Chapter 3
“Oh my gosh, oh my gosh! I can’t believe we’re here!”
Ellie smiled as she parked the car, then exited to follow her sister to where she stood at the lookout.
Katie’s enthusiasm had only escalated the higher up the Blue Mountains they drove.
Little towns nestled alongside the railway, the elevation heights denoted on road signposts a fun marker of just how high some of these places were.
Katoomba was just over a thousand metres and guaranteed to get snowfall several times a year.
But they were at the next town along, where the Hydro Grand Hotel was perched along the side of a cliff, with views down into Megalong Valley.
And it was mega long, she smiled at herself, as she looked down into the extended bowl of scenic vistas. This fine spring day meant the morning mists were less evident than at other times of the year when weather conditions sometimes shrouded the Hydro Grand in fog all day.
“Oh, ‘what are young men to rocks and mountains?’“ Katie declared, in yet another of her Jane Austen quotes she often liked to share. “Gran is just the best for this.” She squealed and raced back to the car, her feet crunching on the gravel. “Hurry up and unlock it, Ellie.”
Ellie did, and they dragged out their luggage and retrieved their coats and handbags and phones from the detritus of the car. “Come on. Let’s check in.”
Two minutes later, they were entering the grand reception room, painted and furnished in dramatic shades of black, white, and wine red.
Overhead, a magnificent dome surrounded with stained glass admitted light, all the better to show off the period-precise ornamentation around the room.
The hotel had been built in the late 1800s and had undergone several sympathetic renovations since, the most recent leaning into its 1920s heritage when the Hydro Grand Hotel had been the hotel of significance in Australia.
Everyone from operatic star Dame Nellie Melba to internationally renowned authors Arthur Conan Doyle and Agatha Christie had stayed here, the latter of whom was being celebrated at this upcoming Saturday night’s Clue-Done-It soiree.
Which naturally meant a shopping expedition to the local op shops to see if an appropriate dress could be found to fit the art deco vibe.
Regardless, Ellie was thankful for the time to get away.
And even though Katie might be on a high right now, Ellie was hopeful that she’d enjoy the weekend without too many dramas.
Please, Lord. As for herself, she planned a weekend of reading, sketching, and movies.
And scouring the local op shops for a Studio Ghibli–inspired sketch or two, or the Georgette Heyer book she was missing from her collection.
The receptionist checked them in and pointed them in the direction of their room, and they trundled their suitcases through a magnificent stately lounge painted in dark colours with gold accents.
A fire was roaring in the huge marble fireplace, and several couples sat drinking tea, reading newspapers.
“Oh, I feel like I’ve stepped back in time!” Katie squealed.
“I’m sure that’s the idea.”
Their three nights’ stay included a special afternoon tea on Friday, as well as the Clue-Done-It dinner on Saturday, and breakfast each day.
But the other meals were probably a little pricey.
Maybe if they had breakfast late enough, they wouldn’t need lunch and they could save some dollars that way.
Regardless, Gran’s gift had been very generous, and Ellie knew she should savour each moment.
They used the key card to unlock their door, and Katie squealed again.
The room wasn’t overly large, being located in the old part of the hotel.
But it was big enough to boast two single beds and an art deco–inspired bathroom with a huge round mirror and a rolled top bathtub.
“It’s so beautiful!” Katie cried, flopping down on the bed. “I feel like a movie star.”
“Well, you’d better bring your luggage inside if you don’t want someone stealing it from the corridor.”
“Oh. Right.” Katie hurried out, then dragged her large purple bag inside. “It’s so heavy.”
“It wouldn’t be if you’d packed less clothes.”
“But how am I supposed to know what I’ll need to wear?”
“I think the most important thing is that we’re warm enough.”
“Come on. You know we have to dress up for the dinner, right? I’d like to do better than the costumes from the party place.”
“And we’ll get something, I’m sure.”
Katie eyed her. “I still think you should dye your hair. Women didn’t have blue hair in the 1920s.”
She shrugged. “I’ll think about it.”
“I really wish you would. Because who knows who will be there on Saturday night? You might meet the man of your dreams! Wait. I might meet the man of my dreams. Wouldn’t that be awesome?”
“Yep.”
“Oh, come on, Ellie. Please don’t be like you. Show a little bit of enthusiasm for pity’s sake.”
“Woo-hoo,” she mocked.
Katie rolled her eyes. “You need to try a little harder than that.”
