Chapter Thirty-Six

Jess stood in the middle of the grand hall and looked out of the window towards the huge outdoor Christmas tree, which sparkled with thousands of lights. Saying that she was happy was an understatement. It was Christmas Eve, five days since Jack had had the accident and already he’d been released from hospital. For the first time in her life, Jess was about to spend Christmas with not only the man she loved, but also the man she truly believed to be her father, as well as her younger sister.

‘The villagers will be here soon, are we ready?’ she asked as she glanced over her shoulder to where Jack sat in his wheelchair, leg outstretched, clipboard in hand. He’d insisted that he didn’t want to go to bed. ‘I’ve done nothing but sleep for days,’ he’d said and had immediately gone back into his management role, taking charge of bossing everyone around as he went up and down his tick list.

‘Yes, I think we’re ready for the villagers,’ he said as he ticked the last item. ‘Food, tick. Tree, tick. Dance floor, tick. Balloons, champagne and fluted glasses, tick, tickety tick.’ He smiled as Jess went to swipe him with her hand. ‘Okay, did we organise the DJ?’

Jess realised she’d forgotten to ring the DJ as Madeleine had asked her to do a few days before and quickly ran to the phone.

‘See, you were laughing at my tick list earlier,’ Jack said as he tapped his pen against the arm of the wheelchair. ‘But you’re not laughing now, are you?’ He pulled a face, making Jess laugh. She’d been so sure that he’d die, so sure that she’d lost him that now any face that he wished to pull would only remind her of how lucky she was that she was able to see it.

‘Stop it, or you will be sent back to bed,’ she teased. ‘Where you should be.’ She went to the back of his chair and began to push him through the grand hall. ‘Doctor said you needed to rest and only if you rest will you get better. In fact, I really don’t think they’d have even let you out if it wasn’t almost Christmas and if you hadn’t been such a pain in the ass to the nurses. They were probably glad to be rid of you.’

‘Jess, I’m alive. And they let me out of hospital because I begged them to let me go. I hated it in there.’ Again he gave her a smile. ‘And the last thing I want is to be in bed for the whole of Christmas. Besides, there are things to do.’ He looked smug. ‘I’ve always organised Christmas at the Hall. It’s my job.’

‘You still need to do what the doctor said.’ Jess tried to sound forceful. ‘And what’s more, you have to do what I say, oh father of my child.’

A commotion could be heard on the staircase and Jess spun the wheelchair around on the spot to see both Lily and Poppy running down the stairs.

‘Aunty Jess, the bus is coming up the drive, all the people, they’re coming and do you know what?’ shouted Poppy. ‘Mummy says that Santa will come too.’

‘Ohhh, is that right?’ Jess questioned. ‘But … Santa only comes to good little girls, isn’t that right, Jack?’

Jack had already grabbed hold of Poppy; his fingers were wiggling around in the air and Poppy was jumping on his knee, wrapping her arms around his neck and covering him in kisses, before screaming as Jack’s hands got closer and closer to tickling her. ‘And you, Lily. You’re next,’ he shouted as he set to work tormenting Poppy.

Lily ran up the stairs and hid her face behind the balustrade. ‘Jess, Santa, he will know where to find me, won’t he?’ she asked, making both Jack and Jess gasp.

‘Oh, Lily. Come here, poppet.’ Jess sat on the bottom step of the staircase. ‘Of course, he’ll know where you are,’ she said as she pulled the child into her arms. She knew that Lily was feeling insecure. She’d been withdrawn for the last few days since Annie had shown up, and, after what Jack had overheard, everyone in the Hall had been on edge just in case she came back.

‘I wasn’t sure, but then, Mummy found me, didn’t she?’ Lily looked up with her saucer-wide eyes and Jess noticed how her bottom lip quivered.

‘Mummy didn’t exactly find you, honey.’ Jess looked to Jack for support, not knowing what else to say, but then watched as the child physically shrank before her.

