Page 25 of Coming Home to Maple Tree Lodge

Lily had to admit that the peace and quiet of Maple Tree Lodge would certainly be a welcome change. Perhaps it would even give her time to work out what her next step would be. After she’d completed her commission for the hotel, that was.

As Del turned the taxi onto the narrow track leading to the hotel, she saw that a tow truck was slowly winching out the stranded hire car out of the pond at last.

‘You won’t get your deposit back on that one,’ he muttered.

Lily nodded, having already received notice from the hire company.

Once back at the hotel, Del helped her carry the boxes and suitcases up to her bedroom. After thanking him, she headed downstairs to make herself a coffee.

Having sat down on one of the stools at the large island, she was just checking her phone when Ben wandered in.

‘Hey,’ he said, heading over to flick on the kettle once more. ‘You’re back.’

She nodded. ‘It didn’t take as long as Del expected.’

‘Thought the traffic would slow you up.’

She shook her head. ‘It was pretty quiet out there so early in the morning.’

‘I used to get stuck on that motorway all the time when I used to come home from working in London,’ he said, making a face. ‘Used to take hours on a Friday night.’

‘Do you miss it?’ she found herself asking, wondering how he had fitted into the big city coming from this kind of landscape.

‘It’s certainly different than here,’ he replied. She noticed that he avoided answering the question.

‘Well, I’m sure once the place is up and running after all the renovations, it’ll be as busy as the streets of London around here, full of guests,’ she said.

‘Let’s hope so,’ he told her, stirring the contents of his mug slowly round and around.

But his voice didn’t sound full of hope.

He looked up with a start, as if he had forgotten she was even there. ‘Well,’ he said quickly. ‘I’d better go and see what the builders are going to achieve today.’

With that, he walked out, leaving Lily with the feeling that there was something wrong at Maple Tree Lodge. Was business really that bad? And what did it mean for the Jackson family if it was?

That thought made her even more determined to ensure that the rooms had the very best designs that she could think of. And any doubts she had harboured about her secret plan vanished into thin air.

12

A couple of days later, Ben was feeling decidedly grumpy due to a couple of emails he had received that morning.

One was expected. It was the invoice for the rewiring of the whole hotel from the electrician. The high number at the bottom of the invoice made him feel ill, especially as he wasn’t sure how they would ever be able to get back into the black but at least the hotel was safe for a while longer. Pretty soon it would be fully renovated and redecorated. But would it be full of guests? He just didn’t know.

Another email was the latest electricity bill, which seemed unnecessarily high, considering they had just updated the circuit board. He couldn’t understand it and tried to ask around at lunchtime when the family had found themselves all in the kitchen at the same time. But the family couldn’t think of any reason for the higher bills.

‘Where’s Lily?’ asked Faye, stirring some apple chutney on the hob. ‘I’ve made her a sandwich.’

‘She said she was going to work through lunch today as she was halfway through painting the ceiling,’ replied Hannah, sitting down on one of the stools at the middle island. ‘I’ll take itup to her just as soon as I’ve finished mine.’ She yawned. ‘I can’t wait to have some time off at the weekend when Beth and Ella get here. I’m so tired.’

‘You girls work too hard,’ said Dotty, shaking her head in disapproval.

‘Well, that will all change this weekend,’ said Hannah with a wide grin.

Ben felt pleased that Hannah was enjoying having her friend around. She had been badly bullied at school, having not fallen in with the ‘in’ crowd, and despite him trying to protect her from the worst of it, the bullies had dented her confidence.

Walter came into the kitchen, his jumper covered in tiny pieces of wood.

Faye raised her eyebrows at him. ‘Have you been chopping wood all this time?’ she asked.