Rayah’s car was a banged up jeep that had clearly seen better days. Sorrell had half expected her to have something flashier, as the girl liked her pretty things, but the jeep would never be described as pretty by anyone other than a liar.

“Howdy, sister,” Rayah said. “Ready to fell some trees?” She was dressed in a thick coat and a scarf that was clearly one of Gran’s creations. In fact, it seemed Gran had kitted out most of the residents of Severton with scarfs, so her gin distillery fund was clearly going well.

“I keep asking Zack if this is legal and he doesn’t really answer,” she said, pulling on leather gloves that had been new last Christmas, a present from Gwensi.

Rayah laughed, her light brown hair tumbling out of her hat. “The boys do it as a favour to the landowner. They fell a load of the trees for him to sell—most of Severton and some of the nearby towns will get their real trees from him—and they choose what they want for themselves as payment. Today’s the best day of the year for my brother—he gets to play with chainsaws!”

“Why didn’t Zack just tell me that?”

“Because he’s a bloke and he likes winding his woman up. That’s what they all do. Not that I’ve had any form of relationship for too long. I think my vagina’s healed up.” Rayah started the jeep which rattled into life.

“You sound like Keren,” Sorrell said. Keren had spent a recent evening at the bar berating yet another disastrous date she’d been on through a dating website.

Rayah took it slowly as she went down the drive. The snow was still falling, but not as heavily as the day before. Someone—Sorrell suspected Jake—had ploughed the drive to the hotel and the road that morning, clearing the way for the care home too. She hated to think what time Jake would’ve been up.

“I’m wondering if me and Keren should just get together and have done with it. It would be a viable option, except I rather like penises. As long as they’re clean,” Rayah said, taking the road smoothly and with practiced ease.

Sorrell decided not to get any more details about the non-clean penises and instead the conversation changed to Christmas, the town, the light switch-on and Gran’s distillery plans. They took roads Sorrell hadn’t been down before, narrow single track drives through fields, heading up towards one of the peaks that Sorrell couldn’t yet name.

Rayah pulled over behind three other vehicles. “We’ll have to walk the rest. Jake will have got the tractor up there no problem, and he’ll have a trailer for the trees, but we’re on foot from here.”

Sorrell jumped out of the jeep into snow that was almost up to the top of her boots. She was aching from the day before now, her muscles unused to the walking, but there was no way she was going to complain to any of the Maynards, given what they’d done with the rescue.

The road narrowed further, the tracks of the tractor the only markings in it. Walking through deep snow was difficult at first and tiring, but the scenery took her mind off it. She could see the expanse of the peaks, the beginnings of a forest and the grey smoke from distant chimneys patterning against the white sky.

“I want to build a snowman,” she said, partly to herself. “I haven’t built one in forever.”

Rayah laughed, the giggle girlish as though she had caught it from the children she taught. “Tell Zack. He’ll probably help you build ten.” Her smile was knowing.

Sorrell said nothing, just giving a slight nod. She wanted to find out what Rayah thought: all the Maynards were close, and she imagined Zack had said something about her to Rayah, if not Jake and his brothers, but she didn’t want to pry.

“He really likes you,” Rayah said.

Clearly Sorrell didn’t need to pry.

“He asked me what to get you for Christmas. He wasn’t sure what would be appropriate given you’ve just started seeing each other. I haven’t seen him like this about a girl before,” she said.

“In what way?” The snow crunched underfoot, the sound satisfying. In the distance, through the still air, she could hear the sound of chopping wood.

“Thoughtful. He’s had loads of girlfriends, but not like Jake has. Jake has a girl around for two weeks max before one of them has got bored. Zack’s different, he dates. He likes going out and doing things, seeing places. Jake just wants to get his end away.” She sounded a little disgusted with her brother. “But Zack’s never been into anyone that much to—how do I explain it—want to get to know them more than just beyond sharing experiences. Does that make sense?”

“Kind of,” Sorrell said. “I get the feeling he’s worried about scaring me off.”

Rayah nodded, male voices now ringing through the dense forest. “You were in a long-term relationship. He doesn’t want to be your rebound and he’s bothered he’ll scare you off.”

