The Night Before Christmas by Scarlett Bailey Read Free Book Online Page A

door, all of them, with perhaps the exception of the dog, keen to get a look at the latest man in Joanna Summer’s life.
    ‘Wait for me!’ Alex yelled, gesturing frantically for David to pull her to her feet, her voice receding into the background as Lydia and Katy vied for first place. ‘Bloody wait for me, you bastards!’
    In the end, Katy, who wasn’t wearing a stylish but impractical pair of stiletto boots, made it first, flinging the door open and dragging Joanna inside for one of her biggest hugs.
    ‘Jo-Jo!’ she yelped happily, as Vincent did his best to maul the latest arrival. ‘Look at you!’
    Joanna was indeed a vision of loveliness. Wearing a white woollen coat trimmed with faux fur, and a matching hat, her red hair cascading down her back. She looked like she’d just stepped off the set of a remake of
Doctor Zhivago
.
    ‘How do you get out of a car after three hundred miles looking like
that
?’ Lydia asked her old flatmate, kissing her on the cheek.
    ‘I don’t know, darling, I’m just naturally glamorous, I suppose.’ Joanna grinned at her. ‘And so are you two. Look at you, Katy, with your country rosy cheeks, and you, Lyds, all city sophistication – you put me to shame, the pair of you.’ It was part of Joanna’s charm that she always responded to a compliment with one of her own. Now she bent down and graciously kissed Tilly, before ruffling Jake’s hair, distastefully but gently edging Vincent out of her way with the toe of her boot.
    ‘We want to know if you are really going to get married this time!’ Jake told her.
    Katy shrugged. ‘I’m not even going to pretend that I haven’t coached him to say that. So, are you?’
    ‘And can I be bridesmaid?’ Tilly followed up.
    ‘Shhh!’ Joanna put her fingers to her lips, glancing over her shoulder into the night. ‘It’s early days, but the signs are good.’ Careful to address the children directly, she added, ‘But we don’t want to frighten him off, do we, kids? So if you can manage to keep your questions to yourself, then, yes, Tilly, you can be bridesmaid and, no, Jake, you don’t have to be pageboy.’
    ‘Aunty Jo,’ Tilly said, ‘I watch you on telly all the time. I hope you’ve got me a tiara for Christmas, like the ones on your show made from purest diamonique.’
    ‘Any chance anyone could give me a hand with this trunk?’ an American accent enquired from behind an armful of presents. ‘I think Joanna’s packed London!’
    Lydia froze. Something in those few muffled words sounded a chime of recognition within her. No … it couldn’t be, could it?’
    ‘Here, let me help you,’ David offered, arriving with Alex, who waddled a step or two ahead of him, eager to greet Joanna.
    ‘Hello, Jo, you look like a Russian hooker!’ Alex greeted her cheerfully.
    ‘And you are glowing!’ Joanna informed her serenely.
    ‘What, like radioactive waste?’ Lydia dimly heardAlex retort as, with everything seeming to happen in slow motion, she watched David relieve Joanna’s boyfriend of his pile of gifts, one by one. Her heart pounded in her chest as saw his head dip with the effort of dragging a large brass-cornered trunk into the lobby. Hair, light brown, thick and wavy, with that familiar much-kissed hairline. It could not be. Lydia held her breath, hoping that she was delusional or somehow drunk on one sip of wine, but knowing she wasn’t.
    His heavy cargo finally in place, the mystery man looked up and smiled.
    ‘Hi, everyone, I’m Jack.’
    But Lydia knew at once that he wasn’t Jack to everyone. To her, he’d been Jackson Blake. Handsome, American and utterly charming. Joanna’s new boyfriend was the long-lost love of Lydia’s life.

Chapter Four
    The day Lydia had first met Jackson Blake had been a boiling hot Thursday in May, about a month and a half before she’d met Stephen. As in recent years, summer had arrived early, and to Lydia, as she left the heat and fug of her chambers in Lincolns Inn, it