A Fiery Winter Game

He felt the cigarette smoke rasp in his airways before he exhaled and watched as it slowly vanished towards the ceiling. He did not particularly enjoy the taste and was not a habitual smoker but had wanted to escape the dreary pre-Christmas party Tom was throwing and liked to imagine how annoyed his older brother would be if he knew Sidney was smoking in his precious orangery. He chose to smoke here mostly because it was bloody cold outside, but also considered it a small pay-back for Tom making him attend tonight or convincing him to come to Sanditon in the first place.

London was the city Sidney called home since many years and he only returned to his birthplace Sanditon when the longing for the nephew and nieces he adored became too strong to resist or he could not avoid it for some other silly reason, usually with Tom's name tagged on it. This time Tom had skilfully played his heart strings, claiming that if the siblings did not convene for Christmas, they should not even call themselves a family anymore. Tom was older than him, but Sidney somehow felt an obligation to him and their younger brother and sister to keep the Parker family together as they did not have any parents to do so and had given in to his arguments. He did not enjoy it here in Sanditon though which made it hard to stay close to his siblings. He always felt like an odd bird and nothing ever happened in the sleepy town. The only thing he liked about it was the location by the sea. Not exactly the season for sea bathing now and he was determined to leave on Boxing Day no matter if Tom and his wife Mary tried to talk him out of it.

"I assume you already know it's bad for you, so there's no point telling you?"

He had been gazing at the snowy landscape, vaguely visible in the December darkness outside the huge paned windows, lost in reveries, and the female voice made him snap around. It seemed the peace he had found in the naughty smoke was over and he was about to retort something sarcastic, but the sight of her muted him.

He could not help but staring at the young woman leaning in the doorway. Sidney met beautiful women all the time and many of them were certainly pleased to meet him, but this girl struck him as different. There was no elaborate makeup, false eyelashes, spray tan, hair extensions or long varnished nails, just clean fresh natural beauty. Her most striking feature was the expressive big brown eyes, perfectly balanced with a cute little nose, soft pink lips, rosy cheeks, a dimple in her chin and wavy chestnut hair framing it all. She wore a dress in a deep red colour, very seductive despite that the neckline went no deeper than to show her clavicles and modestly ended just above the knee. Somehow, she managed to look simultaneously sweet and sexy and completely unaware of it.

She interrupted the silence by breaking out in laughter and he thought it sounded like little silver bells jingling.

"The smoking I mean. It's bad for you but I'm sure you know. I'm sorry if I startled you. What are you doing hiding here, looking all brooding? Because you are hiding, aren't you?"

Finally, he managed to produce a coherent sentence.

"Not that it's any of your business, but I find Tom's do pretty damn boring", he drawled and stubbed out the cigarette in an olive tree pot.

"Why is that? Are you to cool for it? Would you rather be gallivanting around London with your high society dandy friends?"

He heard the amused mockery in her voice and was unsure if it annoyed him or amused him in turn.

"Gallivanting? Did someone feed you an 18th century dictionary? And why would you assume I have such friends?"

She shrugged her shoulders.

"You look the part, that's all."

Maybe he did in his tailor-made dark three-piece suit and impeccable white shirt. When he spoke again, be found that he had no wish to be rude to her.