“There are a number of lovely hotels and inns in the area,” Carrie said, hoping they wouldn’t decide to go and look at them until after they’d paid a deposit on the Avalon. “I’d be happy to give you names and addresses, or contact them on your behalf.”
Ruth looked between her parents, pleading expression in place. Carrie wasn’t sure it would be enough to make them go along with it on its own, but maybe along with everything else…
“What do you think, Anna?” Uncle Patrick asked, and Carrie’s heart clenched. Here it was: the other side of the story.
“I can see you all have a sentimental attachment to the place, and I agree that the building itself has great potential. But to get this place up to scratch for a wedding as prestigious as your daughter’s…that will take a lot of money. And time. And expertise.” She turned to Carrie with a false-looking smile. “No offence meant, but I’m not sure Carrie has enough of any of those things to make it work.”
You can’t do this.
Anna had no idea what she was capable of, Carrie reminded herself. All she’d ever seen her do was obey orders, do what other people wanted her to do.
Carrie wasn’t that girl any more. And she definitely didn’t have to listen to Anna.
She just hoped her uncle wouldn’t either.
“Maybe not as things stand…” Uncle Patrick tapped a finger against his chin, then pulled a cheque book from his inside pocket. “Okay, here’s the deal. We all agree that the Avalon isn’t ready for this wedding yet. But Carrie is family, and so is this place. So I want to give her a chance—after all, the last one we gave her worked out pretty well, didn’t it, Anna?”
Anna nodded, grudgingly. “I suppose so. Until she left.”
“Newer pastures,” Uncle Patrick said breezily. “And bigger opportunities. Carrie, I’ve been looking for a new small business to invest in, and I think you might be it.”
“But—” That wasn’t what she wanted. She didn’t want the handout. She just wanted the wedding.
Uncle Patrick held up a hand. “Here’s what I’ll do.” Scribbling on a cheque, he tore it out and handed it to Carrie. “This is a deposit. You use this money to convince us that you can make this wedding work, that you can give my princess everything she wants.”
Carrie glanced over at Aunt Selena, whose mouth had tightened into a wrinkled o shape. It wasn’t just Ruth she had to satisfy, whatever Uncle Patrick said.
“We’ll come back with Graeme in a few weeks and, if we’re satisfied, I’ll pay the balance of the booking up front to let you finish the work. Then, if the wedding is a success, I’ll consider investing long term so that you can do everything else you need to do to make this place a growing concern.” He nudged Anna. “Weren’t you talking in the car about setting up some sort of one-stop-wedding-shop—venue and planning all in one? Looks like our Carrie might be beating you to it!”
“What if you decide not to hold the wedding here?” Anna asked, her eyes fixed on Carrie. But Carrie couldn’t waste time worrying about how she’d angered Anna this time. She needed to hear Uncle Patrick’s answer.
“If the wedding doesn’t go ahead, or if it isn’t everything my little girl ever dreamt of…well, I’m going to need my deposit back. And I’ll be finding another business to invest in. That’s only fair, isn’t it?” He smiled around the room, and Carrie felt disconcerted to see Anna return it.
Why did she get the feeling her ex-boss was just waiting for her to fail? It wouldn’t be so bad if she were the only one.
Carrie stared at the cheque in Uncle Patrick’s hand. It was a risk—a big one. She had no way of paying back the money if this didn’t work. And there were so many things that were outside her control—hell, what if Ruth and Graeme decided not to get married at all? She’d have to sell the inn to pay back Uncle Patrick.
But she was out of options.
She took the cheque, and ignored the horrible tightness in her chest. This was a deposit, not a handout. It bought her time to find other options, so she didn’t have to rely on her family to invest in the place. That was all.
“I think it went well,” Nate said, doling out drinks from a tray in the Red Lion later. “The bed, in particular, was a big hit.” He raised his pint glass to Cyb and sat down.
“My sister always said very good things about that bed,” Cyb mused, a faraway look in her eye.
Nate decided he didn’t want to investigate that one any further. “How did things go in the dining room?”
“I couldn’t hear much, but Carrie looked pleased.” Moira sipped at her gin and tonic. “And that Ruth girl was over the moon.” Apparently Gran was coming around on the subject of Ruth, which was just as well. “Even the boss woman looked pleasantly surprised.”
“Mother looked less impressed, mind,” Stan added. Stan, Nate thought, wasn’t wholly on board with their plan. “Not sure she’ll go for it.”
“Oh, but once she sees what Nate’s done with the terrace, she’ll be won over, I’m certain.” Cyb gave him a wide smile, and Nate wished he had her faith. The terrace looked nice, yes, but it wasn’t that impressive. Just a few purple and pink flowers and the advantage of views out across Snowdonia. The mountains were going to need to do a lot more work than he had, to be honest.
“Did we manage to do anything with the Willow Room?” he asked. It was the one space giving him real concern. It wasn’t much of a room; Nancy had mostly used it for storage, or for hanging coats on nights of big events. But Carrie had needed somewhere to hold wedding ceremonies inside, in case it rained, so she had laid out rows of chairs and asked Nate to bung some flowers up the top.
“Not much,” Stan admitted. “I put the bay trees with the ribbons you wanted at the top end, and Cyb tied a few ribbons on some chairs, but we were running out of time, to be honest.”
Nate nodded. “Much simpler when Nancy held weddings.” Nancy had got the wedding licence for the inn for a local couple that wanted to get married down by the pond. The rules stated that most of the ceremony had to take place under cover, though, so they’d put up the stone pagoda, which had since only been used for storing garden junk. Nate was not looking forward to clearing that out.
Until then, he was just lucky the licence covered the inside of the inn, too.
“Except when it rained,” Moira pointed out. “Then we just got wet.”
Nancy hadn’t had a ceremony room, of course. It was the pagoda or nothing.
“Well, I guess we’ll just have to wait and see what they made of it.” Nate gave a resigned sigh.
Cyb bit her bottom lip. “You don’t think she’ll be cross, do you?”
“Cross?” Stan barked a laugh. “Whatever for? We helped her, didn’t we?”
“Ye-es,” Moira said, drawing it out. “But some people don’t always appreciate that sort of thing.”
“Well, I do,” Carrie said from the doorway. “So, thanks.” There was silence, until Carrie added, looking uncertain, “Um, Izzie told me where you were. I hope that’s okay...”
The Seniors stared up at her, looking not unlike small children caught with their hands in the proverbial cookie jar. Nate realised he was doing the same and got to his feet.
“They