Free Last Christmas by Julia Williams Page A

Pippa. ‘The trouble was, I was so pissed by the end of the night, I couldn’t remember anything about it. Though I do recall Gabe saying something about having sick on his shoes, I just thought it was his.’
    ‘Yes, well, now you know,’ said Marianne, ‘and you’ve embarrassed me enough for one evening. So I think I need to go home right now.’
    ‘What you need,’ said Pippa, ‘is to lighten up and meetnew people. Coincidentally, my lovely cousin needs to do exactly the same thing. So you are going to get to know him and find out that he isn’t at all ogrish, and thinks it’s quite funny that you threw up on him.’
    Pippa pushed Marianne into the seat next to Gabriel before disappearing to the bar. This was excruciatingly awful.
    ‘I’m sorry about this,’ Marianne said, thinking it couldn’t get any more awkward. ‘I had no idea Pippa was so bossy. She seems to have decided we need to bond or something. But it’s quite all right, we don’t. After the last time we met, I can quite see that you wouldn’t be at all interested in talking to me, so I’ll just finish my drink and head on home.’
    ‘Don’t do that,’ Gabriel said. He looked at her with those lovely brown eyes and Marianne had to swallow hard. ‘I once went back to a girl’s room and did the very same thing. We’ve all done something silly under the influence.’
    ‘In my defence,’ said Marianne. ‘It was a bit of an intense night. I hadn’t meant to get so drunk, and I certainly didn’t mean to come on to you like that. I was on the rebound.’
    ‘I’ll try not to take that as an insult,’ laughed Gabriel.
    ‘Oh God, sorry, I didn’t mean it like that,’ gabbled Marianne. ‘It’s not that you’re not attractive or anything—’
    ‘Glad to hear it,’ said Gabriel with a grin.
    ‘—but I was feeling a bit desperate and so was behaving quite out of character. It’s just not me to be like that.’
    ‘I know,’ said Gabriel. ‘And I do understand. I’ve been there too. I’m sorry to hear about you and Luke Nicholas.’
    Marianne suddenly glimpsed the pain she’d seen in his eyes at Christmas. She wasn’t one for village gossip but she had picked up that Stephen’s mum had left them. She felt a burst of solidarity with him. Things hadn’t worked out the way they’d hoped for either of them.
    ‘And I’m sorry to hear about your wife,’ she replied.
    ‘Probably for the best,’ mumbled Gabriel.
    ‘I don’t believe that,’ said Marianne. ‘As a fellow member of the Lonely Hearts Club, I can tell you’re lying.’
    ‘And you’d be right,’ said Gabriel. He raised his glass. ‘Here’s to being friends and Lonely Hearts together.’
    ‘To friends and Lonely Hearts,’ echoed Marianne and clinked her glass against his. ‘To never falling in love again and a pox on heartbreakers everywhere.’
    Noel put his key in the lock, and turned it. Damn. Didn’t seem to be working. He blinked myopically down at his keyring, which mysteriously had found itself a twin. Oh. Hang on.
    ‘Wrong key,’ Noel slurred. ‘That’s it.’ He stood swaying on the doorstep, got the key in the lock, turned, and hey presto.
    ‘Ssssh,’ he said to the wall as he fell against it. ‘Mustn’t wake everyone up.’ Cat had been most insistent on that point, after he’d come home from someone’s leaving do the previous week and sung ‘Pinball Wizard’ so that the whole house had heard. He couldn’t help it if the DJ had been a Tommy fan.
    Noel reached out for the light but the bulb popped. Bugger. He fumbled his way down the corridor towards the stairs that led down to the kitchen. There was usually a stash of new bulbs in one of the kitchen drawers.
    As he got there he heard a noise. He paused at the top of the stairs.
    There was a bang and a muffled shout.
    There was definitely someone down there.
    Noel crept back to the family room and rooted round in the dark for a suitable implement. He grabbed something long and