Half an hour later I was sitting at the kitchen table tucking into a plate of buttery scrambled eggs on toast while hugging a mug of hot tea with the other hand. The TV flickered in the background, mirroring the news that I’d already read on my phone. According to today’s weather forecast the temperature outside was currently minus two and it wasn’t likely to improve any time soon.

  Once I finished eating, I wandered across to the sink and turned on the tap. Glancing out of the kitchen window, I saw the sky was bleak and grey and there was definitely a high chance of further snowfall later on today.

  After washing the pots and switching off the TV, I wandered into the dining room, where I set to work making a child’s party dress. The customer was a mother of one of the children at Ann’s school. She’d enquired at the school office as to whether they knew of any local seamstresses, and Ann had kindly pointed her in my direction. The pattern I was using was one I’d designed years ago for Abbie.

  After laying the fabric of the dress flat on the dining-room table, I pinned the pattern on top and traced the outline. I’d never thrown a pattern away, and over the years I’d accumulated many, all of which were logged and filed carefully away in the drawers of the dresser.

  I smiled, remembering the dress I’d made for Abbie all those years ago. It was Christmas time then too, and Ann and Dave had invited us over for dinner. It wasn’t even a special occasion but Abbie must have been about seven, and that day she’d decided she needed a new dress to wear. She’d rifled through my cupboards until she’d discovered a deep plush red velvet material, which she’d insisted I make into a dress for that very evening. I hadn’t particularly minded to be honest. It had been a lovely way to pass a few hours with Abbie at my side as she watched every stitch being sewn on her new dress. Moments before we were due to leave for Ann’s house, Henry had discovered Abbie holding the hem of her newly made dress and twirling around like a ballerina in front of the full-length mirror in our bedroom. He’d stifled his laughter and hurried to tell me. We’d spied on her through the crack of the door. She’d curtseyed and said, ‘Yes, I will go to the ball with you, Leo.’

  ‘Abbie wanted a new dress to impress Leo,’ Henry had whispered while we disappeared down the stairs before she spotted us. It was a lovely memory, and over the years Abbie and Leo had become firm friends.

  After all the separate pieces of the dress had been cut, I began to work on sewing the sections together. Once I began to feed it through the sewing machine, it would be finished in no time at all.

  A couple of hours later after pressing the beautiful dress and hanging it on a hanger from the back of the door, I was delighted with the finished garment. I scooped up the scraps of leftover material from the table and wandered into the kitchen to put them in the bin. Hearing a knock on the front door, I hurried to open it and found Marcus beaming back at me.

  ‘Hi,’ I said, secretly delighted he was standing on the doorstep.

  ‘Hey, I hope you don’t mind me popping over?’

  ‘Not at all. Do you want to come in? Henry’s gone to work,’ I said, opening the door a little further and shivering as the cold air hit me.

  ‘You’re freezing, let me make this quick. What are you doing today?’

  ‘Why?’ I asked, intrigued.

  ‘I was thinking of walking Frank over the fields – the way you suggested – and wondered if you’d like to join us?’ he asked hopefully.

  I had to admit I wasn’t expecting to see Marcus today, never mind have the opportunity to spend a little more time with him. Secretly pleased, my heart began to pound, and before I could talk myself out of it, I found myself answering, ‘I’d love to.’

  ‘Excellent! Will you be ready to go in about twenty minutes?’ he asked, tapping the face of his watch.

  ‘Yes, I’ll come over.’

  I shut the door behind him and my thoughts trailed off into oblivion. It had been a long time since I’d been on a walk across the fields – and with such lovely company too. All of a sudden I was rather looking forward to the day ahead.

  16

  Twenty minutes later, I slipped on my thermal socks and pushed my feet into my snow boots. A smile spread across my face as I pulled the front door shut behind me. I paused for a moment on the step to compose myself before zipping up my coat. My heart was already fluttering with anticipation. I was ready to go.

