chapter 7

Millie enjoyed her Christmas day, she feasted on the surplus game pie which she had brought home from the bistro and made a delicious salad to go with it.  Lucifer had a chicken breast and then fell asleep on the sofa. To Millie having Christmas day  on her own was,f or a change, silent. No twins arguing with each other and giving her orders, and watching TV was a joy without the full scale war over what to watch. 

After lunch she settled down to watch a film, and before the titles had finished her phone buzzed with a message. The twins, she thought and carried on watching the film. Ten minutes later it buzzed again, and again. 

“Oh, for heaven’s sake,” Millie grabbed her phone and looked at the texts. 

Merry Christmas Millie, we hope you are having fun, and that Lucifer is behaving. Love from Nick & Gabriel. xxxx Lucy and Claire xx

Millie gasped when she saw the photo that accompanied the texts. Nick and Gabriel in shorts and bare chests. Both were very tanned and Gabriel’s hair was so much lighter, bleached by the sun. Millie couldn’t help grinning at the picture, Nick was smiling. She’d never seen him smile, he had just looked angry or upset when she had been in his company before. He looked stunning, they both did. She would have to send a text back.

Merry Christmas to all. I’m fine, and Lucifer is a wonderful cat, he always comes for a love when I come home from work, he’s always sitting on my knee and wants to be stroking. He had a chicken breast for his lunch today. xxxx

Millie received no more text messages that day. She thought about her sisters and wondered how they were getting on, she hadn’t heard from her mother either, not that she expected to hear from her. In fact thinking about it she hadn’t heard from her for the past six months.  They only argued anyway or she would have to listen to her raving on about the twins and how wonderful they were.  Now, maybe she had a chance, she knew some lovely people now. People who might give her a little bit of support instead of telling her she was fat and stupid.

In The Maldives.

Nick had just taken a drink chachampagne he read Millie’s text and tried not to spit it out as he burst into laughter and he almost choked on it. He was coughing so much. Gabriel slapped him on the back.

“Bloody cat!” Gabriel said as he looked at the text. Dare they send a text back asking her to the same to them when they got home. Gabriel thought that might be too much for her, even though it was a joke. He didn’t want her to run away. They would have to slow and sure if she would stay. A brief kiss here, a little suggestion there. She wasn’t a woman who counted their insta likes every five minutes, she didn’t even had an insta account, and her Facebook account was for recipes and cooking groups.

Nick was desperate to jump in all guns blazing. They were chatting while floating in the lagoon where Claire and Lucy would not hear them.

“Just got to take it easy, she’s not bothered about parties and having her picture taken. She wants quiet dinners with wonderful food. No one has ever listened to her, those stupid sisters haven’t. She needs people to listen to her Nick and if you want her to stay we need to listen.

London.

On Boxing day, Millie was at work and busy baking for the lunchtime rush. They would be very busy today with all the sales on. She also had a fruit cake to ice with sugar roses for a 100th birthday. 

By ten thirty the bistro was full, and there was an audience looking through the glass walls into the kitchen as she decorated the cake. It was good for business, customers could see what she was doing and how good at it she was, resulting in plenty of orders.

One customer was a rather odd looking man, dressed in a tweed suit together with a large tweed cape, complete with deer stalker hat. He sat at the bar by the kitchen with a coffee, watching her.  

Nadia, one of the young servers brought some crockery into the kitchen. “Looks like Sherlock Holmes has come back to life, he looks a right crackpot,” she said nodding her head towards the man.

“Don’t be awful Nadia, he’s theatrical and Sherlock isn’t dead, he was a fictional character.” Millie said placing the final rose on the cake.

The day passed quickly and as Millie was walking home, began to snow. She had just got through the back garden gate when her phone buzzed. It was a text.

Just getting on the plane, we will see you tomorrow.N&G xxxx

Millie sent a picture back of the garden which being covered in snow.

I hope you have cold weather gear with you.xx

Again the phone buzzed.

We’re not worried, we are sure you will keep us warm. xxxx

Millie had no idea what to reply to that, what did that mean, both of them? While she was eating her dinner, she thought about them, the butterflies in her tummy were revving up. Throughout the past six months she had dreamed of Nick  every minute she had. Though since meeting Gabriel, she had been dreaming about him too. If she had to choose there was no way she could make a choice, and decide between them.  

She spent a restless night tossing and turning, and dreaming about her sisters and the men, even Sherlock was in her dream too. she woke at four A.M. her mind racing, Lucifer snuggled up against her making her hot, she threw the covers back  to cool down  and put the radio on at the side of her bed.  The music was soft and relaxing at this time of the morning, she closed her eyes and listened to the song that had just come on.  Who was singing, he had a beautiful voice  and the song was all about a lost love, it almost brought tears to her eyes.

