Christmas at the Chateau: (A Novella). Lorraine Wilson

      

      Christmas at the Chateau

      LORRAINE WILSON

      One More Chapter

      a division of HarperCollinsPublishers Ltd

      1 London Bridge Street

      London SE1 9GF

       www.harpercollins.co.uk

      First published in Great Britain by HarperCollinsPublishers 2019

      Copyright © Lorraine Wilson 2019

      Cover design by HarperCollinsPublishers Ltd 2019

      Cover images © Shutterstock.com

      Lorraine Wilson asserts the moral right to be identified as the author of this work.

      A catalogue copy of this book is available from the British Library.

      This novel is entirely a work of fiction. The names, characters and incidents portrayed in it are the work of the author’s imagination. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, events or localities is entirely coincidental.

      All rights reserved under International and Pan-American Copyright Conventions. By payment of the required fees, you have been granted the non-exclusive, non-transferable right to access and read the text of this e-book on screen. No part of this text may be reproduced, transmitted, down-loaded, decompiled, reverse engineered, or stored in or introduced into any information storage and retrieval system, in any form or by any means, whether electronic or mechanical, now known or hereinafter invented, without the express written permission of HarperCollins.

      Ebook Edition © December 2019 ISBN: 9780007558360

      Version: 2019-11-18

       For my wrapping paper shredding, sellotape stealing, disco dancing, joy giving bundles of fur – Peanut, Treacle and Pickwick

      Table of Contents

       Cover

       Title Page

       Copyright

       Dedication

      Chapter 1

      Chapter 2

      Chapter 3

      Chapter 4

      About the Author

       About the Publisher

       Chapter 1

       “Romance is the glamour which turns the dust of everyday life into a golden haze” – Elinor Glyn

       From: [email protected]

       To: [email protected]

       Subject: No Mince Pies!

       Hi there,

       It’s such a shame you can’t make it out to us. Christmas without my best friend is going to be weird, but I understand family pressure. Don’t I just! Mum is predictably furious that I’m choosing to spend Christmas at the château with Leo’s family instead of coming back to England. I’ve tried explaining that his dad isn’t in the best of health but … well, you know Mum. She’ll probably consider it a just part of my punishment that I can’t find mince pies anywhere.

       Still, I’m going to have lots of new French traditions to get acquainted with, including the treize desserts – yes, literally thirteen puddings, and if you don’t have a taste of all of them it’s bad luck supposedly so of course I’ll have to do my bit to ensure good luck for the new year.

       I was thinking about last New Year’s Eve. Do you remember we wrote down our New Year’s resolutions and promised to keep each other accountable? If you’re prepared to overlook my rash plan to cut back on carbohydrates (well, I moved to the land of the freshly baked croissant, so that was never going to happen) I’ll promise not to say ‘I told you so’ about your pledge to go to the gym every day (but, to be honest, that was never going to happen either!). My big resolution to change my life and follow my dream … I think I managed that one and this year has been pretty good to me, in spite of a bit of a crappy start. Moving to the South of France was definitely a good move because now I’ve got the lovely Leo in my life, not to mention that I’m illustrating my very own children’s book series, instead of someone else’s project. That’s another of my resolutions checked off. I told you they want ‘Only Dogs and Donkeys’ to be a series, didn’t I? I’ve told Peanut how popular her character is in the book and it’s totally gone to her head. For a rescue dog she has very healthy self-esteem. Her dancing chihuahua videos are getting really popular on YouTube too so maybe she’s been secretly checking how many views she’s getting. I was contacted by a company who want to license some of the clips. Wouldn’t it be funny if one of my dogs ended up earning more than me?

       Setting up the art gallery at the château has been an amazingly rewarding project as well and I wouldn’t have had any of these opportunities if I’d stayed in England doing the same thing over and over, stagnating. Mum can’t see that the good things are as a result of moving to France though. I think she has emailed me virtually every scary Brexit story going this year and won’t admit that her doom and gloom predictions about me going ahead with the move alone haven’t come true yet.

       I’ve tried to explain how good the climate is for me here, both for my health and for getting me painting outdoors again, but Mum’s never really recovered from the shock of me going to art college instead of doing something ‘sensible’. Sorry to go on about Mum, I just had an email from her so I’m a tad … wound up. I have really enjoyed painting for pleasure again. The light here is just amazing and the views, well you’ve seen them yourself so you understand. Did I mention how lovely the weather has been here this autumn? A bit like an English summer but without the rain, humidity or thunderstorms. We’ve had some lovely walks up in the mountains. Unfortunately, now we’re getting a little rain and a few flurries of snow. Leo wants to take me skiing. You’d think that after six months of knowing me he’d have realised coordination isn’t exactly my strong suit!

       Really, the only downer has been Leo’s dad being ill. I think as a result Leo’s family want to make this Christmas really special. Sarah and her husband are coming for a week and Angeline and Sophie will be here for the Christmas Eve meal. Leo says that Christmas Eve is always the special event, so I suppose I’ll have to wait and see.

       Are you going to be in Cumbria with your parents until New Year’s Day? Send your mum my love. Oh, and can you let me know if the parcel I sent you arrives okay? You might want to take it up to Cumbria with you – I wanted you to have a little taste of France, given you might have to wait for the full experience.

       I’m going to miss you, lovely. Have a fab Christmas!

       Poppy xx

      I read through the email to check that AutoCorrect