Lacey stared at Peter with her best poker face while her heart bounced underneath her green, fur-lined pinafore. ‘I’m not sure what you mean. I have been helping with the toys and trying to find Jinxy, so I suppose I am a helper?’ He didn’t know yet, at least not for sure, and she wouldn’t confirm his suspicions.

  ‘Not a helper, a Helper. You know what that is, don’t you?’

  ‘I have no idea.’

  ‘How strange, I thought every elf knew what a Helper is. Especially since our most famous children’s story is called Santa’s Helper.’

  Well, bash a dorro of dingoes! She needed to keep her wits about her better. ‘Amnesia, remember?’ she shot back.

  ‘And if I asked Mathilda about it?’

  So far Mathilda was the only one who knew and she had promised to keep the secret. From all she’s seen of Mathilda, Lacey doubted that Peter would get anything out of his sister if she didn’t want to tell him. ‘You could, but I don’t know exactly what she would say about it.’

  ‘Fine, be that way,’ he said rolling his eyes. ‘But I know what you are.’

  ‘Whatever you say, Peter,’ she said sweetly.

  They walked back to town in silence. Lacey could sense Peter’s scrutiny, even though he was looking elsewhere every time she looked at him. She wasn’t fooled. He was watching her for the slightest sign of Helperly-ness. The worst part was that she actually wanted to confess to him, but here she put her currently-elf-like foot very firmly down. This wouldn’t last, she knew it. She had her own life on Earth to return to and once Jinxy was found Santa would send her back. There was no point in getting attached, however attracted she might feel to anyone. And that was that.

  So, as soon as they entered the village, she broke the silence saying, ‘Okay, gotta go now. They’re probably wondering where I am at the workshop.’

  ‘Are you sure? Don’t you want to know whether Melo has discovered something?

  ‘Oh, that’s okay, you’ve got it under control. See you later at Mathilda’s?’ Peter narrowed his eyes at her words. She had the most uncomfortable feeling that a challenge of some sort had just been accepted.

  But all he said was, ‘Sure, I’ll see you later,’ and walked off whistling.

  This time it was Lacey who narrowed her eyes, staring at his back as he walked away. That had been too easy. He glanced back and gave her a casual wave. She waved back with a big smile, turned away and started walking toward the workshop. Then she stopped, doing a fast twist around. The street behind her was empty. But Peter was no fool. So, she walked a few blocks further, making several random turns and occasionally whirling around to check behind her. A few elves looked at her strangely, but there was no sign of Peter.

  As soon as she was sure he wasn’t following her, she turned around and headed in another direction. In a way it was a good thing there were two of them focused on the search for Jinxy. This way Peter could concentrate on searching the wild, and she could work within the town. See, they could both keep at it without ever crossing paths.

  With that rationalisation firmly in mind, she headed over to Jinxy’s place, to which Danji had given her directions and a detailed description last night in the Reindeer Room. Like all the other cottages, Jinxy’s was small and picturesque. Instead of bushes, though, a flat pane surrounded some flowerbeds. A bunch of pink flamingo figurines stood in the snow on the flat pane, which Lacey supposed would be a lawn in warmer months. Most of the flamingos were only visible from the neck up, and one was buried so deep that only its eyes showed. It looked eerily like an army of submarine flamingos converging on unsuspecting visitors. The small cottage sat there forlorn, with dark windows and no smoke rising from its chimney. Someone had shovelled the walkway up to the front door, leaving piles of snow on each side.

  You could be reading stolen content. Head to the original site for the genuine story.

  Walking onto the porch, she belatedly realised that she hadn’t thought of how to get inside. ‘Looking for this?’ a slightly mocking voice asked. It was Peter, sitting on the porch swing off to the side and holding up a key.

  Lacey jumped. ‘What? How? How did you know I was coming here?’

  ‘It wasn’t difficult. I just thought to myself “hmm, what’s the next thing a Helper would do?” and here we are.’

