Page 38 of Forgive Not Forget
“Yes, Michael has been so supportive. I’m hoping to persuade him to allow us to use one of his watercolours on some of the homewares. Let’s see how they go down first as prints and cards.” She sat back and closed her notebook. “Well, I must say I wasn’t quite expecting this range of quality items from you both. I think they’ll all fit very well.”
“We think going with a slightly broader offering to start with, but purchasing lower quantities, will allow us to hone it, see what sells and what doesn’t,” Carrie said. “As you may have noticed, we’ve avoided all clothing and food. We suggest adding these later, a second phase.”
“Perhaps once we have a retail manager, you mean,” Katherine said.
“Yes!” Carrie and Anna replied in unison.
“Well, fingers crossed for one of those. I think you’ve done a fantastic job between you, considering this is well outside the remit of your job roles. It just shows what we can achieve when we pull together. I assume you can email that presentation over to me and that you have a budget for me to show the trustees? They want final sign-off due to the costs involved.”
Anna tapped furiously at the laptop. “In your inbox now.”
“Fantastic,” Katherine replied, standing up. “Thank you, ladies.”
Katherine made her escape to her office, desperate to get the files off to the trustees so she could clear her desk for the week. She was looking forward to a relaxing weekend with Rebecca. She’d earned some quality downtime, and it had been too long since they had seen each other.
Her return to her desk revealed several emails, one of which was from Sophie. She read it and exhaled noisily just as Anna entered.
“Everything okay?”
“Sophie’s just emailed. They’ve analysed the results from earlier in the week and now request permission to dig some test pits,” Katherine read from her laptop. “They want to verify the position of the foundations of the monastic buildings that used to accompany the abbey and also look at some of the larger anomalies that have come up.”
“That’s good, isn’t it?” Anna tried to find the bright side. “It would be useful to us to have the positions verified. All we have now is information from hundreds of years ago.”
“I guess. It’s just… what if they unearth something that will cause problems for us? I really can’t take any more delay and upsets.”
“It’s not near the building work, so how would it affect us if they found something?”
Katherine pulled a moue. “I know, my head just goes to the worst-case scenario at the moment. It’s better to plan for the worst and at least be prepared.”
“Oh you’re not one of those ‘fail to prepare, prepare to fail’ lot, are you? You must have been a barrel of laughs at school,” Anna teased.
A smile tore into Katherine’s lips, despite her utmost effort to prevent it.
“Leave it all until Monday,” Anna suggested. “It’s nothing that can’t wait until then. You’ll be refreshed and better able to focus.”
Anna was right. It wasn’t anything that couldn’t wait until Monday; she had to get out of the habit of trying to clear things. By Monday there would be a new list of things to do and challenges to overcome, as seemed to be her daily routine.
She shut her laptop.
“Okay, I’ll see you at home.” Katherine placed a kiss on Anna’s cheek.
“I’ll try not to be too late, but I’ve got a lot to finish up.”
“Maybe you should take some of your own advice and leave it until Monday,” Katherine replied as she headed for the door.
Anna narrowed her eyes. “Go on, off you go. Smart-arse.”
Katherine felt a pat on her bottom as she left the office.
Virginia was behind the front door as Katherine arrived home a few minutes later, likely drawn to the pile of post on the doormat, which always needed to be sat on. Katherine’s suspicion was confirmed when she picked up the letters, warmed from the cat’s body. Virginia placed herself on the threshold of the door before Katherine could close it and looked out.
“Well, are you in or out?”
Virginia mewed at her and then turned around and headed back inside, only to turn around again and shoot out the door just before Katherine shut it. She rolled her eyes at the fickle cat.
She popped Anna’s post on the Regency hall table that she and Rebecca had bought at auction shortly after she moved in, and took a closer look at the rest of the post. One envelope was stamped withHer Majesty’s Prison. She drew in a sharp gasp of air as a rush of heat and panic swept over her body. Shoving the unexpected letter back into the pile, she used it to fan herself, panting out slow breaths to control her emotions.
Regaining her composure, she headed to the kitchen at a pace, throwing the letters onto the kitchen island. She extracted a bottle of champagne from the fridge and opened it at lightning speed with the help of a nearby tea towel. She filled a glass, then waited only seconds for the bubbles to settle before downing it and refilling it.
