Seeing Nathan Samms getting out of his car, Vince Wilson ambles from the pub garden and onto the paved walkway between the car park and the front entrance of the pub.

‘Not heard from you, Nath, my boy!’ he claps his hand on Nathan’s shoulder, smiling and breathing heavy fumes of Christmas spirit into his face, an unlit cigar between his fingers.

Nathan pauses momentarily before shrugging his hand away. ‘No. And you won’t. Excuse me.’ He puts his arm at the back of the girl he is with, intending to shepherd her towards the door of the pub.

‘Not going to introduce me to your young lady?’ Vince asks, smirking at his fellow smokers gathered in the wood built shelter behind him. They jeer and laugh at a muttered joke. ‘We’re a little short of female company right now’ He leans forward to share his words in an undertone ‘You’d know how that felt, wouldn’t you, lad?’ He nudges Nathan’s arm, nodding at the girl. ‘Not now though, eh?’ he laughs.

Nathan speaks quietly to the girl, smiling reassurance and planting a kiss against the side of her head as he ushers her forward and away from him. To catcalls and whistles, she walks into the pub alone. Nathan turns to Wilson, his face tight with anger. ‘You ignorant bastard’ he seethes.

‘Oh, ignorant bastard am I? Hear that, boys?’ he glances behind him. ‘I’m ignorant and a bastard now. What do you think of that?’ Wilson stands grinning, buoyed by alcohol and the rumble of laughter.

Nathan glares.

‘Offered the lad a perfectly decent contract’ Wilson plays to the small audience. ‘But nooo, he’s too good for the likes of me’ he mocks. ‘Me!’ He points at one of the men ‘You’d take a contract from me, wouldn’t you?’ The man shrugs and grins, exhaling smoke from the last draw on his cigarette as he grinds it out in the ashtray. ‘Not him, he doesn’t want it and now I’m an ignorant bastard. How to win friends and influence people, eh?’ he laughs

‘You know what I’ve learned since I’ve been in business?’ Nathan squares his shoulders and raises his voice. ‘I’ve learned if you’re straight with people, they’re generally straight with you’ He turns his head looks directly at those gathered in the shelter. ‘I can duck and dive with the best of them but underneath it all I’m basically an honest guy. He…’ he announces, turning back ‘is not only an ignorant bastard, he is a lying ignorant bastard!’ Nathan pushes his face into Wilson’s, getting a measure of satisfaction as he takes an involuntary step backwards, he jabs a finger in his chest.  The chatter in the shelter fades to silence. ‘I’d beg in the street before I’d be associated with your sort’

Wilson pulls back a fist, his sovereign ring jutting forward and ready to inflict damage. He throws a punch but Nathan grasps the inside of his wrist, twisting his arm back and down while the thumb and forefinger of his other hand vees under his chin. Wilson claws at Nathan’s hand and kicks out violently.

‘Just gimme the excuse, Wilson, just gimme.’ Nathan growls as he avoids the thrash of his feet.

Unable to move his head, Wilson’s eyes swivel frantically sideways, searching for help.

‘So, they’re not with you, after all. I’m glad I took the chance’ Nathan sneers as the last of the men drift away. ‘And there was me thinking I might be about to meet your mate Roy.’

‘Roy?’ Wilson wheezes, his windpipe still constricted by Nathan’s fingers.

‘That’s right. Roy, Roy Denton. I’ve made the connection, Vince. Aren’t I a clever boy?  You tell Mr. Bartlett I’m not playing. Ok?’

‘Bartlett?’

‘Everything alright here?’ A tall, heavily built man asks as he approaches from the pub, casually lifting a lighter to his cigarette and watching them over his cupped hand as he draws.

‘Just fine’ Nathan gives him a slow smile. ‘Just showing my mate a few moves’ He loosens his grip and pushes Wilson backwards before turning away. He pats the man on the shoulder as he walks past. ‘Whatever he’s selling, you don’t want any. Right?’

The Crossed Keys, Woodbury

Chapter Three

Hawthorn House,

Upper Milliwick Road

‘He’s your flaming brother!’ Ernie Knowles bites back ‘If we’re not spending Christmas with him, I thought we’d have it here.’

‘And I fondly imagined that you would want to book a hotel….for me!’ Evelyn’s face grows petulantly jowly.

‘Well, I ain’t! And the chances of getting in anywhere now are somewheres between nil and nowt’

‘You could at least try’

‘And so could you instead of sitting on yer arse moaning about it’

‘And I suppose Anthony will be going to her parents again!’ Evelyn sniffs

‘Well, a course he damned well will. Cos we ain’t never been here for him t’come to us!’ Ernie kicks the footstool out of his way and stomps to the yew wood drinks cabinet. He unscrews the top on a bottle of whiskey. ‘Every blooming year since they’ve been wed, we’ve had to spend Christmas with that pontificating ole bag o’wind!’

