A Winter Flame Read Online Free PDF Page A

to one place. She would need to think very carefully about which path she was going to take.
    Eve carried a sleeping Phoebe into Alison’s lovely barn conversion of a house.
    ‘She’s out for the count,’ she smiled, putting Phoebe down on the sofa in the lounge.
    ‘Come and have a coffee,’ said Alison, waddling into the kitchen. ‘I’m not letting you go without giving me some more details on your inheritance.’
    Eve took a seat at the island in the centre of the huge kitchen/dining room and watched Alison making coffees. She had never seen her usually tall and waif-like friend so round – or as
content. Serenity was coming off Alison in waves.
    ‘You look so beautiful,’ said Eve.
    ‘Piss off,’ laughed Alison. ‘I haven’t seen my feet for weeks and I’m ravaged by heartburn and backache. Tell me something to take my mind off things.’
    ‘What do you want to know?’
    ‘I want to know everything. I still can’t believe it all. Rupert thought I was drunk when I told him.’
    ‘I know how he feels,’ chuckled Eve. ‘I can’t take it all in myself. Aunt Evelyn of all people, with all those secrets under her belt. It’s . . . crazy.’
    Alison brought over two mugs and an opened biscuit tin.
    ‘Dunk one of those chocolate ginger biscuits, they’re to die for,’ she commanded. ‘Are you still going to keep Eve’s Events running?’
    ‘I don’t see how I can. It’s more than a full-time job and I can’t do two full-time jobs. I’ve had a couple of offers to sell over the years, so I’m going to
put out some feelers.’
    ‘That’s a shame,’ said Alison. ‘You’ve worked so hard.’
    ‘Well, I took a leap of faith starting it up so I’m just going to have to take another one letting it go,’ Eve sighed, reaching for a biscuit. ‘Oh and I haven’t
told you the best bit. Aunt Evelyn only left me half of it. The other half she left to a total stranger – A Mr Jack Glass. I can’t wait to find out who the hell he is.’
    ‘Pardon?’ Alison stopped mid-biscuit chew.
    ‘You heard right. Aunt Evelyn never mentioned him at all. But yet he’s one of the main beneficiaries of her will. And that is as much as I know about him. Until I meet him in a few
days.’
    ‘And she never mentioned the name to you?’
    ‘Not once.’
    ‘When was the last time you saw her?’
    ‘Two months before she died,’ replied Eve with a small cough. Usually she visited her aunt once a month but her work commitments had been so heavy recently she’d missed a visit
and rang Aunt Evelyn instead. She felt rather ashamed of that now – especially as it would only have cost her a couple of hours of her time and she could have spared that really if
she’d tried. Her Aunt Evelyn looked forward to seeing her so much.
    ‘Dear God,’ said Alison, resuming scoffing of biscuit. ‘Your aunt really did have a lot of secrets in her life, didn’t she?’
    ‘So many that I don’t think I knew her a quarter as well as I thought I did,’ sighed Eve.
    As soon as Eve got home, she unfolded her aunt’s simple plans and those far more detailed drawings by the architect over her large dining table; she saw more
possibilities every time she did so. In the middle of the land, her aunt had foreseen ‘an enchanted forest’ of Christmas trees with a twirly path cutting through the middle. Evelyn had
drawn a horse and trap on the path along the route with the word ‘snow ponies’ written above it, and a miniature railway line was also present. At the left side of the forest was a
reindeer enclosure and stables. To the right were a collection of log cabins, one labelled gift shop, one a restaurant and some unnamed. At the far end of the development was a funfair dominated by
a sketch of a huge carousel. Santa’s grotto was one of five more log cabins next to the funfair. Three of the cabins were bracketed together and called ‘honeymoon cabins’. One was
marked as ‘the wedding chapel’. Eve peered at it