She stayed up late, wrapping the presents in what remained of the wallpaper and labelling them with the name of the appropriate child. It took several trips to place them beneath the tree, but the end result even drew a smile of approval from Molesworth as he went on his late night rounds, locking doors. But when she was finally in bed, tired and aching from the exertion, Daisy found that sleep evaded her. She was desperate to go home and let everyone know she was all right, but she realised with something of a shock that she wanted to stay in the house she had grown to love, with the people, or perhaps more importantly, the person she most wanted to spend her life with. She had felt the old house awakened after a long sleep and opening its arms to embrace the future, but Jay was sending her back to her old life, and he had made it clear that their brief relationship was over. Tomorrow she would go home and carry on as before, but somehow the spirit of Christmas had evaporated, leaving her feeling alone and bereft.

Chapter Twenty-Five

It was still dark when they left the house next morning. Daisy followed the bobbing light of Jay’s lantern as he made his way to the folly at the end of the garden, and the hard-packed snow crunched beneath her feet. It was at least two hours before dawn, but it felt like the middle of the night. Daisy had barely slept for thinking about their perilous journey, although it was the ultimate consequences that worried her most. She realised now that the last few days had been the happiest time she ever remembered, and going back to her old way of life was going to prove more difficult than she could have imagined. She knew that Jay thought he was doing the right thing by taking her to her family, and she was eager to see her aunt and uncle, but fate seemed to have taken her on another and unexpected journey. Nothing was certain, least of all her future, and she felt as though she had reached a crossroads – but which way to take? And did she have a choice? It seemed that Jay had decided for her and this would be a final farewell.

‘Hold my hand.’ Jay reached out to her. ‘Just until we get to the bottom of the steps – they’re very slippery.’

The air in the tunnel was dank and it seemed to stretch even further than it had when they first came ashore, but the temperature underground had remained constant and it was only when they emerged onto the foreshore that the extreme cold struck her forcibly. Jay seemed impervious to anything other than the business in hand, and having handed Daisy into the jollyboat he heaved it into the water. She could see the dark shape of the Lazy Jane bobbing idly on the slack water and she experienced an almost overwhelming desire to ask Jay to turn back, but she was too anxious to speak and wary of giving away her innermost feelings to the man who was suddenly treating her like a stranger. It was hard to forget their previous passionate embraces and yet too painful to remember them in the light of what might follow.