Sommersgate House (Ghosts and Reincarnation #2)(105)

It took a great deal of time settling them into bed and Julia didn’t want to start her Santa preparations until she was certain that Ruby was well asleep. The girl got up three times, coming down to check things out, rubbing her eyes in pretence and saying she was thirsty, she heard a noise and then trying the thirsty route again. The final time, Douglas came out of his study and took her up himself, which was a stroke of pure genius as Ruby was unlikely to leave a bed that Douglas firmly tucked her into.

Finally safe to start, Julia began collecting the extra Christmas presents, stocking stuffers and the boxes her mother had sent that she had hidden in her rooms and Mrs. K had secreted away in various places in the house. She thought about preparing Christmas herself but it would take forever and she had a long day tomorrow. Surely the children would be up early and she had a lot of cooking to do as she had invited Mr. and Mrs. K, Ronnie and Nick to Christmas Dinner (Carter had gone to his daughter’s place in Devon for the holiday).

Douglas had not said a word about his servants being invited to dinner, merely nodded his head when she suggested it and said distractedly, “You’ve the running of the house, Julia.”

Nick had no qualms about it, of course, but the Kilpatricks and Ronnie seemed somewhat shy, although also delighted about the idea.

She went to search for Douglas as he was her only hope of getting the presents sorted and getting to bed at a halfway decent hour. She could not find him anywhere and realised with chagrin that he’d most likely already retired.

With leaded feet, she approached the door to his rooms and then knocked softly, not wanting to awaken the children.

She gasped when it was thrown open almost immediately.

He stood there wearing his jeans and the khaki v-neck sweater he’d worn that day but his feet were bare.

His eyes warmed immediately when he saw her.

“Julia,” was all he said.

Not wanting him to get the wrong impression, she rushed in with an explanation. “I was hoping you’d help me play Santa.”

His damned eyebrow lifted.

She gave him a mutinous look.

“Ruby still believes and we have to get the stockings stuffed and Santa’s presents laid out…” she looked at his feet, “you’ll need your shoes.”

He looked at his feet then at her and didn’t say a word.

She lost her nerve, deciding instantly she could do it alone even if it took all night, and blurted, “It’s okay if you don’t want to help, I’ll do it myself.” And she whirled and escaped, going as fast as her feet could take her.

He found her in the back hallway, dragging a huge bag filled with wrapped presents. Without a word, he reached around her and hefted it up as if it weighed no more than a pencil, turned and walked away.

She noticed he was wearing shoes.

She ran to her rooms to get more.

Once they had all the stuff in the library where the tree was and where the children had decided they wanted Christmas, he stood there dubiously eyeing the bags and boxes filled to overflowing and the vast piles of presents already under the tree.

“This is ridiculous,” Douglas stated correctly. It looked like Santa and his whole workshop of elves had exploded in the room.

“Mom and I wanted to make sure that –” Julia started to explain as she took the stockings from the mantel.

“I understand,” he murmured, interrupting her, and she fell silent because he sounded like he understood, very much.

As she worked, she began to realise he seemed at odds as to what to do. He likely never played Santa before and she gently gave him directions which he carried out without hesitation.

Feeling strange that they were doing this joyful business in complete silence, she asked, “What were your Christmases like?”

“What do you mean?” He was putting an orange in the toe of each stocking.

“Did you have stockings like this or pillowcases at the end of your bed?” she inquired, suddenly very curious about what his childhood was like.

Tamsin never spoke of her childhood, at least not to Julia. Julia knew that Tamsin worked herself into exhaustion putting every ounce of magic into Christmas that she could stuff into it and she figured Tammy was holding up a tradition (even if it was hard to envision Monique stuffing a stocking, it wasn’t hard to envision her ordering Mrs. K to do so).

“Neither,” Douglas replied and Julia’s hand stilled in the process of following him along the stockings tipping into them the American Christmas chocolates her mother had sent.

“Neither?” she stared at him confused.

Douglas didn’t answer.

Julia tried again. “Did you open your presents Christmas Eve or Christmas morning?”

Finished with the oranges, he started to sort the presents in a box marked “Stocking Stuffers”.

“We received our present at dinner.”

His tone invited no further questioning but she was too stunned by this strange piece of information to let it slide. What did he mean, “present”, in singular, and whoever heard of a child getting one present at dinner?

Thinking he didn’t understand her question, she clarified, “No, I mean when you were children.”

He continued his work, seeming engrossed in it.

“At dinner,” was all he said.

An uneasy feeling stole through her. Even Monique (who was, thankfully, taking the holiday with friends in Munich) could not be so cold as to give her children one present at Christmas dinner.