Page 127 of Secrets and Seashells at Rainbow Bay
We all walk back up to the castle together. And for once I feel relaxed and happy that things here at Chesterford are going to be all right . . . for a while, anyway.
Forty-eight
I stand looking in the mirror at my reflection.
‘You look older,’ I think, narrowing my eyes and peering at myself a little more closely.
But do I actually look older? Or do I just look a more confident and self-assured person than the nervous, worried one that had arrived here at Chesterford earlier this year?
Graham was right when he’d said I’d grown up. I had, and in a good way. I felt comfortable within myself and confident about my abilities.
‘You look gorgeous,’ Tom says, popping his head around the door. He comes over to the mirror and puts his arms around me so we’re both looking at our reflections.
He kisses the side of my neck. ‘Have we time for me to rip that dress off you, and whisk you back into bed?’
‘Sadly, no.’ I sigh, wrapping one of my arms around the back of his head. ‘And you might crease me!’
‘I’d do more than that!’ Tom says, grinning at me.
It hasn’t taken us long to move our relationship up to the next level, and Tom has taken to spending most evenings with us up here in the tower, rather than in his room at the castle. And once Charlie’s gone to bed, he usually spends the night too.
We tried to hide it from Charlie at first, with Tom creeping out in the early hours before he awoke, but Charlie being Charlie soon let us know that he was quite aware Tom was staying the night, and he was happy for him to do so.
‘Nothing against you, Mum,’ he’d said, ‘but I like having someone else to talk to over breakfast. Tom actually knows something about football; he doesn’t just pretend to like it, like you do for my sake.’
And so, with Tom staying at the tower, and all our new extended family in the rest of the castle, both Charlie and I feel at last that we totally belong here.
I’ve also decided, after much thought, not to continue searching for the missing heir. It feels like I’m supposed to be here now, and everyone else seems to want me to be here too; fate, the mystical spirits that haunted Chesterford and my new friends and family certainly want me to stay, and so for once I’m listening to them.
‘Ah, well,’ Tom concedes, ‘if I can’t persuade you in other ways, perhaps we had better go. May I escort you downstairs, m’lady?’ Tom holds out his arm to me.
‘You certainly can, m’lord,’ I reply, for once not getting my knickers in a twist about titles. Since the whole Graham incident in the Great Hall, I’ve felt much better about the few instances when someone gets it wrong. I’ll never feel happy about someone addressing me as Lady Chesterford, but I know it will happen from time to time and I can deal with that now.
We walk downstairs and out into a bright sunny courtyard; then we head over to the stables, which are looking glorious today bedecked for their grand opening.
‘I’ll go and find Charlie’ Tom says, looking around for him. ‘He said he was going to come down early and see if he could wangle a cake out of Dorothy.’
I watch Tom go, and then I pause while I’ve got a moment’s peace to take everything in.
Bill and his gang have transformed the stables into two rooms perfect for their new uses. First, we have our gift shop, which today looks inviting and attractive with its many products neatly lined up on the wooden and glass shelves. Our keen staff, wearing their brand-new castle uniform – a black skirt or trousers with a white shirt and a black waistcoat – wait eagerly to serve their first customers. Then there’s our bright and cosy tea room, which looks amazing with its newly restored black beams contrasting magnificently against the whitewashed walls. Paintings and prints of the castle hang on the walls, some of which are also for sale in the gift shop. There are scrubbed wooden tables dotted about this room, with little menus standing neatly on top of the gingham tablecloths that cover them. Then at one end is the serving counter that separates the dining area from the kitchen. This is bedecked with glass domes filled with delicious-looking cakes, scones and pastries.
‘You’ve done a grand job, lass,’ Arthur murmurs behind me. ‘You should be proud.’
‘It’s not just me, Arthur,’ I say, turning around. ‘Everyone has worked hard to get us to this point, and I’m grateful to every one of you.’
Arthur does something unusual then: he puts his hand on my shoulder. ‘I’m glad you decided to let thatothermatter go,’ he says quietly. ‘You and young Charlie deserve to be here, not anyone else. I might not have been that welcoming when you first arrived, but I’m very glad you’re both here now.’
‘Thank you, Arthur,’ I say, and I do something a little out of character as well: I give him a kiss on the cheek. ‘That means a lot.’
Arthur’s cheeks turn pink.
‘I can safely say the last Earl never did that!’ he says, smiling. ‘And I for one am very glad he didn’t!’
Arthur and I walk out of the stables into the little outdoor seating area where we have installed more tables, chairs and parasols to keep the sun – which I’m pleased to see is still shining today – off our visitors. The walls outside the stables are decorated in colourful bunting, which billows gently in the breeze.
‘It’s perfect,’ I whisper, momentarily caught off guard by my emotions at seeing everything finally coming together like this. ‘Absolutely perfect.’
People are just beginning to filter in to the castle for the official opening in half an hour, and everyone seems to want to speak to me.