“Well wasn’t that a wonderful song, that’s from the new film Dragonfly and that was Nick Henderson and the rest of his band Hero. Now here’s the traffic news with Jo.”

It astonished Millie that he had written such a beautiful song and he had an amazing voice. She had heard Nick sing at the party, but she could hardly remember that because of all the trauma she went through. The song gave her a unique view of Nick, if he wrote that song, he must be so emotional somewhere inside of him. Well she would wait and see. They would be back by lunchtime, they might text her. It was too late to go back to sleep now, so Millie got up and had a leisurely breakfast, tidied up and set off to work. 

The snow had come down during the night, and it was early enough for her to walk on virgin snow, her footsteps were the only ones visible. The branches of the trees were weighed down with snow.

Even though the weather was bad, people still showed up to do shopping in the sales and eat in the bistro and Millie was as busy as ever. She was rolling pastry out after lunch for quiche’s to be cooked tomorrow, and she had been so busy that she had forgotten about Nick and Gabriel coming home.  Mid afternoon, Nadia burst into the kitchen.

“Guess what?” Nadia stood at the side of her tapping her foot.

“What?” Millie asked, the butterflies raging in case Nadia said Nick and Gabe had walked in.

“Bloody Sherlock’s back again and he’s only been taking pictures of  your bum!”

Spinning around, the rolling pin raised as if she was about to bash him over the head, “He’s what?”  Millie looked around the cafe, and there he was in the same outfit, but this time with an Elvis wig on instead of the deerstalker hat. She lowered the rolling pin and turned back to Nadia. 

“He’s stalking you Mills, If I see him doing it again I’ll chuck his tea in his lap, you should have let me last time.”

Millie drew a breath, “He can’t be doing that, maybe he’s special needs or something, he looks as if he couldn’t hurt a fly.”

Nadia sniffed, “ Don’t say I didn’t warn you.”

“Thanks  Nadia, I’ll keep an eye on him.” Just then the James Bond theme began to ring, and they both looked around to see who’s phone it was. They soon found out.

“Roper Albright,” Sherlocck said in a voice deep and  loud enough for the whole of Kensington to hear. 

Millie stifled a giggle and and pushed a laughing Nadia out of the kitchen. 

“I told you he was crackpot.” Nadia said leaning against the wall, worn out with laughing.

Millie sent her off to clear some tables, it was almost closing time and she had to nip to the supermarket for Lucifer’s weekly treat of a tin of tuna.

When Millie left work, she looked at her phone, there were no messages.  That eased her tension, maybe they were not home yet.  Maybe she misunderstood Jess and she wasn’t living in their home. No was that wishful thinking? She wanted to be with them so much that she was making excuses for ot being with them.

She took a deep breath of the icy air and trudged through the slush to the shop. Tesco’s was heaving , and Millie pushed her way to the tinned fish, she was just thinking about getting some  eggs, when she heard the unmistakable sound of James Bond. Again? How many times could you hear that tune as a ring tone and it not be the same phone?  Millie hurried to the end of the aisle and just caught the end of Sherlock’s tweed cape vanishing around the next aisle. 

Millie wasn’t taking any chances she abandoned the eggs and ran for the tills searching for one that didn’t have half of London in the queue. Thank goodness an assistant opened a new till and Millie was first in the queue.  Just as she was handing over the money for the tuna, Millie heard him, pushing his way through people.

“Excuse me, make way.” he demanded . Millie threw a two pound coin at the checkout girl and ran.  Weaving in and out of people on the high street and running across the road.

She looked back, but didn’t see him. she slowed down and got her breath. The street was slippy, and she walked carefully into the residential area.  The lovely virgin snow had been turned into big grey piles where it had been shovelled to the side of the road and the street lights gave it an yellow glow. Taking another look behind her, she saw Sherlock turning the corner and hurrying after her. Millie gave a frantic squeal, and ran again, hoping and praying that she didn’t slip on the icy path. 

***********

Nick and Gabriel stood in the hallway of their house, putting thick down jackets on, pulling on hats and wrapping scarves around their necks.

I can’t believe that twenty-four hours ago we were swimming in The Indian Ocean, talk about a shock. It’s freezing here." Gabriel moaned, “I hate snow”

¹"Oh, you won’t want to go skiing in February then?" Nick teased him. 

“Not the same kind of snow at all.” Said Gabriel checking his pockets for his door keys.

Are you sure you want to do this?” he asked Nick. The last thing he wanted to do was venture out into the freezing weather only six hours after they had returned home from The Maldives. 

Stop being such a wuss, you want to see her don’t you?” Nick held his hands at each side of Gabriel’s face “She will love you,” he said dropping a kiss onto his lips.

 “Let’s hope so, let’s hope she loves us both,” Gabriel said as he returned the kiss.

It wasn’t long before they were throwing snowballs at each other. Dashing across the road to hide behind the parked cars and bombing the other when they were a near enough target.

