Page 47 of Falling in Love at Pennycress Inn

‘Okay.’ Laura turned in Jackson’s arms, her tone excited as they began discussing their own wedding.

Walking through to the kitchen, Nicola poured herself a coffee before sitting down at one of the kitchen tables. She needed this, the caffeine. What with getting back from Charlie’s after spending the evening with him and getting up at the crack of dawn to come and finish off the preparations for the wedding, she wasn’t sure how she was managing to keep her eyes open. Adrenaline, she supposed. This was what she thrived on – event planning. She’d realised that since working here at Pennycress and having Laura’s trust to try new things and expand the business. Yes, this had been the biggest event she’d organised for the inn, the others mostly being birthday parties for children and adults, with a few anniversary celebrations thrown in, but she’d adored every moment of planning the Landownes’ wedding and she really hoped it would be the first of many here at Pennycress. She’d never had any trust to try new things whilst working for Nathan. He’d said jump, so she’d jumped. There had never been any opportunities to really discover what she enjoyed working on the most. Here, things were different. She had the opportunity to push herself. And she was loving every minute.

* * *

‘And let’s welcome the happy couple to the dance floor for their first dance.’ Jerry, the conductor of the brass band, spoke to the wedding party. ‘And we’ll also welcome Meadowfield’s finest singer, Rachel, to join us for this special occasion.’

A round of applause erupted across the lawn as Rachel took to the makeshift stage, clasping a microphone in her hand. Shielding her eyes from the sun with her hand, she looked around before pointing to Suzy and Owen, who were weaving their way through the tables towards the dance floor. ‘Thank you. Let’s hear it for the happy couple.’

Nicola watched as guests pushed their chairs back and surrounded the dance floor to whoops of delights and shouts of ‘congratulations’. She quickly glanced around at the tables and realising that all of them had been cleared of dirty crockery from the wedding breakfast, she made her own way across the grass towards the dance floor and joined the throng of spectators.

Rachel’s voice filled the warm air as she sang the words to the Landownes’ favourite song – the song which Suzy had told them was playing when Owen proposed to her.

As the song reached the final chorus, Suzy and Owen ushered their guests to join them on the dance floor and Nicola turned to head back up to the kitchen. As she made her way through the tables and a handful of guests reluctant to hit the dance floor, she picked up as many water jugs from the tables as she could. She’d use this time to refill them.

Pausing at the bottom of the stairs up to the decking, she shifted the jugs in her grasp, grimacing as a stream of water split from one of them and splashed across the cobalt blue dress she was wearing.

Steadying the jugs again, she made her way up the steps and through to the kitchen before setting them down. Tilting her head, she listened as a thud sounded from the hallway. Who could that be? Suzy and Owen had hired posh Portaloos for the wedding guests as the inn’s single downstairs toilet wouldn’t have been enough, so there shouldn’t be any guests inside Pennycress. Unless someone had come in to look for something or to relax in the sitting room?

Snatching up the tea towel, she blotted the water stain on her dress before giving up and following the noises into the hallway. Pausing in the doorway, she laughed as she watched Jill, her husband, Gerald, and Charlie, of all people fighting with a plywood tree which had been stored behind the reception desk for the last few days.

‘Ouch!’ Gerald shrieked as a branch hit him over the head, whilst Charlie and Jill tried to manoeuvre it through the front door.

Stepping forward, Nicola took hold of one end. ‘Here, let me help.’

‘Thanks.’ Charlie, from his position outside the door, grinned at her.

‘I just don’t understand why we can’t get it through the door. It came in through the back door from the garden.’ Jill tried to angle it.

‘I think it’s stuck. Well and truly stuck.’ Gerald let go of the branches he was clasping and, as if to prove his point, the tree remained in place lodged against the doorframe.

‘You took it through the double patio doors, though.’ Nicola frowned as she pushed down on the edge of the plywood, trying and failing to free it. ‘Are you taking it to the farm?’

‘That’s the idea. Although I fear it may have become a permanent fixture here at Pennycress.’ Jill grimaced.

‘Nope. We’ll sort it.’ Letting go, Charlie straightened his back and surveyed the problem before catching Nicola’s eye. ‘You look lovely, by the way. The blue really suits you.’

Feeling a blush flush across her cheeks, Nicola smiled. If they hadn’t been separated by a huge plywood tree, she’d have gone right over and kissed him. ‘Thanks.’

‘Yes, that dress is gorgeous. How’s the wedding going?’ Jill slumped her shoulders in defeat. ‘We really should have thought about this and collected it another time. I just thought we’d be able to sneak in and out with it quickly. I didn’t think it would get stuck. If I had, I’d never have risked it.’

‘Don’t worry.’ Nicola smiled reassuringly. Yes, it wasn’t quite the right time and definitely not the ideal situation to have a wedding reception taking place and the front door barricaded off, but the guests were all outside and would be none the wiser.

‘Are you sure? I should have thought. What if the guests want to leave and find we’ve trapped them inside?’ Jill gasped. ‘It’ll be like a hostage situation. I can just picture the headlines now – “Wedding Guests Imprisoned in Inn by Gigantic Wooden Tree”.’

‘Haha, I don’t think it’ll come to that. Besides, the guests arrived through the side gate, and I’m sure they’ll be leaving the same way too.’ Nicola glanced behind her. Despite telling Jill everything was okay, she still had work to do, and she really should be refilling the water jugs before people tired of the dance floor and needed to rehydrate.

Charlie placed his hands on his hips, his eyes glazing over as he thought before tapping the side of his head. ‘Got it!’

‘You do?’ Jill widened her eyes. ‘You mean we won’t have to resort to sawing it in half? The kids would hate that. They’ve worked so hard on painting it all. Look at the individual paper leaves they’ve stuck to it.’

Nicola grimaced as she noticed at least half the leaves lying on the hallway floor beneath the tree. Still, they could easily be reattached. She looked over the edge of the trunk towards Charlie. ‘What’s your plan?’

‘We just need to pivot it.’ Holding his hands up, he moved them to the side. ‘Like this. So Jill and Gerald stand either side of the branches, I’ll pull it out by the roots and, Nic, can you guide the top?’

‘Yep.’ Doing as she was instructed, Nicola waited for Charlie’s signal before pushing.

‘It’s still not working.’ Jill wailed and knelt down on the floor to grasp it from a different place.

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