Trisha Ashley - Twelve Days of Christmas

‘That’s it — come on!’ Becca said, and she and Jess and everyone else rushed into the circle and joined hands, dragging me with them. Somehow in the crush I found myself with Jude on my left and the Dragon, without his head but with his tail looped over his arm, on my right, as we all joined hands and danced round. I could see Michael, Jess and Becca among the circle of dancers — and George, holding Oriel’s hand. She looked flushed and happy, her ivy and mistletoe circlet tipped over one eye.

No-one else seemed to have a gilded one. . and it was just as well that Jude had pushed it down firmly onto my head, because he suddenly whirled me round and round until I was too breathless to go on.

‘It’s no use, I’ll have to have a rest!’ I begged, panting, and he laughed and walked with me over to the pub, his arm still around my waist, though he took his rather scary helmet off first: that was a bit of a relief. We stood talking to Noël, Tilda and Old Nan and I accepted a beaker of the warming punch. . and then possibly another. In fact, I lost count of how much I’d had, but it tasted innocuously of warm apples and Nancy had said you could give it to a baby. .

My foot started to tap in time to the music and Jude’s arm tightened around me a little as Nancy took the beaker from my hand and replaced it with a fresh one.

‘Nancy,’ I said suspiciously, focusing on her cheerful, flushed face with an effort, ‘when you said you could give this to a baby, were you serious?’

‘Yes, if you wanted it to go to sleep for a couple of hours. Maybe not, these days though, when they’ve even taken the alcohol out of gripewater.’

Richard played the music for what looked like a final mad bout of strip-the-willow, then handed his fiddle on to someone else and joined us.

Michael, who’d followed him, said, ‘It’s been really fascinating to watch. It’s such an interesting mixture of pagan fertility ceremony and miracle play.’

‘That’s very astute of you,’ said Richard. ‘The red ribbons, holly, ivy and especially the mistletoe wreaths the women are given are all to do with rebirth and fertility.’

‘And the triumph of good over evil, that’s what the Saint George and the dragon part signifies,’ Noël put in.

‘Doesn’t the pagan element bother you, Vicar?’ Michael asked.

‘Oh no,’ he said cheerfully, his white hair blowing in the breeze.

It was certainly now starting to unsettle me , despite the soothing effects of large quantities of punch!

We waved Michael off, and then the actors in the Revels went to the barn to remove their costumes, reappearing in normal guise. By then, the last of the wassail and the Revel Cakes had been consumed and people started to disperse: some home, and some into the Auld Christmas. Edwina dragooned Tilda, Jess and Noël into the car and drove them back to the lodge, but Becca walked off home, a Revel Cake wrapped in a paper napkin in her pocket for later.

‘They’re supposed to be a lucky talisman if you keep it for the year,’ she’d told me, ‘but I think I’d rather eat it.’ Then she’d looked at me and added, ‘And perhaps you’d better eat something as soon as Jude gets you home, too: that wassail packs a lot more punch than you think.’

‘That’s because it is punch,’ I said, and giggled.

‘I’ll look after her,’ Jude promised, putting his arm around me again, probably because I was swaying slightly.

‘Yes, that’s what’s worrying me,’ Becca said grimly, and he laughed.

Driving back with Jude I felt warm and cosy, but also strangely limp and boneless too.

‘That was lovely,’ I said dreamily.

Then the phone in my pocket rang, waking me slightly. ‘Can you stop here? Only I’ll lose the signal if you go past the lodge and it must be Laura.’

‘Or Sam?’ he snapped suspiciously, pulling in to the side of the lane.

‘Why on earth would it be Sam?’ I blinked at him, trying to focus. ‘He doesn’t even have my number.’ I’d managed to dig out the phone by now and said, ‘Hello?’

‘Holly, are you there?’ demanded a strident voice.

‘Oh, it’s you,’ I sighed. ‘Yes, I’m here, Ellen. . but I’m not entirely with it.’

‘Why, you’re not ill, are you? Did Laura tell you about the London job? Only it’s next week and I have to know now if you’ll do it. You will, won’t you?’

‘Next week?’ I murmured, drifting back off into a warm and sleepy haze.

Jude removed the phone from my limp grasp and demanded rudely, ‘What do you want?’

I could hear Ellen quacking loudly.

‘No,’ he growled, ‘she can’t go and cook anywhere — she’s staying here.’ And he clicked the phone off, shoved it back into my pocket, and started the engine again.

‘That was a bit cavalier,’ I protested, reviving slightly, ‘and I’m not staying.’

‘You can phone her back tomorrow if you want to, when you’re fit to make decisions.’

Back at the house we went straight through to the kitchen, where Merlin was delighted to see us. Under the bright lights, Jude took me by the shoulders and stared worriedly down at me.

‘I think I should sober you up with coffee, you’re not used to our wassail. Or maybe you should just go to bed?’

‘Yes, that’s exactly what Laura said we should do,’ I agreed dreamily.

‘I’m getting to like the sound of this friend of yours more and more.’ The corner of his mouth quirked up slightly.

‘Are you? She’s prettier than I am — small and blonde.’

‘She might be pretty, but you’re beautiful — and you’re just the right height.’

‘Only to a giant.’

‘Lucky you’ve got one to hand then, isn’t it?’

‘And I don’t need sobering, because I’m not drunk,’ I told him. ‘I just feel. . good. Relaxed.’ In fact, I relaxed right there and then against his broad chest and he sighed deeply and put his arms around me, leaning his cheek against my hair.

‘That’s nice,’ I said, snuggling in a bit closer. ‘Jude, when you keep saying you don’t want me to go. . are we talking permanent employment here? Or a quick fling? Only I don’t—’

He gave me a slight shake and my mouth snapped shut. ‘I’m talking marriage, you idiot! You, me — and children, too, if we’re lucky. Which we should be after tonight.’ The corner of his mouth quirked up with amusement. ‘Saint George’s wreath never fails — ask Nancy! She’s had three of them, nine months to the day after a Revels.’

This dispelled the clouds of wassail slightly and I indignantly tried to push him away. ‘You mean you and Nancy —’

‘No, you idiot, Nancy and her husband .’

‘Oh.’ I relaxed against him again and he wrapped his arms closely around me. ‘Did you mean that, about getting married?’

‘Old Nan had another word with me about that Afghan she’s knitting for us tonight — but anyway, I’m a marrying man and I fell in love with you the minute I set eyes on you. Only I didn’t want to admit it, especially when I thought you were up to no good!’

‘Well, I wasn’t.’

‘I know now, but I loved you anyway, though it might have made me a bit bad-tempered.’

‘Just a bit — but perhaps trying to pretend to myself that I wasn’t falling in love with you made me a little grumpy, too! But if we married, we’d fight all the time, wouldn’t we?’

‘Yes, I’m looking forward to it.’

‘I haven’t said yes, yet,’ I pointed out. ‘But I might, if only because I can’t bear to be parted from Lady and Merlin.’