Staying Away at Christmas Read Online Free PDF Page A

with a shudder.
    ‘Aunt Flo puts it in the Aga at midnight on Christmas Eve – before sometimes I reckon – and so by lunchtime it’s turned to sawdust,’ Dan explained, disapproval evident in every syllable.
    ‘Right,’ said Miranda.
    ‘Dad cooks a great breakfast though,’ conceded Dan.
    ‘I know Flo isn’t a great cook but it’s very kind of her to have us every year,’ said Anthony.
    Dan sighed. This was obviously not a new argument.
    ‘What do you do after lunch?’ asked Miranda.
    ‘Wash up. It takes forever,’ said Dan.
    ‘Then we watch telly while the adults sleep,’ said Amy.
    ‘Sounds, like, really good,’ said Isa, catching Dan’s eye. He flicked his eyebrow in reply.
    ‘We’ll have to think up something that suits us all,’ said Miranda, shocked about the stockings herself. Her girls seemed to like them the best of all the Christmas rituals.
    ‘Yeah,’ said Dan with surprising firmness.
    ‘Have we all finished?’ said Anthony a few moments later. ‘Get the plates together, guys.’
    ‘Would anyone like pudding?’ said Miranda, having handed her plate to Amy. ‘I’ve got ice cream. I expect I could make some sort of sauce …’
    ‘I have some very nice cheese,’ said Anthony.
    ‘Oh, much better,’ said Miranda. ‘Will you lot be OK with cheese?’
    ‘I’ll have ice cream but I can get it myself,’ said Lulu. ‘Amy, would you like some? Shall we go and get it? We can put drinking chocolate on it.’
    ‘It’s nice for Amy to have some female company,’ said Anthony when he’d brought in the cheese and biscuits and the younger girls were still making ice-cream concoctions in the kitchen.
    ‘She does go to an all girls’ school,’ said Dan.
    ‘I meant out of school,’ said Anthony. ‘I’ve just remembered! There’s a bottle of port in that case of wine. I’ll get it.’
    Aunt Flo may not have been much of a cook but her washing-up training must have been first class. The kitchen was clear in no time and Miranda was able to get her presents in from the car and retire to her bedroom. It was late, but she had a lot to do before she could go to bed. She’d have done it earlier in the evening if she hadn’t had to help look for Amy.
    There was the briefest knock on her door and her daughters came in. ‘We’re going to do stockings for them,’ said Isa.
    ‘Though we can’t do one for Anthony,’ said Lulu. ‘Too hard.’
    ‘And he doesn’t believe in them anyway,’ said Isa. ‘But Amy must have one. Poor little thing. She must have been terrified on her own, before you found her.’
    ‘And we can’t leave Dan out,’ said Lulu.
    Having had a think, Miranda said, ‘OK. I’ve wrapped up what I’ve got for your stockings but I can’t remember what the things are. Except they will all be girly.’
    ‘We’ll just have to unwrap everything to see what we’ve got. We’ll do Dan first as he’s the hard one. Amy is easy,’ said Isa, taking control.
    Miranda watched as her girls opened the packages, tossing anything remotely male into a pile. They seemed to be enjoying this as much – or possibly more – as having the things for themselves.
    ‘It would be better if we didn’t try and fill the usual stockings,’ said Miranda. ‘I’ve got a couple of pairs of new socks. They won’t take so much filling.’
    ‘Good plan, Mum,’ said Lulu.
    ‘Can you get them?’ said Isa. ‘When we’ve done Dan’s we can easily do the others.’
    Miranda found herself sacrificing her new toothbrush (after she’d found her old one was still in her washbag) and Isa came up with a face flannel. A lot of what Miranda put in her children’s stockings was edible and useful but Isa declared she would not put facial scrub into Dan’s stocking.
    ‘It’s unisex,’ said Lulu. ‘Boys get spots too.’
    ‘Of course they do!’ said Isa angrily. ‘But we don’t want to draw attention to it! They’ve got, like, feelings!’
    ‘I know!’ said Miranda after they’d