Page 1 of The Merry Christmas Project

Prologue

Merry

24 AUGUST

It was a glorious summer’s day. Even high up in the Derbyshire Dales, the air was warm and sweet. The smell of ferns and flowers on the hillside and blackberries growing wild among the hedgerows was divine. Daniel and I were hiking for the first time, and I felt on top of the world.

With one last surge of effort, I reached the summit of Wysedale Peak only a second or two behind my much fitter boyfriend. Daniel was fit in all senses of the word. He was handsome, with pale blond hair, blue eyes and on his days off, like today, a smattering of golden stubble. He was lean and lithe too, thanks to his daily run. I admired his self-discipline. I tried to do a twenty-minute online workout in the mornings but invariably I ended up watching it instead, while getting dressed and hunting down a matching pair of trainers.

‘Look at that view,’ I said, as Daniel wrapped an arm around my waist. ‘Aren’t you glad I prised you out of bed this morning for an adventure ?’

He grinned. ‘I am. This is a great start to the Bank Holiday weekend. Who needs a lie-in anyway ?’

‘Not us, that’s for sure.’ I leaned against him, glad he had agreed to my spur-of-the-moment suggestion.

He had to get up at the crack of dawn every day in order to open Good Earth, his specialist greengrocer’s. Today was a rare day off and he would have been completely within his rights to turn down my suggestion of setting off early for a picnic. But here he was.

We stood together, in a silence broken only by the occasional brush of wings from birds flying overhead. The scenery looked almost too beautiful to be real. The deep, deep blue of the wide sky, the lush green hills which seemed to stretch into infinity, intersected with ribbons of silver, streams heading downhill to join up with the wide river in the valley below.

Home. Me, Daniel, my new business … I sighed happily. Life didn’t get much better than this.

It felt good to relax after such a hectic couple of weeks. A lot had happened, and my head was spinning with all the upheaval. Being here, out in the countryside, just him, me and miles and miles of green, was perfect.

‘Quite a nice surprise, actually.’ He took a swig from his water bottle and passed it to me. ‘In the year we’ve been together, you’ve never once suggested going walking. I didn’t have you down as a hiker.’

‘Neither did I,’ I said. The only time I’d ever done any hiking was during a very wet geography field trip in Wales, in kit borrowed from the school lost-property box. The boots had given me blisters after five minutes and my second-hand cagoule had a large rip in its hood, which I only discovered once the heavens had opened. It hadn’t been an experience I’d wanted to repeat in a hurry.

I drank some water and handed the bottle back to Daniel. ‘Some kids have outdoorsy families who do Sunday walks and camping holidays. I didn’t have that sort of childhood, so I assumed it wasn’t for me.’

Daniel smoothed the hair back from my face gently. ‘I know it was hard for you, but don’t let your childhood hold you back. You don’t need permission, or to wait to be asked. There is nothing that is not for you. You’re a gorgeous, intelligent woman in charge of her own life.’

He made comments like this from time to time. I knew he meant well, but he’d never really understand. My rocky childhood wasn’t something I could just cast aside in adulthood ; it was part of me. Daniel had shared a bedroom with his brother until he left home. I’d lost count of the number of rooms I’d had and who I’d shared with. And that was just one difference ; there were a thousand others.

‘I know,’ I replied diplomatically. I took some sun cream out of my bag and dotted it onto my face. ‘Besides, I had two options for today and I thought you’d prefer this one.’

‘What was the other one ?’ He rubbed a blob of leftover sun cream into my cheek.

‘A visit to an animal shelter. How would you feel about us getting a kitten ?’

I scanned his face, hoping for a positive reception to the idea. I’d always wanted a pet and had never lived anywhere where animals were permitted until now.

‘Oh, Merry.’ Daniel’s eyes shimmered with laughter. ‘There’s no way I’d trust you within five miles of an animal shelter.’

‘Why not ?’ I asked, only half pretending to be insulted.

‘Because you’d want to bring them all home. And instead of a kitten, you’d fall in love with a great big geriatric hound with halitosis and only three legs.’

‘Possibly,’ I admitted.

He had a point. Those adverts about dogs who’d been living in shelters for years because no one wanted to adopt them broke my heart. It was a bit too close to home for me. It crossed my mind to point out that he’d just said I didn’t need permission to do stuff, but as it was his house, he had the final say.

‘But just so you know,’ I added, ‘from that discussion, I’m taking away the fact that a kitten would be preferable to a dog.’

‘I’m starving,’ said Daniel, with a deft change of topic. ‘Shall we sit down here and have our lunch ?’

‘Sure.’ I dropped my rucksack to the ground and sat down. My legs were aching from all that climbing and I massaged my thighs and tilted my face to the sun while he unpacked the picnic.

‘About getting a pet,’ he said, taking out several plastic tubs, ‘I’d rather not if you don’t mind. I’ve just about got used to sharing my house with you, let alone anything else. I’m not a fan of mess, as you know.’