Two hours later, with the ten chocolate logs in varied stages of construction, Veronica was snoozing on the sofa while Emily made some phone calls in the kitchen. Everything was going well. The snow was threatening to derail everything, of course, but Alan had got his plow working and had managed to clear a way through to the duel carriageway exit a couple of miles distant, where, by some miracle, the snow had all melted off. Cottonwood, it appeared, was situated in a bit of a microclimate cold pocket, but that could work to their advantage.
With the roads in one direction cleared, and Garry Timpson, owner of Fingles, the farm adjacent to Rowe Farm, providing a free shuttle service in the back of his Land Rover up to the bus stop by the duel carriageway, people were able to get in without