  ‘You did no such thing,’ Lacey huffed. ‘And being a Helper has nothing to do with it. I was hoping that maybe Jinxy came home and failing that, I wanted to take a look around her house.’

  ‘Ah, so you do admit to being a Helper now.’

  ‘That wasn’t the point and I admitted nothing,’ Lacey said, glaring at him. ‘Anyway, what are you doing here? Also checking if Jinxy might be home?’

  ‘No, because if she had come home, her neighbours would’ve let the whole world know by now.’ He motioned to the houses surrounding them. Curtains twitched in various neighbouring cottages, as slivers of faces disappeared from view. He lazily stood up and sauntered over to her. ‘I rather suspect you and I are here for the same reason, to see whether there might be any clues to Jinxy’s disappearance in her cottage.’

  The man was exasperating. How had he known that that was what she wanted to do? Even though he was right, Lacey wasn’t about to admit it. She had already dug in her heels on the Helper, she might as well drive the contrarian attitude all the way home.

  ‘Are you sure?’ Lacey said, looking up at him. ‘For all you know I might be here to hide evidence.’ Right after she said the words, she wanted to kick herself. Again. See, that was what that vexing man did to her. He made her regret every statement.

  ‘Well, if you are, would you like to confess now?’ She stared silently up at him. He was now standing uncomfortably close to her. ‘No?’ he continued taking another step forward, intruding even further on her personal space. She could feel the heat radiating from him even through the cold and all the layers she wore. Or was that her own body, overheating in reaction to him? She shut down the treacherous thought. ‘In that case, let’s talk,’ he continued, leaning even closer. He was close enough that his breath tickled her face. Her body responded to his closeness by leaning towards him. He’s going to kiss me. And I’ll kiss him back. No!

  Lacey hastily pushed him away. ‘What are you doing? Do you want to give the neighbours even more to talk about?’ she asked, nervously looking to where a neighbouring curtain gave another twitch.

  Peter turned his head, following her gaze. ‘Oh, that’s just missus Myrtle. She’s a sweetheart.’ Regardless, he stepped back to a respectable distance. ‘But now, let’s be serious for a moment,’ he said, changing the topic.

  Let’s be serious? Lacey thought as she felt a little pang of hurt in her heart. The stupid man was toying with her! She should’ve known. He was making the most out of her unfortunate attraction to him, which he could probably sense even though she was doing her best to hide it. Resolving not to react to any more of his teasing, she raised her chin, ready to counter the next offence.

  ‘Both of us are here for Jinxy, and you know it. Please don’t deny that as well.’

  ‘Why ever would I do that. Yes, it’s true. I am here to help find Jinxy and bring her back home.’

  ‘Okay, so let’s just team up and — wait, wait …,’ he said noticing Lacey drawing back from the idea.

  ‘… hear me out. Okay, we both want to find Jinxy, right?’

  Lacey nodded.

  ‘And we are both actively investigating her disappearance, right?’

  She nodded again.

  ‘And working separately is inefficient. What if we had both searched Jinxy’s house by ourselves? I might have missed something you could’ve noticed and vice versa. Plus, it would’ve taken double the time than if we had been working together. Do you agree?’

  Lacey briefly considered her previous thoughts regarding the benefits of working apart. Unfortunately, the man had a point. Reluctantly she nodded once more.

  ‘Besides, we would do well together. I know this place and you have an outside perspective. So, with all this in mind, what do you conclude?’

  She wanted to find a way out of the conclusion. She really did. She could sense the danger to her heart in working as a team with him. It was circling around her, getting closer and closer, just like the submarine flamingos on the snowy lawn. But above all, she was logical and knew how to put her feelings away to focus on the job. And finding Jinxy was more important than any peril Peter could present to her heart. She still didn’t have to like it, though.

  ‘Work … together, … yes,’ she ground out. Great, now he’s turning me into Yoda.

  ‘See? Was that so hard?’

  ??????