challenging. The roads were not that good despite the high maintenance received for being on a main route with a mixture of machinery and salt on standby as the snow was pouring relentlessly. They took a taxi and spent the night in a nearby hotel, to avoid any possible difficulties and considered a sleigh but the distance was not practical and the dark was expected to fall soon. It took them another hour just to get there; as the maximum speed possible was about 40 K. Letitia had come alone and was planning to take Rose to her house in the mountains the very next day and with the help of a sledge, a motorized sleigh. ‘It’ll be fun, ’ Letitia promised and Rose was excited.
She had no idea that back at the airport John, after ensuring that Rose was not followed, was giving a handover to James. The encrypted message was short and said: ‘arrived sound and safe’.
It was all that James wanted to know and he smiled when he glanced at the message he received. It was early morning in Brisvegas and another day was just starting. James sighed with relief. He was still feeling responsible for the havoc created by Angela which also affected his relationship with Rose. What a mess, he thought, wondering if Rose would ever return. John on the other hand found himself faced with a window of opportunity. His next job was in Mexico in three days so he decided to have a stopover in Hawaii and give himself a well-deserved holiday. He bought his ticket in cash. It was a one way ticket and difficult to trace. He made sure that nobody was following him before embarking on his new adventure.
At the hotel Letitia and Rose were enjoying a quite meal in their sitting room. It had a proper log based fire place and Rose knew why her grandma chose this hotel. Their gaze met and both smiled. They had lots and lots to talk about and didn’t know where to start. Letitia was not aware of the many stressful events of the last month and Rose wanted to keep her out of it as she did not want to scare her. From Rose’s point of view they were done and dusted and better to forget about them. She was partially aware that she was also trying to get rid of the emotional stuff stirred up by them.
Most of it involved James and Letitia was just partially aware of his existence. ‘The man who played bridge with Rose, ’ she called him. Of course Letitia realized that it was more than that but she knew better than to pressure Rose in talking about it. Letitia believed that all can be resolved in due time.
For tonight Letitia took the initiative and kept the subject on the local events. It required a lot of hard work to cover the events over the last eleven months but Letitia’s memory was still good and she enjoyed talking freely with her granddaughter. And although her grandma steered away from hot subjects Rose barely contained herself not to ask about Alex.
Rose was sure that the grapevine was keeping her grandma up to date in that area too. She hadn’t heard from Alex for more than two weeks now and wondered if she should let him know about her arrival. She recalled mentioning to him about her intentions to return home for Christmas while in the midst of the stressful events. It was the stress talking. Probably he did not take her seriously, Rose thought with a small sigh that did not escape her grandma who was placing another log on fire.
Letitia enjoyed these intimate moments with her granddaughter and knew that from tomorrow they were not going to have much private time. With a large family like theirs it was always a battle to keep up with everyone. But Rose was more like a daughter to her and Letitia knew that Rose was counting on her help. But then, Rose had been alone and far away among the strangers for the last eleven months and needed time to bounce back.
The peacefulness of the place was suddenly shattered by a musical bip from Rose’s phone. They both laughed looking at each other and her grandma encouraged her to check it out: ‘Go ahead. You are a busy woman’.
It was almost eight at night and Rose wondered who could be. When she left Brisvegas she told all her friends that she was going overseas for two weeks. It couldn’t be from them, she thought. She felt blushing the instant she read the message and was happy that her grandma was busying herself on the other side of the room.
It was from the man she was thinking about all evening. It was from Alex. Looked like he knew that she was here and Rose asked herself how that was possible. The message just said: ‘Hi Rose. Alex’.
She knew that he was an agent himself but that wouldn’t give him the possibility to keep an eye on her. She started to wonder if he had been in cahoots with her grandma but decided to keep that quiet for the moment. They went to bed early that night to be ready for the twelve days to Christmas that were starting the very next day.
Very early in their morning, the very first day to Christmas, Rose came face to face with Alex, who knocked at their hotel door and brought her a bunch of flowers.
Now she just knew that she’ll have a carefree Christmas!
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