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

like two shadows. She took the calendar from the wall and laid it on her desk. ‘Who knows what day it is?’

‘Saturday!’ they both shouted, pointing to the square beneath the word.

‘That was much too easy, wasn’t it?’ Bess said, laughing, and marked the square with an X. ‘Your aunt Maeve has only just left for Ireland, so it isn’t really the first day that she’s away, is it?’ Nancy shook her head. ‘And next Saturday she’ll be back.’ Bess marked the day with an X ‘So because tomorrow is the first day, write the number one in Sunday’s square Nancy, and Aimee write number two in Monday’s square.’

Bess watched the girls take it in turn to write the numbers in the squares, arriving at six the following Friday. ‘There,’ she said, lifting the calendar and admiring the neat numbers. ‘Now every time you colour in a square you’ll be one day nearer to seeing your aunt again, Nancy.’

Bess hung the calendar back on the wall and went to check on the kitchen leaving the girls with sheets of paper and crayons to make the important decision of which colour would be best for which day of the week. By the time she returned to the office, it wasn’t only tea time, but Claire and Ena were back from visiting Margot and the baby.

‘Jack said Mitch telephoned. Is it all right if I use your phone to call him back, Bess?’

‘Of course. Ena and I will take the girls up to get changed. Can Nancy borrow a pair of Aimee’s socks?’

‘In the top drawer of the tallboy. Help yourself to anything.’

‘Thanks. Come on you two, leave your colouring. You can finish it after tea.’

Upstairs, Ena and Bess took the children into Claire’s room. Bess took off Nancy’s shoes and scraped the mud from them into a wastepaper basket, while Ena took off both girls’ socks, giving them clean ones to put on. Aimee elected to keep her dress on as it was clean. Nancy’s was soiled from where she had been sitting on the edge of the lake and although she didn’t want to take her dress off, Bess persuaded her to wear one of Aimee’s dresses until her own clothes arrived. Although Nancy was two years older than Aimee, she was small for her age. Aimee’s dress was a little big round Nancy’s waist, but with her cardigan on top she looked fine.

Bess and Ena returned to the office. Claire was waiting for them. ‘We’re going home tomorrow,’ she said to her sisters. Aimee’s face changed from happy to almost tearful, until Claire said, ‘Daddy is taking us to France on Monday to see Grandma Edith.’

Bess and Ena looked at each other. They had discussed Claire’s unhappy marriage and Mitch’s shellshock. And they had agreed that if Mitch wasn’t going to seek professional help through the Canadian Air Force, the best person for him to talk to was Edith Belland, but so soon--

‘Close your mouths, you two,’ Claire said. ‘After all my agonising, Mitch agreed to see Edith the second I mentioned her name.’

‘But I haven’t seen Grandma Dudley,’ Aimee whined, her bottom lip sticking out further than her top lip.

‘We’ll call in on our way home tomorrow,’ Claire said, which seemed to satisfy Aimee.

‘We took Mam with us to see Margot,’ Ena said to Bess.

‘That’s good. I’ll get her to come up for lunch tomorrow, to meet Nancy. I might be calling on her to babysit during the week.’

Turning at the same time, Bess’s sisters looked surprised. ‘Long story, which I shall tell you about some other time, but Maeve has had to go Ireland. Only for a week,’ she added, for the benefit of the child, ‘so Nancy is staying here with Frank and me. Frank’s in Kirby Marlow now, picking up Nancy’s clothes. Then he’s taking Maeve to the station.’ She looked at her watch. ‘He should be back soon.’

‘Right, I’m parched. Who’s ready for tea?’ Ena called and, like the Pied Piper of Hamelin, she led the children out of the office.

‘Where does she get her energy?’ Bess said. Linking her arm though Claire’s arm they followed their youngest sister to the dining room.

CHAPTER SEVENTEEN

The next morning after breakfast, Ena, Bess, Frank and Nancy, went outside to wave Claire and Aimee off. The sisters hugged and kissed each other. Claire said she’d let them know how long they’d be in France, and Bess and Ena wished her lots of love and luck.

While the grown-ups were chatting, Aimee and Nancy said goodbye. Aimee put her arms around Nancy and told her that she would see her soon. ‘Best friends?’ Aimee said, kissing her on the cheek as her mother had done to her sisters.

‘Best friends,’ Nancy reciprocated, kissing Aimee back.

Touched by the scene between the two children, Frank lifted Aimee onto the passenger seat of the car, tucked the car rug round her, and closed the door. Nancy reached up and took hold of Frank’s hand and, with Bess and Ena, they waved goodbye to Claire and Aimee.

Walking back into the hotel, Nancy gazed up at Frank. ‘Can I see the pony?’

‘Yes, if it’s all right with Auntie Bess. You didn’t have anything planned, did you, love?’

Bess shook her head. ‘Only a cup of coffee and a natter with Ena. See you two later,’ she said, following Ena into the hotel to the office.

‘What with one thing and another, I didn’t get chance to ask you how Margot was last night,’ Bess said, putting on the kettle.

‘Blooming. She’s bored of course, as you can imagine she would be. She says she wants to go home.’

‘What, after only a couple of days?’

‘Yes.’ Ena brushed the air with her hand, as if to flick the idea away. ‘You know what she can be like.