Snowy Christmas (8 page)

He helped boost her into the helicopter, and
they both settled in their seats and fastened their safety belts.
The pilot told them to put on their headsets so they could talk to
each other.

A few minutes later, the engine roared, and
the craft shuddered and lifted off. The ground fell away, leaving
Emily's tummy behind.

"All right?" Marcus's voice came through the
headset in her ears. He sounded very cultured through the
headphones, and she wondered what she'd sound like, so she just
nodded.

"You're allowed to talk to me, you know," he
joked.

It was all so new and strange. Emily giggled.
"Hello," she said. He shook his head affectionately and pressed a
quick kiss to her lips.

"Don't miss the view," the pilot said.

Emily turned her attention to the window as
they circled the parkland. Below, Rosemoor Estate and the village
looked like toy land. She tugged her phone from her pocket and
snapped some photos to show her grandmother and Ned.

Marcus and the pilot both pointed out
landmarks as they flew, and it wasn't long before the urban expanse
of London lay below. Marcus leaned over and pointed down at the
cars gridlocked bumper to bumper on the roads.

"That's why we didn't drive. The traffic into
London is crazy busy this close to Christmas."

Emily had expected that they'd land at London
City Airport. Instead they came down on a landing pad on the top of
a tower block.

"This is Sinclair Bank," Marcus said.

"Oh my gosh." Door-to-door service in under
an hour. If this was what it was like to be rich, she could get
used to it.

A man in a burgundy doorman's uniform ran
forward and opened the helicopter door. He helped her down before
leading them to the exit from the roof. "Please come with me, sir,
madam."

The stairway down from the roof was plain,
but at the bottom of the flight they stepped through a door into a
thickly carpeted corridor with subtle recessed lighting and
gold-patterned wallpaper.

A short trip down a few floors in an elevator
took them to a busier area, where an attractive receptionist
greeted Marcus with a smile. "Did you have a good flight, Mr.
Bramwell?"

"Excellent. Thank you."

"Please follow me. Mr. Sinclair is waiting
for you."

Marcus took Emily's hand, and she walked
beside him in a daze as they were shown into a huge glass-walled
corner office with a stunning view over the iconic London skyline.
A good-looking man about the same age as Marcus with dark blond
hair and a charcoal-gray suit rose from behind the desk to shake
their hands.

"Emily, this is Ben Sinclair. We go back all
the way to prep school when we were five." They asked after each
other's families, and were obviously good friends.

Emily sank into a plush leather sofa beside
Marcus and dug out of her bag the proof of identity she needed. She
leaned on a glass-topped coffee table to fill out the loan
application form, and handed it across to Ben. He cast his eye over
the pages, signed the bottom to approve the loan, and the form was
whisked away by the efficient receptionist.

While she and Marcus chatted with Ben over
cups of coffee, thousands of pounds were transferred into her bank
account as if borrowing money was as easy as buying a can of
peas.

The whole experience was surreal. Of course,
she was under no illusion they were doing this for her. On her own,
she wouldn't even be allowed inside this exclusive bank for the
über wealthy, let alone be offered a loan. This was a transaction
between Ben and Marcus, a man doing a favor for an old friend. And
if she defaulted, she knew the signature Marcus had dashed off at
the bottom of a document they didn't discuss meant he would pay the
money back.

Perhaps she should have objected, but she
wasn't that stupid. If he was willing to pave the way for her to
get a better rate of interest like this, she was happy to accept.
She planned to pay back every penny herself, so he would never be
called on to subsidize her.

After they said good-bye to Ben, they stepped
out of the Sinclair Bank's luxurious tower onto a busy street, and
normality returned in a heady rush. Had she really just lived
through the last half hour, or was it a dream?

She gripped the lapels of Marcus's coat. "I
have enough money in my bank account to pay off the credit card
bills in full now, don't I?"

"Yes."

Emily threw back her head and shouted, "Yes!"
Relief sang along her nerves. She felt as though a horrible burden
had been lifted from her shoulders. Okay, she still owed the same
amount of money, but the monthly payments were so much less that
she could afford to pay off some of the balance each month as
well.