  Hovering on the herringbone mat outside Marcus’s front door, there was no denying I was feeling nervous. After ringing the bell, I stood and waited. I could hear Frank barking and his paws pattering down the hallway.

  ‘Calm down, lad. How am I meant to clip your lead on to your collar when you’re dancing around? Sit still,’ Marcus commanded.

  I smiled at the sound of the commotion on the other side of the door. It appeared Frank was as excited as I was to be going on a walk. The front door opened and I was greeted by a very eager Old English sheepdog tugging on Marcus’s arm and trying to barge straight past me. Marcus’s brow furrowed with frustration. ‘Hi! I think it’s safe to say Frank is looking forward to his walk.’ When his eyes met mine, his face softened and he beamed in my direction.

  I shot him a shy smile. ‘He certainly has a lot of energy.’

  Marcus locked the front door behind him and stuffed the key in his pocket and his hands into his gloves. We walked along the path and up the cul-de-sac and my legs felt achy, especially around the ankles. Crunching along the pavement in the snow, I could still feel the heaviness of the ice skates from the previous evening.

  ‘Which way should we go?’ Marcus asked, locking eyes with me.

  ‘How about if we trek up through the Dunstall estate, over the fields and loop around past the church? That should take us about an hour or so, I reckon.’ I pulled my hat down further around my ears, trying to stop the bitterness of the cold air stinging my face.

  ‘That sounds like a plan,’ he agreed, nodding.

  ‘I wish I had a fur coat like Frank,’ I joked. ‘It’s absolutely freezing out here.’

  ‘Have you seen the news this morning? There are severe weather warnings all around the country. The last time I can remember there being snow like this, I was a kid.’

  ‘Yes, I know,’ I replied, wrapping my arms around my body and thinking exactly the same thing.

  ‘You’ll soon warm up. We can pick up the pace once we’re off the main road.’

  Did he really just say we would pick up the pace? We hadn’t even walked half a mile and I was already feeling quite breathless. Which could only mean I was very unfit and more than likely overweight too. Traipsing alongside Marcus, I watched Frank, who was weaving all over the pavement, sniffing everything and anything in his path.

  ‘Have you heard from Ann? Did she get home OK?’ Marcus enquired.

  ‘Yes, I’ll catch up with her later, but she sent me a text to say she was home safely. No doubt she’ll be nursing her hangover this morning.’

  Marcus laughed. ‘How’s your head?’

  ‘My head is absolutely fine – it’s my ankles that hurt,’ I replied, looking down at my feet.

  Marcus nodded. ‘That’ll be from the ice skates.’

  ‘Yes,’ I agreed.’

  ‘I really enjoyed myself last night, Lizzie.’

  ‘Me too,’ I answered warmly. We walked on in silence before turning through a gate and trudging through unspoilt snow that led to a public footpath across the fields of the estate.

  ‘Wow, look at that sight!’ I exclaimed. ‘I’ve not been up here for years.’

  We both stopped and stared at the breathtaking view that stretched out before us. The fields were draped in blankets of white snow that sloped straight down the valley. The lake had frozen over and all around us the trees sparkled. In the distance, light shimmered off the dusting of snow on the church roof. It was pure winter magic.

  ‘I’m so glad you came, Lizzie – and look at this view! Who’d have thought this was just on our doorstep?’ Marcus said before leaning forward and unclipping Frank’s lead from his collar.

  His words whirled around my head. ‘I’m so glad you came, Lizzie.’ How did he make my heart jump so easily? How could he make me feel so special in such a short amount of time? Henry used to be able to do the same at the drop of a hat. On summer days we’d often bring the girls up here for long walks and enjoy a picnic by the lake. We’d share a bottle of wine and sit and chat for hours on the rug while the girls chased grasshoppers and spent hours making daisy chains.

  ‘Go on, boy,’ Marcus said, patting Frank on the back before he started running in circles and barking with excitement.

  ‘Someone’s excited!’ I said and laughed, jumping out of Frank’s way so he didn’t knock me over.

