Chapter One Saturday 21st December Daisy Rose Foster was freezing and about as angry with herself as one could get. Which was happening a lot lately, she realised after she’d kicked the tyre and sworn several times, but it hadn’t helped ease the annoyance. The engine management light had been on for weeks, and she’d ignored it. Because last time it had come on, it was for nothing more than a loose cap on some part of the engine she’d never even looked at. That was why you paid mechanics to do a service once a year, so you didn’t have to worry. She’d just assumed it was that again. How wrong she was, when the world around her was now enveloped in steam billowing out from under the bonnet. She sagged a little more. Snow fell in clumps, and she was already shivering without the engine running and being able to blow hot air at her. She felt a little aggrieved because she had managed to check the weather forecast before she’d set off, and it hadn’t mentioned anything about it snowing. She glanced up at the night sky and the flakes falling heavily in the wide-lit circle radiating from the streetlamp, and groaned. “Why can I not just have a simple life? You know, a girlfriend that doesn’t cheat, a job I like, a car that doesn’t break down.” Within minutes of starting, the great big flakes had covered the ground and most of the parked cars along the street. The bright light from the streetlamp gave everything a moonlit shine, and it looked almost like daylight. “Just a nice girlfriend would be fine, I’d take that.” She continued to berate the universe. “One that doesn’t cheat on me.” The only positive she had was that her parents’ house was no more than a couple of miles away. The negatives were multiple: her phone was dead, so she couldn’t call for a lift or find a local taxi. She’d have to walk, and that meant lugging her cases in the snow, and she wasn’t dressed for this weather. Looking down at her feet and the pair of old, worn-out trainers on them, she grimaced. The tread was never going to hold if it got icy. “Fuck’s sake.” She swore again as she trudged around the back of the car and as if to prove the point, she almost went arse over tit. If she hadn’t been completely pissed off by then, the boot of her SUV raising up and dumping half a tonne of snow on her head would have made it so. “Seriously, just fuck off!” she screamed at the car and frantically tried to stop any of the snow from heading down the neck of her jumper and down her back. The sigh left her body like a prayer as she closed her eyes and tried to stave off the growing need to just cry and give up. Life shouldn’t be this difficult, should it? She had a small case on wheels and a rucksack squeezed in beside a box of gifts she’d bought and lovingly wrapped. Okay, that’s a lie. She’d paid for the store to do that, but whatever, she had picked them out and paid for them, so that had to count for something, didn’t it? Yanking the rucksack out, she flung it over a shoulder and then lifted the case out onto its wheels on the road. She slammed the boot closed and more snow slid off and landed on her feet. Her toes were already numb; she’d have frostbite at this rate. “This is what happens when you don’t say no,” she muttered to herself, dragging the case up the kerb impatiently. When one of the wheels got caught, she breathed deeply and bit down on her lip to stop the tirade of absolute filth that was threatening to spill out. The invitation to spend Christmas at home with the family had come months ago. Daisy had planned to decline. She’d just met Nadia and things were going well. She was hopeful of waking up Christmas morning all snuggled up with her girlfriend and spending a romantic day together, until she realised that Nadia’s idea of commitment meant agreeing to come over, but not to stay out of anyone else’s bed. “I don’t understand the problem, we never said we were…” Nadia laughed. “Right, it was always just…” She waved a hand, finger extended to point at herself and then Daisy. “Are you serious?” Daisy asked, incredulously. Nadia pinched her forehead. “So, you’re upset about it?” “I’m not upset. I’m livid. We had a thing Nadia, and you’re doing it with half the fucking city.” “I mean, it’s three, sometimes four. I think you’re exaggerating a little...” “Oh, just fuck off, Nadia. Seriously, get your things and get out.” Nadia puffed her cheeks out. “Right, so…it’s nearly Christmas?” “And?” “You got me a gift, right?” Nadia grinned, and Daisy screamed in frustration. Daisy had done the only thing that she could after dumping Nadia’s cheating backside, deciding that Christmas at home with her family wouldn’t be such a terrible thing after all. Of course, her mum had been delighted, her dad too, and even the twins were looking forward to it. It was just Daisy who felt deflated. “I swear to all that is bloody – if one person wishes me merry fecking Christmas before I get a hot shower, I won’t be held res—” “You alright there?” A voice out of nowhere made Daisy jump and she twisted around, letting go of the suitcase, feet planted and fists raised, ready to ward off any unwanted attack. “Woah, hold your horses.” Someone approached with hands up, empty palms out. “I just thought you looked like you could use a hand. What with all the swearing and talking to yourself…” Daisy relaxed, a little at least. ‘Relaxed’ probably wasn’t a word anyone would usually use to describe her lately, she supposed. Life was kicking her arse far too often. Looking at the stranger, she realised that despite the gruffness of the voice, the big brown eyes looking at her held just a touch of mirth. Her head was bound in blue and red wool, a ton of reddish-brown curls poking out from under it. At least she was a woman, Daisy thought. Which was 50% less scary in an instant. “Right, yes, I’m sorry about that. Broke down,” Daisy said dramatically, opening her hands and arms to indicate the car on the side of the road. “Ah, that’s a bugger. Did you call the AA?” Daisy smiled ruefully and sighed, her shoulders sagging and the rucksack strap slipping down her arm. She caught sight of herself in the bottom half of the car door window. Blonde hair was frozen to her head like rat tails, like she’d been dragged through a hedge backwards. “Yes, why didn’t I think of that? Instead of standing here like an idiot battling with my bags.” The woman stared at her. Great first impression, she thought, sighing internally. This day was going from bad to worse without even trying. “I’m sorry, that was totally out of order. No, it ran out last month and I forgot all about it.” Because I was too busy dumping my girlfriend, hating my job, and looking for somewhere else to live, and crying about it all, she didn’t add. “That’s a bummer.” The woman reached up and pulled the scarf down and away from her chin to reveal a wide mouth and white teeth grinning at her. “Not sure you’ll find anyone around here open till the morning. And even then, it’s only a few days till Christmas. A lot of the businesses have shut down till January.” She glanced around her as if to make sure. “Probably find a garage over in Bath Street in the morning though, I guess. Do you have far to go?” “Just to my parents. They live over on Datchet Avenue, down by the river.” “That’s a trek. Can’t you call them and get them to pick you up?” Daisy sighed again, a plume of white drifted away. “Yeah, I thought of that, but…dead battery. And I don’t know the number off the top of my head to use…” She smiled regretfully when the woman pulled her own phone free from her pocket and then thrust it back in again. Daisy yanked the suitcase again and this time it came free and wheeled up the kerb. “As you can tell, I’m completely organised,” Daisy joked, and the stranger thankfully chuckled along with her because so far, she’d done nothing to help herself with the only person who’d stopped to see if she was alright. “It’s fine. Happens to us all.” “I’m really sorry. I’m not usually this neurotic.” The woman smiled. “Listen I don’t live far from your parents’ place. I could walk with you if you like, help carry something.” Daisy thought about the box of presents in the boot. She was pretty sure Amberfield was a safe place to break down and leave a car unattended, but so far, she hadn’t had much luck with this trip, and she didn’t have the finances to replace a heap of gifts should the worst happen. “That would be a great help.” Daisy beamed. She reached out a hand. “I’m Daisy.” The stranger pulled off a glove and took Daisy’s hand. “My friends call me SJ.”