Twelve Days of Christmas by Trisha Ashley

you,’ Noël said, ‘but he doesn’t mean any harm by it.’
    Since Jess was at the age where your main wish in life is to be totally invisible and anyone even glancing at you could be an agony, I thought Guy Martland sounded very insensitive and mean indeed! Just as objectionable, in his own way, as his brother Jude, in fact.
    ‘I’m sure it was all for the best that Jude’s fiancée broke the engagement, because she can’t have been in love with him,’ Noël said, ‘and I am a firm believer in marriage being for life.’
    ‘Yes, me too – and beyond,’ I murmured absently, my mind still on Ned Martland.
    ‘Guy and Coco – that’s her silly name – just got engaged,’ Jess said. ‘It was in the paper and I think that’s why Uncle Jude said he wasn’t coming back from America until after Christmas.’
    ‘Oh, but he already had the invitation to spend the holidays with friends after the event to mark the installation of his sculpture . . . Though perhaps you are partly right, Jess,’ her grandfather conceded. ‘I expect Guy would have thought nothing of turning up for a family Christmas despite everything, had Jude stayed at home.’
    ‘They haven’t spoken since last Christmas,’ Jess explained. ‘Jude invited Coco here to meet the family and she and Guy got very friendly. Uncle Jude was pretty grim.’
    ‘I expect he would be!’ I agreed, though going by the photographs I’d seen, and my brief conversations with him, he was always pretty grim.
    ‘Then she and Jude had a big argument and Guy drove her home and that was it.’
    ‘I don’t feel that Guy behaved very well in the circumstances, even if there was a mutual attraction between him and Coco,’ Noël said, looking troubled. ‘It upset my brother, too, that there was a breach between his two sons and Jude thought it hastened his last illness.’ He shook his head sadly. ‘Not that Alex liked her very much – it was her first visit to Old Place and she made it clear she was expecting a much larger and grander house.’
    ‘It seems pretty large and grand to me,’ I said, surprised.
    ‘Still, she won’t have to live here if she marries Guy – and Jude will just have to forgive and forget.’
    ‘I don’t suppose she’ll come here much anyway,’ Jess said. ‘She didn’t seem to like being in the country at all and wouldn’t go out except in the car, because she hadn’t brought any shoes except stiletto heels, though she could have borrowed some wellies. And she’s scared of horses and dogs. Granny says she’s all fur coat and no knickers, and Guy could do better.’
    I swallowed a sip of tea the wrong way and coughed, my eyes watering.
    ‘I don’t think you should repeat that phrase, really,’ Noël said mildly.
    ‘How on earth did she meet Jude in the first place?’ I asked. ‘It doesn’t sound as if they had a lot in common.’
    ‘She is a model and also, I believe, aspires to be an actress. Someone brought her to Jude’s last big retrospective exhibition and introduced her. She’s very, very pretty indeed, if your taste runs to fair women.’
    ‘Uncle Jude’s must, mustn’t it?’ Jess said.
    ‘I suppose we do tend to be attracted to our opposites,’ I suggested.
    ‘You’re very dark, so was your husband fair?’
    ‘Jess, you really shouldn’t ask people personal questions!’
    ‘I don’t mind – and yes, my husband had blond hair and blue eyes. His younger sister is my best friend and has the same colouring – she’s very pretty too.’
    How I’d longed to be small, blonde and cute when I was at school, rather than towering above everyone, even the boys! I’d been thin as a stick too, which had made me even more self-conscious – though actually I wasn’t sure it was any better later when I filled out and men started to talk to my boobs instead of me . . . except Alan, of course.
    ‘Well, I think we ought to be going!’ Noël said, getting up.
    ‘I’m walking down to the village tomorrow,