*****

Sherlock was still there jogging up the road.  Millie turned the corner, she still had another five minutes of walking to do yet.

Could she hide?

Not on this road, there were no trees, and not many parked cars, and the houses didn’t have front gardens so she couldn’t hid there, just steps leading up to the front door.

If she could just get to the end of this road, there were some sizeable houses with what used to be stables behind them, now turned into very expensive Mews houses. She could run around the back through the street of Mews and out the other side bringing her onto the road she lived in.

Glancing back again, she realised he was now much nearer, he would see her going into the Mews. Running full pelt across the road she could see the entrance of the back street, and she could hear Roper Allbright’s shoes slapping the pavement behind her.

She ran into the mews,a a scream working it’s way up to her throat.

“Oof!”

Her scream never surfaced, but it would have been muffled by soft down jacket if it had. Powerful arms wrapped around her, and she breathed in... Something very familiar.

OMG! It was him. Nick.

“Oh well caught!” said a laughing voice.

And Gabriel too.

“Oh darling how lovely of you to run straight into my arms. We’ve both missed you so much,” Nick said kissing her forehead.

“ ‘Ee ‘os ‘ollowing ‘ee” Millie mumbled into his chest, unconsciously moving a smidgen closer

”What did you say love?” Gabriel asked as he gently rubbed her back.

Millie felt the tension dissipate. This jacket was so warm and comfortable against her cheek, and the gentle motion on her back was soothing.

Nick leaned backwards a little she could speak clearly.

“He was following me.”

“Who was?” they both said together.

Millie reluctantly pushed away from Nick and turned around expecting to see Roper Allbright. She ran to the corner to see the man running down the street, his cape billowing behind him.

“Him! He chased me from the cafe.”

“I’ll go,” said Gabriel already shooting down the street. It didn’t take long for Gabriel to reach him.

Millie didn’t hear everything that Gabriel said, though she did hear a few choice words and an inventive threat including ‘wig’ and ‘stuff it so far’ and ‘moustache and beard’.

She glanced up at Nick, the murderous look on his face showed he was in agreement.

Gabriel returned with a smirk on his face.

“You won’t have any trouble from him again darling,” he said giving her a hug. “Come on, let’s get you home, it’s freezing out here.”

The men walked on either side of her, Gabriel taking her shopping and putting her arm through his, and Nick with his arm around her waist.

“We’ll have  big mugs of hot chocolate when we get home, and you can sit in front of the fire and get warm.”

Nick’s idea sounded wonderful, it would be so nice to have someone else looking after her for a change, but, however lovely it sounded, it just wasn’t to be.

“That sounds great, but I have to get home and feed the cat I’m looking after, he’ll be ravenous by now.”

They were at the bottom of the steps of the main house and Millie kept on walking.

“Come on it’s starting to snow” Nick said as he chivied her up the front steps.

“You live here?” She said trying to sound surprised.

Nick laughed “Don’t be silly darling, you know we do, Jess told you.

Millie’s brain was running wild.

Thank God Jess had let the cat out of the bag.

What about Smokey, he must have known, why hadn’t they told her?

Well she knew why, she would never have stayed if she had known.

“I er, I’ve got to go,” she said trying to turn on the steps. “I’ve got to feed the cat, he’ll be waiting for his tuna.”

Nick held onto her hand, “He’s already fed, he yelled the place down when he knew we were back.”

Gabriel unlocked the door and before she knew it Millie was in a spacious oak floored hallway, and Lucifer, delighted to have his three favourite people home, was winding his slinky body around her legs.

Gabriel took her hand, “Lets go down to the kitchen and get warm.” He took her hand in his and led her to the downward staircase. At the bottom was a modern kitchen, all smooth walnut gloss, and a marble breakfast bar. Hi-tech bar stools and by the window at the far end overlooking the garden was a table and chairs. The room was L shaped and in the smaller part of the L were a couple of sofa’s and a log burner which was glowing and warming the room. Nick was already at the hob stirring chocolate in to a saucepan.

“Wow this is lovely,” she said looking around. She sat on the sofa next to Gabriel. enjoying the warmth and when Nick brought the drinks, she had never tasted hot chocolate like it.

“Oh that is wonderful,” she said spooning the cream and flaked chocolate into her mouth.

“So how was work today Sweetheart? Nick asked “Busy?

“Very busy, the snow didn’t stop people going to the sales. I think I would have just stayed in and read my book.”

Gabriel chuckled, “Oh yes how is Lois, did she get a good spanking?”

Millie blushed, “You’ shouldn’t have read that!”

Puzzled, Nick looked from one to the other, “What are you talking about? Who’s Lois?”

Gabriel winked at Millie, who covered her scarlet face with her hands.

“Tell me? If you don’t tell me, someone’s getting spanked and her name’s not Lois.”