She linked her arms around Marcus's neck and
kissed him, right there in the street with businesspeople streaming
around them.

"What was that for?" he said when she
released him.

"Because you're wonderful."

He chuckled. "I'm not going to argue with
that."

"So, where are we going next?"

"That, my darling, is a surprise."

"Oh my. This whole place sells nothing but toys?"
Emily gazed up at the facade of the old building illuminated with
Christmas lights in wonder, giving Marcus a thrill to be taking her
inside for the first time.

Marcus loved Hamley's toy shop on Regent
Street. He'd been coming here the week before Christmas since he
was a boy. When he was younger, his father brought him to choose
presents for himself. It was seven floors of magic that he'd looked
forward to one day sharing with his own son or daughter. He'd
started to lose hope of that ever happening.

They made their way through the busy floors
of toys and games, amid the squeaking, chiming, and beeping of toys
and the happy chatter of excited children with their parents. He
chose some gifts for his brother's daughter, Isabelle, and a few
new baby toys to give to Owen and Jennifer's baby when it was born
after Christmas.

Yet he was at a loss when it came to Chloe.
"What do thirteen-year-old girls like? I need birthday and
Christmas presents for Chloe." She was more a young woman now than
a child. He was good at choosing toys for little girls, and not bad
at choosing jewelry and gifts for women, but teenage girls confused
him.

"If you're looking for something for Chloe,
we need a good department store."

"Let's go to the best then." They left
Hamley's clutching their gift bags and hailed a black cab.
"Harrods," Marcus said to the driver. No address needed.

The iconic department store was impressive,
the front covered in tasteful Christmas lights. Emily helped him
select a handbag with a dog-shaped charm on it that he knew Chloe
would love. He also bought her dog-patterned Wellington boots and a
matching phone case. Then they went up to the Terrace Restaurant
and chose from the impressive lunch menu.

Staring out over the busy street below, Emily
shook her head. "I can't believe today is real. It's like I've
stepped into someone else's life."

"I don't do this very often." Marcus hoped
she didn't decide she liked spending days shopping in London. That
had been a sticking point between him and Gabriella. He much
preferred the country, and whenever Gabriella dragged him away from
Rosemoor, he couldn't wait to get home.

"It's fun, but I'm looking forward to seeing
Snowy again. Is there anywhere else you need to go?"

"There's a store I want to go to just down
the street."

"What store?"

"A jewelers."

• • •

With her hand in Marcus's, Emily made her way through
the busy shoppers, not sure if she was excited or nervous to be
visiting a jewelers. Marcus hadn't said why he wanted to go there,
but his tone of voice and the way his eyes had twinkled suggested
he planned to get something for her.

The jewelry shop was unlike any she'd ever
seen before. It was down a side street, the front very discreet
with nothing in the window but a sign. Marcus pressed a buzzer
beside the door and spoke into an intercom. "Mr. Bramwell for a
private viewing."

The door buzzed open, and they stepped
through into a large open space filled with lit glass cases
displaying sparkling jewels. Emily wasn't sure what she'd expected
to find behind the plain storefront, but not this extravagant
display.

"Good afternoon." A pretty young woman
approached them. "How can we help you today?"

"I want to buy a Christmas present for my
girlfriend." Marcus smiled at Emily and she felt she should say
something, but was at a loss for words.

"Do you have anything in mind, sir?"

"We'll wander around and browse," he
said.

Marcus put his arm around Emily's waist, and
they strolled between the glittering displays of necklaces, rings,
bracelets, earrings, and watches. Some of the prices were
heart-stoppingly expensive, and made her debts seem like small
change.

"What would you like for Christmas, darling?"
he said.

"Gosh. I have no idea where to start
looking." A strange whooshing sounded in Emily's ears as she
surveyed the fortune in jewels surrounding her.

