The Christmas Marriage Mission

If she could just stand here for ever, with the blue sky above and the twins giggling and laughing as they fed Henry’s little tribe, and the feel of Mitchell’s hard body next to her, she would be happy. She slanted a glance at him from under her eyelashes, the big charcoal overcoat he was wearing making him even more dark and male in the white fairy-tale world surrounding them.

He must have sensed her gaze, his head turning as he looked down at her. Slowly his mouth came closer and she made no move to turn her face away. The kiss was light, sweet and warm in the frozen air and lasted no more than a breath or two, but afterwards his other hand came across hers where it rested in his arm.

‘Why is it I want to lay you down in the snow and ravish you until you’re moaning my name?’ he asked, shockingly, a moment later, his voice a low murmur audible only to her ears.

Her eyes opened wide and she saw his mouth twist in the lopsided smile that spoke of self-derision. ‘And now I’ve lost all the brownie points I’d gained with the account of Charlie and his tribe,’ he said sadly.

She laughed, she couldn’t help it, but at the same time an inner voice said despairingly, Why did he have to be so drop-dead gorgeous? She would have been satisfied with average, she really would, if Cupid could have shot his arrow into an appropriate male. But instead she had to go and fall for Mitchell. An impossible situation. An impossible man.

He kept her arm in his on the walk back to the house, the twins dancing in front of them like a pair of tiny winter sprites. Their last full day here. As they entered the house by the kitchen door Kay’s heart was suddenly as heavy as lead. They would never come again; she would make sure of that. It was too sweet, too intoxicating, too dangerous. It gave her a taste of what could have been if Mitchell had felt differently.

Her mother and Henry were sitting at the kitchen table, close together, the fragrant aroma of percolating coffee scenting the air. Kay watched as Georgia and Emily ran to them, the children’s faces glowing as they recounted the adventure with the ducks, and the older couple’s expressions benevolent.

What would she do if this affection she could sense between her mother and Henry grew? Kay asked herself as she divested herself of her outdoor clothes. It would mean Mitchell would for ever be on the fringe of her family, even when he had someone new and she was just another of his exes. The thought stung like a scorpion.

Lunch was a cold buffet but none the less delicious for it. Henry had the enviable knack of making even the most ordinary food taste sublime, and Kay thought it showed the strength of Mitchell’s will-power that he wasn’t showing any signs of surplus fat on his altogether perfectly honed body.

Leonora must have had similar thoughts, because they had just finished the last of a wickedly calorie-loaded chocolate mousse when she said, ‘Henry, that was wonderful but in spite of the flu I know I’ve put on a good few pounds. I’m amazed you and Mitchell are so slim.’

‘Men are built differently to women,’ Henry said factually. ‘Different fat cells and so on. Besides, what does it matter?’

‘Plenty when you get to my age and middle-aged spread starts showing its ugly face,’ Leonora said ruefully.

‘You’re perfect.’ Henry was looking straight into Leonora’s eyes and Kay thought he’d forgotten the rest of them for a moment. ‘Fat, thin, it wouldn’t matter to me. You are perfect.’

Oh, wow! Kay glanced across at Mitchell, who raised laconic eyebrows. There was definitely something going on here all right.

Leonora had gone pink and fluttery and by unspoken mutual consent the conversation moved to safer channels, but the look in Henry’s eyes and the emotion in the older man’s voice stayed with Kay for the rest of the day.

It was much later, when Kay was lying in bed, that she dissected the events of the day. Building the snowman, the episode with the ducks, the way Georgia and Emily had utterly insisted Mitchell read them a story after their bath once they were tucked up in bed, the wonderful candlelit dinner Henry had cooked for the four adults and the easy laughter and camaraderie between Mitchell, Henry and her mother—it was all too beguiling. She could deceive herself very easily here—pretend it was the start of a for-ever story. But it wasn’t.

‘Reality check, Kay,’ she whispered in the darkness. Tomorrow morning Mitchell was going to take them back to Ivy Cottage and real life would resume again. The strange cat-and-mouse game he seemed determined to play would begin once more, but this time she had to start making a few changes. Cooling things down, refusing the odd date, cutting out any contact between Mitchell and the twins so the little girls could gradually forget him. It was all for the best, it was, she assured herself desperately, so why did she feel she was being unfair to everyone?

She turned over onto her stomach with a sigh, angry with Mitchell, herself and the whole world.

As it happened, the return to Ivy Cottage went far easier than Kay had anticipated, mainly due to the fact that there was an emergency with Mitchell’s branch in Southampton, which necessitated a personal visit from the man himself. Nevertheless, he insisted on taking Kay, her mother and the girls home even when Henry offered to do it with Kay backing the older man enthusiastically.

‘Holden and his inefficient workforce can wait,’ Mitchell said grimly after the call during breakfast from the manager in Southampton. ‘An hour or two either way is not going to make any difference. I’m taking you back, okay?’ He glared at Kay as though she had contrived the situation herself. ‘And we’ll call in at the supermarket on the way as planned. No argument.’

Kay nodded, said thank you and left it at that then. At least, with Mitchell having to dash off, the farewell should be brief and short-lived, no need to offer coffee or anything else that might have delayed his departure. A quick, clean and concise end to what had been a vitally disturbing and—she had to admit—wonderful Christmas.

It happened exactly as she had envisaged, and within a couple of minutes of their return to their tiny home Kay, her mother and the girls were standing waving Mitchell off from the doorstep.

‘Such a shame,’ Leonora murmured at the side of her as Georgia and Emily jumped up and down, waving wildly to their hero. ‘It would have been nice for us to offer Henry and Mitchell a meal tonight after all they’ve done for us.’

Oh, no, no. She wasn’t starting that. No cosy foursomes. ‘We haven’t got the room to entertain here, Mum.’ It was firm and brooked no argument. ‘Besides which, you know how I feel about things.’

Leonora pursed her lips disapprovingly. ‘Darling, I wish you’d think again,’ she said quietly. ‘Henry is sure Mitchell is very fond of you.’

‘I’ve no doubt he has been very fond of plenty of women in the past,’ Kay said just as quietly as, the Voyager having driven out of sight, the twins disappeared up to their bedroom to reacquaint themselves with their room and toys as though they had been away for several months instead of several days.

‘But how do you know this isn’t different?’

‘Because I face facts.’ Kay turned to look at her mother once they had walked through into the kitchen to unpack the shopping Mitchell had insisted on paying for. ‘For example, has Mitch

ell had other women back to the house for romantic dinners and so on in the past?’

Leonora wriggled uncomfortably. ‘I guess so,’ she admitted unhappily.