Staying Away at Christmas by Katie Fforde Read Free Book Online Page A

quite soon. If you’re just saying, “Oh yes, we’ll do lunch” you don’t make a definite date, do you?’
    ‘I really can’t remember!’ said Miranda beginning to laugh.
    Mum! You’re blushing!’ said Isa.
    ‘I expect I’m just having my first hot flush,’ said Miranda trying not to show her excitement. But she was feeling the glow on the inside as well. Christmas had really worked out perfectly. And who knew what the New Year might bring?

Read on for an extract from Katie Fforde’s new novel, out in February 2013

    Gina and Sally Makepiece have inherited a stall in the French House – an antiques centre nestled in the heart of the English countryside.
    Gina is determined to drag the French House and its grumpy owner into the twenty-first century. Bearing all the attributes of a modern-day Mr Rochester, Matthew Ballinger is less than happy with the whirlwind that has arrived on his doorstep.
    The last thing either of them want is to fall in love.
    But will a trip to France change their minds?

Chapter One

    ‘I’m saying this more in horror than in anger, sweets, but are you really going like that?’
    Gina shot her sister a look that combined irritation, amusement and a touch of exasperation. They were in the car on the main road to Cranmore-on-the-Green and turning back to revamp her outfit was not an option. Sally’s little girls were asleep in the back and Gina found it easier to drive if they were not singing and squabbling and spilling cartons of juice in her car. She wanted to get as far into the journey as possible before they woke up.
    Now, she said, ‘Seeing as we’re actually on our way, I
am
going to go like this. What’s wrong with what I’m wearing anyway? I’ve got a jacket in the boot.’
    Sally, eighteen months younger and making the most of the Indian summer, was wearing a long skirt, drapey top, gladiator sandals and a great many beads. She brought off the hippy-chick look irritatingly well. Gina felt herself being judged.
    ‘It’s very corporate,’ Sally pronounced. ‘A black trouser suit and a crisp white shirt might be fine for your business meetings but this—’
    ‘It is a business meeting.’ Gina glanced at the sat nav. ‘Anyway, most of my clothes are still in those cardboard boxes the men give you when you move. At least the shirt is clean and ironed. Nothing else I currently own is.’
    ‘It’s not exactly a business meeting,’ said Sally, having cast an eye over her children to make sure they were still asleep. ‘It involves a significant letter. From our mad Aunt Rainey.’
    Gina felt she should suppress Sally’s excitement just a bit. ‘It is business. Our dear departed aunt had a space in this guy’s antiques centre. That’s business, isn’t it? The letter is just something about that. Probably.’
    Sally tutted at Gina’s down-to-earth attitude. ‘Yes, but it’s contact from beyond the grave.’ She said this as if she was Yvette Fielding announcing an especially spooky edition of
Most Haunted
.
    Gina giggled. ‘Rubbish! We just got letters from her solicitor. It would only count as being beyond the grave if we had a séance.’
    ‘Do you think that’s a good idea?’
    Gina was laughing properly now, even as she shook her head. ‘Honestly, Sal, you’re barking. I do not think a séance is a good idea. Besides, it’s completely unnecessary because we have letters. Actual paper, here-in-the-real-world, letters.’ She sent Sally a loving if somewhat despairing look. ‘I do wonder sometimes if being an artist and a stay-at-home mum has rotted your brain.’ She paused for a second. ‘Not that you don’t do a brilliant job keeping it all together on no money. But some of your ideas are a bit out of left field.’
    ‘Well, you have to keep yourself amused somehow when you’re hunting for little garments under the bed and stopping the girls from killing each other.’ Sally sighed.
    Gina felt a pang of guilt for the brain-rot remark.