Page 32 of The Village Inn of Secret Dream

It was supposed to feel like a new beginning but to Belle it felt as if everything was ending.

The following morning, Belle found herself blinking away the tears pricking her eyes as Mick and Angie completed their last-minute packing. The taxi was going to pick them up at noon.

‘Have I got everything?’ asked Angie, for the fiftieth time that morning, looking down at her bulging suitcases.

‘There’s no room left in your third suitcase,’ Mick told her. ‘Or mine, come to think of it as you’ve nicked some of that space as well.’

‘But what if I’ve forgotten something?’ said Angie, still frowning.

‘They have a shop on the ship, don’t they?’ asked Belle, who had been sitting on the end of the bed and watching the mayhem.

‘Several,’ her uncle said. ‘Plus, you know, we’re going around the world. Surely there’ll be something to buy in America, Australia, the Far East…’ His voice trailed off as he grinned at Belle. ‘Still can’t believe we’re going.’

‘Me neither,’ said Belle with a smile. She couldn’t begrudge them their dream trip when they had worked hard for so many years. She looked over at her aunt. ‘Perhaps you could arrange to see Mum whilst you’re in the Indian Ocean,’ she said, tentatively as a sort of joke.

Unsurprisingly, her aunt shook her head. ‘She doesn’t want to see me,’ she said, looking downcast for a brief moment. Her aunt suddenly stepped forward to lean down to give Belle a huge bear hug. ‘You know how much you mean to me and your uncle, don’t you?’ she muttered into Belle’s hair. ‘We’ll miss you terribly. You’re still our family. Always will be.’

Belle nodded, still smothered against a bright blue mohair jumper as the tears once more threatened to fall.

‘Now, have I definitely got my hair straighteners?’ said Angie, straightening up and moving over to her suitcase.

‘You’ll be all right, you know,’ said Mick, coming to sit on the edge of the bed next to Belle and putting an arm around her. ‘Pete’s a good lad. He’ll see the place right. After all, he’s a Kennedy. They’re Cranbridge through and through, aren’t they?’

Belle smiled and nodded but didn’t relay her internal fears to her uncle. They were taking a well-earned break and didn’t need to worry. After all, the inn wouldn’t be their responsibility after that day.

It would be hers, she reminded herself. She had to keep the legacy of the place intact. Keep the customers happy. And, with a bit of luck, keep the home that she had made for herself as well.

Later on, as she watched the taxi whisk her aunt and uncle away to the coach station before heading to the port, she realised that life as she had known it had changed. She just wasn’t sure it would feel right ever again.

But a tiny part of her actually felt empowered. Perhaps it might do her some good to finally stand on her own two feet. She just hoped she didn’t step on Pete’s toes as she did so.

17

That afternoon, Pete found himself packing up his suitcases again. But this time he was only heading across the river to stay in The Black Swan.

He was still very nervous about how his so-called brief stay in the village had turned out, thanks to Mick’s magic punch, but he just hoped it would be a prudent investment that would pay off pretty quickly.

Not that there were any suitable properties for him here even if he wanted to stay, he thought, as he dragged one of his wheeled suitcases across the tiny pedestrian bridge towards the inn. The village, whilst admittedly pretty with its chocolate-box cottages, was light years away from the modern places that he had bought so far in his adulthood. He liked things without character, he had decided. Modern, pristine and blank. Nothing with history or reminders of happier times.

Not, he thought with a grimace, as he looked up at the cracked paint on the façade of the inn, this kind of place at all.

However, the place wouldn’t remain in that state for too long. He had already hired a team of contractors to start the following week on upgrading everything downstairs, from the kitchen to the bar and the furniture. It all had to go. It would make quite a dent in his savings, but it would be worth it to attract the right buyer and make the biggest profit.

Not wanting to drag his suitcases through the inn lounge, he made his way around the side entrance to where the back door was.

Belle had, reluctantly, handed over a spare key for the back door and he found himself almost surprised when it actually worked and turned the lock.

He couldn’t blame her animosity, he supposed. She had already accused him of only renovating the inn for the money, which was entirely true, of course. He just couldn’t understand why she was being so impossible about it all. Wasn’t he trying to help keep The Black Swan open?

He had tried to describe his vision to Belle a few days ago of how he wanted the inn to look once the renovations were finished.

She had actually looked horrified!

‘You’re kidding, right?’ she had finally said. ‘Tell me this is a joke.’

Pete was nonplussed. ‘What are you talking about? Of course it’s not a joke,’ he had told her.

Belle had looked down at the list of ideas that he had had about decoration once more.