Alexandretta, Hiddenashes83 and Sash Queen of the Jungle I'm really glad you're still enjoying this. Thank you so much for your support.
And thank you all for reading.
Chapter 10
December 20, 1937
"More to the left." Audrey order with practicality. Giving orders is natural to her.
"Here?"
"A little bit more. Now it was too much! Go back to the right."
"And now?"
"Now a little bit upwards. That's it, right ther!. " Audrey sighs with satisfaction. He had found the exact place.
Siegfried looks at her and smiles smugly.
"Hand me the tape." He reaches out and takes the pieces of tape from her fingers that she cut a few minutes earlier to secure the decoration.
"It looks great, but something is still missing." Audrey smiles excitedly, standing in the middle of the room with her hands on her hips as she admires the "Merry Christmas" message in bright letters pinned exactly where she wanted it. Without a doubt this would be a happy Christmas.
"Here." She extends a branch of mistletoe to him. "Farten it to that hookTristan left from last year."
"I've told you to wait for Tristan, he could do this." Siegfried complains despite not being as frustrated as he normally would be.
"What's the point to do something tomorrow if we can do it today? At least it's one thing crossed from the chore list." Audrey looks at him seriously, arms crossed.
"It is very easy to say that kind of thing when someone else does the task." The comment makes Audrey want to roll her eyes, but she doesn't because at least he is just complaining and not all tense as he was an hour before "Can I go down now?"
"Yes." She responds and watches him carefully descend the stairs.
The fact was, Siegfried had been anxious for the past two days waiting for Tristan's return. Whether or not his brother had qualified would have been a constant pressure on him, but in those last few days it had reached the critical point. After scream to everyone, including some of the clients, he had isolated himself in his office, all sulky and gloomy. He needed an occupation to get his thoughts off the wait and Audrey had something in hand that would work well, so there they were.
Every year at Skeldale House hosted a Christmas party and that year would be no different. Siegfried was excited about the party, but Audrey was in charge of the organization, decoration and food. Tristan used to help with the decor, but without him there the responsibility had remained entirely with her until then.
"You are getting more and more annoying." She teases him, just for the sake of it, narrowing her eyes.
Siegfried stood in front of her, burried his hands in his pants pockets and shrugs. "And yet you seem to be rather fond of me."
"We all have our failings." Her sarcasm makes him smile a little.
"Indeed." He glances at the clock over the fireplace.
Audrey instinctively did the same. It was five-fifteen in the afternoon, so they must be arriving soon, if the road is not covered with snow. She asks the skies not to, that the boys arrive in a short time and the doubt is over for good, or bad.
Outside the snow seems to be determined to fall all at once. Since the night of Helen's almost wedding and the snow had been falling steadily and although in small quantities, it had painted the whole town white. It would be a cold, typical Christmas and she hoped to spend the next few nights, if she was lucky, curled up on the couch and warming up in the warmth of his arms. Not that she was going to tell him that and make his natural ego even more inflamed.
Still, Audrey put her hand on his arm, attracting Siegfried's attention. He wants Tristan so badly to finish his studies that hurts, she knows that, and even she is not enough distraction to completely get his brother out of his head.
"They'll be here soon."
Sigfried nods. "I just hope that this time he won't tell any lies. Tristan should know by now how to deal with his own choices and take care of his oun mistakes."
"I don't think he'll try to do that again. Just try to keep yourself calm and be patient if... Well... If he didn't make it." She tries to smile, but hates to see him like that, discouraged and lost. The truth is that neither of them knows what else to do to help Tristan other than what they have done in recent months. Perhaps that was what he needed, to be thrown into the reality of work, but had the past few months been long enough? She hoped so.
Siegfried says nothing. He had overcome the anger, the tantrums and the screams. He pulls her close for a hug. Audrey lets herself be involved and suppresses a sigh when his lips gently touch her forehead. At least, she tells herself, now he doesn't have to go through all the tension alone.
"There's a good thing about Tristan's return. With him here and now that James is not so depressed we will finally be able to go out and have more time for ourselves. " Siegfried's sly look does not go unnoticed and she laughs softly.
"I don't think we're going to be able to go to many places with this weather."
"Where's your faith, woman? At some point the snow will stop and I have a list of places I want to take you." He leans over and Audrey can't help but shiver when his beard rubs against his ear. "You and me spending an afternoon alone in the middle of nowhere, with nothing to worry about." He said slowly, his words loaded with thousant of meanings."It's a good thing to look forward to."
"We are full of ideas, aren't we? Hope you keep in mind I'm a respectful and religious woman."
