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Emily turned to Freya. ‘You will come back though, won’t you, to stay at the guest house?’
Freya hugged Emily. ‘You know I will.’
Emily watched Freya pick up her bags and leave with Tarek. She heard her say, ‘I hope the car doesn’t break down again on the way home.’
Jeffrey said, ‘You can follow us home, just in case.’
‘Good idea.’
Alice and Jeffrey paused at the front door. ‘Bye Wendy, Gerald, Emily.’
‘Bye!’ they all said in unison. Gerald and Wendy stepped outside, waving. The sound of car doors clunking shut and car engines switching on heralded the guests’ departure.
Emily lingered by the front door with her mum and dad as the cars turned out of the driveway. ‘Do you think we might go to Egypt one day?’
Wendy said, ‘It’s always been on my bucket list.’
Gerald grinned. ‘Mine too.’
‘What’s on your bucket lists?’ Joss asked, overhearing their conversation as he walked up behind them.
Emily smiled. ‘Egypt. We all want to go someday.’
‘Well, you can count me in,’ said Joss, draping an arm affectionately around Emily’s shoulders.
This time Wendy didn’t object to Joss’s display of affection towards her daughter – not at all. In fact, Wendy and Gerald had talked to Joss, and they’d had a little heart-to-heart about their future and the future of the guest house. There was just one thing – they had yet to tell Emily their plans, and it all hinged on Emily’s agreement.
Epilogue
‘So, I hear there have been big changes at the guest house in the last six months,’ commented Jeffrey, fixing his gaze on Emily across the glass-topped wicker table. He wiped his sweaty brow with a handkerchief, reached for the glass in front of him and downed the refreshing lemonade with ice and a slice. He’d known the weather would be hot, but he hadn’t thought it would bethishot. He caught Alice giving him a look. He’d apologised for complaining about the heat when they were changing in their cabin after dinner. He’d thought that with the sun setting, it would cool down. He’d been wrong.
Emily shifted her attention from the stunning views of the River Nile to Jeffrey, who was sitting across from her. Joss sat holding her hand and gave it an affectionate squeeze as she said, ‘Yes, the last six months have been crazy busy.’
‘Indeed they have,’ added Wendy, eyeing Gerald as he crossed the wooden deck with two tall glasses of something cool and bubbly. He looked very relaxed and quite dapper in his cream trouser suit. He’d taken off the matching waistcoat after dinner and rolled up his white shirt sleeves to sit out on the deck. He wore a Panama hat that he’d bought in a souk on one of the excursions in Cairo.
Wendy smiled. Retirement suited him. It suited Wendy too. They were no longer woken by the sound of an alarm clock set to go off at an unearthly hour for Gerald to get up and go out on the trawler. There were no more early rises for Wendy either, unless she chose them. There were no beds to make or breakfasts to prepare or new arrivals at the guest house – unless they were of the four-legged variety.
Alice said, ‘You must tell us all about it. I heard that the guest house has changed hands …’ She smiled knowingly. They had all kept in touch. That was how they had come to be on this cruise together.
It had taken a quite bit of planning to book the holiday when they were all free to go, but eventually everything had come together, and here they all were – even Omar. He’d been on cruises down the Nile countless times before, but everyone had insisted that he still joined them. He was having an after-dinner nap in his cabin.
Freya and Tarek were taking a romantic walk around the deck. Alice waved at them again. The boat was quite small, intimate even, with just a few cabins and not many tourists aboard. The pair had already completed several circuits, passing their table a few times. They were now heading upstairs to the top deck to watch the sunset together. Alice knew that something rather special would happen up there as the sun set over the Nile.
A wisp of a smile crossed her face when she recalled what Tarek had confided before they’d set sail. He had shown her the engagement ring.
Alice thoughts turned to Theo. He was the only one who hadn’t been able to make the trip. He was at a book signing in London.
Freya and Tarek weren’t the only ones who’d moved on with their lives. Theo had moved out of their house in Cambridge. They were so sad to see him go, but his writing career had taken off; he’d got an advance for his first book to be published. And he’d met his soulmate; he’d fallen in love with an editor at the publishing house that had given him his big break.
Jeffrey was beside himself with pride that Theo’s book was being published. Theo had used his advance wisely, putting a sizeable chunk of it down as a deposit on a new home. He had purchased a modern penthouse apartment, just outside Cambridge, which didn’t surprise anyone – least of all Alice and Freya. He never had liked old houses.
When Alice told Freya, she didn’t sense any regrets – just relief that Theo was moving on with his life. Alice had been especially pleased when Theo had had an interview with a magazine and cited Jeffrey as the person who’d taught him all there was to know about writing, had been his inspiration, and had encouraged him to finish his book. He was, in Theo’s words, a truly great teacher and deserving of high praise.
At first, Alice hadn’t been best pleased when she’d found out the title he’d eventually settled on for the book –The Secret of the Guest House. Thankfully his book was entirely a work of fiction. The book was a dark thriller about the disappearance of a child.
Alice sipped her cool drink and thought about the book, and about Freya. In interviews, Theo had been asked time and again where the idea for his bestselling book had come from. Everybody seated around the table knew the answer to that question. However, Theo had never revealed any details about The Guest House at Shingle Cove or what he knew had happened there. But it had given him a spark of an idea which had led to a different story altogether than the real story of her family and her good friends seated around this table. Perhaps that was what all great writers did, she mused.
She smiled at the thought that after the Nile cruise they were all looking forward to a stopover in Alexandria before they flew home – Alice especially. She was dying to visit the famous library and museum and pay a visit to Alexandria University where Freya, Tarek and Omar worked.
