Chapter Twenty-Two

Snowflake Cove was a winter wonderland. Snow had continued falling during the night and by the time Evie crawled out of bed, there was at least a foot of it covering the ground. The sun hadn’t yet come up, so all she could see in the darkness was the area surrounding the inn, illuminated by the lights inside the building and the fairy lights along the façade, but it looked magical.

Evie’s room was in the attic, which she loved. She and Severine had shared it when they were young but as they grew up, Severine insisted on a room on the ‘grown-ups floor’ below. Severine was about Raven’s age – fifteen – at the time and Evie was thrilled. It meant she now had one of the largest rooms in the inn, albeit long and narrow with arches and sharp angles, and a view not only of Snowflake Cove on one side, but also Michaelmas Bay and the harbour on the other.

She also had a choice of beds. Severine insisted on a new, double bed, like the grown-ups had, so Evie got one too. But Evie asked to keep the two single beds already there. Severine soon saw the mistake she’d made. Evie could now have friends to stay, so Severine demanded bunk beds in her new room. The mattresses had been replaced over the years, but the bed frames in both the attic room, and what was Severine’s room, remained unchanged.

Evie peered through her window overlooking Snowflake Cove. The lights on the outdoor Christmas trees were barely visible, with only patches of pale colour shining through the blanket of white. Branches bowed under the weight of the snow and it was impossible to see the edges of the footpath leading to the bridge.

She ran with child-like enthusiasm to the window on the other side and could see the lights in Michaelmas Bay, and on the boats bobbing in the dark waters of the marina but that was all. She would have to wait until the sun came up to see more.

She opened the window just a fraction. It was chilly in her room, as usual, so it didn’t make much difference. There was hardly a sound apart from the waves gently lapping at the rocks below and swishing and swooshing in and out of the inlets, one eerie cry from a gull … and Juniper’s snoring. Juniper was virtually buried beneath the duvet of the twin beds which had been pushed together to form a double, many years ago. Juniper’s bed was at this end of the room, Evie’s bed at the other but they were side on, enabling the occupants to lie in bed, facing one another and chattering to their hearts’ content. Which is exactly what Evie and Juniper had done last night. Or should that be, early this morning, as they hadn’t got to bed until after one a.m. and had still been chatting at two. Since Juniper had moved in with Darren and lived just across the bridge she no longer spent the night at Evie’s, so they had made the most of it.

Evie let her friend sleep. It was only six a.m. She padded downstairs in her ‘Christmas Cats’ pyjamas and red fluffy, knee-length dressing gown which was covered in white doily-like snowflakes, yawning as she went. Voices and laughter wafted towards her from the kitchen. Her parents were up and so, by the sound of that cackle, was her gran. At this time? That was unusual for her.

Evie pushed the kitchen door open with her back, yawning and stretching as she twisted round. Her yawn turned into a gasp of surprise. Zachary and Brandon were sitting at the table, fully dressed, drinking coffee and eating toast. Huge grins spread across their faces and Zachary looked her up and down.

‘Good morning, sweetheart,’ John said. ‘Goodness. You look a bit the worse for wear.’

Molly shook her head and grinned. ‘Coffee? Large, I assume.’

‘Good God, Evie,’ Jessie said. ‘Haven’t you got a mirror in your room? You look as if you’ve been dancing on the tiles all night.’

‘Let me get my camera,’ Brandon said.

Zachary didn’t say a word. He merely grinned at her over the rim of his coffee mug which was emblazoned with a snowman.

Evie pulled herself upright, sneered and tied the belt of her dressing gown tighter. ‘And a very good morning to all of you,’ she said, sarcastically. She gave Zachary an icy stare. ‘Well? What have you got to say? I can tell from that massive grin on your face that you’re dying to say something.’

He raised his brows a fraction and the grin got bigger. ‘Good morning. Love the PJs. What I can see of them.’

‘Go to hell.’

Molly tutted. ‘That’s not a very nice thing to say to a paying guest, sweetheart. And you did ask.’

‘Sorry. Late night. Have you seen how deep the snow is?’

‘We’ve been out in it,’ Brandon replied. ‘This place was stunning without it, but with it. Wow! It’s so picturesque you’ll have people flocking here to spend the holidays. I’m tempted to get the family down myself. The kids would love it.’

‘You’ve got kids?’ Evie was surprised.

