Christmas at the Castle (7 page)

‘Try me.'

‘It's Alice. You've had first-hand experience of how pushy she's become in recent years.'

‘I certainly have.'

‘She hasn't always been like that. When we were at uni together, her being the popular one suited me fine. I'm not one for the limelight, and when we were on our own together we had so much fun. We'd tell each other everything. But after she'd got her degree Alice was determined to prove herself as a hot-shot businesswoman. Which she did. Brilliantly. But somewhere along the way she seems to have lost the ability to turn off the pushy persona and just
be Alice
.'

Gervase reached a hand across the table for Charlie to take. ‘And you'd like to find a way to bring the real Alice back, even though she's obviously overstepped the mark with you somehow?'

‘How did you know?' The heat of his palm soaked into her freckled hand and coursed through her entire body.

‘Well, you're refusing to help her, aren't you, and yet you still care enough to have come into my bookshop to ask about the stall. And I read a lot of fiction. This sounds like the sort of plotline you'd write. In my experience, writers write out their own lives, even if they don't know they're doing it.'

Charlie sighed. ‘I can't argue with you there.'

Chapter Ten

Monday November 30
^th

With only twelve days until the first of the festival guests arrived, Kit's workload seemed to be increasing rather than decreasing.

Thanks to Gwen and her posse from the SWI, who were not only on ticket-selling detail, but were primed to make a fresh batch of festive cupcakes for each event, local interest in the festival had transformed from a trickle to a flood, and suddenly each of the organisers was in demand to do radio interviews, newspaper interviews, and school visits. Not only had the locals become enthused about the event, but due to Gwen having a wide network of SWI friends, tickets had been purchased from as far away as Glasgow and Inverness, making the festival organisers popular with the local hoteliers, who were experiencing unexpected extra overnight bookings.

Every time Kit spotted Alice she was attached to her mobile, talking to agents, or double-checking hotel bookings for their guests, or explaining, with forced patience, to a few of the less accommodating local businesses, that the reason they weren't featured on the festival posters was because they hadn't donated any sponsorship.

Peering up from the pile of paperwork as she leant against the back of Cameron's empty office chair, Alice grumbled, ‘Honestly, Kit, why do so many people think they can get something for nothing?'

Kit shrugged. ‘Got to give them top marks for trying though.'

Alice grimaced. ‘It wouldn't happen in Edinburgh.'

Having heard that complaint far more than she wanted to, and way more than was diplomatic, Kit snapped, ‘Well, we aren't in Edinburgh, Alice.'

Seeing the surprise on the younger woman's face, Kit moderated her tone. ‘Come on, Alice, you know the market, it's what you're good at. This is a small town, the rules are different here. You're going to have no audience for anything if you don't respect that.'

Wiping a yellow hair that had dared to stray from the confines of its clips, Alice sat on Cameron's office chair with an unladylike thump. ‘You're right. Sorry, Kit.'

‘It's not me that needs apologising to.'

Alice went quiet, making Kit sure she was missing Charlie. Beginning to feel like she was running a crèche and not a literary festival, Kit said, ‘I can see something is wrong, and I can see organising this festival is getting to you. So if you want to talk, then I'm here.'

‘But you're Charlie's friend.'

‘I'm also a grown-up, and I don't take sides,' Kit found herself snapping again, not sure what it was about this woman that riled her. ‘If this is about missing Charlie, then all you have to do is say sorry for whatever you've done and she'll be back on side.'

‘It's not that simple.'

‘Actually, it is.' Kit grabbed her bag, ‘If you'll excuse me, my taxi will be here soon. I'm off to Torphin's Primary School to promote
your
event.'

Standing outside the estate office, Kit closed her eyes and counted to ten. The taxi due to take her to Torphin's wasn't due for an hour yet, but if she'd stayed in the office with Alice she'd have said something she'd only regret later.

Opening her eyes again, Kit noticed that the door to the castle was open. Deciding it was high time she inspected the festival venue properly, she headed straight for it.

