Chapter 15
Rolling over, Scarlett hit her mobile, ending the piercing noise before she looked across to the curtain and groaned. It wasn’t even light outside; there wasn’t even the weakest of sunshine seeping through the fabric of the curtain or around the edges.
The tune from her mobile played again, and she muted it.
She got the message it was time to get up and start the day.
She leant up on her elbows and sniffed the air.
Normally, by the time her alarm went off, she’d already woken to the aroma of Charlie cooking breakfast, but she couldn’t smell anything this morning.
In fact, she couldn’t hear anything either.
Not the wail of Trixie, Nicola’s cat, as she demanded her breakfast, or the patter of footsteps and chatter from downstairs.
Looking across at her mobile, she picked it up as the screen lit up again, Laura’s name illuminated on the screen.
It hadn’t been her alarm going off which had woken her, it had been Laura ringing.
But why? It was only half-past six in the morning.
She answered, her voice still laced with sleep.
‘Laura, is everything okay? Are you all right? And Jackson? Has something happened?’
‘Morning, Scarlett. Sorry, have I woken you? Everything’s fine, just fine. Well, no, it’s not, but we’re both okay. I mean…’ Laura rambled on.
‘Laura, hold up. Just tell me what’s happened?
’ Pushing herself to sitting, Scarlett rubbed at her eyes.
Any hope of being able to fall asleep again after the conversation quickly vanished as she listened to her cousin.
Laura had always done this, pretending something was fine when it wasn’t.
The telltale hitch of her voice and verbal diarrhoea told Scarlett otherwise though. ‘Tell me.’
‘It’s Megan Clarke. She’s not coming any more, she’s had a family emergency, something to do with the plumbing at her dad’s house or something, which is kind of a funny twist of events, being as Pennycress had plumbing issues when I moved in.
’ Laura took a deep breath before continuing.
‘Well, of course it didn’t, but it did by the time I’d messed around with the plaster on the hallway walls… ’
Shaking her head, Scarlett tried and failed to make sense of anything Laura was saying.
Instead, she pushed the duvet off and stood up, immediately thankful Charlie and Nicola had left the heating on last night.
Pulling a dress and chunky cardigan from one of her bags, she began to get dressed whilst balancing her mobile between her shoulder and her ear.
‘Hang on, give me five minutes and I’ll be over. ’
‘Thank you.’
Holding her mobile in front of her, Scarlett frowned as she realised Laura had ended the call. Whoever this Megan Clarke was, she must be important to Laura, and if she was important to her cousin, then she was important to Scarlett.
After pulling her brush quickly through her hair, Scarlett took a handful of guinea pig food from the bag she’d been keeping on the chest of drawers before sprinkling it across the floor.
She figured dispersing it like this gave Thelma something to do with her day and imitated her natural foraging skills better than if she only had to stroll up to a bowl.
‘I’ll see you later, Thelma.’ Wherever she was.
Grabbing her bag, Scarlett ducked down and looked under the bed.
Yep, yep, there she was, lying in the jumper Scarlett had discarded the day before yesterday.
This was becoming quite a theme, little Thelma snuggling in previously discarded jumpers.
Reaching out, she gently gave her a fuss.
‘You do know that you’re my little sanity saver, don’t you?
Without you, I’d likely be chattering away to myself. ’
Standing up again, she grabbed her mobile from where she’d dropped it onto the duvet and headed out onto the landing.
Clicking her van key, she watched the hazard light flicker to indicate it was locked before turning and running up the garden path towards Pennycress.
When she reached the door, she didn’t bother knocking and instead let herself in.
Letting the door close behind her, she looked around the large hallway before quietly calling out, aware that she didn’t want to wake any sleeping guests. ‘Laura?’
‘Oh, Scarlett, you came. You didn’t have to. It’s still so early.’ Laura peered out from the kitchen doorway.
‘It’s okay. What’s the problem? And who is this Megan Clarke?
’ Following her through to the kitchen, she smiled a ‘good morning’ to Jackson, who was standing by the work surface cooking up some of his delicious French toast if the aroma surrounding them was anything to go by, before lifting the strap of her bag back over her shoulder and laying it on the tabletop.
Laura slumped onto the bench and put her head in her hands. ‘Megan Clarke is the woman who was supposed to be coming to help Nicola run this place whilst me and Jackson go off on our honeymoon. And she can’t make it, and with our flights being tomorrow, we’ll just have to cancel.’
