Page 2 of Starry Nights over Dragonfly Lake

As well as being able to work in the Royal Observatory part time, London had produced one other major plus. Only able to afford a room in a shared house in a less than attractive area of the capital city, her initial reservations about the accommodation had been quickly overcome when she had met her three other housemates.

Lily had been a junior assistant in an interior design firm, Hannah had been working as a pastry chef in a restaurant in the West End and Ella was a social media assistantin Canary Wharf. The four women had quickly bonded and their lifelong friendships had begun. It was one of the happiest times that Beth had ever known, secure with her best friends’ love and support that had continued ever since.

After two years, Beth had impressed a professor at Greenwich so much with her voluntary work that she offered Beth the opportunity to accompany her on a two-year sabbatical at the South African Astronomical Observatory as an assistant. Under her tutelage and encouragement, Beth had blossomed, although she had begun to realise that the bias against her for not having a degree from one of the most noteworthy universities was beginning to hold her back in the field of her chosen career.

Even when she completed her astronomy degree and got top marks, still no doors were open to her for a full-time job. So she continued to volunteer wherever she could, earning her living by continuing to take on as many jobs as she could. She travelled the world, working at many of the amazing laboratory stations for a pittance whilst studying in her spare time for her PhD as well.

Since gaining her PhD five years ago, Beth had still struggled to find a job as a professional astronomer. But work in that field was tightly contested and even with her qualifications, many doors were still closed to her due to the fact that she didn’t have any proper full-time work or research experience. So she continued to work in jobs away from the scientific industry.

Four months ago, she had accepted a contract as a contributing writer for a column in an astronomy magazine. The pay wasn’t much but she felt that she was finally using all the many years of study and she actually enjoyed thinking up new topics each month. Alongside a temporary waitressing job, it had just covered her rent each month.

Even after all these years, Beth continued to feel that she had never quite achieved the potential that she had been promised inthe early stages of her studies. But at least she had never lost her love for the stars either.

She closed the boot of her car before glancing up at the starry sky, her celestial comfort blanket. Maple Tree Lodge was located in Cranley, a quaint village in the heart of the Cotswolds. Without any ambient light coming from the hotel, the dark sky was a mass of twinkling lights. She quickly spotted the plough, her favourite from her childhood. But even that didn’t give her much comfort that evening.

‘Now I’ve probably lost my column on top of everything else,’ moaned Beth, feeling miserable once more. ‘It’s bad enough that I lost my waitressing job this week because the restaurant shut down.’

‘Hang on, why should you lose your job at the magazine?’ asked Lily.

‘I was understandably a bit upset and threw quite a few insults at Jeremy before walking out. And my ex-boyfriend hates any kind of criticism.’ Beth let her shoulders sag. ‘I should have never got involved with my boss.’

Jeremy was the editor forStargazingmagazine and there had been an immediate attraction between them at her first interview. He was a professor of physics who had discovered a black hole twenty years ago and still kept an aura of fame about him. Dazzled by his intelligence and notoriety in their field, Beth had quickly fallen for him whilst they had enjoyed a few dinners discussing her column.

In truth, her column was still a little restricting as Jeremy decided the topic each month. But it didn’t take much effort on Beth’s part so she had been left with enough free time to create her own astronomy blog. ‘Starry Nights’ didn’t have much of a following but at least she was free to choose whatshe wrote about.

‘Nice of you not to say I told you so,’ she added to Lily, with a sigh.

Lily shrugged her shoulders. ‘Hey, what are best friends for? Besides, I’m pretty sure Ella will do that for me anyway.’

Where Lily and Hannah were both happy in their romantic relationships, Ella had remained resolutely single, still searching for the perfect partner who had style, money and, most important of all, was equal to her acerbic wit. Ella had yet to find such a man, if he even existed. In the meantime, she was equally critical about Beth’s choice of boyfriends.

‘Come on, let’s get you inside,’ said Lily, with a shiver. ‘It’s cold out here tonight.’

‘I’m sorry that I’m arriving here so late,’ said Beth. ‘Especially when you must be so busy,’ she added, knowing that it was a Saturday night and the hotel was likely to be full of guests.

Maple Tree Lodge had twenty bedrooms with en suite bathrooms. Lily and her boyfriend Ben ran the hotel, along with Ben’s family, the Jacksons. The Jacksons were like a second family to Beth. In fact, because she had never had a family of her own, they were the only family that she had, along with her best friends.

And thank goodness they owned a hotel, thought Beth. She hadn’t been able to face the miserable studio flat that she was currently renting. On a meagre income, it had spectacularly bad damp which was beginning to make her feel ill and she was desperate to move out of there as soon as she could.

She had arranged to spend the whole weekend at Jeremy’s modern and damp-free flat. The monochromatic apartment wasn’t quite her style but she had secretly begun to hope that he would invite her to stay on permanently at some time in the future. That perhaps he was the one to give her the happy life she had dreamed about for so long.

What a disaster, she thought. But at least she was with herfriends. And besides, where else was the perfect place to be comforted? Maple Tree Lodge, of course, with its cheery fireplaces, oak beams and sumptuous soft furnishings. As soon as she had walked out on Jeremy, it had been a knee-jerk reaction to head to her favourite place in the world and she didn’t regret the long drive to get there for a second.

‘There are no spare guest bedrooms available unfortunately,’ Lily told her as they began to walk across the car park. ‘Or rather fortunately, for us. It’s the first weekend of the night lights festival so we’re completely sold out.’

‘That’s fantastic news,’ Beth told her. ‘Oh, I’m sorry to have missed the first light festival. It’s so pretty!’

She knew that since Ben and Lily had begun the renovations the hotel’s future had been less than certain. Slowly, over the course of the past twelve months, however, the outlook had begun to look much brighter.

Dotty, Ben and Hannah’s grandmother, had had the inspired idea to have a floating light festival on Dragonfly Lake which the hotel was situated next to. It had been a huge success the previous winter and the family had been keen to carry on with the monthly show as soon as the darker evenings of autumn had arrived.

‘Thankfully we had finished and packed away before the power cut,’ carried on Lily. ‘By the way, Hannah and Alex have moved back into her old room because there’s a leak that needs fixing in their apartment so you’ll be in the last of the spare bedrooms in the family wing. The first one on the right-hand side.’

As well as twenty guest bedrooms, the hotel had a private family wing of rooms, one for each member of the family.

‘They went to bed a little while ago, before you messaged me that you were coming here,’ carriedon Lily. ‘As has everyone else, so you’ll have to catch up with them all in the morning.’

‘Can’t wait,’ replied Beth, suppressing a yawn and suddenly feeling exhausted from the rollercoaster of emotions she had been through that evening. ‘I just need a bed for the night. Thank you, as always, for being there for me.’