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Her relationship with her mother-in-law had certainly benefitted from working on the inn together, Ellie reflected as she went to switch on the kettle. When she’d first moved to the Bluebell Inn, she and Gwen had stepped cautiously around each other, both of them seeming to be in a constant state of prickly self-defense, always misunderstanding each other, despite their good intentions.
But Gwen’s cancer diagnosis just a few weeks after they’d moved had changed things, and Ellie had been both glad and honored to help her mother-in-law through her chemotherapy and its debilitating after-effects. When Gwen had been well enough, they’d settled into a symbiotic working relationship, bouncing ideas off each other, each acceding to the other’s area of expertise. Ellie would be sorry to lose that, if they had to close their doors. She thought Gwen would be, as well.
“What did Sarah want?” her mother-in-law asked in a voice of only mild curiosity.
Ellie kept her back to her as she bustled around, making tea.
“She wanted to go over the inn’s accounts.”
“Ah, yes.” Gwen let out a sigh. “She’s been asking me to do that for ages, and I just haven’t had the heart to face it. I don’t suppose the numbers are all that inspiring.”
Ellie turned around and placed a cup of tea in front of her mother-in-law. Like her, Gwen had clearly had suspicions that things hadn’t been going as well as they’d wanted them to.
“The way Sarah said it…” Gwen made a face as she picked up her cup of tea. “I knew it couldn’t be good news. Thank you for this, Ellie.”
“It’s no trouble.”
“The inn hasn’t had that many bookings since the summer holidays,” Gwen remarked on a sigh.
“We are fully booked for half-term in two weeks,” Ellie couldn’t help but protest, even though she knew her mother-in-law was right, just as Sarah was.
“Yes…” Gwen let out another small sigh. “But a week here and there isn’t going to do it, is it? That seemed to be what Sarah was implying, anyway. I just haven’t wanted to think about it, to be honest.”
“That is essentially what Sarah said,” Ellie admitted.
For the first time, Gwen looked more alarmed than merely resigned. Her heart and soul were bound up in this place, Ellie knew. As practical as she was trying to be, losing the inn would be hard, indeed, for her as well as Ellie. “So how bad is it?” she asked. “Did Sarah tell you, exactly?”
“She said…” Ellie took a deep breath. “She said unless things changed fairly drastically, then… we’d run out of money in just under six months.”
“Sixmonths!” Gwen looked truly shocked. “Completely? As in…bankrupt?”
Ellie nodded. “I haven’t looked at the actual amount in the account, but that’s what Sarah said.”
“Goodness.” Gwen took a sip of tea, her expression dazed. “I must admit, I didn’t realize it was as quite as bad as that. I assumed we could muddle along for a while longer yet.”
“I thought the same.”
They were both silent for a moment, absorbing the gloomy import of the news.
“But there are things we can do, Gwen,” Ellie finally said, doing her best to rally. “We don’t have to take this lying down. I told Sarah I’d get more active on social media again, maybe contact a few magazines…” She trailed off because Gwen was looking almost as skeptical as Sarah had.
“Will that really be enough?” she asked dubiously.
“Well, it’s a start.” And the truth was, Ellie couldn’t think what else to do.
“I don’t suppose it would be the absolute end of the world, if we had to close,” Gwen mused slowly, echoing Ellie’s earlier thoughts. “David and I paid off the mortgage on this place ages ago, and our bills are minimal. We could manage on my pension and savings—”
“And Matthew and I could work,” Ellie said quickly. “Of course you wouldn’t have to support us, Gwen, if it came to that.” The last thing she wanted was her mother-in-law worrying about finances on their account.
“I know.” Gwen smiled sadly. “But I would be sad to close our doors as an inn, especially when you’ve managed to turn it into something I could really believe in.”
“You were a part of that, too,” Ellie insisted. “Sometimes I feel like I just took the idea you and David originally had and embroidered it a bit.”
“And such lovely embroidery it was,” Gwen replied with a smile.
For a second, they simply gazed mistily at one another, and then Ellie straightened as she gave a little clap. “Right, well, it’s not over yet,” she stated firmly. “I know this is a blow, but I really do believe we can turn things around with a little effort and energy and maybe also a little luck.” She gave her mother-in-law a bracing smile, more determined than ever to banish Sarah’s bad news with practical steps. Together, they could do it. She’d make sure of it. “The Bluebell Inn,” she stated grandly, “won’t close on our watch!”
CHAPTER2