"We all have dreams." He tries to sound innocent, but his eyes give a very clear idea of his thoughts and she feels a flush rise from the inside out in her body. That was the kind of idea she tried to keep out of her mind most of the time, but she failed miserably when he was that close. His lips brush against hers in a soft, promise-filled kiss.
"That's not something I expected to see so soon."
They were startled and let go of each other so quickly that they almost jumped away. It was one thing for people to know, it was another to be caught like that, even more so by Tristan and James. Siegfried's face immediately frowns, but Audrey can't help but smile when she sees the boy.
"Tris, you're home!"
"At least you're happy to see me, Mrs. H." He smiles before receiving a warm hug.
Siegfried gives his brother a pointed look and turns to James. "How was the road?" He asks.
"Not as bad as I imagined, but there is a lot of snow accumulated in the fields."
"And it will only get worse in the next few days."
"Come on, we were waiting for you and James to have tea." Audrey takes Tristan by the hand and pulls him into the dining room where the table is set.
"So..." Tristan starts, excitedly. "Let's get to the subject we are avoiding." Siegfried looks at his brother years of waiting for a definitive answer and having been duped, any extra second of waiting has been an exercise in patience that he has until then found himself unable to exercise. "So, James told me that the two of you came out for everyone while I was gone." Tristan's animation irritates Siegfried.
"This is none of your business."
"It's the business of the whole town, so it's definitely mine."
"Did you finishe college?" Siegfried asks directly, putting the tea aside.
"First," Tristan turns to Audrey, with a huge, bright smile. She looks at the boy with that hopeful and expectant glance that she keeps exclusively to him and Siegfried hoped he could not yell if Tristan disappointed them again. The tension in Siegfried only increases. "I need to thank you, Mrs. H. That day that you made me work at the clinic alone really got me out of the hole. I got three questions out of one of the tests just because of those calls."
"This is good news!" She smiles and squeezes the boy's arm in a loving gesture.
"After all, did you finally qualify or not?" Siegfried insists and his brother looks at him for a long moment, but strangely he does not look at him either with challenge or fear.
Serene, Tristan extends an envelope to Siegfried. "See for yourself." He gives a brief smile and goes back to eating.
Siegfried takes the envelope like a bomb. Carefully he slides out two pieces of paper, Tristan's report card and a university statement informing Tristan Farnon's full qualification for the practice of veterinary medicine.
It's a bloody miracle, it can only be. Or maybe a dream. Yes, a dream makes perfect sense. His brother finally graduated, he and Audrey... At some point he was going to wake up and find that he was still dreaming about the end of his worries and loneliness.
"This is terribly anticlimactic." Audrey complains staring at him. "Let me see." She pulled the letter out of his hand, which offered no resistance.
Siegfried watches her eyes run over the lines quickly. James grinned, he already knew. If Herriot was happy and excited about it, it was true. The two had become terribly close in the past months and accomplices in a number of situations. If it were a deception, Herriot would not be able to disguise.
"Congratulations, Tris!" Audrey hugs him tight.
"If I knew that what you needed to do a good job was pressure, I would have done it sooner." Siegfried fires, leaning back in his chair and feeling absolutely relaxed and satisfied. Happy, yes he is happy. Mission accomplished, Dad.
"Siegfried!" Audrey scolds him.
He should have been congratulating his brother, but he's done it before and doesn't intend to repeat it.
"It is the truth. It could have saved me a lot of time and money."
"I'm glad you're satisfied, big brother. Speaking of money..." Tristan starts, but before he can go on and ask for more money, Siegfried interrupts him.
"Tomorrow you are going to start on the runs with me."
"Isn't it James who do the runs?" Tristan looks from his friend to Audrey with apprehension. For this he did not expect.
"We switched for a while, Tris. Only until tempers calm down." James explains with an embarrassed smile.
Tristan nods and thinks for a moment then turns back to Siegfried. "Jim told me what happened at Helen's wedding, I'm sure the topic of gossip has changed at this point"
"Yes, but people are still being rude with Audrey."
"You're being overdone and I think Tristan and James are going to do a great job together. You remember Strawberry, I suppose." Audrey looks at him, her glance is significant. She is right, but he does not intend to give in so easily.
"Yes, I remember and it was risky."
"That had a great result." She continues with that insistent look, even though her words are patient, almost, almost sweet. "You know as well as I do that people will continue to act like that for a while and you've been around enough this past week." Perhaps too much, since he ended up being more sour than necessary with several people. "And with them doing the runs you can stay at home with me."
