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Alice shifted her gaze to the young man with the blonde tousled hair, fading tan, and many leather bands on his wrists. So, this was the only other guest besides herself. She hadn’t been surprised there were few guests this time of year, but what had surprised her was how long their other guest had been with them.
She noticed that he was wearing cropped trousers and a t-shirt. He looked completely out of place, as though he had just stepped off Bondi Beach in Australia or was on a surfing holiday in Newquay. He looked quite young, and a bit too much like a hippy drop-out to be able to live in a guest house with a daily room rate that wasn’t cheap.
Her attention shifted to Emily. She imagined he wasn’t giving an older lady with a hissy cat a lift in his car out of the goodness of his heart. She saw him glance at Emily, smiling. The look on his face said it all – he’d do anything for her.
Alice said, ‘I’ll fetch Marley.’ She looked at Hester.
‘It’s all right, she can stay here with me.’
As if she understood every word, Hester wagged her tail and ran over to Emily.
Joss offered to take the cat carrier while Alice locked the door. She followed Joss, Emily and Hester down two flights of stairs to the homely reception.
They were just heading towards the front door when it opened and a lady walked in carrying two shopping bags.
‘Oh Mum, you’re back,’ exclaimed Emily. ‘This is Alice, our new guest who checked in this afternoon while you were out. She’s just popping to the vet with her pet. I booked a last-minute appointment.’
Alice recognised Emily’s mum immediately. She had aged, as Alice would have expected, but she still had the same hairstyle, a short blonde bob, although Alice guessed she must now have a colour when she visited the hairdresser. The cut framed her round face and full cheeks. She had the same green eyesand slim figure as her youngest daughter.
Alice could feel her cheeks blushing at the thought she might be recognised in return. But the woman was so busy carrying in the shopping bags that she barely glanced Alice’s way to begin with.
‘Here, let me take those,’ Gerald said, appearing from one of the doors off the hallway. He relieved his wife of the bags. She turned around to face Alice. ‘Welcome to our little guest house.’
Alice noted there was no sign of recognition in her expression. She sighed in relief, wondering why she would think the guest house owner would recognise her after all these years. She must have had many guests in that time.But very few guests whom she had caught sneaking out of another guest’s room.
Alice willed herself not to think about that.
‘Our new guest has been here before – haven’t you, Alice?’
Alice was just heading for the door. She could hear a car engine revving up outside. Joss had gone ahead to put Marley in the car. She whirled around, wishing Emily hadn’t said that.
Emily’s mum stepped forward, scrutinising her.
‘You have?’
‘Oh, it was years ago,’ Alice said, with a flick of the hand.
‘It’s amazing because she remembers the place before you did it up, so it must have been around the time you first bought it,’ said Emily. ‘I couldn’t imagine you had that many guests back then.’
‘No, I didn’t. By rights we should have waited until the place had some more work done to it, but we wanted to see if people were interested in staying in this area. I recall we had mostly young backpackers, students, and …’ she paused, eyeing Alice intently, ‘… a couple who were on their honeymoon.’
Alice looked away.
‘You shouldn’t be here!’
‘Mum!’ Emily exclaimed, as surprised as Alice was by her mother’s tone.Although perhaps her reaction shouldn’t surprise me, thought Alice. There were some things she wouldn’t have wanted to see going on under her roof, potentially giving her guest house a bad name. It was a long time in the past, but she must have remembered what she had seen.
Emily’s mum flounced off with Emily following close behind. She heard her say, ‘Mum, that’s no way to speak to one of our guests, especially a returner. What’s got into you?’
Alice didn’t hear Emily’s mum’s response. She did hear Gerald in the kitchen. ‘Why are you two arguing?’ he asked.
Alice skulked out of the house. She’d just closed the front door behind her, wishing it was a taxi waiting for her and she was leaving that night, when the front door opened. It was Emily. ‘God, I am so sorry.’
Alice stared at her. She expected Emily’s mum wasn’t sorry. She went wide-eyed when she saw the older woman approach, her demeanour apologetic. ‘Look, you being here, well it just took me by surprise, that’s all.’
‘Me too,’ said Alice, catching Emily looking from Alice to her mum, her expression one of bemusement.
‘What are you doing back here, anyway?’
