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‘I don’t know. He’s aware she’s here, though.’
‘How?’
‘I phoned him.’
‘You didwhat? I thought the understanding was that you wouldn’t contact each other ever again.’
Wendy dropped her gaze. ‘It was. But I had to tell him she was here. Now she’s written this letter asking him to come.’
‘Why?’
‘I don’t know.’
He sighed heavily. ‘Do you think … she knows?’
‘I haven’t a clue.’
‘There was nothing written in the letter about …?’
‘No. But I do know one thing – he can’t come. Things might get … awkward.’
‘Awkward!’ Gerald threw his arms in the air in exasperation. ‘That’s a bit of an understatement, don’t you think?’
Wendy eyed him coldly. ‘It’s not my fault.’
Gerald fell silent. ‘Did we make the right decision, all those years ago?’
‘God, are we back to that again?’
Gerald slumped down on the end of the bed. What they’d done – what she’d done – was unfortunately never far from his mind. ‘What do we do now?’
‘Nothing. When he doesn’t turn up – and I very much doubt he will – let’s hope she just leaves and doesn’t extend her stay again.’
‘You could tell her that the room is booked, and we’ve got no more vacancies. We are pretty booked up.’
‘You mean lie?’
Gerald nodded. ‘It’s something we’ve become accustomed to over the years, don’t you think?’
Wendy frowned at him.
He shrugged. ‘What else can we do? She can’t stay here any longer.’
‘I agree.’
‘That’s settled then.’ Gerald sighed. ‘I’d much rather be at work,’ he mumbled as an afterthought.
She shot him a look. ‘What was that?’
‘Nothing. Look, as I’m at home today, I might as well be useful. What can I do to help? I expect it will be busy at breakfast. We’re nearly full.’
‘Wearefull. Emily booked another guest into the single room. I wasn’t involved with that booking. Apparently, the lady was due to arrive late last night. I’ve got to assume she’s arrived. I heard Emily leave her room, so I expect she’s started to lay out the breakfast. You could help with that.’
‘Great. I’ll do that, Wendy.’
‘For god’s sake, Gerald. Don’t call me Wendy!’
Emily was in the middle of laying out some of the breakfast things in the conservatory. She’d set each table with cutlery, plates, teacups and saucers. She made her way down the hall, intending to go downstairs to the kitchen for the little pots of jam and marmalade, the pats of butter and the breakfast cereals, when she heard the front door open. She turned around to find a huge dog bounding towards her. ‘Donut!’ Emily gave him a fuss and looked up. Clarissa shut the front door.