He chuckled as if she'd made a joke, but she
was serious. She didn't know how much he wanted to spend. One
glance at the prices suggested
a lot
. Nothing was cheap. Of
course his idea of cheap was different from hers.

He stroked a strand of hair from her cheek
and pressed a kiss to the skin beneath her ear that normally made
her go all tingly. Right now she hardly noticed, she was so
overwhelmed.

"Those are nice." Marcus pointed out some
diamond drop earrings that cost as much as a small car.

"They're lovely." But they weren't for her.
When would she wear earrings like that? She'd worry the whole time
she would lose one. Asking her to choose for herself was a nice
idea, but it actually made her uncomfortable.

On the far side of the room against the wall,
a display caught her eye. It featured a picture of a cute Westie
that looked like Snow White. The dog was like a familiar landmark
in a foreign land. She hurried between the glass cases towards it,
and her heart nearly melted at the adorable line of jewelry called
Paw Prints on Your Heart.

There were all types of pieces decorated with
paw prints, hearts, and animals. A pretty heart-shaped pendant
decorated with a diamond-studded paw print was her favorite. And,
relative to everything else she'd seen, it wasn't too
expensive.

Marcus could obviously read her mind or her
expression, because he beckoned over the hovering assistant and
pointed out the pendant. "We'd like to look at this, please."

The gold heart on its chain was laid on a
navy velvet display board. Emily picked it up, cradling the piece
in her palm. The heart was just the right size, not too big and not
too small, with the paw print in the middle.

"Would you like to try it on?" Marcus took it
from her and fastened the chain around her neck. He stood behind
her with his hands on her shoulders as she stared in the
mirror.

She fell in love with it the moment she saw
her reflection. She touched her fingertips to the gold heart. It
wasn't only pretty; the way it laid flat against her skin made it
comfortable too.

Marcus smiled at her in the mirror. "It could
have been made especially for you."

"I love it."

He pulled her close and kissed her temple.
"We'll take it," he told the assistant. He unfastened it and turned
the heart over on his palm. On the back it said
Paw Prints on
Your Heart
in small cursive script.

"I should have one of these as well," he said
softly. "We both have paw prints on our hearts." Then he laughed.
"Actually, my whole family does."

• • •

For the next few days, Emily walked on air. She used
the loan to pay off her credit card accounts and loved seeing the
zero balance when she logged into them on the Internet. She'd cut
up those credit cards and had no intention of ever using the
accounts again.

On Saturday, a week before Christmas, some of
the estate workers carried a ten-foot Nordmann's fir into the great
hall and set it up. That afternoon, all the Bramwells gathered to
decorate the tree in historic tradition. Emily was the only one
there who wasn't a member of the family, but they made her feel as
though she belonged.

A log fire crackled in the huge stone
fireplace, and a comfortable arrangement of chairs and sofas
surrounded it. Marcus had brought back the furniture that used to
be in the room when his parents were alive so they could have a
proper family Christmas here like they used to.

Jennifer gingerly sat in one of the chairs
with her hands linked over her huge belly, and puffed out a
relieved breath. "I'm going to watch you guys decorate. My back's
aching." It was incredible how her baby bump had grown in just a
month.

They opened the old cardboard boxes Emily had
helped Marcus dig out of a storeroom. Inside were the antique glass
baubles and tree decorations that had been in the family for over a
century. Each glass ball was wrapped in tissue paper.

"Handle the decorations very carefully," Owen
told Chloe. "They belonged to your great-grandma."

"I know, Dad. You told me that on the way
over here." Despite her slightly touchy attitude, Chloe was gentle
when she hung the decorations on the pine branches. She, Vicky, and
Emily decorated the lower branches while Owen and Marcus worked off
the stepladder to reach the upper tree.

Jonathan was responsible for baby Isabelle.
She'd just started walking, and kept him racing around after
her.

"She knows I can't see her, and she delights
in trying to outwit me," he said. At that moment, Isabelle made a
break for the stairs, waving her chubby arms and giggling as her
little shoes thumped on the wooden floorboards.