Chapter 19
In a way, Lily was pleased that she had been stuck in the boathouse with Ben for the past hour as it had forced them to finally be honest with each other and perhaps move forward at last.
The fear of getting sacked was now in the past. They were going to work together to decorate the whole of the hotel and she was excited for the future.
Perhaps she would have to start opening up to Hannah and her best friends as well so as to avoid any further misunderstandings. Maybe it was time to put her trust in the Jackson family as they had done with her.
She looked at Ben as he tried to prise open the front door once more. In a funny way, she trusted him too. They had been entirely honest with each other and rather than being at odds, it felt as if they were becoming friends.
‘So we’ve got a lot to do to get the hotel up and running,’ said Lily, mulling over her now huge to-do list. There were all the bedrooms, the entrance hall, the lounge, dining room and perhaps even the snug as well.
‘I’d still really like to get it open for the beginning of December,’ Ben told her, turning around. ‘That way perhaps we can capitalise on the Christmas holidays.’
Lily nodded, thinking how pretty the hotel would look decorated for the festive period. ‘That’s going to take a lot of work,’ she told him.
‘Yeah,’ he replied. ‘I’m going to have to call in a few favours.’
‘But first we have to get out of this place,’ she reminded him.
He glanced back at the door. ‘That way out isn’t an option so I guess the only way is down.’
He pointed at the opening in the far corner of the floor.
Lily followed him across the floor and peered through the square hole. Down through the gap she could see a boat bobbing up and down on the water.
‘Is the ladder safe to use?’ she asked, glancing around the rest of the boathouse which, whilst looking sturdy, was also in serious need of renovation.
‘I guess there’s only one way to find out,’ he told her. ‘Unless you’d rather spend the night here with me until someone misses us both.’
He shot her a cheeky grin and for a second, she found herself blushing.
Was he actually flirting with her? Surely not, she decided and concentrated instead on watching him slowly descend the ladder.
His foot slipped a couple of times on the rungs, causing her to take a sharp intake of breath, but he finally made it safely to the dock.
Once he reached the bottom, he stood next to the ladder and looked up at her.
‘Your turn,’ he called out. ‘But be careful. There’s a couple of rotten rungs. I’ll watch you come down. Don’t worry.’
Lily grimaced before swinging her leg around and tentatively taking her first step onto the ladder.
With Ben’s encouragement, she slowly went down step by step.
A couple of times, he warned her to avoid the next step down as it was rotten but finally, and with immense relief, she was grateful to feel the wooden dock below her feet.
She turned around and for a second she was close to Ben as he hadn’t stepped away yet. They locked eyes for a second before both moving away towards the boat at the same time.
It was a wooden rowing boat, obviously not used for a long time given the heavy staining and where the rain had accumulated inside in a few puddles.
They looked at each other.
‘You’re the expert,’ she told him. ‘What do you think?’
He laughed. ‘I am in absolutely no way an expert with boats. But Dad and Grandad have definitely used this in the past to go fishing out in the centre of the lake. It appears to be all right.’
She bit her lip and looked around. The shore was a good twenty metres away. ‘I suppose we’ll have to take a chance. Otherwise we’re going to have to swim for it.’
He nodded. ‘I agree. At least this way, we’ll stay dry and warm, apart from our feet.’
He carefully stepped inside the boat, grimacing as the water sloshed over his trainers. But once he had sat down and steadied it, he called for her to join him.
Tentatively, Lily stepped inside, taking his hand to steady herself before sitting down on the wooden seat next to him.
‘Well, so far so good,’ she said, watching him untether the rope and feeling the boat bob about a little bit more as it was unmoored. She clutched onto the seat as it wobbled.
He drew out the oars and moved them around in their rings.
‘They don’t seem too bad,’ he told her, holding one out for her to take.
‘What am I supposed to do with this?’ she asked him.
‘Row in time with me,’ he replied with a grin.
‘You make it sound so easy,’ she told him, taking the oar and giving it a waggle. ‘For the record, I’ve never rowed in my life.’
‘Well, now seems like a good time to give it a go,’ he said. ‘Okay. Here we go.’
It took a little time for them to find their rhythm. At first Lily wasn’t rowing in time with Ben, causing the boat to aim for the middle of the lake and not the shore.
But eventually they found their co-ordination and they ended up heading in a straight line.
However, Lily’s earlier failure to steer had caused them to be quite far off from the shore.
‘You know, it’s probably about the same distance to the beach at this point,’ said Ben, nodding at the sandy beach just to the side of the hotel.
‘That still seems like a long way away,’ Lily told him, with a grimace.
‘It’s a beautiful autumn afternoon,’ he said. ‘What else could we be doing?’
He seemed in a particularly cheerful mood, thought Lily. And she couldn’t help but agree with him. The sun was shining on them and despite the exertion of the rowing, it was nice to be out in the fresh air.
She was just about to tell him that she agreed when she noticed that the water sloshing around the bottom of the boat was deeper than it had been initially.
‘Is it me or is there more water inside the boat than there was earlier on?’ she asked.
Ben looked down and gave a start. He looked back at her with wide eyes, full of alarm. ‘You’re right,’ he said. ‘We’d better get going a little quicker.’
She nodded in agreement and they picked up the pace of their rowing. But the quicker pace seemed to cause even more water to flood into the bottom of the boat. And more water meant that the boat became heavier and less easy to move.
Soon, the water was over their ankles and up to their calves. It was becoming increasingly apparent that pretty soon it would be up and over the sides.
‘Are we going to sink?’ asked Lily, glancing at the beach which was still some distance away.
‘I don’t know,’ said Ben.
But he wasn’t meeting her eyes any more and she knew the truth.
Pretty soon, the boat began to sink under the weight of the water.
‘We’re going down,’ he told her. ‘Brace yourself.’
Lily just had time to take a deep breath before the boat capsized, pulling them both into the lake.
She gasped at the cold temperature of the water as it enveloped her. The only good news was that she could feel the bottom of the lake under her trainers, meaning that they were close to shore. Therefore, they were both able to stand up and keep their heads above the freezing cold water.
In unison, they both began to wade towards the beach, desperate to get out of the chilly water. Finally, they were on the sand. But a breeze across the lake made them feel even colder.
They shared a grimace and slopped their way in sodden clothes and trainers towards the hotel. Lily shivered in the cool air, aware of her clothes clinging to her and making her feel even colder.
Finally and somewhat gratefully, Ben held open the front door of the hotel and let her go inside first.
They squelched their way across the entrance hall but stopped as Frankie came out of the office.
She took a long look at them both, up and down before looking up into their faces in astonishment. ‘Is it raining outside?’ she asked.
Lily looked at Ben and they both burst into laughter at the same time.