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“Even so,” Sarah said, and Ellie struggled not to grind her teeth.
“It’s a big deal, Sarah,” Matthew protested. “That kind of publicity is like gold dust—”
“I’m assuming we’ll have to have the place decked out to the nines for when this newspaper comes out here,” Sarah continued in her relentlessly pragmatic way. She’d seemed unusually gloomy this morning; Ellie wondered if something else was going on. Something, perhaps, to do with Nathan? Was that why he wasn’t here?
“Well, yes, that’s true,” Ellie admitted. “They’ll want to take photos of everything, so we’ll have to have it all ready.”
“When?”
“In two weeks,” she admitted, “and even that is pushing it, to get the feature into the papers in time. But they were willing to rush it—”
“And you really think we’ll have this place photo-shoot ready intwo weeks?” Sarah asked, sounding incredulous.
Ellie glanced around at her family; everyone was looking at her with various degrees of skepticism, uncertainty, and only a little hope. Even Ava looked like she doubted her.
“We can do it if we all work together,” she said firmly. “Come on, everyone! This is a challenge—let’s rise to it! Together!” Her voice was rising, at any rate, and rather shrilly.
“It’s not that we don’t want to, Mum,” Jess replied quietly. “It’s just… it will cost a lot of money to get everything ready in that amount of time, and what if it doesn’t work?”
Trust her daughter to be so level-headed, Ellie thought. She didn’t approach her bad hair days or being left on read by her friends with the same kind of reasonableness.
“We have to try,” she insisted. “And we don’t have to have every single room completely ready for the photo shoot—it’s just staging, really. If we deck out a bedroom and the sitting room—”
“But we’ll need to put up a Christmas tree,” Sarah pointed out, as if that were insurmountable.
“Yes, and wecan,” Ellie vowed. “Even if it’s a fake one. Look, the newspaperwantsto sell this. They’re not looking to rake us over the coals. They want us to explain our vision, give them a little taste of it—”
“It could work,” Matthew remarked, his eyes crinkled up in a smile, enthusiasm kindling in his voice at last. “We’re selling them a vision, like you said. It doesn’t have to be completely in place.”
“Exactly,” Ellie said with relief, sagging back in her chair. She reached for her cup of tea and took a sip of the now lukewarm brew.
“I could do some baking,” Gwen offered. “Mince pies and my iced gingerbread—it won first prize in the WI competition, back in the day.”
“Yes, wonderful,” Ellie enthused. She turned to the children with a hopeful smile. “What about thinking up some parlor games and crafts for the kids? Christmas-themed, of course—”
“We could decorate paper snowflakes with glitter?” Mairi suggested. “And make ornaments for the tree? The craft shop in Abergavenny sells baubles you can paint yourself. Then the kids could hang them on the tree themselves, too.”
“Wonderful,” Ellie replied warmly. “That sounds absolutely fantastic, Mairi.”
Soon, the ideas were flying, if not precisely thick and fast, at least at a fairly good clip. Cookie decorating, carol singing, a visit from Santa Claus, a local Christmas market in the inn’s garden, homemade or locally sourced gifts for every guest.
An hour flew by almost without her realizing, and when the ideas finally slowed to a trickle, and then a silence, the cups of tea and coffee drunk and the plate of muffins sporting nothing but a few crumbs, Ellie finally put down her pen.
“Phew,” she said, smiling at everyone. “I think we have enough to be getting on with for now. Matthew, can you source a Christmas tree for the photo shoot? Mairi and Jess, do you want to be in charge of crafts? If you could knock up a few samples to show the people from the paper, that would be great. Josh, I’m putting you in charge of games and puzzles—the more Christmassy, the better. Ava, you can help with Josh, can’t you? Ben, you can work with Dad and Owen to handle the outside—I’m thinking fairy lights on the evergreens, maybe a bit of decoration on the assault course?”
“And a Santa’s grotto, naturally,” Matthew added with a smile. “I was thinking beneath the willow tree.”
“Perfect!” Ellie turned to Gwen. “Can you bake a few samples like you suggested, and maybe do a Christmas menu?”
“Yes, of course.” Gwen was smiling, seeming to catch her enthusiasm.
Now there was only Sarah to deal with. Ellie turned to her sister-in-law as she stiffened her spine.
“Sarah—”
“I can make a budget,” Sarah offered. “And make sure we all keep to it!” She smiled to soften her words, and Ellie let out a little laugh.
“Wonderful, thank you, Sarah.”
