The Last POST

She couldn’t let Eunice down now – not after the years of commitment they’d each shown

Marianne gazed out of her window at the growing sea of white and sighed. At this rate, she wouldn’t get out of the house again until March! Living in a beautiful Lake District cottage was wonderful, but it had its disadvantages – and winter and heavy snowfall were two of them.

‘I suppose it doesn’t really matter,’ she said to herself. ‘Worse things happen at sea. Eunice will understand.’

She’d known Eunice Piper since the long-ago days when they’d worked together. Now they lived at opposite ends of the country, but it was a firmly established tradition that they would always, without fail, send Christmas and birthday cards to each other. They always put little notes in the cards giving brief updates of what was going on in their lives. Eunice’s birthday was on 7 January. Today was 3 January.

‘Oh, well, if I can’t get out, I can’t,’ Mariannemumbled, bending to nuzzle the neck of Simba, her ginger tom. ‘Eunice will understand. She’ll have seen on the news how we’re all snowed in up here.’

Even so, she hated being the one who had to break the long-standing tradition. The thick snow had nearly reached the front-room windowsill. There were only a few flakes coming down now, but the sky still looked ominously dark. Even the Land Rover was well and truly stuck. Thank goodness she’d learned always to keep a well-stocked pantry.

Marianne was about to put the job of snow clearing back another day when movement in the far distance attracted her attention. Surely not..? There was a figure trudging through the snow towards her house.