‘Why couldn’t these people sleep at the castle, like a sleepover?’ Freddie went on eagerly. ‘The castle’s so big.’ He opened his arms wide, beaming with excitement at his idea.
Simon smiled at him, ‘That’s true, Freddie, but the people who are responsible for the castle are away at the moment and they won’t be back for a couple of days.’
‘But can’t you text them?’ Freddie asked.
Mattie smiled at him. ‘Your idea’s a good one, Freddie, but there are so many treasures inside, we have to keep them safe. People only stay at the castle for special occasions and it all has to be organised by Julius – who is away on holiday just now.’
‘But this is an emergency and it’s Christmas, and people have nowhere to sleep,’ he persisted. ‘And if everyone’s in the castle they can guard the treasures, or we can hide them in the shed where Ozzie sleeps.’
Freddie stood there so small and resolute, looking uncannily like Gary, his father, when he was trying to persuade her to come round to his way of thinking, and how often she gave in to Gary’s wishes because she loved him so, and also, she now admitted, she hated it when he sulked. Anna turned her face away to hide her sudden rush of emotion.
‘He has a point,’ a man with tousled greying hair and a bald pate pushed himself forward. ‘I mean, there it is, part of our community and I’m sure Julius can square it with the insurance for a couple of nights, given the circumstances. As soon as the water’s gone, we’ll go back home.’
‘Yes, Everard’s right, it will only be over Christmas,’ a woman called out.
Then others began to clamour, some near tears, begging to be taken somewhere warm and dry to be able to settle down and have some sort of place to sleep and spend Christmas.
Simon seemed to be in charge of affairs while Julius was away, and he clearly wore the weight of responsibility on his shoulders. It was Christmas Eve tomorrow and there would be little chance of finding rooms for so many people – who wanted to stay together – in time.
The castle would obviously be dry, but whether it would be warm or there were beds to sleep in was another matter. Then there was the insurance question. Daisy had told her there were wonderful pictures and furniture in the main rooms, but perhaps they were locked and alarmed so would be safe. Anyway, Anna doubted any of the local people would steal or harm anything.
‘If you want a bath, a rest or anything, Mattie, do come up to the flat. I can move in with Freddie and you can go into my room if there’s nowhere else,’ Anna said quietly to her.
‘Thank you, dear, I’ll keep that in mind.’ Mattie blinked back tears, struggling to smile.
Anna patted her arm and, taking Freddie’s hand, she decided to return to see if Lucy needed help with rescuing her cakes.
Simon came after her, ‘Anna, just a moment,’ he said quietly, ‘Freddie’s right, there are rooms in the castle and it seems churlish not to let people stay there. It’s not as if they are hooligans who’ll wreck the place and they’ve been through hell during the night trying to rescue their belongings from the flood in the dark and the cold. There’s no way they can stay in their houses.’
‘I’ve got a key to the front door of the main castle Philly showed me, she said it was only for emergencies and I wouldn’t need it, but I’d say this is an emergency, wouldn’t you?’ Anna said. ‘Can’t you contact those two sisters that run the admin for the castle, ask them?’ Anna went on.
‘Nell and Tessa. We’ve tried, but we haven’t yet managed to get hold of them. They’ve gone to their elderly parents in Somerset who are ex-directory; I think Julius has their number. Nell told me once that they have to go to the top of a hill to get a signal on their mobiles. Julius is skiing somewhere in Switzerland, off piste and on the blackest of runs if I know him. I’ve left lots of texts, but as yet no one is picking up, but it did only happen a few hours ago, though it feels like weeks.’ He sighed. ‘But I’m left with trying to deal with it and the top priority is to find somewhere for these poor people to stay, half the day’s gone already. Being Christmas lots of the local people have their family or friends staying so have no place for anyone else.’
‘It’s tragic to happen at all, but to happen now.’ Anna looked round at the group of exhausted people with compassion. ‘I’ve told Mattie that she is more than welcome to stay in the flat. I can share with Freddie.’
‘Well, it’s an option, as a last resort.’ He frowned. ‘I have an old sofa in my study, it’s not the most comfortable but it would be fine for the night, perhaps not for Mattie, but for somebody young.’
Luke joined them. He’d been helping people rescue things in their homes and businesses. ‘I can’t believe this has happened. I wish I could put people up, but I don’t have room in my tiny flat. What can we do? Some of them haven’t slept all night and who knows how long this mess will take to clear up. Do we know how many bedrooms there are in the castle? I’ve never been upstairs, my work being outside on the land,’ he said.
‘There are a few rooms for the brides and grooms and their families to change in, but I’ve never been up to that floor either. I’ll get hold of Marian. She’s in charge of the housekeeping, she’ll know about the rooms upstairs.’ Simon reached for his mobile. ‘She probably has her own key, but I’ll borrow yours if that’s all right, Anna. I’ll come and find you at Lucy’s shop in a moment and let you know what Marian says, if I can get hold of her; she could be away,’ he said anxiously. ‘Anyway, I’ll drive you back up the hill and then borrow your key and check out the castle before I make a decision about putting people up.’ He turned away, scrolling through his mobile. ‘You stay here, Luke. I know some of them want to go back and check on their homes and businesses now it’s light – you could supervise that. Ah, here’s Cathie, she can help you.’
Simon went over to Cathie to explain the situation. Even though Cathie lived next to Simon, just out of the village, he hadn’t contacted her during the night and she had only just surfaced and found out about the flood. The sight of the main street in the village under water clearly shocked her, as it had Anna when she arrived this morning, though all the same she hung round Simon, saying, in a rather annoying, wheedling voice, ‘Why didn’t you bang on my door, I could have come with you?’
