Page 23 of The Village Inn of Secret Dream

‘You know,’ said Angie, rolling her eyes. ‘We’ve been hanging on to our savings to try to see us through the future, but that doesn’t matter now. Pete’s buying the place and once that money goes through, then the world’s our oyster. So we may as well spend a little upfront now.’

‘Right,’ said Belle, trying to keep up. ‘Well, I’m sure that will be a nice break for you both in the new year.’

‘Oh, we’re going sooner than that,’ said Angie, beaming.

‘Too right,’ said Mick, nodding in agreement. ‘Chances are that the sale will be done in a month or so, is that right, Pete?’

Pete nodded, still looking a little stunned himself.

Belle was beginning to feel worried. A month didn’t give her very long to start planning her own future if that was all the time they had left living in The Black Swan. And they still needed to organise where they were all going to live afterwards.

‘Well, I can see that Pete would want to get going on becoming the new landlord as soon as possible,’ said Belle finally.

‘Briefly anyway,’ said Mick, with a smile.

Belle looked at her uncle before looking at Pete. ‘What do you mean?’ she asked.

‘Well, he’s not going to stay on for too long, is he?’ said Mick.

‘I don’t understand,’ said Belle. ‘He’s only just bought the place. Why would he be leaving again?’

To her surprise, Angie shook her head. ‘No, love. You’ve got it all wrong. Pete told your uncle that he wants to buy the place outright, do it up and then sell it on for a profit. And who can blame him? Running an inn’s hard work.’

Belle almost staggered where she stood. ‘Sell on?’ she repeated, in shock.

‘What did you call it, Pete?’ asked Angie. ‘That funny phrase you kept saying last night.’

‘He’s going to flip it,’ said Mick, with a knowing nod.

Belle found herself speechless, her mind racing to understand what she was being told. She noted that Pete had remained conspicuously quiet during the recent revelations.

‘So we thought we’d put a cruise on our credit card,’ carried on Angie. ‘Now that we don’t have to worry about all those debts, we thought it was time to treat ourselves. I don’t know the last time we had a holiday.’

‘Where’s those holiday details, Angie?’ asked Mick.

‘It’s on my iPad,’ she replied. ‘Come on upstairs, both of you,’ she added. ‘We’ll show you where we’re thinking of going over a cup of coffee.’

‘We’ll be up in a minute,’ said Belle, finally finding her voice. ‘I just need a moment with Pete.'

Her aunt and uncle disappeared upstairs, chatting excitedly.

Meanwhile, the reality had finally sunk in. So she wasn’t saved after all. The inn would still be sold in the near future, not once but twice. Pete was just doing it to line his own pockets.

Belle was embarrassed that she had hugged and thanked him. She had trusted him! Suddenly incensed, she placed her hands on her hips and glared at him.

‘So you’re what, using the inn to make a profit on the side?’ she asked. ‘With no thought about what happens to the place afterwards?’

‘Listen,’ he began to say, but she was too upset to hear what he had to say.

‘No, you listen, Pete Kennedy. I can’t believe you’ve done this!’ she said, just about managing not to shout at him.

‘What have I done? I was trying to help,’ he told her.

‘How is this helping?’ she wailed. ‘You’ve just delayed the inevitable. The inn’s still going to be sold. I’m still going to lose my home.’

‘Not necessarily,’ he told her. ‘I’m going to renovate the place. It’s an investment.’

‘Yes, that much I understood,’ she replied, lacing her voice with sarcasm.