âSO ITâS going to be your usual quiet Christmas,â Dawn stated from the depths of the armchair which was cosily close to the state-of-the-art kitchen range. âPoor old you! You really should learn to have fun, Mattsâyou never know, you might get to like it!â Her soft, pretty mouth formed a small moue of condemnation as she wriggled her curvy body with barely suppressed excitement and Mattie, glancing across at her oldest and best friend, wondered if her mother would have loved her if sheâd been more like Dawn, pretty and curvy, outgoing and bubbly, instead ofâ
She pushed the thought roughly away. All that was over. Her mother had died nine years ago, for heavenâs sake, when Mattie had been just sixteen and there was no point at all in dwelling on the pastânothing would bring it back, or alter it.
âWhereas your place will be bursting at the seams,â Mattie put in through a gentle smile, sensing her friendâs excitement and knowing the reason for it. She reached for her reading glasses and peered at the recipe book. At Christmas time especially, The Old Rectory on the other side of the picture-book Sussex village would act like a magnet for the large and happily uncomplicated family Dawnâs parents had created. And the rambling, slightly shabby house would be filled with children and grandchildren, love and laughter.
In stark contrast to the rather austere grandeur of this place, the home she shared with her widowed father.
âThe whole shooting match,â Dawn agreed comfortably, her hazel eyes bright as she raised her left hand and gazed at the emerald sparkling on her ring finger. âPlus Frank and his parents,â she added breathily. âTheyâll be arriving tomorrow, Christmas Eve, so youâre invited for lunch on Christmas Dayâbring your fatherâwith Mrs Flax being away it will save you having to cook. And I wonât take no for an answer. I canât wait to introduce my brand-new fiancé to my very best friend.â
âSorry.â Mattie fed flour onto the kitchen scales. âBut James is spending the holiday here; he phoned this morning and invited himself.â Her heart squeezed painfully beneath her breast as she spoke his name. He must be feeling dreadful. His plans for Christmas would have been far more glamorous, much more romantic than a quiet few days out in the sticks. âI know youâre going to say bring him too, but I donât think heâll feel like partyingânot under the circumstances.â
More than half expecting her friend to persist, she tipped the flour into the mixing bowl with such a gesture of finality that airy clouds of it rose palely to the ceiling.
But far from insisting that her invitation be accepted, Dawn said, âWow!â wriggling round in the chair, resting her elbows on the fatly padded arm, cupping her chin in her hands. âMajor tear-mopping time coming up?â
âI donât think James Carter knows how to cry,â Mattie stated, her tone matter-of-fact. In all the years she had known him, as the son of her fatherâs business partner, and later, at the relatively young age of twenty-five, stepping into his fatherâs shoes at his death around eleven years ago, she had never seen him show a strong emotion. He was always self-assured, completely collected, detached. Almost frighteningly remote at times, seeming to live in a world where nothing could touch him.
But right now he must be hurting. Being so publicly jilted by the woman heâd intended to marry had to be a painful experience. But, knowing him as well as she did, she was sure he wouldnât show it.
âWell, he wouldnât parade his feelings in public,â Dawn conceded. âBut with his parents both dead now, you and your dad are the closest thing to a family he has, so he might cry on your shoulders. And I guess his ego has taken a heck of a pounding if nothing else. I mean, when you look back a couple of months to those burblings in the gossip columns about the wedding of the yearââSociety Beauty, the Hon. Fiona Campbell-Blair to Wed Business Tycoon,â and her quoted as saying it would be a marriage made in heaven and how besotted with each other they were, and then, only last week her ladyship announces that sheâs called the whole thing off because, and again I quote, âJimmy didnât live up to her high expectationsââwell, I mean, heâs got to be feeling absolutely gutted.â