Kit found herself walking through a time capsule of the Burnett family's history. The air was still and cool, and yet it clung to her skin, enticing her as she stood taking in the thickness of the whitewashed walls and the uncompromising security of the thick iron Yett Gate. Walking from room to room, Kit had to sharply remind herself that she only had an hour, and that there would be chances to linger later. This good intention lasted until she entered the Muse's Room and saw the ceiling.

Charlie had been right; it was unlike anything she'd ever seen before. Exquisite medieval-style writing adorned every painted beam. If ever anywhere had appealed to her as a writing venue more than Pickwicks did, then this was it. No wonder it was called the Muse's Room. Inspiration seemed to ooze from the walls themselves.

Only the call of time made Kit hurry on, to inhale the air of banquets past in the wooden-ceilinged Long Gallery. The second she saw it, Kit knew that it was the perfect choice for the festival's main venue. The feel of the space and the acoustics of the room were perfect. Glancing at her watch, vowing she'd return as soon as she could, Kit regretfully hurried down the spiral staircase just in time to see her taxi pull up outside the castle entrance.

Kit and Charlie raised a glass of wine in a toast to each other. It had been great fun getting the schoolchildren to make up their own fairy tales, but now they were shattered.

‘You know, I could get used to living up here.' Kit dug her spoon into a deliciously creamy bowl of Cullen Skink as she stared out of the window.

‘You wouldn't miss the hurly-burly of London then?'

‘Do you?'

‘Not really. Sometimes I wish I could just nip into a bigger shopping centre rather than have to drive for forty minutes into Aberdeen, but then I look around me. The scenery is more than adequate compensation for not having a KFC on the doorstep.'

Staring out of the window, Kit could only agree as Charlie added, ‘After supper I'll take you to my thinking spot, if you like. I suspect you'll appreciate it.'

The words ‘more than Alice does' were left hanging in the air, giving Kit an opening to ask, ‘Tell me again why you don't want Alice to know you've secretly been helping with the festival?'

‘Because I don't want her to think she can continue to get away with treating me, and people in general, like a tool in a business plan.'

Kit nodded. ‘But at the same time you don't want her festival to fail.'

‘Exactly. I know this all looks a bit juvenile, and perhaps it is, but now I've stood up to Alice …'

‘With the encouragement of the lovely Gervase?'

Charlie blushed in the face of Kit's knowing expression. ‘I have to admit, his unexpected arrival in my life has helped.'

‘Have you told Alice about him yet?'

Charlie laid her spoon into her empty soup bowl. ‘I haven't seen hide or hair of her. And there's no reason why I should, is there? She thinks you're coping with the impossible list of tasks you've been given all on your own, and is probably happily re-enacting her past with Cameron.' Charlie sighed, ‘I can't believe he's allowed himself to be ensnared again. She'll leave him as soon as she's finished living this guilt trip, helping him out to appease her conscience for her past poor behaviour. Afterwards, she'll disappear back to Edinburgh, to people who are more used to her no-nonsense manner, and the whole cycle will begin again.'

Kit wasn't so sure, but said, ‘When you explained the situation to me, you said you don't fancy Cameron anymore, so if he and Alice got together you'd be OK, wouldn't you?'

‘Of course. I know I sound contradictory, but I'd love Alice to be happy. It might knock a bit of the front she's developed away.'

‘But?'

‘But I don't want to go back to being invisible again like I was last time they were together. That hurt way more than my feelings for Cameron being unreciprocated.'

Smiling her thanks to the waiter who was clearing their bowls away, Kit said, ‘I have to say I've seen a change in Alice over the past few days. I would put money on the fact that she's missing you.'

‘I wish that were true, Kit, but sadly I suspect she's merely missing having someone to stand next to so she can be the pretty one.'

Kit couldn't help but laugh. ‘Don't be infected by her insecurities, hun.'

‘Her insecurities? She hasn't got any. Alice is always one hundred per cent sure about everything. If she was insecure about something once in a while then she'd be somehow more human.'

‘How on earth did you two become friends in the first place?'

Charlie smiled sadly at the memory, ‘We were in a queue for a bus, believe it or not; both going to a lecture over at Foresthill near Aberdeen Hospital from our digs near the main campus on the other side of the city. Alice was behind me; she told me my hair was fascinating.'

