Page 64 of Coming Home to Maple Tree Lodge

He nodded and smiled, as he looked around. ‘And you’ve achieved it,’ he said. ‘This looks great. Amazing, in fact.’

‘I’m glad you like it,’ she replied, pleased with his reaction.

They walked into the next room which had been decorated in soft blues.

In this room she had added some blue coloured glasses and a vase which Dotty had told her she had bought in Marrakesh.

‘Brilliant,’ said Ben, looking around. ‘Oh, and the coffee machines are arriving tomorrow.’

Lily followed his gaze. Whereas the new colour schemes had softened each bedroom, the new high-tech equipment such as the televisions and USB charging ports ensured that the rooms felt stylish and modern as well as comfortable.

‘I must say these were a great idea,’ said Ben, walking up to a large, framed photograph on the wall.

Lily agreed. She had been inspired when she had come across a number of Dotty’s old photograph albums. They had spent a lovely evening going through some of her many photographs from around the world.

But best of all had been some of the early photographs she had taken when she had first arrived at Maple Tree Lodge. They were all different views and themes. Sometimes a close-up of a dragonfly on a reed bed, a streak of bright green or blue. Or a black and white photograph of the hotel on a winter’s morning. The lake under a blue sky and the maple trees showing off their autumnal glory.

Lily had got them framed so that they could be hung in the bedrooms. Then she had tasked Dotty with taking current photographs, especially the hues of autumn, for the downstairs.

Dotty had taken up the idea with huge enthusiasm and it was great to see her a little more lively day by day.

Lily glanced at Ben once more. It wasn’t just the rooms that were slowly being transformed, she thought. Since being stuck in the boathouse, her relationship with Ben had changed as well. From open hostility to a truce, now they were friends who were a little more honest with each other. They trusted each other. Friends who exchanged more than a healthy glance at each other perhaps. But that was only because he was good-looking, she reminded herself.

‘I like the fact that we’re reusing stuff from around the whole place,’ said Ben.

She nodded in agreement. ‘I’ve always been resourceful and tried to work to a budget,’ she told him.

‘Even a budget as tight as ours?’ he asked, laughing.

‘Even that,’ she said, with a smile.

He looked around the room once more. ‘I guess that’s what I like most about you giving our old junk items a new purpose. And as the family has been here for over a hundred years, we’ve got a lot of junk!’

‘And thank goodness,’ she told him. ‘Because we’ve got a lot of rooms to decorate.’ She went over to move the vase slightly so it lined up properly on the table she had placed it on. ‘I had no idea that staying in one place, one home, for so many years was normal,’ she said, hearing the wistful sound in her own voice.

A place to call home. It had always been her dream but she hadn’t imagined seeing somewhere like Maple Tree Lodge and realising that it was possible in real life.

Ben walked over to stand next to her. ‘You think my family is normal?’ he asked, raising an eyebrow at her in a humorous manner.

She smiled at his joke. ‘I think your family is just lovely,’ she told him truthfully. ‘There’s an underlying strength here, from what I’ve seen and felt. The strength of staying put in one place. Of having a home as a sort of fortress against the outside world. I like it.’

It was true, she realised. She was beginning to feel like she was part of a team. Having been on her own for so long, having battled by herself day after day, it was a nice feeling to be enveloped by the hotel but, more importantly, the people who lived there.

For a moment, their eyes locked. She couldn’t read the look in his eyes before he turned away and headed towards the door.

But she found that she had been holding her breath when she was alone in the room once more as she exhaled, letting out a puff of air.

She could feel herself developing feelings for Ben. She had dated a few men over the years, of course. Mainly to stop her friends nagging her. But there had never been a depth of feeling before. Ben was different. She knew him. She was living in his home and with his family.

Still the old feelings surfaced. It was an anomaly for her to let someone break down those carefully erected barriers she had placed around her heart, trying to concentrate only on her career.

In contrast, she found that she wanted to talk with Ben. To be open with him.

But even more surprising was the fact that she didn’t feel the need to shy away with him. That she could feel herself wanting to get even closer to him.

And the feeling both surprised and frightened her.

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