Low blow! Siegfried studies her for a long moment. The attempt at manipulation is as clear as water and the boys exchange a smile full of complicity. She always conducted him the way she wanted, but she used to be more subtle. He finds it funny, but know that from then on he was lost. There would be nothing he wouldn't do as she wanted. "Seeing from this angle the ideia is not completely out of place." He says, as if the line of thought makes sense and not as if he is giving in to her.
"I think you can do the runs together tomorrow and we will be interchanging from now on, just until people forget."
Tristan was immediately relieved and opened his mouth to say something. From his expression Siegfried can imagine that it would be some comment with a joke about the situation, but Herriot goes ahead.
"Great! We have a lot of work ahead of us, Tris. Mr. Dinsdale is having some problems with the pigs and in the cold..."
"Pigs?" Tristan echoes with a frown.
Their conversation was lost as a background noise when her hand found his on the table. Siegfried sees Audrey's smile and breathes relieved, really relieved, for the first time in a long time. He had forgotten what it was like to have no real worries.
December 23, 1937
When the doorbell rang, she was the first to get up from the table. Jim, Tris and Siegfried had engaged in a theoretical discussion about treatments for pigs, the only thing she could understand was that Tristan seemed to have learned even more than any of them had imagined.
Jess ran with her down the hall, barking excitedly at the sound of the doorbell. The dog is not the only one excited for Christmas. The house is already in the Christmas mood and despite the amount of things she had to do, Audrey couldn't wait to be able to enjoy the holiday in the company of Siegfried and the boys.
"Quiet down, Jess." She commands and the dog stops barking, but stayed close to her heel wagging the tail.
The icy breeze hits her when she opens the door and she shrinks. On the doorstep, Joan wears a heavy coat, boots and a hat on her head, but her red nose seems to suggest a cold. With a smile she hands Audrey some envelopes.
Back in the hall she checks the envelopes and even in the dim light she recognizes Edward's hasty handwriting. Without reaction she looks at her name written in her son's handwriting for a long time. So long she waited for news, so many times she wrote without getting an answer and now she finally had news of him at hand and it felt like taking a cold shower in the middle of winter.
From the back of the house the noise of conversation is faint, but she enters the living room in search of tranquility and light from the window. Her fingers tremble when she carefully opens the envelope and Jess cranes her neck to sniff out what she has in hand: a Christmas card.
"Mother,
I've had a few setbacks in the past few months, but I'm finally reestablished myself and have some news.
Funny how life holds surprises.
I hope to see you soon so we can talk.
I hope this card finds you well.
Merry Christmas.
Edward."
Always short with words. She turns the envelope over and sees the address. Darlington. He's less than an hour away.
Involuntary tears escape her eyes and she sighs. Audrey wanted nothing more in life than to be close to her son. They were so close when he was young and now they spent months without even exchanging correspondence.
Jess lays her head on Audrey's knees and she strokes the dog's head lovingly, sniffling.
Siegfried's excited whistle came from the hall. "Audrey?" He called, looking for her.
She gets up and takes a deep breath as she wipes her face with the back of her left hand. He doesn't need to see her like this, she decides. When he stops beside her Audrey gives him a nervous smile and without saying anything holds out the card for him to read.
"Another Christmas miracle. God is being generous to us this year." He says lightly before turning his attention back to her, who lowers her head.
"I keep wondering what setbacks he went through." Another thing she wonders about is how her son will react when he learns about her and Siegfried, but she doesn't comment on it, nor does she need to. By the look of Siegfried she sees that he is asking himself the same question.
"Whatever it was, he seems positive about it. Maybe his life is finally getting on track." He smiles encouragingly and reaches for her hand.
Audrey nods, "Edward finding his way and Tristan graduating... Wouldn't it be too many miracles all at once?" She tries to sound amused and she wants to believe it, almost desperately, but her smile is sad and she has her doubts. Siegfried strokes her hand.
"I think it is finally our turn to have some peace of mind." He says and she once again wants to believe his words. "Are you going to write to him?"
Audrey nods again as she replies, "Yes, I will invite him to come here if he wants to."
"Do this, I'll take the letter to the post office." Siegfried said. She lets out a sigh as she starts to think about her answer. "He came to you willingly, to hear from him was something that you wanted for a long time. Wait a while before you get carried away by worry."
"As if you did that." She said with irony and he smiled.
"I am not the most stable or balanced person, I can recognize that for you, but know I will absolutely deny it if I tell anyone. You, however, my darling, are not like that. So, try to enjoy this moment."
He's right and pushing Edward away from her thoughts was something she had, unfortunately, learned to do well over time. For now she had Christmas ahead of her.
Coming next – Christmas smut or something close to it. lol