A Perfect Christmas by Lynda Page Page B

leave the situation, walk away from Neil and get on with her life alone. She needed advice on how to put matters right between them. The two girls who were supposed to be her friends had turned their backs on her at this moment of crisis, showing that their friendship was merely superficial and they were only in it for what it brought them. This meant that there was only one other person she could turn to for advice on how to resolve her dire situation.
    Waiting patiently for her mother to finish her chapter finally proved too much for Cait. ‘I really need to speak to you, Mother,’ she blurted out. Before Nerys had chance to refuse, Cait told her that Neil had called off their wedding and asked, ‘I treated him like you do Father, and you are both happy together, so where have I gone wrong, Mother?’
    If she had been expecting Nerys to impart her worldly wisdom and inform her what she could do to make amends with Neil, then she was to be cruelly disappointed. Nerys’s matter-of-fact response was, ‘Samuel and I were destined to be together, you and Neil obviously were not. You’ve got plenty to do before next weekend, to keep you occupied and help you over it. You’ve still got all your packing to do and things to arrange in the new house, to make it ready to move into.’
    Cait stared at her in astonishment. ‘Live in the house that Neil and I were going to share! Oh, I couldn’t. It would be too much of a reminder for me . . .’
    Nerys cut in, ‘It’s a house, isn’t it? And you need somewhere to live. If you don’t want to live there on your own, find someone to share with you. Be a pity to waste the month’s rent that’s paid on it, as I doubt it would be refunded.’ She then picked up her book and began to read again, her way of informing her daughter that as far as she was concerned there was nothing more to discuss.
    Cait lay in bed, staring up at the shadows cast on the ceiling, fighting to concentrate her thoughts on the shifting shapes instead of dwelling on what had transpired tonight and its very serious repercussions for her. She was failing miserably. All the shadows seemed to have Neil’s face in them. She heaved a sorrowful sigh, doing nothing to wipe away the flood of tears spilling down the sides of her face. It was ironic that last night she couldn’t sleep through excitement and nerves about her forthcoming wedding, and tonight she couldn’t because she was feeling utterly desolate that there wasn’t going to be one. Neil had made it very clear that there would be no reconciliation.
    She wasn’t just having to deal with the heartbreak of a failed romance either. In seven days’ time she would be thrust into the world to fend for herself. Believing she had saved herself from that fate by finding Neil, she had no idea how she would cope with living alone and doing all the things she’d never had to before. This house was the only home she had known. She might most of the time feel like an intruder here, due to the way her parents were, but at least she’d had a certain amount of security, knowing a meal would be on the table for her, her washing done, her bedroom cleaned, albeit by Agnes Dalby, the daily her mother employed, who saw to these household chores.
    She felt that she was being forced headlong towards a closed door, her unknown future concealed behind it, with no one to offer her comfort or support, let alone love.

CHAPTER SIX
    ‘H ave you got a watch?’
    Glen sat bolt upright, still half-asleep but instantly on his guard. He didn’t like waking up to find a stranger close to him. No, not a stranger, he realised belatedly. It was the woman he’d saved in the arches the night before – and now she would not leave him alone.
    ‘A watch?’ he queried.
    His tone of voice left her in no doubt what he thought of her for asking such a stupid question. ‘Well . . . er . . . what I meant was, how do I find out what time it is?’
    He glanced out of the shop doorway at the