Frowning, Scarlett lowered herself into the chair opposite her cousin. ‘I can help out. Yes, I’ll be a complete novice and will need telling what to do, but I’m sure Nicola won’t mind instructing me.’
‘I told you to ask Scarlett.’ Jackson chuckled as he placed a mug of fresh coffee in front of Scarlett.
Looking up from her hands, Laura reached out and took Scarlett’s hands in hers. ‘Would you? But you’ve got your craft fairs to prepare for. You won’t have time.’
‘Yes, I will.’ Scarlett gave Laura’s hands a squeeze. ‘I don’t work on my craft stuff full-time. I normally have a job as well.’
‘Really? And you’re certain you won’t mind?’
Scarlett grinned. ‘Of course I won’t mind. I will mind if you continue to keep my hands hostage, though. I need that coffee after being woken at this ungodly hour.’
‘Ha, sorry.’ Taking her hands away, Laura pushed the mug closer to Scarlett. ‘In that case we’ll have to put in an extra order for coffee from Rowan before we leave because this is almost midmorning to us.’
‘Yikes. Can I take back my offer?’ Scarlett grimaced before laughing at the sight of Laura’s expression falling. ‘Or just stock up on the coffee, that’ll work too.’
‘Are you sure you don’t mind? We’ll pay you, of course, and you’ll be able to bring Thelma to stay with you here.’
‘Honestly, I wouldn’t have offered if I minded and in truth finding a temp job was the next thing on my list after repairing the heater in my van, so it works well for the both of us.’ Scarlett took a sip of her drink, the strong coffee hitting her tastebuds and hopefully her mind.
‘Really? Like really-really?’
‘Yes, really-really. I’ll come and help, just tell me what needs doing.’ She took a long gulp of coffee.
‘Well, are you busy this morning? You could just come round with me, and I’ll show you what to do as I work if you like?’ Laura took a mug off Jackson as he passed her one. ‘But if you’re busy, just say so. I can write it all down, otherwise.’
‘Nope, that’s good. I have the Meadowfield craft fair booked in for Saturday, though, is that going to be a problem?’
‘Oh, for the village Christmas market? No, that’ll be fine.
Nicola will be about anyway, and there’s not really anything you’ll need to do during the day, just the mornings and the evenings, really.
Apart from a few meetings and gatherings taking place during the day, but Nicola will deal with those.
’ Laura sank her back against the chair as she picked up her mug again.
‘I think the guests here will probably be coming to visit the market, anyway.’ Jackson held up a plate piled high with what he’d been cooking. ‘French toast?’
‘Do you even have to ask?’ Scarlett laughed before a thought hit her. ‘Yikes! What will I do about breakfast? I can’t cook to save my life.’
‘Haha, don’t worry, Megan didn’t want to cook breakfast either, so we’ve got pastries for the week. We’ve made the guests all aware too and offered vouchers for the café if they want a cooked breakfast instead, but they were all happy with pastries.’
‘Phew, okay.’ Scarlett wiped her arm across her forehead for dramatic effect. ‘Then I’m more than happy to help out here whilst you’re away. Talking of which, are you both ready to go?’
‘Yes. Well, almost.’ Laura glanced behind her at Jackson, who was getting the cutlery, before turning back to Scarlett and holding her hand over her mouth and lowering her voice.
‘Jackson’s had his suitcase packed for the last couple of days.
I on the other hand have a small heap of clothes in the corner of the bedroom. But I’m getting there.’
Scarlett grinned. ‘You’d best get cracking then, or Jackson will be going on honeymoon by himself.’
‘I will.’ Laura nodded as she took the cutlery from Jackson. ‘But we’ve got the travel money and our passports and everything else, haven’t we?’
‘We sure have. I can’t wait.’ Sitting down, Jackson began shovelling French toast into his mouth.
Picking up her own fork, Scarlett loaded it and took a bite.
Staying here and working at Pennycress wasn’t something she’d foreseen, but now that the opportunity had been given to her, she was actually looking forward to it.
After spending years waitressing, how hard could it be to help run an inn?
Checking people in, making coffee, and cleaning rooms didn’t sound too bad, and it would give her the middle of the day to get up to date with her crafts.
Yes, it would be a breeze. And there’d be no sheep.