Page 99 of The Village Inn of Secret Dream

Pete nodded. She was right, of course. Instead he had run and made things worse.

‘Your dad would be so proud of what you’ve achieved since you’ve come back,’ she added. ‘The both of you, I mean.’

Pete laughed. ‘What? Making a mess of the restaurant, you mean?’ he said.

But she didn’t laugh and reached out to take his hand. ‘I mean, the good things that you’ve done for people around here,’ she told him. ‘I’ve heard what you did for Ned and the others. How the inn has been providing meals to the families in the village that needed them. Maybe you’re more like your dad than you give yourself credit for.’

Was it true? Pete liked to think so. Or at least, hoped so.

‘She’s right,’ said Josh, standing up next to them.

‘Well, I must check on your grandmother,’ said their mum. ‘She’s been going on about how they used to skate on the frozen river and I need to nip that idea in the bud before she breaks both her hips.’

‘I’ll come with you,’ said Pete, holding out his arm for his mum to take. ‘I’ve got time for a quick coffee with you both before getting back to the inn.’

She looked pleased. ‘Well, that would be lovely,’ she said, putting her hand through the crook in his elbow.

He looked over to find his brother smiling at them and nodding his approval before heading back into the shop.

‘That’s new, isn’t it?’ she said, nodding at the Range Rover as they gingerly made their way across the slippery stone bridge to the other side.

‘Be careful,’ he said.

‘Thank you, son,’ she said, stepping off the bridge. ‘But I’ve been crossing this river for nearly all of my life, I’ll have you know.’

‘So, what do you think?’ he asked as they walked towards his new car.

His mum looked at him. ‘I like the colour,’ she said. ‘Green is, after all, very suited to the country.’

He laughed. ‘Yeah, I like to camouflage myself as much as I can these days,’ he told her.

She smiled. ‘So,’ she began, clearing her throat. ‘Buying a car.’ She hesitated before adding, ‘Does this mean…’ Her voice ran off before she could finish her sentence.

Pete knew what she was going to ask him. She wanted to know if this meant that he was staying.

‘Come on,’ he said, beginning to walk in the other direction towards Grandma Tilly’s bungalow. ‘It’s a beautiful day.’

The grey, snow-filled clouds had finally cleared and been replaced by deep blue endless skies. And Pete felt as if his own personal storm cloud had begun to disappear as well. He had got things so wrong these past few years and suffered because of it. He felt sad that he had ever doubted his father and that he had run away instead of talking to his mum. But after their chat, he felt lighter, as if a weight had been lifted from his heart.

‘By the way, Mum,’ he said, as they walked alongside the river. ‘Yes.’

She looked up at him confused. ‘Sorry, love, what do you mean?’ she asked.

‘I mean, yes,’ he told her. ‘I’m staying in Cranbridge. Indefinitely.’

She broke into a wide smile, the tears pricking her eyes. ‘Well,’ she said in a shaky voice. ‘That’s wonderful. It truly is.’ She paused before asking, ‘Does this mean you’re finally happy?’

He glanced back at the inn behind them before looking at his mum. ‘I think it does,’ he told her, squeezing her hand before they carried on walking alongside the river.

53

Belle was quite nervous before the reopening of the restaurant that evening.

But she wasn’t worried about the food. That was proving to have exceptional feedback from all the grateful residents to whom various meals had been donated over the past week.

She wasn’t even worried about the new décor, she thought, looking around the restaurant with a sense of achievement.

True to his word, Pete had left her in charge of making the changes to the original stark colour scheme. So she had had the spotlights changed from a bright white to a far softer and more flattering light which could also be dimmed to help with the atmosphere.