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

they were in the water Bess saw Aimee gasp for breath. ‘Did you see them, Auntie Bess?’ she said, panting. ‘Did you see the baby ducks? They came right up to me. I shall tell Uncle Frank when I get back to the hotel. I bet he won’t believe they came that close.’

Bess crouched down to Aimee’s height and together they watched the raft of ducks gliding effortlessly across the water. ‘Come on, let’s see if we can get to the other side of the lake before they do.’ Aimee skipped on ahead, turning every now and again to make sure her aunt was keeping up.

When Bess passed the spot where David Sutherland had drowned she looked away. She was determined not to let one bad memory spoil the many good ones she’d had over the last ten years, first at Foxden Hall and now at the Foxden Hotel. Despite the tragedy of a man losing his life, Bess smiled remembering how she used to walk her horse Sable round the lake and trot her through the woods before riding her at a gallop down to the River Swift.

Before the war, Lord and Lady Foxden who lived at the Hall, bred horses. In 1939, when the grooms and boys were called up and the horses were taken to Lord Foxden’s estate in Suffolk, the Foxden Estate was farmed. Since then, some of Foxden’s land had been leased to the tenant farmers, but most had been sold off to finance the Hall’s transformation from stately home to hotel. Only the private grounds remained: The lawns around the lake, the small wood that bordered Shaft Hill, the parkland and the old walled garden which, during the war had been a kitchen garden, but had been restored to a picturesque flower garden with rose arbours and benches, where the hotel’s guests could sit and relax.

CHAPTER TEN

Dressed for her party in a pink dress with a darker pink ribbon tied in a bow at the back, smocking on the bodice and a Peter Pan collar, Aimee sat in the old nursery waiting for her guests.

There was a small room off the nursery which had once served as a temporary bedroom where the nanny of the children who lived at Foxden Hall slept when they were ill. The rocking chair and single cot which Nanny slept in had been replaced by a table and two chairs, but apart from a lick of paint, toys and games for older children, as well as young ones, the room looked the same.

Brothers Matthew and Archie, who were staying in the hotel, were first to arrive. They gave Aimee a birthday present, which Claire suggested Aimee open when they had had their tea. Maeve and Nancy came later, after school. They went through to the small room off the nursery, where Nancy took off her school clothes - a burgundy blazer and grey dress - and put on a blue cotton shift with a white sailor collar. Replacing her school sandals with black patent ballerina shoes that had a bow on the front. Maeve combed Nancy’s hair, adding a blue bow held in place by a Kirby grip.

Nancy gave Aimee a gift, which Aimee put with the others she’d received, and then took Nancy by the hand as if she had known her all her life. Bess and Maeve watched as the girls circled the boys. ‘Safety in numbers,’ Bess whispered to Maeve, when Aimee introduced Nancy to Matthew and Archie.

Watching the children playing with dolls and toy soldiers, trains and motorcars, Maeve commented on how Aimee and Nancy had hit it off. ‘I was worried that Nancy would sit on the sidelines and watch the other children having fun,’ Maeve said. ‘She has spent most of her life with grown-ups. First my mother, and then Reverend and Mrs Sykes. Don’t get me wrong, my mother worships Nancy, and the Reverend and his wife are lovely people. I don’t know what Nancy and I would have done without them, but they are quiet folk. Kind, and generous to a fault, but they’re of the older generation. And because they haven’t had children of their own, Mrs Sykes is over-protective and the Reverend is very strict. Between them they don’t allow Nancy much freedom to express herself.’

‘Not like Aimee, you mean, who can be loud when she’s excited?’

Maeve laughed. ‘That wasn’t what I meant, but yes, I would love to see Nancy jump about and get excited - and shout occasionally like Aimee. Nancy’s shy and not usually comfortable around children she doesn’t know, but she has really taken to Aimee.’

‘For better or worse, Aimee is a Dudley. And we Dudley girls have never been shy.’

‘Perhaps some of Aimee’s confidence will rub off on Nancy.’

‘She has plenty of confidence, does our Aimee,’ Frank said, suddenly standing behind the two women.

‘Now Mr Donnelly is here, I’ll go down,’ Maeve said.

‘You don’t have to leave because I’ve turned up,’ Frank joked. ‘I’ll go on reception. It’s time I did some work today.’ He winked at Bess.

‘Thank you, but I’d rather keep to my hours. Be a good girl, Nancy,’ Maeve called, but her niece was watching the boys dismantle a wooden-block railway engine and didn’t hear her.

‘She’ll be fine. I’ll be down shortly. I’ll leave Frank up here with the children while I get the birthday tea sorted. There’s cake and sugar mice. Tempted?’

‘Yummy,’ Maeve said, and left the old nursery laughing.

Bess watched Maeve walk along the landing to the staff stairs. Strange, she thought, but she had never seen Maeve laugh before. Bess liked Maeve. She felt lucky that when she was looking for a receptionist, someone as experienced in the hotel business as Maeve was looking for a job. Not only did she work hard, she was good with people. She was always polite and patient, even