The Christmas Sisters

Someone had cleared the snow to one side, but the freeze overnight had turned the path slick and icy.

Picking her way to the softer snow to the side, Hannah waved her phone in the air, trying to find a signal.

This was ridiculous. She’d forgotten how patchy communications were. How did anyone function here? It was only when you were without it that you realized how much you relied on technology.

Her toes were freezing and she picked her way carefully across the snow-covered yard and headed toward the field that sloped up from the lodge.

Wondering what had possessed her to think being in Scotland would be any sort of escape, she climbed the gate awkwardly and saw a few precious bars of signal appear on her phone. Finally.

Angie answered the call immediately.

“Miss Mc—Hannah! It’s good to hear your voice. How is Scotland?”

“Cold.” She was relieved her assistant couldn’t see her clinging to a muddy gate. “Did you get the report I sent?”

“Yes. The team are meeting now. Adam is going to call you after they’re done to—” Her voice vanished and Hannah frowned.

“Hello? Angie? Are you still there?” She checked the connection and stepped up a rung on the gate, trying not to slip. “Angie?”

“Hannah? This line is terrible.”

“I know, but it’s the only one we have, so let’s work with it. First, I’m going to be emailing you something I need you to deal with urgently. It’s not an easy brief, but if anyone can do it, you can. Make it a priority.” Her fingers were so cold she almost dropped the phone. How long did it take frostbite to set in? “Ask Adam if he can do the coaching session with Michael Barnet that I had scheduled for tomorrow. I was going to do it from here, but that’s not going to work.” She could hardly coach a general manager on how he was managing the performance of his team while she was shivering in a field and playing hide-and-seek with an elusive phone signal. “Any problems from the rest of the clients?” She listened while Angie talked and made the occasional interjection, “Mmm, well, that is a key element of introducing organizational change...” She shifted her position on the gate as one of her hands

grew numb. “We need to review the project plan and discuss priorities for January. Is that everything?”

“Yes. We have a team meeting in the morning, so if anything comes out of that, I’ll call you. Unless you want to call in to the meeting?”

“I don’t think that’s going to—Agh—” Hannah screamed as something wet and warm touched her frozen fingers. She snatched her hand away and in doing so let go of the gate. She lost both her phone and her balance, felt her stomach swoop and landed in an ungainly heap in the churned-up frozen mud and snow by the gate.

Winded, she lay there for a moment, and then a big, shaggy head lowered toward her.

Hannah screamed.

The pony threw up his head, startled.

“Socks.” Posy’s voice came from a distance. “Socks!”

The pony turned in the direction of her voice. With a delighted snort, Socks ceased his exploration of the strange human lying in his field and turned back to the gate.

By the time Posy had swung herself over the gate, Hannah had managed to sit up.

“Are you all right? Are you bruised? You have a bloodcurdling scream, by the way.” Posy dropped the bale of hay she was carrying and dropped to her knees beside her sister. “Did you hurt yourself? Say something! You’re making me panic.”

“You’re in the mountain rescue team. You’re not supposed to panic.”

“It’s different when it’s your sister. Especially when you said you might be pregnant.” Posy flushed. “I know it’s none of my business. You don’t have to talk about it if you don’t want to. I’m worried, that’s all.”

“I am pregnant.” Oh God, had she hurt the baby? It hadn’t even been born yet, and already she’d harmed it. Instinctively she lowered her hand to her abdomen, even though she knew it would make no difference. “Do you think I’m going to lose it?” And it was only now, when that possibility presented itself, that she realized how much she didn’t want it to happen.

“Of course not. You didn’t fall far and it was a soft landing, but I don’t think lying on your back in snow and mud is good for you, so let’s fix that at least.” Posy held out her hand and helped her up. “What are you doing out here? Beth and Jason walked past me ten minutes ago and said you were watching the girls.”

“I had to make a short phone call.” It had been a while since Hannah had felt so useless and humiliated. The previous time had been in the mountains, too. “I didn’t know I was going to be attacked.”

“Socks is more scared than you.”

“I scared him? I didn’t push my face in his and almost savage him.”

“He wasn’t savaging you.”