Foxden Hotel (The Dudley Sisters Saga Book 5) by Madalyn Morgan (ebook reader ink txt) 📕

As she approached the school, Ena stopped and waited for several children and their mothers to cross the road. When they were safely on the opposite pavement, Ena noticed a woman put her hand up in a gesture of thanks. She looked through the windscreen and smiled - and then she looked again. The woman who had thanked her was Maeve O’Leary, and she was holding the hand of a little girl. Shocked to see Foxden Hotel’s receptionist with a child, Ena almost drove into the back of a parked car.

She pulled out and cruised along the road, slowing down to a crawl every now and then, so she didn’t overtake Maeve and the child. At St. Peter’s Church, Maeve knocked the door of the house adjoining the ancient building. A short middle-aged woman appeared in the doorway and the girl reached up to her. The woman leaned forward and gave the child a welcoming hug. As Maeve walked down the path the woman and child went into the house.

If she hadn’t already driven past the Church, Ena would have stopped and offered Maeve a lift. She thought about going back for her, but the traffic was slow moving due to a tractor. She looked in the reverse mirror. Maeve was at the bus stop. Ena opened the window and waved her hand as high in the air as she was able. It would only have taken Maeve a few seconds to run to the car, but she didn’t see her.

The tractor turned off the road onto a narrow lane leading to a farm. Ena glanced in the mirror again. The bus had arrived and Maeve was boarding. With the tractor gone the traffic started to move quickly. Ena put her foot down and was soon out of the village, slowing only when she approached a bend - and there were plenty of bends along the Market Harborough to Lowarth road.

Ena flew into the hotel by the kitchen door. ‘Look out, here comes a whirlwind,’ someone shouted as she ran through. She dashed into the cloakroom and looked in the mirror. She looked fine, there was no need to delay by combing her hair. She smoothed her skirt over her hips with the palms of her hands and pulled on the hem of her jacket. Then she walked calmly across the marble hall to reception nodding and smiling at guests who she assumed had just come back from one of Frank’s excursions, and were waiting for the keys to their rooms. Ena acknowledged Jack, Maeve’s male counterpart and, unable to wait a second longer to tell Bess that she had seen Maeve with a child, she burst into the office. ‘Claire?’

‘Auntie Ena!’ Aimee called, running across the room to Ena who immediately dropped onto one knee to welcome her niece.

‘Good gracious, but you’ve grown,’ Ena said, holding Aimee at arm’s length before hugging her. ‘What a lovely surprise it is to see you.’

‘Daddy has gone to Canada on an aeroplane,’ Aimee told her solemnly.

‘Oh my goodness,’ said Ena, taking hold of her niece’s hand as she led her to the window seat where Claire and Bess were sitting. ‘When was this?’ she asked, directing the question at Claire.

‘Yesterday. He’s there for a week this time.’

‘Daddy said we might be going to live there.’

‘Oh?’ Ena said. ‘Would you like that, do you think?’

Rocking from side to side the little girl looked under her eyelashes at her mother.

‘It’s all a bit up in the air,’ Claire said. ‘Mitch didn’t tell me the military were sending him to Canada this week until we were driving home at Easter, let alone him wanting to live there.’

‘You don’t sound keen.’ Then, aware that Aimee was listening to every word, Ena said, ‘I’m sure you won’t be away for long, if you do decide to go. Right, Aimee? How about you and I go and find Uncle Frank and ask him if we can see old Donnie the pony?’

Aimee clapped her hands. ‘Yes please!’ she shouted, and was at the door before Ena had time to ask Claire if it was okay to take her.

Thank you, Claire mouthed. ‘See you later?’

‘Where do I start?’ Claire said, when she and Bess were on their own. ‘Mitch has changed. He isn’t the husband and father he used to be. It’s as if he’s two people. One minute he’s caring and loving, the next he’s shouting and angry.’

‘He hasn’t hurt you, has he?’ Bess asked.

‘No.’ Claire shook her head. ‘He would never do anything to hurt us - at least not physically. It’s hard to explain. For much of the time he’s normal and loving - my Mitch - and then he changes and he’s cold and distant. He goes from being elated to being almost morose, in a second.’

Absentmindedly Claire twisted her wedding ring round and round on her finger. ‘When he has these… mood swings, he changes so much I hardly recognise him. He isn’t the man I fell in love with, Bess, or the man I married.’

‘You’ve never spoken about your time in France, when you and Mitch first met and fell in love.’

‘We met before we were sent to France.’ A smile spread across Claire’s face and her pale blue eyes sparkled as if she was seeing Mitch for the first time. ‘We clashed at first. I don’t think Mitch liked me very much. And I certainly didn’t like him.’ She laughed despite herself. ‘We were opposites, which was probably part of the attraction, but we respected each other.’ Claire blew out her cheeks. ‘He made me jump through hoops when we were training to go overseas. But I wasn’t going to let him beat me. The harder he drove me the harder I worked. I got it into my head that it was because he didn’t like me that he