Christmas in the Snow Read Free

jumpers and sturdy boots. Ferdy instantly began to wail and she promptly stuck it back in. ‘And we’re supposed to finish going through the house
together. You promised!’
    ‘Yes, but there’s only the loft left to do, isn’t there?’
    ‘Only the loft?
Only
the loft? That’s always where the best stuff is; it’s where people put all the things they can’t bear to throw out. God only knows what
we’ll find up there. We’ll be in there for hours.’
    ‘Oh good.’
    ‘Come on, Legs. You know I can’t do it on my own. I won’t be able to bring myself to throw out anything and I’ll end up keeping everything, like one of those sad hoarders
with boxes and plastic bags full of clothes in every room, and then Lloyd’ll leave me—’
    ‘Where is Lloyd?’
    ‘He’s still jet-lagged from Dubai.’
    Allegra aimed for a sympathetic face. She did Dubai for breakfast. ‘Look, Iz, I have loved doing this. Really I have,’ Allegra said, leaning forward with her hands across the table
as she always did in meetings when making an ‘impassioned’ point. ‘I can’t
tell
you how much more relaxed I feel from that walk.’ She slapped a hand across
her heart. ‘And it’s been just heavenly seeing little Ferds.’
    ‘You haven’t even held him yet.’ Isobel’s eyes showed she wasn’t fooled by Allegra’s lapse into mummy chat. Allegra usually only ever talked in bullet points
and corporate speak.
    ‘That’s only because he was sleeping and now he’s feeding and I
have
to go.’ She reached for her bag, hanging on the back of the chair – a discreet navy
Saint Laurent Besace filled with a tube of Touche Eclat, her passport and vitamin pills, unlike Isobel’s brightly coloured Orla Kiely vinyl satchel, which was stuffed with nappies, dummies,
toys and a change of clothes. ‘Let’s meet up tomorrow, OK? I’m sure if we blitz it together, we’ll get it done in a couple of hours.’ Allegra bent down, kissing Ferdy
lightly on the top of his head. He smelt sweet, like parsnip or talc, and she could feel him chomping down on the bottle with impressive strength. She kissed Isobel on the cheek, detecting the new
scent of Pond’s moisturiser, now that Estée Lauder was a bit of a stretch. Kids weren’t cheap and she knew Lloyd was already stressing about school fees.
    ‘What time?’
    ‘Ten a.m.’
    Allegra hesitated. ‘Two.’
    Isobel narrowed her eyes. ‘Twelve.’
    ‘Done.’ Allegra winked.
    ‘Ugh,’ Isobel groaned as she realized she’d been played. ‘Don’t forget your lucky leaf.’
    ‘My what?’
    Isobel jerked her chin towards the waxy-brown horse chestnut leaf lying like a hand on the table between them. ‘Put it in your purse. You said you’ve got this big deal going through
– you’re going to need some luck.’
    Allegra went to say something – a dismissive refusal, a pithy putdown of her sister’s nostalgic sentimentality – but thought better of it. ‘Yes, you’re quite right.
I need whatever luck I can get. Thanks.’ She opened out her large black caviar-leather wallet and slid it in the notes compartment across the back. It fit almost perfectly.
    She smiled, wondering whether her sister still read her horoscopes too. ‘See you at Mum’s, two o’clock tomorrow, then,’ she said, turning and marching quickly out of the
cafe, past all the Saturday-sloppy regulars slurping cappuccinos and updating their Facebook statuses on their iPhones, her phone to her ear before she was even at the door. By the time Isobel had
Ferdy strapped back into his buggy and was texting her that they had agreed twelve – twelve o’clock! – she was in a cab driving over Tower Bridge, and five minutes after that, she
was striding through the silent marble lobby, flashing her security pass to the guards, a smile on her face as she jabbed the buttons to take her up the twenty storeys to the office, home
again.

Chapter Two
Day One:
Mother and Child
    ‘Oh my God, Legs, this place