CAUTION: There are some references to rape and miscarriage in this chapter

“Well perhaps you will next time then. Anyway I hope you don't have plans for tonight because as of now you're lined up for a mainstream talk show interview at nine. I'm not sure where at the moment as both ITV and the BBC are bidding for you, and I need to talk to Karen to find out how she wants to handle things.

“If I were you I'd clear my diary for the rest of the week too, as I suspect there'll be a few more offers in the pipeline. Wear something nice tonight won't you dear? I'll arrange for a car to pick you up at eight.”

A long bath and half a mug of hot chocolate later, I was sitting on the sofa, absent-mindedly scratching Toby behind the ears when the phone rang. I thought about screening it for a moment, but decided not to.

“Hello?”

“Hi, it's er Mike.”

Guys just don’t go for secretarial jobs. I mean however much we strive for equality, in the real world the best qualifications for such work are the ones nature gave you — assuming of course you’re young, female and stacked like an overloaded forklift.

James Sandford was none of these. Going on fifty, recently out of work and running out of cash, he was desperate. Desperate enough that when he saw the advert — no discrimination, no prior experience needed — he figured it was worth a shot, even though he was the only guy there.

The thing is when you work in a leading high tech solutions company even a secretarial job isn’t necessarily what you’d expect…

“One-thirty will be fine as long as you don't feel I'm wasting too much of your time.”

“No I think that having started this little trip down the rabbit hole we should see it through to its end. I'll have a car ready to pick us both up at the main entrance at one-thirty then. Until then, there's a deli at the end of the road if you wouldn't mind getting us both a sandwich. Something with a bit of meat in for me if you don't mind.”

He showed me to the door and I stepped out into the waiting area with an overwhelming sense of foreboding over how this was all going to turn out.

“I was getting sort of concerned that you didn’t leave me a message or anything so I figured I’d call. Sorry of this is too early.”

“It’s no big, we were just having breakfast.”

“We?”

“Yeah, Phil and I kind of made a night of it.”

“You what?”

There was nothing left to say. She looked so alone and vulnerable I wanted to reach out to her, but that wasn’t going to happen now. With a slowness born of reluctance I gathered all my clothes and put them into my bag; it didn’t take long even so.

I put the door key on the coffee table and looked up at her stiff and unrelenting pose. It was already dark outside and cold enough that a wet snow was falling. I had no idea where I might find shelter at this time of the evening, but I had no more welcome here. I couldn’t blame her for that, I mean what had happened to me was farfetched. I gave the friendly tabby a last scratch behind his ears and headed for the door and who knew what.

Chris had a secret that was burning a hole in his soul. He’d tried to share it with his wife some years before, but she hadn’t been ready to hear it then, so he’d kept hidden and struggled on as best he could. Most of the time he did pretty well, but at stressful times like Christmas it would rise close to the surface, near enough for others to notice.

Ann loved her husband and she knew there was something deep inside him that was tearing him apart. She longed to know what it was, to help him, but somehow the time was never right. She had griefs of her own to bear, but she always found her thoughts returning to Chris.

Emily needs a home for Christmas. All too recent memories of seeing her parents violently attacked has left her traumatised and in need of love.

Christmas is a magical time when people pray and wish harder than at other times of the year. Perhaps at such a time there’s a way they can all be helped…

Sometimes you have to give up on your dreams. A longing to be petite, young and beautiful is unrealistic for someone who’s six foot one and just entering his fifties.

Sometimes your dreams come looking for you though. A chance encounter in a remote Arabian village, a strange story and an even stranger offer. Perhaps it’s not too late for dreams to come true.