‘I didn’t know how bad it was, but now you’re here please could you help Luke to organise things,’ he said, turning away from her and stabbing a number into his mobile and going outside.
Anna went back to Mattie. ‘Simon’s looking into things, Mattie,’ she told her, thinking how frail she looked compared to the last time she’d seen her in her cottage a couple of days ago.
‘Thanks, Anna; I know Simon will do his best for us. Even though I haven’t been upstairs in the castle for years, I’m sure there are still beds in some of the rooms and a few bathrooms in the passage on the second floor; there’s also, another passage running along your side of the castle. The red passage it was called, as the carpet and velvet curtains were all a deep red. I don’t know if the beds are still there, but at least it would be dry, though it might be freezing.’ Mattie looked exhausted and Anna told her to sit down and rest while it was all being sorted out.
‘The Partridge is flooded too, so we probably won’t be able to have our Christmas lunch there either,’ someone else chimed in.
Surely if the castle could lay on sit-down dinners for weddings, there was room for people to sit down for Christmas lunch. But that depended on whether the food had survived the flood, Anna thought. But none of this was her call, and Simon had said he would sort something out, though she felt sympathy for him, having to deal with this catastrophe virtually on his own.
Freddie was now getting a bit restless and some of the people who’d been turfed out of their beds by the flood were becoming angry.
‘Julius should be here dealing with this, not away skiing,’ a man grumbled.
‘He has to have a holiday sometimes, he works so hard, just bad luck the river chose to burst its banks while he’s away. I blame the council for not doing their job properly and looking after it,’ a redheaded woman remarked.
Anna felt it was time to leave before the conversation got too heated. Luke and a rather reluctant Cathie were asking everyone if they had anywhere to stay and if they hadn’t they would try and find them somewhere to go.
‘Remember, Mattie, you can come to the flat any time you want, but I’m just going back to see how Lucy’s getting on. Her shop is flooded and she’s worried about the cakes she’s made,’ Anna said, squeezing her arm.
‘Poor Lucy, she works so hard making her delicious cakes,’ Mattie said. ‘Don’t worry about me, dear, though I might take you up on your offer if Simon can’t find me anywhere else, or a room in the castle like you so cleverly suggested,’ she smiled at Freddie.
Anna, holding Freddie’s hand, left the church hall and they splashed their way back to Lucy’s shop. Thankfully, it had not rained for some hours so at least the flood had not got worse. In some places the water had gone down a little, but it had left behind mud and filth in its wake.
Lucy’s beautiful shop that had smelt deliciously of fresh baking now stank of dank water. Anna found Lucy paddling around at the back in a sort of larder, where some large boxes holding cakes stood on the shelves well out of reach of the water.
‘I don’t know if the Christmas cakes are safe to eat though they are in tins. Do you think the smell of that filthy water could somehow have contaminated them?’ she wailed. ‘At least the wedding cake is all right, but some of the tins have dodgy lids, so I suppose, to be safe, I’d better ditch them’
‘Do they smell bad?’ Anna asked.
‘They smell of brandy and sugar; Colin thinks they are fine, but I can’t risk them being poisoned or something.’ She sighed, ‘I’ll have to give them their money back, I suppose, and I’ve already spent it on presents for the family.’
‘I’m so sorry, Lucy. Can I help bake some more in the kitchen in the flat? I know fruit cakes are nicer if they are left to mature but if you put in enough brandy, I’m sure they’ll be fine.’
‘That’s kind, but I’ll see how I go, though I might ask you if I could ice the wedding cakes in the flat. I was going to do it here as I always do, as my kitchen at home is needed to cook the Christmas lunch and other meals for the family and my parents who are coming to stay,’ she said, near tears as she thought of it. ‘We don’t live far away and the house has been safe from the flood, thank God, for the moment anyway, but if the rain returns who knows how bad it will be. Colin has taken a load of cakes home already and he’s coming back for the rest and me. But what’s going to happen to everyone who’s flooded out, where will they go for Christmas? I’d offer out a room, but I’m full up with my in-laws,’ Lucy said, her voice heavy with despair.
‘They might go in the castle, I suggested it,’ Freddie said.
‘Well that’s a brilliant idea, Freddie,’ Lucy smiled at him, ‘but I don’t know if there are any beds there or just loads of empty rooms.’
‘Simon’s looking into it now, he’s trying to get hold of Julius, but he hadn’t got through to him when I left him. He’s going to borrow my key to the flat and take in Marian, I think she’s called…’ Anna explained.
‘Oh, Marian, lives a few miles from here, so she probably doesn’t know about the flood either. Her role is supervising the cleaning, getting the rooms ready for the wedding guests, things like that,’ Lucy explained.
‘Hopefully she can help us solve the issue of housing everyone who needs somewhere to stay at the castle.’
‘The thing is, Julius takes his position of running the castle and the estate very seriously,’ Lucy said, ‘which he should, with all the priceless things inside it. If people are going to sleep there it might be difficult with insurance and all.’
‘But the people like Mattie wouldn’t hurt anything,’ Freddie said.
‘Of course they won’t and perhaps one night would be all right, but with Christmas in two days there’s not much that can be done to find somewhere else for people to stay, and we don’t know how long it will be before everyone can go back to their homes. And don’t forget we’ve got the wedding in early January, so it’s booked for that at enormous expense and I’m sure whoever’s booked it won’t want half the village camped out there as well,’ Lucy said, her voice weary with despair.
Anna hugged her. ‘It’s all so desperate and couldn’t have happened at a worse time, but somehow, something will be worked out, but it will certainly be a Christmas never to be forgotten.’