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“Look, they’ve said they’ve read the article.” Gwen pointed to the last line of the email. “Did it go online early or something?”
“It must have done. Wow, even I wasn’t hoping for resultsthatfast.”
“Especially since the inn is so shabby,” Gwen returned, pursing her lips, and then they did both start laughing again.
This time, at least, Ellie thought, there was definitely something to laugh about. Two bookings in the space of a few minutes! It felt too good to be true, and yet it was. Her plan was actually, amazingly,working.
“I think this calls for a celebratory cup of tea,” Gwen announced, heading back into the kitchen. “And a scone.”
“With butter and jam!” Ellie called. She might even have two…!
She hit refresh on the inbox, just in case a third booking had come in, but there were no new messages. Well, still, two bookings, and the article hadn’t even been published in the paper yet. That was a good start, indeed, better than she’d ever expected, even in her wildest hopes. Well, maybe not her wildest… In her flights of fancy, she’d envisioned guests storming down their doors, booking out the place for the next three years. But this really was very good.
“Tea’s ready!” Gwen called, just as Ellie’s mobile phone rang. Half-wondering if it could be another booking, she answered it merrily, only to falter when she heard the serious tone of the school secretary.
“Mrs. Davies? This is Gwent Comprehensive calling. The headteacher would like you to come in as soon as possible to talk about Ben.”
CHAPTER14
SARAH
“No Mairi today?”
Sarah glanced up from Mabel’s glossy flank, curry comb in hand, as she gave Trina a grimacing sort of smile. “Mock exams this week, I’m afraid. They’re taking up all her time.”
Trina cocked her head, her gaze sympathetic yet also shrewd. “I don’t think I’ve seen her here for a few weeks at least?” she asked, not unkindly.
Sarah let out a sigh as she put down the comb, giving Mabel’s flank one last stroke. She’d enjoyed these few minutes at the stables; a sense of calm always came over her here as she breathed in the smell of hay and horse, listened to Mabel’s soft nickering. “No, you haven’t,” she agreed. “She’s been very stressed about her exams… too stressed, really, I think.” No matter how many times she tried to talk to Mairi about it, reassure her that she was going to do fine, it only seemed to wind her daughter up more.
“Oh,right!” Mairi had screeched at her last night, “as if you want me to get allsixesor something!”
“Sixes are decent marks—”
“No, they’renot!” Mairi had stormed, flouncing out of the room. “Dad doesn’t think so,” she added as she ran up the stairs, slamming her bedroom door. Sarah had stood there, reeling both from Mairi’s over-the-top reaction, as if she had said something completely objectionable and offensive, and the remark about Nathan that she’d flung at her.Dad doesn’t think so?Had Nathan said as much?
She’d tried to talk to him about it—again—but he hadn’t shared her concerns.
“All I was trying to say to Mairi, is that she can do much better than a six,” he’d stated, as if her grade was actually the issue, and not the pressure she was putting on herself—and that Nathan, it seemed, was putting on her, as well. “She’s predicted all nines, remember, Sarah. That’s ten A stars. Why settle for a six?”
“I know what a nine is,” Sarah had replied, for although the marking system had changed from letters to numbers fairly recently, it wasn’t hard to figure it out. “It’s not about her marks, Nathan, but her attitude. Her mental health.”
“A little stress is a mental health issue?” he’d challenged, his eyebrows raised. “Then I should be signed off work for six months.”
“Maybe you should,” she’d replied, meaning it—sort of—but Nathan had just huffed and shaken his head, as if she’d made a joke, and a poor one, at that.
“Too stressed?” Trina prompted now, raising her eyebrows. “How so?”
“Just tetchy all the time, really.”
Although Sarah feared it was more than that. Mairi was looking so pale and strained recently—dark circles under her eyes, nails bitten to the quick. And the other day, when she’d been putting her dishes in the sink, Sarah had thought she’d glimpsed a red mark on her inner forearm that had sent alarm bells pealing. But when she’d asked Mairi about it, her daughter had snapped at her.
Sarah had decided to leave it, at least then, but the memory of that brief glimpse had her stomach knotting with anxiety now. She didn’t want her daughter to be this pale shadow of herself, worried half to death, anxious and unhappy. She just didn’t know what to do about it.
And as for Nathan… well, she didn’t even have the energy tothinkabout Nathan right now. Work continued to be busy—or so he said—and Sarah was losing hope that it would ever calm down. Owen had stopped asking his dad if he’d kick a football around with him, and Nathan hadn’t even seemed to notice his son’s disappointment. Between worrying about Mairi’s stress and Owen’s grumpiness, Sarah couldn’t summon the energy—or emotion—to consider the state of her marriage.
Her mum had tried to broach the subject again, but Sarah had shut her down swiftly, choosing to focus on the inn’s burgeoning prospects instead. The article had come out in the Sunday supplement, and while it was definitely a mixed review as far as Sarah could tell, it still seemed to have done the trick. The Christmas week was already fully booked, and Ellie was ecstatic—as well as anxious. There was still a lot of work to do, to make the week a success, even by the article’s so-called shabby standards. Sarah was glad to get involved and pitch in as much as she could. It kept her from having to mope around home, worrying about everything else, and she enjoyed seeing the inn come to Christmassy life.
The Santa grotto and nativity scene in the garden were taking shape, and her mother was baking around the clock, freezing masses of Christmas cookies—linzer stars and gingerbread, mint meringues and buttery cut-outs. Sarah and Ellie had tackled the reception rooms, sprucing things up and planning the decorations Ellie had bought, along with a few homemade ones “as accents.” The other day, Sarah had put on some Christmas carols, and they’d sung along as they’d worked, which had cheered them both up immeasurably. It was hard to stay anxious while singing “Rocking Around the Christmas Tree.”
