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Chapter One

The local radio station, the only one we could get decent reception for in the car, was playing Driving Home For Christ to flutter down fro the bare branches of the trees that lined the country road It was one of those quintessential, perfect Christmas Eve moments

Except eren’t driving ho to Rosewood House, and thatfeel different All I could think about was how different this Christmas would be to all the others – all the familiar little traditions and rituals that wouldn’t happen, and the strange new ones we’d have to adopt Not to mention the people ouldn’t be there to share it

Christic, wistful for the better years gone by – which probably weren’t as brilliant as I re me harder than ever All I really wanted to do this December twenty-fifth was curl up in a cocoon of blankets with a bottle of fizz and It’s a Wonderful Life on the telly Mostly because it hadn’t been, lately – a wonderful life, that is

Oh, I had faith that it would be again – whatever my mother said But still, I wasn’t ers – let alone strangers ere apparently my little brother’s new family

Edward and his girlfriend, Saskia, had invited us to Saskia’s fao, and it wasn’t really the sort of invitation I was in a position to say no to Muain, and the cocoon plan would probably haveMax to his dad’s for the festivities, and that wasn’t an option, either If a man walks out on his family in September, you don’t reward hi day itself That’s a basic rule, right?

Next year, ht with it calm and order and less of the constant buzz of what happens next, what do I do now?

Maybe by thenon about how important it was for a boy to have his father around, and ht I should win it back That would be nice

Anyway, the point was, even with all the fa on, nobody turned down an invitation to Rosewood Especially now

So that’s how I foundcountry road that apparently led to Rosewood House, Muer seat beside me and Max in the back seat

Mu in her hand, and she pressed the end call button without even answering Instead, she reached out to fiddle with the radio dial, losing us Chris Rea in the hope of getting a decent reception for Radio 4 ‘Sales call,’ she said when I gave her a questioning look

Right The third one she’d ignored since we left London

‘You should change your nu the static

‘Anyway All I’, Freya, is that it’s never too late,’ Mu over the buzz

I glanced up at the rear-view lued to his tablet the way they had been since we left London But I knew from past experience that he had ears like a bat when adults were talking about things he wasn’t supposed to hear

‘Not now, Muful look, and she rolled her eyes

‘Fine But I just can’t bear to see you giving up on happiness so easily’ Mum folded her arms over her dark wool coat, and looked pointedly out of the passenger side

‘I’ave up entirely I didn’t want to have the conversation about everything I’d lost in e, anyway I was more than aware, thanks

And, even if I couldn’t talk to Muained, too Mum wouldn’t understand – she’d loved onefor so Darren walk off into the sunset with his bit on the side… I’ it didn’t make me furious Of course it did But it had also opened my eyes to the possibility of a different sort of future to the one I’d always i

But right now, that future was still years away, a worry for another day Soain,was final and stable and orked out this neay of existing, now our family lived in two separate houses and coh lawyers

Right now, all I could worry about was getting through Christmas at Rosewood

‘What do you think they’ll be like?’ I asked, hoping to change the subject frohteen , we hadn’t even met Saskia – let alone her relations It was understandable, I supposed, given that they’d spent the last year and a half working prettyChristers was odd

As I checkedinto what I hoped was the driveway, I caught a glimpse of the presents stacked up on top of our suitcases in the boot – scarves, bubble bath sets, coffee table books – the sort of generic gifts you buy for people you don’t really know

Except – and this was the weirdest part by far – it felt like we did know them Not because Edward had talked ab

out Saskia’s fa with the half of the country eren’t waiting to receive it as a Christmas present – had already read The Rosewood Journals The Journals hat had brought Edward and Saskia together – a detailed enius and Saskia’s grandfather Nathaniel had hired ether the book from his old journals, notebooks and papers But when he’d died halfway through the project, he’d left the notebooks for Saskia and Edward to work on together They’d fallen in love, published the book, and were already hitting the literary charts with the hardcover edition The resulting international book tour had been Edward’s excuse for not visiting for the last six months

Nathaniel Drury and his wife Isabelle had been notorious for over fifty years I guess everyone wanted to find out their secrets

But it did mean that Mum and I were now in the rather unco for the first time people whose lives and histories we’d already read – not to mention their most intimate secrets What e supposed to do? Pretend we didn’t know? Except that wouldall of Edward and Saskia’s hard work…

‘I’m sure they’ll be lovely,’ Mum said, diplomatically

‘Right’ I’m sure they were very nice people, really ‘And should we… do you think we should tell them we’ve read the book? I mean, in the interests of full disclosure?’ It felt ale over them

Of course, I had no idea how much Edward had told them about us Maybe they all knew my secrets already, too At least, the ones that Edward knew Which, given that he was three years younger than me, was thankfully not all that many of them

‘Maybe we just don’t htful pause ‘I mean, really, Freya What are the chances that they’ll really want to discuss it at all anyway?’

‘Good point’ If I were the that no one would mention the damn book In fact, I’d never have let it be written or published in the first place

But then, Edward said that Rosewood had a way of drawing secrets out of you

I hoped that the three days ere staying wouldn’t be long enough for the house – or its inhabitants – to steal any of mine

Three days Thethe that was fa to make this Christmas – his first without his dad – special forpressure to be more than just Muician who took away all worries andperfect all the time

So at miserably, incidentally

Outside, the snoas growing almost imperceptibly heavier The fields and paths around us were covered now, too Well, if it could keep it up overnight, maybe there was one tradition Max and I could still enact – our First Snow tradition