Page 135 of The Christmas Invitation
Zelda took his arm and gave him a starry smile. ‘I’m certain it could, and it would still be a lovely home as well as a business. We’d easily make enough money just from the receptions, providing it’s allreallyhigh end.’
‘I’d thought of holding weddings later, too,’ he said. ‘The actual ceremony on the top landing and the guests in the hall below.’
They moved off in that direction and we followed. I was amused to notice that at some point Zelda had stopped saying ‘you could’ and replaced it with ‘we could’.
Flora, who had found herself sidelined for the last half-hour, now said, ‘Ithink Mark’s original idea about the guest bedrooms would work much better, and half the en-suites are put in already.’
‘No, on that scale it wouldn’t be financially worth it,’ Zelda said dismissively. ‘A lot of trouble and disruption for not much return.’
‘But Flora’s right about my having already put in the en-suites,’ Mark said.
‘The rooms wanted updating anyway, didn’t they?’ said Zelda.
‘Sybil will be very happy if she doesn’t have to live in the housekeeper’s room,’ Lex put in.
‘I do think that was a bit of a mean suggestion, darling,’ said Zelda, giving Mark’s arm a squeeze. ‘Never mind, we’ll redecorate her old room and I’m sure she’ll love having an en-suite.’
‘I suppose we could do it the way you suggest and then, if it doesn’t work out, we still have the country house hotel option,’ Mark conceded. ‘But my plan is not only to make enough money to keep Underhill going, but also be able to spend my winters in my house in Italy … and go skiing, too.’
‘It sounds so perfect, working all summer and then playing all winter,’ she said, smiling up at him. ‘And I’m dying to see your little house in Italy!’
‘And I can’t wait to show it to you,’ he said warmly.
‘That’s what you said tome,’ piped up Flora tartly. He’d said it to me, too, but though fickle might have been his middle name, I was sure he really meant it this time.
Flora evidently thought so too, for she was admitting defeat. ‘I’m afraid I’ll have to go, Mark,’ she announced. ‘I need to see how Rollo’s doing. He’s really not very strong. His poor mother’s so worried, though she knows I’m taking the best care of him.’
‘And Piers?’ said Lex.
‘There’s nothing wrong with his health, though he is a bit crotchety and demanding,’ she said. ‘I gave him Deirdre’s rules of the house after breakfast and pointed out that he has tea- and coffee-making facilities in his room, as well as the use of the visitor lounge with a TV. I don’t suppose Rollo and I will see much of him, except when I serve his meals in the dining room.’
Rollo was clearly living in the family part of the guesthouse, which all sounded very cosy. I wondered if this morning’s visit to Underhill had simply been a last testing of the waters with Mark and now, seeing she was getting nowhere, she would turn her full attention to the hapless and helpless Rollo?
Perhaps she’d eat him afterwards, like a spider.
‘I hope you hid the keys of the roll-down shutters over the bar in the dining room somewhere Piers won’t find them?’ asked Lex.
She gave a thin smile. ‘I wasn’t born yesterday: they’re in my bag. Not that we keep a huge stock of spirits. And we always sell it by the glass, never the bottle, as I explained to Piers last night.’
‘At a mark-up, too, I expect?’
‘Of course. I’m afraid his bill is going to be rather large.’
Lex saw her out and came back to find us standing in the hall, discussing what to do next.
Lex said, ‘I suppose we’d better get on with doing something, before it’s time for us to go, too.’
‘We’ve decided to paper and paint what was going to be the bridal suite first and turn it into Mark’s bedroom,’ said Zelda. ‘And then the same with your mum’s old room, so she can move back into it after Christmas.’
‘I think that’s a really nice idea, Zelda,’ I agreed.
‘I suppose it shouldn’t take too long with a bit of help,’ Mark said. ‘Then we can move on to the new bridal suite.’
‘Sounds like a plan,’ said Lex. ‘Why don’t Meg and I strip wallpaper in Sybil’s room and you two take on the other?’
We collected buckets of water to soak the walls, and scrapers, and set to.
‘Flora’s nose is well out of joint,’ Lex said. ‘She could hardly wait to get away.’