“It’s okay. I know this will be a fun weekend, and I’m sure you’ll have enthusiasm enough for the both of us.”
Katie smiled. “That’s probably true. So, are you done? Can we go and explore?”
“You’re a grown woman, Katie. You don’t need my permission.”
“I know. I just thought it might be fun to go exploring together.”
Aw. It was nice to see her sister still appreciated her. “Let me charge my Kindle, then let’s explore.”
“Always thinking ahead, aren’t you?”
“It’s better than discovering I don’t have any battery when I want to read my book tonight.”
“So sensible all the time.”
One of them needed to be. She bit back the words and put action to her words, plugging in her Kindle and grabbing her phone. “Ready?”
“Let’s go!”
The Hydro Grand’s many renovations over the years meant there were many fascinating places to discover.
Like the old casino lounge, where black-and-white photographs showed that the space had been used for concerts in the past. Long corridors held more pictures of yesteryear, along with absurdly long velvet lounges that looked uncomfortable, but when tested, actually proved to be more comfy than expected.
Furniture carved in the manner of artists of the art nouveau and art deco periods caused Ellie to linger, admiring the ornate styles so far removed from the austere principles that guided so much of design these days.
“Ellie, come on!”
She bit back a smile and followed her sister to peek inside the Skygarden Restaurant, where their high teas were booked for tomorrow afternoon.
The room had enormous glass windows that overlooked the valley, and they’d asked for a window seat, seeing it was for Ellie’s birthday.
Then the next day would be the Clue-Done-It mystery dinner, before they’d need to return to reality and Wattle Vale once again.
It seemed decadent, but she was grateful that Nicola had been accommodating as ever, and that Annabelle had stepped in once more. God bless her.
“I wonder if the high tea they serve here is as good as what Mum makes,” Katie murmured.
“I guess we’ll know tomorrow.”
High tea in Australia meant the special afternoon teas filled with sweet and savoury options served on fine china. The Silver Teapot was known district-wide as having the best.
“So, what do you want to do for dinner tonight? Want to visit Papa Dino’s?
” Papa Dino’s was a local pizza place that had been one of the Bennett family traditions since they’d first started coming to the Blue Mountains as kids.
The pizzas were delicious, but Ellie was fairly sure it was the fact that they had been able to create dough creations as kids that had instilled fond memories. “We could see if it’s open.”
“It’s Thursday night. It’s always open then.”
“Fine. Let’s do it.”
“Yay!”
Papa Dino’s was in Katoomba, opposite another grand hotel of a vintage similar to that of the Hydro Grand, complete with more of the ornamentation and period features Ellie loved.
She had visited a few times and enjoyed a hot chocolate before the roaring fire, but the Hydro Grand was something even more special, with the price tag to match.
After checking her phone to confirm that Papa Dino’s was open, she warned Katie that they’d need to leave soon to get there by five. “They don’t take bookings, remember? So if you definitely want to eat there, then we’ll need to leave by four thirty.”
“You say that like you don’t think I’ll be ready to leave on time.”
That’s because Katie often wasn’t. Dad had long ago introduced the concept of “stuffing-around time,” where those with a reputation for running late were told to prepare to leave earlier so they’d have an extra ten to fifteen minutes of doing the last-minute things that always held others up and made them late.
Dad, EJ, and Ellie were those who didn’t require “stuffing-around time.” Mum, Liv, and Katie usually did.
And while Liv was always apologetic, Mum and Katie seemed to live a little more oblivious to how their actions impacted others.
Still, better to be prepared than to get frustrated by their incapacity to be organised.
“We’ll aim to leave at four thirty.” Ellie really meant 4:45 p.m. “That way we’ll have enough time to find a parking spot.”
Katie clapped her hands. “Oh, this is fun! Then maybe we could go to the Heritage Hotel and get dessert.”
“Mm, or we could see how full we are after the pizza. Remember, we can’t afford to go crazy and eat out every night.”
“So, we can have dinner here one night?”
“We are having dinner here on Saturday night, remember? Besides, have you seen the prices of dinner at the restaurant?” Judging from the way her sister bit her lip, that was a no.
“Katie, we need to budget well. The only way we can afford to have dinner here is to make your breakfast stretch out, have fruit for lunch, or whatever.”
Katie’s nose wrinkled. “Fruit?”
“It won’t kill you, you know.”
“Hmm.”