire the satisfying way the bag aligned so perfectly with the round base of his mug, before taking it out again. Nothing would persuade him that a decent cup of tea could ever permeate a paper wrapping, and he carefully split the bag open and shook out the contents into the mug. He tipped the kettle slowly, watching the water dance into his cup and splurge tea all the way up the sides but just stay within bounds, in a way that he always found immensely satisfying.
    Scratch the cat watched the proceedings keenly. Although he had already been fed, he had a strong suspicion that William would be dining on something more interesting than cat food, and he