Kit laughed. ‘Well, it is! It's the only truly spring-like hair I've ever seen.'

Trying not to blush as she thought about how Gervase had told her on their last walk together that he'd been spending far too much time imaging what it would look like hanging around her naked shoulders, Charlie said, ‘Perhaps it was vanity that made me keep talking to her. Very few people pay me compliments. I mean, I'm short, dumpy, and my hair is always wild despite my best efforts to tame it. Alice on the other hand has a perfect figure, blonde hair, and effortless style. I was flattered that she liked something about me.'

Cradling her wine glass, Kit said, ‘That may have been how it started, but it had to have developed. I mean, you became friends to the point that you lived together after university.'

Charlie could only agree. ‘You're right, of course. We had a lot of fun together, but recently I've seen that we're only OK when we're on our own. As soon as Alice and I are in a group I sort of blend into the background. That's partly my fault, but I hadn't realised how bad it had got until Cameron came along – and now he's back just at the moment when Alice is here.'

‘Of course he is. Cameron invited her here. You knew that …' Kit paused. ‘Is it that you'd forgotten how much you'd allowed yourself to live in her shadow before?'

‘Precisely,' Charlie said, ‘I have myself to blame for letting Alice take over for so long, but now I've made an effort to get out of her shadow, got my own career and stuff, I am almost afraid to see her with Cameron around in case I disappear again.'

‘And that's why you haven't told her about Gervase?'

Charlie shrugged. ‘If he sees Alice next to me, he's bound to want her instead.'

Kit shook her head, ‘But you told me he said you were prettier than Alice?'

As the waiter delivered two bowls of cheesy chips, Charlie said with feeling, ‘He was probably being polite. Believe me, when he sees us standing next to each other, he'll go all “Cameron”, and I won't exist.'

Kit was about to tell Charlie she was insane, and that she should call Alice, when suddenly Alice was there. Standing by their table, her face blotched with angry tears.

‘Oh my God!' Instantly forgetting she'd been avoiding her friend, Charlie got up and put her arms around Alice. ‘Whatever is it? Have you been attacked?'

Burying her head against her friend's shoulder, Alice blurted out, ‘I'm so sorry, Charlie. I'm sorry. I thought you were exaggerating about Cameron not noticing you. But you weren't, were you, and then …'

Signalling to the waiter that a whisky was required urgently, Kit gently pulled Alice from Charlie's shoulder and sat her down. ‘And then?'

‘I've upset Cameron, and now we need a new venue for the festival.'

Chapter Eleven

Monday November 30
^th

Sniffing into the serviette Kit passed her, Alice spoke over the dram of whisky she now held. ‘I'm so stupid.'

Determined to stay strong, and swallowing back her natural impulse to ask what was wrong, Charlie said, ‘Alice, I'm sorry you feel stupid, and I genuinely do want to hear about it, but right now we have no home for the festival. The authors will be arriving at the end of next week. What do we do?'

Alice, who'd expected Charlie to be all sympathy rather than practicality, stuttered, ‘What the hell do you care about the festival? You walked out on it.'

‘Don't be ridiculous! I did no such thing.'

‘What?'

Seeing that they were in danger of getting caught in a whole heap of explanations before Alice got to the reason why the festival was homeless, Kit intervened, ‘Girls, please.' She paused then addressed Alice, ‘Charlie was the one who secured the bookshop stall, and she has been helping me with all the school visits and posting all those leaflets through the doors of the town, in between making sure her novel is written.'

Holding up her palm so Alice didn't have the chance to speak, Kit turned to Charlie, ‘Am I correct in saying that the only reason you told Alice you wouldn't help was because you were tired of being treated like a tool in a business plan and not a friend, and because you hadn't been told about Cameron's involvement?'

Charlie nodded, not trusting herself to speak, as Kit continued, ‘Right then, as I see it, we have three options. We persuade Cameron to change his mind, we cancel, or we approach one of the other castles. All the promotional material has been based around the fact that the event is being held in a castle, so it
has
to be at a castle.'