‘We have had some wonderful Christmases!’ Evelyn protests

‘Depends if you likes spending the day ‘twixt church ‘n bedtime listening t’you two trying to outdo each other. I want t’relax at home for a change’ He pours himself a good measure and tosses it back before pouring another.

‘And I want to go to a hotel!’

‘Well bugger off then, I ain’t stopping yer. I can get me summat down The Horse. They’re putting a meal on’

‘Pub food?’ Evelyn sneers

‘At least I won’t come home hungry like I did last Christmas. That’s the only bloody hotel I know what counts peas’

‘You always were a pig’

‘Pig? I likes me gravy to go over me dinner, not swim round me plate trying t’find it. And that’s another thing, I don’t like gravy what needs crutches neither, I likes summat what’s got a bit o’body to it’

‘I expect that’s exactly what you would get at The White Horse, I doubt very much if they even know what a jus is!’

‘Nor do I, so it won’t matter much, will it?’ Ernie takes both the bottle and his glass back to his chair.

‘I am not spending Christmas at home!’

‘Good! Give me a bit of peace then won’t it? And while we’re on the subject, why d’you go round telling folk we goes to a hotel for Christmas? We don’t. We has our dinner there, what there is of it, then we goes ‘n sits in that damn great barn of his, freezing our cods off, half starved and not so much as a sniff of a decent drink. I don’t know what you does it for, they all know different cos I tell em.’

‘Well, thank you very much! I have so little that I can…’

‘Boast about? So little you can boast about, you have to make it up? We could’ve stayed in a hotel. I said, remember?  I said months ago I’d pay for our Belinda and them to come over and I expect Anthony’s missus would’ve been glad of a couple of days in a hotel, she’s run ragged wi’them kiddies. We could have had a real good family Christmas and you wouldn’t have had to lift a finger. That’s what I wanted but nooo, you still wants to swan around in a five star and tog yerself up like you was going to Ascot or summat. You didn’t want to be with your family in a nice little hotel where the kids would feel comfortable and not have to worry too much what the littl’uns were up to.’

‘With a visit by Father Christmas after lunch?’ Evelyn laughs derisively.

‘Yes, with a bloody visit by Father Christmas’ Ernie glares angrily ‘…and the carols…and keeping the kiddies up for the sleigh ride Christmas Eve’

‘A sleigh ride, pah! A cart and a couple of old nags with antlers tied on’

‘But it looked like a sleigh! Bells and tinsel and being all wrapped up for a ride in the dark. It’s the magic of it all they would’ve remembered’

‘Magic? You’re as pathetic as that Jessie Shepherd. All she talks about is the magic of Christmas like it’s something real’

‘And it’s a great pity her and Tom didn’t have children for her to enjoy it a bit better an’all.  I wish you’d been like her cos you sure as hell didn’t make any effort for our two and yer still don’t!’ He takes another hefty swallow from his glass and looks at her with intense dislike.

‘And you did?’

‘Yes, I bloody well did! While you was busy swanking with your family’s sodding cronies, I was making Christmas for those kids! How many presents did you buy, eh? How much Christmas shopping did you do?

‘But I didn’t know how much was in the budget, did I?’ Evelyn complains in excuse ‘since you wouldn’t even let me see your bank account.’

‘No’ Ernie points a finger at her ‘But you bloody well made sure you had enough to buy some flashy bit of jewellery for yourself every damned year, didn’t you?’

‘That was the only way I could ensure that I had something decent by way of a present. You never bought me anything after Anthony was born’

‘No, I damn well didn’t. Not after that first year. I weren’t about to pay out twice. I give you plenty extra, more’n most people had t’live on for a month and all you had t’do was to get that kiddie some bits and pieces. That were his money you went and spent on yourself and it was still down t’me and my poor old mum to make sure he’d got summat in his stocking. You would a got summat nice…I mean really nice, if I could’ve seen anything being got for them kids out a me money but you were a selfish, grasping cow and you ain’t changed one jot. S’no wonder they don’t ever come t’see yer’

‘They don’t come to see you either’ Evelyn jibes

‘No, but I go and see them!’ Ernie retaliates triumphantly.

‘You do?’

‘Yes I do! In fact…you might a been shot up the arse be your damned brother but it don’t bother me none. I might see if I can get me a flight to see our Belinda. She’s been on at me t’go over and I shall damned well do just that!’

‘Belinda wants you to…. A flight….Christmas in Canada?’ Evelyn's eyes light up.

‘Oh no you don’t!’ Ernie shakes his head vigorously. ‘You needn’t think you’re coming! What, just so’s you can starts bragging again? I want to have a bit of fun not be saddled wi’ that vinegar chops. Nigh on fifty damned Christmases I’ve had t’spend with you, this one I’m going to enjoy!’