Chapter 29 #2
Blythe was convinced that Rae wanted to go to college. She’d never forgive herself if she was part of the reason she was not going. The following day, she went to see their grandfather.
‘Pappy, I’ve been thinking.’ She had lost valuable sleeping time with this turning over and back in her mind. ‘When Kip and I get married, I think we should move in here, with you… it makes sense. We can close up the house, until the holidays when Rae comes back from college and…’
‘We’ll do no such thing,’ her grandfather snapped.
‘But surely it makes no sense to keep two places going, when…’
‘Why would you want to move in here, when you have a perfectly good house there to raise a child in?’ He looked at her now and she saw again that newly-etched expression on his face.
Something had closed behind his eyes since she told him she was pregnant.
The distance between them widened with each passing day.
Surely, it was just her imagination. All the same, she couldn’t help but feel it was growing with greater speed since Marcus arrived in the hotel, and he and Rae had taken up some of her old duties.
‘Because this is my home, Pappy, you know that we always agreed, one day, I would live here, and Rae would live at Still Water.’
‘That was childish talk, things change, Blythe, you can’t imagine that you’re going to move in here with Kip and a small baby. It’s madness of the first order.’
‘But no, Pappy, it’ll be easier than living in Still Water, traipsing in and out at all hours, you’re not fit for the long days here, I want to help out, I want to take over, one day.’
‘Shh, now, less of this talk.’ Her grandfather batted it away with his hand.
‘Jack, I’ve just sorted out that double booking for tonight,’ Marcus popped his head into the small sitting room in Pappy’s flat where they’d been sitting over undrunk mugs of tea. He stopped then, looked down at Blythe and smiled at her as if he almost felt sorry for her.
‘What double booking?’ Blythe said, her hackles up immediately.
‘Oh, it’s nothing, no big deal.’ Marcus shook his head sweetly.
‘You managed to book in two couples for room six for the whole weekend, that’s what…’ her grandfather snapped.
‘There’s no way that I…’
‘Never mind, I’ve sorted it all out now anyway, I’m sure it was just a silly mistake, I mean, baby brain, isn’t that what they call it?’ Marcus laughed then, as if they were all in on the same joke. Blythe wanted to throttle him.
‘Good man, Marcus, honestly, I don’t know what I’d do without you here to keep us on the straight and narrow.’ Her grandfather nodded at him and it almost felt as if, once more, she was outside the conversation.
‘I’m afraid I won’t be here forever, I’ll have to get a real job, once Blythe is ready to come back.’
‘Of course, you must already be applying…’ Blythe tried to smile sweetly.
‘Hah, we’ll see about that,’ her grandfather said then and the two men laughed as if it was the funniest joke in the world.
*
A week later, after she’d had to take herself to bed for almost three days thanks to a small bout of dizziness and swollen ankles which the local GP insisted was a case of pre-eclampsia, Blythe arrived back to the hotel to find everything had changed.
Oh, it wasn’t that there were huge changes, but the whole front desk had been moved around, pencils changed from left to right, telephone stretched to the furthest end of the desk from where it had always sat.
‘What on earth?’ She cursed under her breath.
‘Everything alright, Blythe?’ Marcus smirked at her.
‘Who messed up the desk?’
‘Oh, sorry, I should have warned you, I reorganised it.’
‘You… you reorganised it?’ Bloody hell, he had some nerve. ‘Why on earth would you do that?’
‘Well, because it was the wrong way round, didn’t you realise?’
‘It was NOT the wrong way round,’ oh dear, she could feel her blood pressure rise again, with the stress of just a mixed-up desk. ‘What do you mean, it’s the wrong way round?’
‘Well, it was obviously set up for someone who’s left-handed.’ He said smugly.
‘It most certainly was not,’ she stopped, dropped the pen from her left hand.
‘Oh, Blythe,’ he laughed. He was so bloody smug, how had she not seen that before? ‘Oh, dear, you see, I’m right-handed, so it all felt in reverse to me.’
‘Yes, but you’re not…’ She bit down on the words.
He was not in charge; she was the real manager of the hotel.
This was only temporary. She would not stand for it, once this baby was born and she felt well enough again.
She was going to be back here, where she belonged and she’d see bloody Marcus Johnson out that door in double-quick time.
‘Not?’ He looked at her now. ‘No, maybe, but your grandfather loves the new set-up, you see, he’s right-handed too.’ He turned away from her, as if he’d just settled a toddler and she wanted to sink the stapler in his back, but somehow, she managed to restrain herself.
The whole conversation unsettled her, far more than it should have, probably, but she was in foul humour by the time she drove back to Still Water House.
‘What’s up?’ Rae’s cheerfulness only added to her misery. Could her sister not see how bloody unhappy she was? She missed the hotel; more than that, it felt as if life as she knew it was not so much slipping away from her; it was being pulled from her hands.
‘Nothing.’
‘If you say so.’ Rae had stopped trying to figure out what was annoying her at this point.
In fairness, Blythe snapped at her more often than she smiled at her these days.
She was just so bloody miserable, and she was uncomfortable, all the time.
If it wasn’t her legs, it was her back. She was exhausted too.
Well, you try sleeping when you can’t stop worrying about every little thing that’s suddenly beyond your control.
‘Look, I’m sorry if I’ve been a total cow…’
‘It’s okay, Blythe, I get it, I’m sorry if you think I’ve lost patience with you, I’m just afraid to say anything at all now, in case you bite my head off.’ They both laughed at that.
‘Truce?’ Blythe put out her hand and Rae ignored it, instead she wrapped her arms around her sister and held her in a hug so tight, Blythe thought she’d suffocate, but she didn’t care, for the first time in so long, she felt safe.
‘Did I tell you the big news?’ Rae stood back then, still holding onto her sister’s hands. ‘We’re going to the Vintner’s Bash…’
‘You’re going to the Vintner’s Bash?’ Blythe’s blood pressure suddenly shot past boiling point, she would have smoke coming from her ears any moment, that was if she didn’t completely combust.
‘Here, sit down,’ Rae guided her to the most comfortable chair in the kitchen.
She had filled their mother’s favourite carver with cushions over the last few weeks, which Blythe enjoyed complaining about, but really, she was glad to have the added comfort.
‘Yes, isn’t it exciting, Pappy said I could go along too. ’
‘Go along with who, exactly?’ Blythe felt a cold chill sink into her bones.
‘With Marcus, of course, who do you think? The King of Kathmandu? Silly.’ Rae laughed, shaking her head. Dear God, did everyone think she was completely stupid now?
‘But Marcus isn’t even a member of the Vintners Association…’
‘Oh, he is… Pappy paid up his membership, he said that…’ She stopped as if she suddenly realised something that had not been obvious before.
‘Oh, Blythe, I’m sorry, I’m the dummy here, it must be your…
’ Her voice trailed off, because she didn’t need to finish that sentence.
Their grandfather had terminated her membership in favour of Marcus; it was glaringly obvious now.
All those little things over the last few weeks, all those niggly things like new menus and changing suppliers for the kitchen, all that undoing of her work as soon as her back was turned – it wasn’t just change or improvement at all.
Blythe could see it now. They’d let her think she was paranoid, baby-brained, silly – but in fact, these last few weeks, right under everyone’s nose, it was obvious now, Marcus was making a play for her job. For her hotel. For her future.