  Marcus scooped up a handful of snow and began to pat it together. Frank sat patiently in front of him, tail wagging with delight, his wide eyes watching Marcus’s every move. Finally Marcus brought his hand up to shoulder height and threw the snowball a short distance. Immediately Frank woofed and whizzed off, sniffing frantically as the ball disappeared in the midst of all the other snow around. He began to dig wildly, and Marcus and I laughed, dodging the snow as it sprayed up behind him.

  Marcus grinned. ‘Daft dog, it gets him every time.’

  ‘You are such a tease!’ I rolled my eyes but couldn’t help grinning. ‘Look at his little face!’ I exclaimed, feeling sorry for him.

  We carried on plodding through the snow and headed towards the farmer’s gate at the far end of the field. After a couple of minutes Frank had finally given up on locating his snowball and had loped on ahead of us, leaping through the white blanket beneath his paws.

  ‘When was the last time you built a snowman?’ Marcus asked.

  ‘Jeez, at a guess… probably over ten years ago, when the girls were young. Why?’ I flicked a glance at Marcus in wonderment; he was smirking back at me.

  ‘Come on, let’s relive our youth! Let’s build a snowman,’ he said brightly.

  ‘Are you serious?’

  ‘Yes.’

  I cast my mind back. ‘Thinking about it, it’s more likely to have been fifteen years ago. Blimey, where does the time go?’

  We smiled at each other for a few seconds then Marcus started to roll the snow into a ball.

  ‘Hey,’ I grinned, slapping his back as a thought occurred to me. ‘I’ll roll the head and you roll the body.’

  The penny dropped. ‘Mmmm, hold on. I know your game, lady – that’s because there will be less to roll!’

  ‘Exactly!’ I beamed at him.

  We both began to roll from the blanket of untouched snow, and soon enough it began to resemble a snowman. Frank must have thought we were playing a game, as he kept running around in circles, chasing his tail and woofing.

  Out of the blue I remembered Abbie and Freya running around the garden, both bundled up in their winter coats and matching red wellies. Smiling to myself, I thought of the day Henry and I had purchased the wellies from the local marketplace. Freya had loved them so much that she’d pranced about in them all day, pretending she was Dorothy from The Wizard of Oz – except of course with boots not shoes. She’d even refused to remove them at bedtime. Henry had sat with her for over an hour trying to entice the wellies from her feet without any luck. In the end we’d tucked her up in bed with the bright and shiny boots sticking out the side of the duvet. It had been very comical.

  I’d watched from the doorway as Henry sat on the edge of the bed and read her a story, her eyes slowly drooping as she drifted towards sleep. When Henry had reached the end of the story, she’d murmured, ‘There’s no place like home.’

  Henry and I had replied in unison, ‘I love you,’ and she would always answer, ‘I love you more.’ It had only been when she was fast asleep that I’d dared to remove the boots.

  Freya had known her own mind from the minute she’d begun to talk, and Henry had been an excellent dad. A wave of nostalgia washed over me. My heart sank a little remembering those fun times – times I would never get back.

  I looked across at Marcus for a second. He was multitasking, throwing snowballs for Frank while smoothing the snow around the round ball that now looked like a snowman’s body. I found it hard to believe we’d only just met; I felt like I’d known him forever. Every time he smoothed the snow around the snowman’s body, I noticed him chewing the inside of his cheek.

  ‘You’re concentrating.’

  ‘I know.’ He looked up and grinned.

  ‘You do a funny thing with your cheek.’ I gestured, pointing towards his mouth.

  ‘I know that too. It’s a habit from when I was a child,’ he said, smiling as he lifted the head on to the snowman’s body.

  ‘What was life like for you growing up?’ I asked.

  ‘I have no complaints. Great family life. We lived in a small detached house on the main road in a little Scottish village called Newton Stewart. Have you ever heard of it?’

  I shook my head.

  ‘My parents have lived in the same house their whole married life. The house was originally an old village shop with a lot of history – there were steps leading down to a cellar that Will and I loved. We spent the majority of our school holidays playing dungeons and dragons.’

