Room For Love. Sophie Pembroke

said, “I know what these business types are like. He’ll have money on the table for her.” He shook his head. “Not sure she’s the sort who would pick hard work over money. Not like her grandmother.”

      “She was talking to Izzie about the reservation thing on the computer yesterday,” Moira said. “Would she really do that if she was planning on selling?”

      “I have no idea what goes on inside young women’s heads these days.” Stan’s face grew redder and redder. Cyb moved his pint glass farther away, in case he decided to bang his fist on the table again. A passionate man, Stan. She looked at him, considering. Maybe it was time to find a better use for all that passion, once this mess at the inn was sorted out.

      “We could just ask her what she’s going to do,” Cyb suggested, in what she thought was a reasonable manner.

      Stan obviously thought otherwise. “Just ask? And what, exactly, is going to ensure she tells us the truth?” He grabbed his ale and drained the quarter of a pint left in the glass. Cyb motioned to a nearby member of the bar staff and indicated the empty glass. The Red Lion didn’t offer table service, but they weren’t very busy and Cyb had found them to be very accommodating to a group of senior citizens. Moira had suggested they were just afraid one of them might slip on the pools of stale beer that tended to form by the bar and sue the pub to cover their hip replacements.

      “Unless...” Stan tapped the side of his empty glass. “Nate, boy, I have a job for you.”

      “No,” Nate said, firmly. “I’ve already told you everything she told me.”

      “Wait a moment,” Cyb said, willing her forehead to unfurrow. Anti-wrinkle cream could only do so much. “I don’t understand. What’s the job?”

      “He wants me to get close to Carrie, win her trust and find out if her plans have changed now she’s met with the lawyer and business advisor,” Nate explained. Obviously he didn’t want to say ‘seduce the truth out of her’ in front of his grandmother.

      “Well, would that be so bad?” Cyb asked, still confused. It had seemed to her Nate wanted to get close to Carrie Archer. Well, apart from the days he was mad at her. Moira said he couldn’t seem to make his mind up about whether Carrie was going to save the Avalon or destroy it.

      “If she found out I was only doing it because Stan told me to?” Nate shook his head. “Hell, yes. Look, I’ll talk to her some more, I’ll ask her. But I’m not going to pretend anything.”

      Stan gave a heavy sigh, and Cyb wondered where the bar staff were with his second pint. He was always more manageable when he’d relaxed a bit. “Play it any way you want, Nate. But remember, it’s your livelihood at stake here, too.”

      Cyb was watching Nate, waiting for his response, so she saw the look he threw at his grandmother, a secretive sort of glance, and she wondered what Moira knew that the rest of them didn’t.

      Whatever it was, Cyb wasn’t feeling any better than she had when listening to Mr Norton’s offers. If anything, she felt worse. And, looking around the table, so did everyone else. Probably not the time to try to discuss passion with Stan, she decided.

      It would either be a very sombre, or a very exciting, dance night that evening.