“I get that. But I like him. I just don’t see why he likes me,” Sorrell said. There was a crack and a loud cheer. Clearly they were close to where the trees were being felled.

Rayah paused in her stride. “Honestly?” she said. “You don’t get it?”

Sorrell shook her head. “No, I mean, don’t get me wrong—I’m not hideous, I have my own business so I’m not after anybody’s money, and I can hold a conversation but…”

Rayah laughed. “You’re all that and more. You’re not showy like some of the women round here can be. You’re pretty and you don’t know just how so. You care about others—he told me you were thinking of volunteering your therapy skills at the school or the hospital. Just accept that whatever you have, he’s into. A lot.”

Sorrell wasn’t sure how to respond so she said nothing, glad when they finally got to the edge of the trees where the four Maynard men and Jonny were stood.

“Miss Rayah!” a small sweet voice yelled out from the top of a pile of trees and a very grubby Sadie Grace ran down. “Daddy says I have to call you Miss Maynard but it’s weird,”

Rayah picked Sadie up, the small ball of terror flinging her arms round Rayah’s neck.

“You can call me Rayah as long as we’re not in school and we’ve talked about that before. Where are your brothers?” Rayah said. Quite clearly the two were going to be holding on to each other for a while longer.

“At Tommy’s for a party. But girls aren’t allowed,” Sadie said, her lip quivering. “I don’t think that’s fair.”

Jonny shook his head and looked up to the tall elms which the fir trees were growing next to. “She thinks it’s fair when her friends come over and she bans her brothers from everything but breathing.” He glared at Rayah. “I think it’s your influence. Right, which one’s next?”

Zack had been doing something in the tractor when they’d got there, giving Sorrell a nod as his hands were full, but now he was down beside her, carrying an axe. “You need to pick your tree for the lounge,” he said, standing close to her but not touching.

Sorrell remembered Rayah’s words, about Zack’s caution, so she swallowed her own fears and turned to him, reaching up and kissing the side of his face. Then she saw him smile, looking down at the ground, not embarrassed but happy, trying to hide his happiness, probably from Jake and his brothers.

“I’ll do what the man with the axe says, I think,” she said. “Which do you recommend?”

He put his free arm around her waist and walked her away from the others who now had flasks out and were taking a break. “You want something that height. The high ceilings mean you can get away with a tall tree and that one needs felling this year, otherwise it’ll be a permanent fixture here.”

“I feel bad killing it,” she said. She’d never had a real tree before. Her parents had been alternative in their choice of decorations, preferring to make their own trees from branches that had broken away or other unusual ideas.

Zack laughed, but it was soft. “If you feel like that I can look at replanting it. It just means we’ll dig it out of the ground rather than chop it. When Christmas is over I can put it in the garden.”

“Won’t it take you longer to dig it up? And the ground will be frozen,” she looked around where it grew. The snow wasn’t too thick, the branches of the trees sheltering the ground.

Zack chuckled. “It will take us longer but if that’s what you want, we’ll do that. We’ve done it before. But I’ll only do it on one condition.”

“What’s that?” She eyed him carefully.

“You let me help you decorate it tonight.”

She smiled and this time her gesture was less discreet, wrapping her arms around him and standing on tiptoe to reach up and kiss him. There were catcalls and comments behind them, but they only made her smile more.

Half an hour later she had her tree, root ball wrapped in a hessian sack and on the trailer to be dropped off at the hotel. She, Rayah and Sadie Grace were sipping hot chocolate from a flask that Keren had brought, hiking over the fields from her tiny cottage to choose her tree. Scott had ignored Keren, which was a step up from his usual insults. Maybe they were finding some sort of truce.

Sorrell had watched as Jake, Zack and Scott dug up her tree with almost ease. They’d discarded coats before she’d arrived, the movement enough to keep them warm.

“How do they make it look easy?” she’d said to Rayah, who still had Sadie Grace attached to her.

“Because they grew up on a working farm and our dads made us all graft once we were old enough,” Rayah had said. “Don’t get me wrong, it wasn’t slave labour or anything like that and we had a lot of fun, but the boys were mucking out and lifting bales of hay from eleven and twelve. They’re strong and fit. This is child’s play to them.”

