Len and Linda were waiting at a corner table. Three other people Maggie hadn’t met before were also dining with them. Linda pulled out a chair for her then introduced the others. The two older men were John and Ted, a couple from Birmingham who had been coming to Hollydell every year since John had retired four years ago. And Emma was a university professor from Plymouth who was ‘single and proud, although if Santa came knocking, I’d let him fill my stocking.’ As she explained to Maggie, she taught modern poetry, although didn’t have much of a flair for it herself.
Maggie enjoyed a dish of barbequed prawns and roasted potatoes, something the menu claimed was Christmas, Australian-style. On Len’s insistence, they all shared a bottle of Christmas-spiced, warmed port, which went straight to
