Chapter Twenty-Four

‘Here?’ Clover asked, dangling the striped bauble and looking back at her nephew.

‘No! Higher!’ Elliot squealed, pointing to the next branch up.

‘Here?’

‘Yes!’ he cheered as she positioned it carefully just above her head.

‘I feel like a superhero,’ Clover grinned, glancing at her sister-in-law, who was sitting in the armchair, feeding the baby.

‘Oh believe me, if it’s appreciation that you want, get a dog,’ Charlie smiled. ‘Trixie makes me feel like a superhero every time I step into the kitchen! It’s kind of depressing that no one will ever be as excited by my presence, as the dog!’

Clover laughed. She picked up a glass snowflake and let it spin as it dangled on its thread. Elliot stared back with starry eyes.

‘There!’ He pointed to a fir frond by her shoulder.

‘Here?’

‘No, there!’

She placed it three inches to the right. Elliot did his little skipping run on the spot.

‘So Tom said you’ve been in Austria lately?’ Charlie looked down at Bella, stroking her cheek.

‘Yes, for the past month or so. Zell am See, do you know it? It’s quite near Salzburg.’

‘No. Is it nice?’

‘It’s beautiful! The town sits right on a lake, seven hundred metres up, in the middle of the Alps. You should go.’

‘Maybe we will. What’s the skiing like? Tom’s keen to get Elliot on skis as soon as possible.’

Elliot’s head lifted at the sound of his name. ‘Which one now, Mama?’

‘The pom-pom robin,’ she pointed, without hesitation.

Elliot handed it to Clover and began scanning the tree for spaces. ‘There!’

‘There are some great nursery slopes in Zell am See,’ Clover said, following Elliot’s direction and hanging it on a higher branch. ‘And it’s linked to Kaprun, which has the Kitzsteinhorn glacier, which is where I’ve been spending most of my days lately.’

‘Lucky you!’ Charlie’s eyes narrowed as she watched her son still dance on the spot. ‘Elliot,’ she said in a warning tone. ‘Do you need the toilet?’

He shook his head, a little too hard.

‘I think you do . . . Go on, quick, quick!’ She grinned at Clover as the toddler broke into a sprint for the bathroom. ‘There’s such a thing as being too excited about putting up the tree.’

Clover chuckled.

‘Sorry, go on. While I’m sitting here feeding and giving loo instructions, you were telling me about your incredibly glamorous life.’

‘Ha. It’s sadly not that! It might sound that way but it’s been all work and very little play. The next film’s about a snowboarder – that’s why we’re there.’

Charlie looked up. ‘Oh. So are you specializing in sports documentaries now?’