Chapters (25)
‘Yes, that’s true,’ Sue said. ‘Look, I haven’t told my children yet. Or anyone except Cordelia and a few close friends. Would you keep it to yourself? He’s done this sort of thing before you see, started affairs, but they’ve never gone this far. He’s never packed a bag and left a note before. I still think … I think he might come back. Before I have to tell the children. It seems increasingly unlikely, but he might, and if he does, well, I don’t want anyone to know.’
‘Do you want him back?’ Nick asked her, and for moment Sue had to think.
‘He’s the father of my children,’ Sue said. ‘And it’s nearly Christmas. Of course I do. Are you married?’
There was something about him that was undeniably charismatic, even with the beard, which looked too good to be fake, and the comfortable-looking paunch.
‘Never been married,’ Nick said. ‘Never met the right woman. Oh sure, they like the beard, the thrill of the sleigh ride. But when it comes down to living in freezing conditions for most of the year, and the antisocial hours, and they lose interest. No, it will take a particular kind of woman to be my wife, and I haven’t met her yet.
‘Still,’ he said, as Sue led him back to the front door, ‘I live in hope.’
As Sue waved Nick off, after walking him across the courtyard and letting him out of the portcullis, half of her rather expecting to find some snorting reindeer and a sleigh parked outside, she had to admit that she had enjoyed her evening play-acting with the strange and curious Nick, whose second name she still didn’t know. She had no fears that he was an axe murder any more, he was obviously a gently eccentric soul. There had been something about his presence that Sue couldn’t quite put her finger on, something that she only noticed once he had left, strolling into the moonlight, as she turned back to look up at the cavernous bulk of her home, most of its many windows now dark and sightless. While he had been with her she’d felt the strangest sensation of peace on earth, and yes, goodwill to all men.
All men, except Rory, of course.