‘Jess, I … I lied.’ A sob left her throat. ‘The day me and Poppy got locked in the cellar, it was because I saw Mummy. She was there, in the trees, trying to get me and we ran to the house to hide. Then she came here the night Jack was hurt. I saw her hiding in the corridor near the toilets. Do you think she’ll come back, Jess? Do you think the police will catch her?’

Jess spun to look at Jack, before turning back to Lily. ‘Oh, Lily, my darling girl, don’t you worry about that. She won’t come back. Not if I have anything to do with it.’ Jess didn’t know what else to say. ‘If she does, then our Jack here, he’ll run her over with his wheelchair, won’t you, Jack?’ She tried to make light of the situation, knowing that an eight-year-old girl should never have to worry, and her mind went back to that first night she’d slept with Lily, how she’d tossed and turned with nightmares that a child should never have.

‘I heard Bandit on the phone,’ Lily continued. ‘He said Mummy was going to take me away, that Jack had overheard her. That she was going to sell me.’ She sighed. ‘Why would she do that, Jess? She’s never really wanted me before, so I guess it makes sense that she’d sell me to someone who did.’

Lily’s voice was full of emotion and Jess felt her heart break for the child. She knew she had to be strong for Lily’s sake, but for a moment she didn’t know what to do or say and she watched as Lily curled up in a ball and sobbed in her arms.

Jess shook her head. ‘Don’t cry, princess. Life is hard. But do you know what I do when I get sad? I do something really brave, something positive. Sometimes if I’m alone, I sing a happy song, or I close my eyes and I think of those people who love me the most, does that make sense?’

Lily nodded, just as the front door opened and the promised coachload of people all began to enter the Hall, making Jess wish they’d stayed away for just a few minutes more. She reached out and took Lily’s hand. ‘Lily, you’re my sister and we all love you so much. You’re safe here, princess, I promise. Everyone here will look after you, you do know that, don’t you?’ She pulled her sister towards her and stroked her cheek. ‘Now, you and Poppy run and get your lovely new coats. You’ll need them when we go outside to wait for Santa. But first, we’re going to stand by the tree and sing with the choir.’

Both girls ran back up the stairs and Jess turned to Jack who was happily shaking hands with everyone who walked past. Most had heard of his accident, and had stopped to question him about his ordeal. The grand hall soon became full of children and adults, all waiting for the carol service to begin. All Jess could do was hope she’d reassured Lily enough, hope she felt loved and that after the evidence that Jack had given, the police caught Annie, and soon.

‘Right, I really think you should be resting.’ Jess placed a hand on Jack’s shoulder. ‘It’s only a few days since you were unconscious in a hospital bed and the last thing I want is for you to overdo it and end up back in hospital for Christmas. Besides, it’s our wedding in just over a week, I need you fit and healthy for the wedding night.’ They both looked at his leg and burst out laughing. ‘That’s if you can manage like that?’

Jack smirked. ‘Oh, I can manage all right, don’t you worry about that.’ He pulled her towards him and gently pressed a kiss to her lips.

‘Good, now off to bed with you.’ Jess allowed her hand to linger on his shoulder and for a moment she wished that she could go to bed with him, curl up by his side and keep hold of him for hours and hours.

Jack relented. ‘Okay, okay, take me to bed. I’ll open the window and listen from up there.’ He smiled, a wide disarming smile that melted Jess’s heart.

‘I wish I could come to bed with you,’ she said as she pushed him through the dining room. ‘But you, my darling, are going in the service lift and I’ll meet you at the top of the stairs.’

Jack began to laugh. ‘Well, that’s the best offer I’m likely to get tonight, I guess.’ He turned his head and raised an eyebrow. ‘Unless of course you want to crawl in and get dirty with me later?’ Jess blushed and slapped his shoulder.

‘Ouch, careful,’ Jack shouted. ‘I’m still in pain, you have to be nice to me. It’s the law.’

‘Well, we’ll have to see how fit and wide awake you are later,’ she added as she pushed his chair forward and then laughed as the service doors closed behind him.

She watched the lift disappear upwards as the words, ‘Oh, I’ll be awake,’ echoed down the shaft. ‘And I’ll be waiting.’