Page 79 of Winter Magic on Railway Lane

She nodded. ‘It’s like he’s had a new start. Talking of which,’ she began. ‘I was wondering whether, well, you see…’

She felt a little embarrassed and Ethan looked at her with raised eyebrows. ‘What?’ he asked.

‘Everyone seems to think that I should set up my own chocolate-making business,’ she carried on, her words rushed in her haste to get them out. ‘And I figure, why not, as nobody seems to want me as a flight attendant any more. In any case, do I even want to be a flight attendant? Even Dad is encouraging me to do this, so it must be the right course, don’t you think? Because he’s never been so positive about anything I’ve ever done before.’

When she paused to take a breath, Ethan took her by the shoulders.

‘Libs,’ he said. ‘It’s me. Just ask the bloomin’ question.’

Her shoulders sagged under his hands. ‘Can I use your kitchen again?’ she asked in a small tone.

‘Did you even need to ask?’ he said. ‘Of course you can.’

She was delighted. ‘Thank you!’ she said. ‘I mean, I won’t have much time to get going with so much to do for the Christmas train, but maybe once that’s up and running in December I could use your kitchen?’

‘I said yes, didn’t I?’ he told her.

She felt relieved that not only did she have the kitchen at her disposal again but even better, she would be spending more time with Ethan.

‘I can’t wait to tell Dad,’ she said, still smiling. ‘He’s been nagging me for days about this.’

‘Well, he’s normally right about almost everything,’ said Ethan. ‘Unlike my cousin, that is. We can’t let him loose around here with a snow cannon, can we?’

‘Well, he’s been wrong so many times, surely he’s due a break and he might actually bring something that works for once?’ she said. ‘Put it down to the magic of Christmas.’

As Ethan smiled down at her, Libby’s heart skipped a beat. Standing there with the fairy lights all around them, shewondered whether there might just be a little bit of magic in the air after all.

47

Ethan took a deep breath. ‘Well, there’s no going back now,’ he said, looking at his brother nervously.

‘I think this calls for a speech, don’t you?’ Ryan told him.

Ethan nodded and went to stand in front of the group who were standing outside Platform 1. It was early evening and the only lights were coming from inside the coffee shop. But even in the dim light, he could see the excited faces of his family and friends. None were watching him with more expectation than his grandad. Eddie was sitting on one of the benches, looking up and down the platform at the train in front of him, as if seeing a long-lost friend for the first time in ages. He was still struggling with the weariness after his stroke but each day he was feeling a little stronger and more like his old self, he had told Ethan.

‘I just wanted to say, on behalf of my dad, my grandad and myself, a huge thank you to you all for all your hard work to make this happen,’ Ethan began. ‘Tomorrow night is the very first run of the Christmas train, but tonight is just for you, our way of paying you back for all the many hours that you’ve volunteered to get everything ready. And we’d thought it had better be tonight as hopefully we’ll be too busy to celebrate withall the hundreds of paying passengers over the next few weeks! As you know, the money raised from the Christmas train will go towards helping out a local charity.’

A small cheer went up, but Ethan knew that everyone was keeping their fingers crossed for the success of the train – none so more than him.

He headed over to the main circuit switch, which would be hidden once the passengers were around. But for tonight, he could make the grand gesture.

‘Grandad, could you do the honours?’ he said, pulling the long lead over to where Eddie sat.

‘Shall we have a countdown?’ asked Bob.

Everyone nodded enthusiastically and so they all began to shout.

‘Three, two, one… Go!’

Eddie moved the switch in his hand and suddenly they were in the darkness no more. The whole station was illuminated with thousands of fairy lights, from the eaves above the platform, to the enormous tree and around every lamppost and fence. It looked amazing.

Applause broke out as everyone clapped and cheered at the scene in front of them. Then everyone turned expectantly to face the train.

Ethan walked over and climbed into the driver’s cab, which now had a large wreath tied on either side.

‘Everyone ready for another countdown?’ he shouted out of the opening, holding a switch in his hand.

Once more, his family and friends called out, ‘Three, two, one… Go!’