Page 42 of Welcome to Pennycress Inn

This made Jackson’s expression lighten. ‘You may just be in luck. I’ve been doing some thinking and a little digging too.’

‘Ooh yes? Do you actually think there might be a way to encourage people to be a little more welcoming?’ What was he going to suggest? That she join the local Women’s Institute? Learn how to play pool down at the pub? Or bake cakes and go door to door? Apart from the final possible suggestion, which would likely give her neighbours a touch of food poisoning and make them hate her even more, she’d be willing to give anything a go.

‘I do, yes.’ Laying his hands on the table, he met her eyes. ‘I think you should go and visit Vivienne Fields.’

With her mouth suddenly turning dry, Laura swallowed before answering, ‘You think I should go and visit the previous tenant who was kicked out so that I could buy Pennycress?’

‘She wasn’t technically evicted so you personally could buy the inn, she was evicted months before you even put an offer in, but, yes, I think you should.’

‘Why? What would I say? How would it achieve anything?’ She searched his eyes, trying to work out what he was thinking and how he thought this would pan out.

‘I think just introducing yourself and explaining what your intentions for Pennycress are will be enough for her to see that you want the best for the inn she so loved.’

‘But it’s not her who has been the problem. It’s everyone else. It’s the rest of the village who hate me, I’ve never even met Vivienne.’

‘No, but if people are willing to do everything in their power to discourage anyone who tries to run Pennycress from staying because they respect her so much, then she’d likely be able to influence them not to as well.’

She looked down at the wallpaper samples and moved them into a pile, carefully lining up the edges of the short stack. ‘I don’t know. I don’t know if I’m brave enough to turn up on a stranger’s doorstep and beg them to get their friends to give me a chance. So much could go wrong.’

‘And so much could go right, too. Besides, by all accounts, I think she’s probably a really nice person.’

Laura raised an eyebrow. ‘And how do you figure that one out?’

‘Because she has the support of everyone in the village. I just don’t think someone awful would get that. The local residents would be happy to see the back of her if she wasn’t a nice person.’

‘Hmm, I suppose there’s some sense in that.’ She slipped the samples into her bag and leaned back in her chair. ‘I still don’t think I’m brave enough, though.’

‘Think about it for a few days, but it can hardly make things much worse for you.’

‘True, no one speaks to me, anyway.’ She nodded. He was right, it was just so far out of her comfort zone to rock up at someone’s house, who she’d never met, that she wasn’t sure if she was ready to. But she’d think about it.

21

‘And you’re sure you don’t want me to come in with you? Or just to the door, even?’ Jackson switched the engine off and turned in his seat.

Laura glanced out of the car window towards the small bungalow. The pale yellow front door had a beautifully made winter wreath hanging from the door knocker and a small concrete gnome standing beside the shallow step below. As welcoming as it looked, she still felt butterflies in her stomach. ‘No, I need to do this on my own.’

‘Okay.’

‘Thank you, though.’ She reached across and touched his forearm. ‘I really appreciate the offer.’

‘I’ll wait here for you then. Take as long as you need.’

‘Thanks.’ She pulled down the sun visor and peered in the small mirror. ‘Do I look okay? Professional enough to run an inn, but friendly enough to show her I care about it?’

Jackson leaned over and cupped her cheek. ‘You look beautiful. Perfect.’

Scrunching up her nose, she shook his compliment off and took a deep breath. ‘Okay, here goes nothing. Wish me luck.’

‘Good luck. Not that you’ll need it.’

‘I hope not.’ Pushing open the car door, Laura stepped outside before she could talk herself out of the idea of visiting Vivienne Fields. She could do this. She was doing this. It would be fine. Or as she’d told herself umpteen times in the few days since Jackson had first voiced his suggestion, it couldn’t make things much worse than they already were. Especially since yesterday, when she’d popped into the village centre for the first time since overhearing the conversation in the pub and she’d been completely blanked in the grocery store – to the point that she’d had to check herself in the small mirror on the carousel displaying reading glasses to reassure herself she hadn’t in fact turned invisible. Yes, things couldn’t really get much worse.

Laura crossed the tarmac path and walked through the small garden towards the front door, where she stood and stared at the small sign sellotaped to the letter box – ‘No salespersons, no canvassing, no leaflets. Thank you!’

She shifted from one foot to the other and glanced behind her towards Jackson, waiting in his car. Was she really going to do this? Try to plead her case with the previous tenant of Pennycress after knocking on her door completely out of the blue?

No, it was a bad idea. She couldn’t. Not today.

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