Amanda tucks the tea towel into the handle of the warm Aga and turns to stand in front of me. ‘It’s nice,’ she says quietly, reaching out to rub the top of my arm. ‘I mean, it’s nice that we’re all together. Diana is happy, so everyone is happy.’
She gives me a crooked smile, and walks out into the living room, leaving me standing in the kitchen, pretty sure that the warmth I’m feeling is from her words, not the Aga.
We spend the evening playing Trivial Pursuit, finishing off the rest of the red wine, and laughing until my sides hurt. There is something sweet, something intimate, about hearing the stories of Rupert and Will growing up together, the scrapes they got into, and I hang on every word as more and more of him is revealed to me. Finally, just before midnight Diana gets to her feet and claps her hands.
‘Right, bedtime, children. It’s almost Christmas Day.’
Rupert and Will both groan. ‘Mum,’ Will says, ‘we’re both over forty years old, I think we know what time we can go to bed.’
‘Not on Christmas Eve,’ Diana says, as Amanda and I slide a glance towards each other, our mouths curving into twin smiles.
‘Come on.’ Amanda pulls Will to his feet, and they slip from the room with a wave, Will blowing kisses at his mother as Rupert and I follow behind them, slipping into Rupert’s childhood bedroom that still has his swimming trophies on a shelf above the bed. It makes my heart give a little squeeze, the idea of spending the night in Rupert’s old bedroom.
‘Come here.’ Rupert reaches for me, his fingers cold on my skin, and the taste of red wine on his lips as he kisses me.
I shiver, and not just from the chill of his hands. ‘No, Rupert, your brother is right next door and your parents are across the hall.’ I laugh softly, pressing my mouth to his bare shoulder to quiet myself.
‘I got you something.’ He jumps off the bed and starts to rummage in the holdall he packed before we left.
‘I thought we were doing gifts in the morning?’
‘This is something extra. Close your eyes.’
I close my eyes and tentatively hold out my hands. When I feel him place something there, I open them, and there is a deep blue velvet box on my palm.
‘Rupert?’
‘Just open it,’ he says with a grin, and my heart turns over in my chest.
‘OK.’ Slowly I lift the lid, to reveal a silver brooch in the shape of a dragonfly, two tiny sapphires glinting in the corners of the wings. ‘Oh, Rupert. It’s beautiful.’
‘The sapphires represent us,’ Rupert says, tracing a finger along the stones. ‘Sapphire is the birthstone for September, and I know neither of us were born in September, but we did get married then so…’ He gives a tiny, embarrassed shrug and I launch myself across the bed, kissing him all over his face.
‘I love it,’ I breathe, as I sit astride him looking into his dark blue eyes – eyes the colour of sapphires – before one thing leads to another.
Later, as Rupert snores softly and I start to drift off, reliving what has been the best day I’ve had in a long, long time, I chide myself for thinking that Rupert was anything other than the perfect man I saw when I first came to be interviewed as his housekeeper.
Christmas morning, and I wake up with a mild red wine hangover, to see Rupert leaning over me, an excited smile on his face. Honestly, I think, he’s worse than a child, but that doesn’t stop me from grinning back at him, my limbs aching from the previous evening.
‘Merry Christmas,’ he whispers, keeping the noise down so as not to wake his brother and Amanda in the next room.
‘Merry Christmas,’ I whisper back, forgetting to hold in my morning breath. I jump out of bed and hurry for the small en suite (imagine, growing up in a house where you have your own bathroom attached – I was lucky to get a space in the family bathroom at all when I was growing up) quickly showering and brushing my teeth before we head downstairs for breakfast.
Christmas is definitely as traditional as it comes in the Milligan household – Diana stirs a vat of scrambled eggs on the Aga, as Will butters toast and Amanda shreds smoked salmon, all while Eamonn sits at the table drinking coffee. We toast ourselves with Buck’s Fizz, and I am touched when Diana hands out tiny stockings to each of us, including me, that contain chocolate, small bottles of perfume or aftershave, a pair of socks each and an orange. I have to blink back tears as I accept it, retreating to the downstairs loo to blow my nose.
Staring at my reflection in the mirror, my cheeks flushed with the early morning alcohol and the heat of the kitchen, I think about my mum, and about Mags, and wonder what they are doing, whether they are thinking of me this morning. I’d like to think they are, but the truth is they probably haven’t given me a second thought. I push away the image of Harry that creeps into my mind, unable to see him any other way than when I saw him last, as he squeezed my throat hard and I struggled for breath, and I thank God that I found Rupert. I think about Caro, and how selfish she was to throw herself off a bridge and leave this wonderful family behind. And then I think about how lucky I am, that she did do what she did, leaving this wonderful family for me to be part of.
Mid-afternoon, once we have eaten lunch and Eamonn has refused to turn on the Queen’s Speech, Rupert’s father claps his hands together and starts chivvying everyone along.
‘What are we
