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He? Why hadn’t Ellie clocked that before? Not that it made any difference, except it almost looked as if Gwen was blushing. What kind of “he” was this?
“Oh, right. I suppose I assumed… but you did say it was an old friend of David’s,” Ellie recalled. She probably should have made the connection, and yet it simply hadn’t occurred to her that Gwen was meeting a man.
“Yes, his name is John. We used to go on holidays and things together, when Matthew and Sarah were little. But it has been a long time.”
“And he’s doing well?”
“He’s been widowed for the last few years, but yes, he is. In fact…” Gwen hesitated before she lifted her gaze to meet Ellie’s rather resolutely. “He’s coming over today. He was a landscape gardener before he retired, and I thought he could give us some Christmassy ideas for the garden.”
“Oh!” Ellie tried to mask her surprise. Why shouldn’t Gwen have a friend come over to help? She wasn’t quite sure why she was so thrown, only that she was. “That’s wonderful. The more the merrier, I say, especially if he’s got some expertise.”
“He certainly does,” Gwen answered with a small smile. “And I think we need all the help we can get!” She cocked her head, her gaze sweeping over Ellie. “How come you couldn’t sleep, Ellie? I hope this Christmas event isn’t becoming too much…”
“No, it’s not too much,” Ellie replied, a bit too quickly. “Obviously, there’s a lot to do, but I’m sure it will be fine.” She reached once more for the to-do list. “I’m hoping to get on top of the Christmas decorations today.”
“Oh?” Gwen’s expression brightened. “I’ve got loads out in the shed. I’ll bring them in, and you can have a look, if you want.”
Ellie hesitated, unsure how to handle such a well-intended offer. She’d already had a look through the plastic bins of old decorations, and they were definitely on the homemade and looking rather worn side. As lovely as glittery pinecones made by Matthew and Sarah in primary school were on a family Christmas tree, she wasn’t sure they were really suitable for a commercial enterprise.
“Thank you,” she said at last. “I’m sure there’s some bits and pieces that will be really useful.” If she’d meant to sound encouraging or at least tactful, she’d clearly failed, judging by the sudden fall in Gwen’s expression. She’d thought they’d got beyond this pussyfooting around each other some time ago, but it seemed old habits died hard, if at all, especially around certain issues.
“Of course,” Gwen murmured, glancing down at her cup of tea, “I’m sure some of it is a bit tatty and worn. You must do as you see fit.”
And even though Ellie knew her mother-in-law was being sincere, the pinprick of hurt needling through her words was enough to have them both lapse into a rather morose silence.
Ellie glanced down at her list, wondering if she should have handled that moment better. There probably were some very nice things amidst all the homemade ornaments and twenty-year-old decorations. She should really have a proper look at it all. She opened her mouth to say something to that effect, in as encouraging a way as she could find, but Gwen had already gone to rinse her cup in the sink.
“I’ll just go get dressed,” she murmured and slipped out of the room.
Ellie let out a long, weary sigh. Too much was riding on the next few weeks to worry about hurt feelings on either side, and yet she felt mean for having such a thought. After their emergency family meeting, she’d really hoped everyone would pull together, and in many ways, theyhad, but no one seemed to feel the urgency, the anxiety, the way she did. Matthew continued to be cheerfully dismissive, while the children didn’t seem as if they could get their heads around the idea of the inn having to close at all. The other day Ben had even suggested that it wouldn’t be such a bad thing; he didn’t always like having guests, especially ones with little kids, in his space. Jess loved doing the children’s crafts with Mairi, but schoolwork and activities were taking up more of her time, especially as this was her GCSE year, and sometimes she could be irritable about having the house taken over. Josh too, Ellie realized, could sometimes chafe at the intrusion; during the summer, some little kids had taken apart the thousand-piece jigsaw he’d been working on when he’d had less than a hundred pieces left and thrown the pieces all over the room. He’d been disconsolate. Ava seemed to like the guests, at least, and what about Gwen? Her mother-in-law had been so enthusiastic about Ellie’s vision to make it a family-friendly B&B, but lately she’d seemed less involved, less interested, happy to have Ellie and Matthew make all the decisions and be left to her own devices.
Really, Ellie reflected rather glumly, no one seemed to care as much as she did. Was it just because the changes to the inn had been her idea at the start, and so she was taking it more to heart? Its potential failure felt likeherfailure.
Well, she told herself, she’d just have to care enough for everyone.
Swallowing the last of her lukewarm tea, she stood up and headed upstairs to get ready for the day.
Two hours later, Ellie had seen Jess and Ben off on the bus for their school in Abergavenny, dropped Josh and Ava at the primary school in the village, and was back at the house, enlisting Matthew’s help in dragging out the Christmas decorations from the shed. There were several rather dusty plastic crates as well as cardboard boxes that looked as if they might fall apart at any moment, overflowing with silver spangled tinsel, artificial greenery that was looking rather bedraggled, and tangles of colored fairy lights.
“I’m sure we can use some of this,” Matthew said with far more optimism than Ellie felt. She had created a mood board for both the dining room and living rooms, and they didn’t include a plastic tablecloth decorated with cartoon Christmas trees or homemade ornaments with the year written rather shakily in globby, silver glitter glue.
“We need things to look… professional,” she told him as she set aside a homemade angel ornament with glittery, plastic wings.
“Professional?” Matthew arched an eyebrow. “You think that’s what families want at Christmastime?”
“They’re coming here for an experience—”
“‘A home away from home,’” Matthew interjected mildly. “Those were your words, when you first dreamed up the idea behind this place.”
“Yes, but… anicerhome away from home. An aspirational one.” She thought again of the photos of rooms she’d seen on Pinterest—everything color-coordinated, staged to look like a movie set, so warm and inviting.
Matthew arched a skeptical eyebrow. “Really?”
Ellie did her best not to answer defensively. “Yes, really. Why do you sound so… dubious?”
Matthew paused to open one of the boxes and sift through some of the decorations. “Mum loves this one,” he said, holding up an embroidered doll of Henry VIII, the red stitching on his mouth coming off, making it look as if he were leering, which, Ellie supposed, was true to his character.
“Matthew…?” she prompted, wanting to get back to their discussion.
