A few minutes later, they were following James and Henry’s bobbing lanterns, the huge reindeer trotting obediently along beside them. They crossed a train line that had been entirely hidden in the dark, then James turned up a narrow track leading between two stone walls. The train line was on one side, the hill rising off into darkness on the other. As the trail began to rise, moving away from the train line and angling uphill, they passed patches of wet snow on the ground.
‘We’re a week or so off the first big dumps,’ James said. ‘Once it comes it’s here until March, though. It’s snowshoes and sleds all round.’
‘Isn’t that a bit inconvenient?’
James smiled. ‘Not when you’ve got a tummy full of hot chocolate, there are lights hanging in the trees, and a fire burning in the grate. You ge
