Chapter 11
Before she was able to implement her secret design plan, Lily first had to head back into London to retrieve the remaining items left in her rental room before the lease ran out in a couple of days’ time.
Also, she didn’t trust her flatmates not to help themselves to her belongings if they found out that she was leaving.
Early in the morning, Hannah had organised a local taxi to take Lily into London. Del, the taxi driver, seemed nice enough. He was a skinny man with dark hair and a motor mouth which didn’t stop running for the whole journey.
She quickly found out that he was Frankie’s godson and he filled in a few more details about Frankie’s life as well.
‘That husband of hers was the worst,’ he said, carving up a lorry as they whizzed down the motorway. ‘A rotter through and through.’
‘Poor Frankie,’ replied Lily.
‘She’s not as tough as she makes out,’ said Del.
But before Lily could ask him to explain, his mobile rang and he spent the rest of the journey chatting on a call.
Once they had arrived outside the house, Del quickly plugged his electric car into the hallway socket to top up the battery before the journey home. Lily had been told by Hannah that Del’s heart was generous, even if his methods were somewhat questionable.
She didn’t much care about the electricity bill for charging Del’s car. She was just glad to be getting out of there. Having been away only for a short while, the house looked even shabbier on her return.
Even Del seemed unimpressed. He made a face as he looked around the bedroom. ‘What a dump,’ he muttered, looking at the cracked walls and peeling paint on the ceiling. ‘Who would want to live in a place like this?’
‘Sometimes people have no choice,’ Lily told him, laying the last of her clothes into a suitcase before zipping it up.
Del looked at the three suitcases and a couple more large bags of stuff in the middle of her bed. ‘Is that it?’ he asked, sounding surprised.
She nodded, glancing over at the carefully wrapped doll’s house that she would take down the stairs herself.
‘Never known a woman not to have too much stuff,’ Del told her, frowning.
She shrugged her shoulders. ‘This is everything I own. I travel light.’
‘What about your folks?’ he asked. ‘I guess you’ve kept some stuff with them?’
She laughed. ‘It wouldn’t be terribly convenient. They’re stationed in Canberra at the moment.’
His eyes widened. ‘Wow,’ he said. ‘I’ve never been to India.’
She was going to correct him on the right continent but thankfully at that moment he picked up a suitcase and carried it downstairs.
After the room was cleared, Lily made one last double check before picking up the doll’s house and heading out. She left the spare key on the side before closing the front door behind her.
Even in Del’s small taxi, her belongings didn’t take up much room.
‘Glad I didn’t bother to bring my van,’ he said, switching on the engine before driving out of the road.
Lily looked out of the car window. Would she miss the hectic streets of London for a while?
Perhaps not, she thought. Especially when the urban sprawl fell away a while later and the view out of her window changed for the better.
Suddenly they were in the countryside and she could see even Del relaxing at the change of view as the grey streets were replaced with a kaleidoscope of autumnal colours.
‘This is better,’ said Del, nodding his approval. ‘Can’t stand all those noisy city streets. Can’t hear yourself think in them, can you?’
Lily had to admit that the peace and quiet of Maple Tree Lodge would certainly be a welcome change. Perhaps it would even give her time to work out what her next step would be. After she’d completed her commission for the hotel, that was.
As Del turned the taxi onto the narrow track leading to the hotel, she saw that a tow truck was slowly winching out the stranded hire car out of the pond at last.
‘You won’t get your deposit back on that one,’ he muttered.
Lily nodded, having already received notice from the hire company.
Once back at the hotel, Del helped her carry the boxes and suitcases up to her bedroom. After thanking him, she headed downstairs to make herself a coffee.
Having sat down on one of the stools at the large island, she was just checking her phone when Ben wandered in.
‘Hey,’ he said, heading over to flick on the kettle once more. ‘You’re back.’
She nodded. ‘It didn’t take as long as Del expected.’
‘Thought the traffic would slow you up.’
She shook her head. ‘It was pretty quiet out there so early in the morning.’
‘I used to get stuck on that motorway all the time when I used to come home from working in London,’ he said, making a face. ‘Used to take hours on a Friday night.’
‘Do you miss it?’ she found herself asking, wondering how he had fitted into the big city coming from this kind of landscape.
‘It’s certainly different than here,’ he replied. She noticed that he avoided answering the question.
‘Well, I’m sure once the place is up and running after all the renovations, it’ll be as busy as the streets of London around here, full of guests,’ she said.
‘Let’s hope so,’ he told her, stirring the contents of his mug slowly round and around.
But his voice didn’t sound full of hope.
He looked up with a start, as if he had forgotten she was even there. ‘Well,’ he said quickly. ‘I’d better go and see what the builders are going to achieve today.’
With that, he walked out, leaving Lily with the feeling that there was something wrong at Maple Tree Lodge. Was business really that bad? And what did it mean for the Jackson family if it was?
That thought made her even more determined to ensure that the rooms had the very best designs that she could think of. And any doubts she had harboured about her secret plan vanished into thin air.