  ‘Are your parents still alive?’

  ‘Yes, and they still live in the same place. Both of them are retired now. My dad usually spends his day sitting on the riverbank fishing for koi carp. My mum potters around the garden and has joined a crown green bowling club.’

  ‘I’ve never been to Scotland but it sounds idyllic.’

  ‘It was a good place to grow up – lots of countryside, rivers and things to do. So, you say you’ve never visited?’

  ‘No, never.’

  ‘Maybe I should take you one day.’

  ‘Maybe you should,’ I answered coyly.

  ‘What about you, Lizzie? Have you lived around here all of your life?’

  I nodded. ‘Yes, pretty much. My family home was about ten minutes away from here in a small village called Rangemore. There’s a school, a church, a bowling green and a handful of old pale stone cottages – and that’s about your lot, but it’s a beautiful place with green fields that stretch for miles and miles. My mum was a seamstress like me, and my dad was a policeman, but both of them have passed away now.’ I felt a lump in my throat and stared on ahead, avoiding eye contact with Marcus. Speaking about my parents always made me emotional; I found it difficult talking about them, and when they’d died I’d been grateful I’d had Henry and the girls around me.

  ‘I’m sorry to hear that. Any brothers and sisters?’

  I shook my head. ‘No, I’m the only one.’

  We stood in silence for a moment and Marcus touched my arm affectionately before taking off his scarf and wrapping it around the snowman’s neck.

  I watched while he wandered over to the nearby hedgerow and snapped off a couple of twigs to wedge in either side of the snowman’s body, creating arms.

  ‘Look at that,’ he said proudly swishing his hands against each other to remove the bobbles of snow that were stuck to his gloves.

  ‘He’s beginning to look real now! He reminds me of the actual Snowman – I love watching that film on Christmas Day,’ I said admiringly.

  ‘I always feel like Christmas has arrived when that film is on the telly,’ Marcus agreed. ‘Except even though our snowman has no nose or eyes, he’s still a mighty fine-looking snowman.’ Marcus retrieved his scarf and gave me a smile that could only be described as triumphant, and we turned and set off walking up the field.

  I stifled a smile and scanned his face. He stuffed his hands inside his anorak’s pockets, and with his crimson cheeks, red bobble hat and scarf, he reminded me of a very jolly Santa – in a nice way of course, as he didn’t have all the extra padding around his stomach. He looked up and caught my eye. He looked so relaxed and happy. I felt the same, and even though my fingers and toes were numb, I felt warm inside.

  ‘Are your girls coming home for Christmas?’ Marcus enquired.

  ‘Yes, weather permitting they should be home very soon. I’m looking forward to it – especially to the change in atmosphere in the house.’ As soon as the words left my mouth I regretted it.

  ‘Are things that bad at home?’ Marcus asked.

  I swallowed anxiously.

  ‘It’s bearable,’ I admitted, kicking the snow under my boots as I walked. Taking a sideward glance at Marcus, I saw he’d arched his eyebrows and was watching me.

  ‘Do you want to talk about it?’ he asked with genuine concern.

  I scratched my head through my hat and sighed. ‘No, honestly, all is well in the world. I just miss the girls being at home, that’s all,’ I said, not wanting to be disloyal towards Henry.

  ‘Once the girls get home it’ll be like they’ve never been away, you’ll see.’

  ‘I hope so; the house is too quiet without them.’

  We walked along in silence for a moment.

  ‘Anyway, what about you?’ I asked, changing the subject. I wanted to discover why there was no Mrs Bowman on the scene.

  ‘Me?’

  ‘Yes, you. Tell me about your new job, and what are you up to for Christmas?’ I glanced towards him.

  Marcus took his time before answering. ‘I’m only covering the manager job at Bretton’s for a few weeks.’

  ‘How come?’

  ‘Well, the current manager will be back once he’s recovered from his operation. They really only need someone to cover because it’s the busiest time of the year.’