Footsteps in the Snow and other Teatime Treats. Trisha Ashley

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СКАЧАТЬ is Mr Forrest, come to choose a puppy too,” Mrs Rushmore said. “Have you made your mind up which you want, dear?”

      “Yes, the one with the honey-coloured eyebrows,” I said. It had been love at first sight.

      The new customer didn’t even spare me a glance as I left – he was down on his knees by then, totally entranced by the puppies.

      *

      When we met again while walking our dogs on Primrose Hill just before Christmas we recognised each other instantly. I’m sure the puppies did, too!

      The late afternoon sky grew dark as we strolled and chatted, discovering that he’d named his puppy Spice, while I’d called mine Honey. By then it felt as if we’d known each other for ever, so I impulsively invited him back for coffee.

      And that was that: a marriage made in heaven and sealed under the sparkling Christmas stars on Primrose Hill.

      *

      We all settled happily into my basement flat. I worked early in the mornings as a florist and Nathan played jazz in a nightclub in the evenings, the dogs were rarely left alone. Then, almost exactly a year later, we had The Argument.

      “Do you have to fill the flat with lilies, when you know they make me sneeze?” Nathan snapped.

      “And do you always have to make Honey and Spice yap when you come in late, waking me up?” I demanded.

      The dogs, dismayed by our angry voices, came to each of us in turn, with mournful eyes and hopefully wagging tails – but then Nathan and Spice moved out and Honey and I didn’t know what to do with ourselves …

      *

      Honey pined so miserably that one day I couldn’t stand it any longer and we set out across Primrose Hill, taking the shortcut to where Nathan was staying. My heart was heavy and Honey, taking her cue from me, walked quietly at my side.

      Then suddenly she yapped eagerly and I looked up to see a familiar figure striding towards me, with Spice racing forward, excitedly yapping. I watched the dogs meet and then Nathan was standing next to me, looking down with sad, dark eyes – and he was holding a bag almost as big as the one I was carrying!

      “You were coming back?” I blurted eagerly, before I could stop myself.

      “Not exactly – this is Spice’s stuff. She missed you both and it seemed selfish to keep her with me. And you?” He looked at my holdall, from the top of which peeked the fleecy end of a dog bed.

      “Honey was pining too,” I confessed, “and it didn’t seem fair that just because we couldn’t live together, they couldn’t either.”

      “Couldn’t we live together though, Cathy?” he said softly. “Can you even remember what we quarrelled about?”

      “No – except the lilies, and I’d rather have you than a flat full of flowers!”

      “And it wouldn’t hurt me not to play with the dogs when I get home late,” he said, then added, “Do you know, it’s almost exactly one year since we met here?”

      “I was just thinking the same thing – and that we ought to go home and thaw out before we all freeze,” I agreed, and the Christmas stars in the sky seemed to shimmer suddenly, though that might have been the cold bringing tears to my eyes.

      *

      Nathan bought me a snow globe, containing the tiny figures of a man and woman with their dogs.

      “As long as they stay inside their glass bubble of happiness, they’re safe,” he said, “just as we will be – you, me, Honey and Spice.”

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