“What about Jonny?” Sorrell had said, looking down at Sadie who was buried into Rayah’s coat with a book.

Rayah had shrugged and looked over to where he was felling a tree with Jake. “He’s been friends with them since they could talk. And he helped on the farm growing up. He’s a good man.”

Sorrell hadn’t said any more.

She stood at the doorway to the lounge, looking at the bare Christmas tree that was now in the corner of the room, figuring out how to decorate it. It was tall, about seven foot, maybe seven and a half, so she would need Zack’s help or a pair of stepladders and maybe the stepladders would be useful anyway. Otherwise it would be a case of climbing onto the mantelpiece and that probably wasn’t the wisest idea, given her poor history with anything athletic.

“Sorrell, have you got a minute?”

She turned round into the hall to see Lena, the twenty-one-year-old who had come begging for a job after dropping out of university and now took whatever shifts were available. Sorrell had an inkling that Lena was going to ask at some point if there was any chance she could lodge at the hotel as things weren’t great at home. It was something else to consider.

“Any time you like,” she said, giving the girl a smile. “What’s up?”

“The room I’ve just cleaned—where the Dolans were staying. It’s a bit—I think you should see it.” She looked flustered and embarrassed. “I’m not sure what to clean and what to leave.”

“Okay, let me come with you and we’ll check it out.” Sorrell followed her up the stairs to the large room at the back of the hotel. The Dolans were a married couple in their late thirties, both professionals, both lovely when she’d met them this morning. They’d headed down to the town to do some Christmas shopping in the little boutique stores and check out the market that was on Saturdays and had a reputation for being one of the best in the Peaks.

Lena unlocked the room and stepped in, rather tentatively. Sorrell saw that the room had been half-cleaned; the bed had been made and the curtains and blinds arranged as they should be for the day. When evening started to fall, they did a turn down service, moving back the bed covers, leaving chocolates on the pillows, closing the blinds and turning on soft lighting, but for the day, things were neat and tidy.

But Lena hadn’t been able to straighten everything today.

Four sets of handcuffs were on the bed, one from each post. A blindfold was on one bedside table with a bottle of lube, on the other was a paddle. The upholstered chair had been brought closer to the bed and next to it was a fleece blanket and two empty bottles of water. After care, Sorrell figured. She also figured Lena needed to read a few books from her romance section.

“What would you do if it was magazines or sanitary products?” she said, going back to her induction.

“Straighten everything up without moving it. Throw away any waste.” Lena looked at her with large grey eyes. “That’s what I do here, isn’t it?”

Sorrell nodded slowly. “You’re going to find a lot kinkier stuff than this working in a hotel, honey, trust me. Want me to help?”

The girl shook her head. “No, I can manage. This is the last room. Do you think she’s into all this?” She pointed to the handcuffs.

“I don’t think she’d have got married unless she was. And you never know, he might be the one being handcuffed and spanked,” Sorrell said, trying not to think too deeply about this given that she would likely see the couple tomorrow at breakfast, if not beforehand at the lights switch-on in town.

She heard Lena let out a deep sigh. “I know; I’m being a little naïve…”

Sorrell put an arm around her and squeezed her shoulders, feeling protective of her. Lena was a lot different to most girls at that age, she was far more sheltered and nowhere near as independent. “Give it a few months and I’m pretty sure this will be tame compared to some of the things you’ll find.”

There was a nod and a face full of determination. “I’m on it. And I can hang out here tonight rather than go into town and keep an eye on things.”

Sorrell put on her therapist’s face. Lena should’ve been in the town tonight, hanging out with friends and maybe meeting a boy. Something was amiss there and she wasn’t sure what. “If you’re sure that’d be a big help. But only if you don’t want to go yourself? I know Abby is heading up here as soon as she’s finished at the bar, so there’ll be someone here all evening.”

“I’m sure,” Lena said. “I’ll get this room done. You can go think about your Christmas tree some more.”

Sorrell smiled and slipped into the store room where all the decorations were waiting. She may as well get started.