‘A boy and a girl. Five and eight.’

‘Aw,’ said Molly. ‘The perfect ages at this time of year.’ She handed Evie a mug of coffee.

‘I hope Tracy and Trevor Bright get back to Norfolk today,’ John said. ‘According to the news, it’s travel chaos out there but trains are running. Just not to schedule. Speed limits have been imposed on the motorways and people are being advised to stick to the main roads where the gritting lorries have been out in force.’

‘A few flakes of snow and the country grinds to a halt,’ Jessie said. ‘In my day a little bit of snow wasn’t a major drama.’

‘In your day there weren’t so many maniacs behind the wheel of a lump of metal,’ Evie replied. ‘God. I hope the wine makes it through. Felicia will be in panic mode.’ She shot a look at Zachary. ‘Sorry. Me and my mouth.’

Zachary beamed at her. ‘I’d already said the same before you joined us. We were planning to send out a search party if there’s no sign of it by lunchtime.’

Evie grinned. ‘Will this heavy snow affect your filming schedule? It’s much worse than it was last night.’

‘Probably. But it means we won’t need the lorry load of fake snow we brought with us and that there’ll be plenty of the real thing to give us the perfect backdrop. If it takes a few extra hours to set things up, so be it.’

‘And you’re filming the entire thing live?’

Zachary shook his head. ‘We’ll have live feeds from different cameras but we’ll also be filming segments which will be re-sequenced and spliced together. Then we’ll add transitions and special effects. It’ll give the overall effect of being a live show, but parts of it will have been filmed earlier. You’re welcome to come and see how it’s done, but I suppose you’ve got better things to do with your time. Like be rude to your paying guests.’ He grinned. ‘I was joking. Seriously. If any of you are interested, the offer’s there.’

‘I’d love to see a bit of it,’ John said.

‘Me too,’ said Molly.

Evie nodded. ‘Me three. What about you, Gran?’

‘I’ll wait to see it ‘live’ from my armchair, thank you. All that standing around in the cold is not for me. Is there any more tea in that pot, Molly? I’m parched from all that laughing earlier.’

‘What were you all laughing about before I came in?’ Evie asked.

‘Zach was telling us some of the things that can go wrong during live filming,’ John said. ‘Especially when animals are involved. And talking of animals. I’d better go and check on Starlight.’

‘Starlight’s our horse,’ Evie said, to Zachary and Brandon.

‘We know,’ replied Zachary, with a smile. ‘We met him yesterday. I suppose we’d better get started on our day too. We want to get a few shots before it gets light.’ He got to his feet and looked Evie in the eye. ‘We’re going to start here, at the inn. This pristine snow is too good to miss and we want to get it on film before it sees too much traffic. We’ve got a few details to sort out but we should be ready to begin just after breakfast.’

‘Too much traffic?’ Evie said. ‘This is Snowflake Cove. There isn’t any traffic. Unless you count a couple of cars as traffic.’

‘And the wine merchant going back and forth carrying all those bottles,’ Zachary added, grinning. ‘Being serious, once all of us, plus the guests and staff, start coming and going, leaving huge boot prints everywhere, it’ll take away that aspect of remoteness. One set of footprints would be good, visually. Several, and it starts to lose the image of peace and tranquillity. See you at breakfast. Thanks for the coffee and toast, Molly.’

‘You’re both very welcome,’ Molly said. ‘Breakfast at seven?’

‘If that’s OK with you.’

Molly nodded. ‘Perfectly OK. I’ll turn the ovens on now.’

‘I thought you’d had breakfast.’ Evie glanced at the empty plates.

Molly tutted. ‘That was just a little early morning snack, sweetheart.’

‘Oh.’ Evie shook her head and yawned.

Everyone started going about their business. John headed out to see Starlight, Molly attended to the ovens, and Jessie did one of the crosswords in her puzzle book.

From the corner of her eye, Evie saw Zachary take his mobile from the pocket of his jeans hesitate for a second, then take a photo, seemingly of her.

Evie glowered at him. ‘I saw that! Did you just take a photo of me? You’d better not use that in your show.’

He looked like a naughty schoolboy caught doing something he shouldn’t.

‘I won’t. I promise.’

‘Then what did you take it for?’

He met her look and held it. ‘For my wallet.’ He gave her an odd sort of smile, turned on his heels and strode out of the kitchen.

For his wallet? What did he mean by that?