Christmas Kisses Collection. Louise Allen

Only this time it was a nice surprise and an extremely humbling one for Juliet.

      Somehow she would make amends. But exactly how would take some time to figure out.

      ‘Mummy!’ came the little voice. ‘I have a friend. Her name’s Emma.’ A little girl with flaming red hair and a toothy grin was holding Bea’s hand. ‘We played yesterday. And we played today. She’th such a good drawer. Her mummy’th a doctor too.’

      ‘Hello, Emma.’

      ‘Hello,’ the little girl replied in the softest voice.

      ‘Can Emma come home and play?’

      ‘That would be lovely one day if her mummy says yes, but just not today, Bea, because we have to find another place to live. Somewhere with a nice bath and your own room.’

      Bea studied her mother’s face for a minute. ‘Okay, Mummy,’ she finally said with a smile. ‘Bye Emma. See you tomorrow.’

      ‘Bye, Bea,’ the little girl replied before she ran back to the toys on the play mat in the centre of the room.

      Juliet popped her daughter’s woollen cape over her shoulders and led her to the car they had hired that morning. She was happy that Bea had made a new friend so quickly. She definitely had much better social skills than her mother, Juliet thought.

      ‘I’ve found two houses that might be nice so we might just pop in and see them. A man with the keys is meeting us at the first one in half an hour. We can’t stay in the hotel because it doesn’t give us much room and the bath just won’t do. It might be nice to have your own room—perhaps one day this week Emma might come over and play.’

      ‘I hope so,’ Bea said as she looked out of the window at the buildings as they drove down the main street of the town.

      Juliet suddenly spotted a quaint tea room. ‘Would you like something to eat?’

      ‘Yeth, please.’

      ‘Let’s see if this little restaurant has Devonshire cream tea,’ she said as she checked her rear-vision mirror, then pulled the car over and parked.

      ‘What’th that, Mummy?’

      ‘Scones and jam and cream.’

      ‘Yummy!’

      Almost an hour later and quite full on the fluffy scones, homemade raspberry jam and freshly whipped cream, Juliet and Bea arrived at the first house. It was a fully furnished cottage only ten minutes from Teddy’s. She pulled her small sedan into the lane beside the house, unsure of where else to park, and walked briskly around to the front gate. The lettings agent was already there. He looked about sixty years of age with a happy face with a ruddy complexion, strawberry-blond hair and wearing a tweed coat and a scarf.

      ‘Good afternoon, Dr Turner. I’m Eugene Parry.’

      ‘Hello, Eugene,’ Juliet said as she approached him with her hand extended. ‘Please call me Juliet.’

      ‘Certainly, Juliet,’ the man said as he unlocked the front door of the thatched-roof cottage. ‘It’s a lovely little place, this one. Just came back on the market for renting a week ago after the temporary bank manager left. They found a local to fill the role so the other one headed back to London leaving this vacant and you can have it on a monthly basis. No need for a long-term contract.’

      Juliet stepped inside and was immediately taken by how cosy the home felt. It was small but very pretty inside.

      ‘Two bedrooms, as I said, and an eat-in kitchen along with this sitting room,’ Eugene said as they stood in the middle of the carpeted room. It was a little cold but Juliet knew with the flick of a switch the heating would change that quickly. ‘There’s a lovely garden room out the back, which is delightful in summer but not so nice in the chilly weather. Oh, and there’s a bath and shower in the newly renovated bathroom.’

      Juliet was happy to hear those words and took Bea by the hand to look around. The pretty tastefully wallpapered sitting room more than met her requirements with a large floral sofa and a big leather armchair, a coffee table and a large television. The master bedroom was very simply decorated in tones of blue, with a queen-sized bed and attractive blue-and-cream-striped curtains and a cream damask quilt cover. A free-standing dark wood wardrobe took up one corner of the room and the other corner held a matching large dresser with an oval mirror.

      ‘Where’th my room?’

      ‘Let’s go and find out.’

      And they did. And it was just perfect. It was painted in tones of peach and there were two twin single beds and a white dresser and robe. The curtains were peach floral with yellow window ties. And there was a four-foot fluffy yellow rabbit sitting under the window beside a toy box.

      ‘The owners have two granddaughters and they used to come and stay but now they’re all grown up so they’ve left it here for others to enjoy.’

      ‘I like it, Mummy.’

      ‘I like it too. We’ll take it.’

      Aware that the next few days would be hectic leading up to the surgery, Juliet decided, once she had signed the rental agreement, to leave the hotel and move into the cottage immediately. The estate agent was happy as the hospital provided a reference and a guarantee. So Juliet was approved instantly. He had given her the keys and explained how the heater and the stove worked and left.

      ‘Well, Bea, it looks like we have our own little home for the next few weeks. I’ve rented it for a month so we can stay here for Christmas and New Year’s Eve.’

      ‘Do we have milk and biscuits?’

      Juliet smiled at Bea’s funny random question and the look of worry on her daughter’s face. ‘We will get some milk and biscuits and a few other things. In fact, we should go now and stock the pantry before the shops close.’

      Together they locked up, hopped back into the car and headed off to fill the cupboards and refrigerator with all they would need.

      And as she drove into town Juliet realised she was no longer anxious about being so far from home. Despite her topsy-turvy relationship with Charlie Warren she was suddenly feeling quite at home in the Cotswolds.

      Without warning she began to question if in fact it was because of him that she was feeling so at home.

       CHAPTER EIGHT

      IT WAS FIVE o’clock in the afternoon when they returned. Bea was napping on the sofa, with the heater warming the house, and dinner for two was cooking in the oven. Juliet had bought half a dozen small pork chops and decided to roast them with root vegetables. She thought they could have leftovers the next night. The house was quiet and the delicious aroma of the cooking made her think of home. She looked at her watch and did the mental arithmetic and quickly realised it was one in the morning back home. While she knew her parents loved her, one a.m. was not the time to test the depth of those feelings. She would wait until morning. She had called from the airport to tell them she was safe and since then they had each sent texts. There was nothing else to report. Nothing had happened. They hadn’t really met anyone. As she put her feet up on the ottoman and leant back into the softness of the cushions, she realised that technically wasn’t correct. Bea had met her new best friend, Emma.

      And Juliet had met Charlie. Complicated, handsome, argumentative Charlie. She closed her eyes for a moment.

      Who was he really?

      And why was he making her think about him when he wasn’t around? For almost five years, she had not given a man another romantic thought,