Page 5 of Forgive Not Forget
“Thanks.”
“Look, you’re clearly supposed to be working, I don’t want to keep you any longer. Why don’t you pop over to ours at the weekend so we can catch up properly? I’ll try to keep the child interrogations to a minimum.”
“I’d like that. To catch up, I mean.” Anna looked down at Abigail and winked. “I’m always up for interrogations.”
Abigail gave her a cheeky grin in return.
Laura fished her phone from her bag and passed it to Anna. “Pop your number in and we can sort something out.”
Anna tapped at the phone and passed it back. “Great, it will be good to catch up.”
“Can we go now, Mum?” Tom mumbled. “I’m so bored.”
“See you soon then. Sorry about the grumpy teenager.” Laura rolled her eyes.
Anna smiled and shook her head to rebuff the apology. She’d had enough experience of pre-teens and teens during tours to know most held no interest in history. They resented being dragged around historical properties in the name of valuable family time when they would prefer to be shouting down a microphone in their bedroom at an equivalently grumpy teen whilst playing a computer game.
Laura led the children away, and Anna headed back to the bar with the realisation of how far she was from her own schooldays. They had been part of the same group at school, then headed to university with promises to keep in touch, which had amounted to the odd text message or email in the first few months. As they found new friends their priorities changed, as did phone numbers and email addresses.
As the number of guests dwindled to zero over the course of the afternoon, Anna commenced the task of clearing up. Katherine had gone to the meeting room with some of the trustees for a chat about the staffing issues the abbey had faced since Margaret had left. By the time she and Carrie had packed everything up, Katherine still hadn’t appeared, so Anna headed back to Abbey House alone. The least she could do was get dinner started. Katherine would be wiped out by the time she got home.
CHAPTER3
Katherine took the seat at the head of the meeting room and relaxed into it. It was only mid-morning, and she was already tired. It had been a busy weekend with the grand opening of the barn to deal with. She removed a shoe and rubbed at her ankle; she was sure it was swollen. She’d have to ask Anna for a rub when they got home and face a telling off about overdoing it.
She was already aware that she had been working harder than she should have. What should have been a smooth operation of fitting out the interiors of Abbey Barn whilst patiently awaiting the construction of the extension of the visitor centre had turned into a nightmare with the discovery of human remains in the foundations. The discovery had come as a complete surprise to the staff. The abbey records showed no burials in that area of the site, and the excavation of the original visitor centre foundations had thrown up no evidence of burials or human activity.
When the trustees had submitted their request for planning permission, the planning office had stipulated that an archaeologist must be in attendance during the excavation of the foundations — much to the annoyance of Mark, the construction company’s project manager. Sophie, the archaeologist who had been assigned to oversee it all, was now the most unpopular person on-site, having called an immediate halt to all work until it could be fully assessed. Katherine found herself caught in the middle, under pressure from Mark to get the archaeologist off-site as soon as possible and from Sophie to be allowed to carry out her work unhindered.
A specialist osteoarchaeologist had been called in to excavate the remains, which had caused further delay. On top of all that, Anna had been trying to organise the official opening of Abbey Barn, which had already been announced to the press. Though they had hoped to show off the exterior of the completed, new extension to the visitor centre during the event, visitors had been greeted by ugly steel hoarding, which obscured their view of the visitor centre altogether. The ticket hall and offices were on the opposite side of the construction, so they had remained open during all the upheaval. That was one thing to be thankful for, though their budget was feeling the effects of the closure of the café.
Carrie and Anna arrived and took seats on either side of her. Katherine was so deep in thought she hadn’t realised she was still rubbing her ankle as Carrie tucked her chair in beside her.
“Are your feet as overworked as you are?”
Katherine slipped her foot back into her shoe and sat upright. “I think so, yes.”
Carrie poured herself a glass of water from the jug on the table. “How did the meeting go with the trustees?”
“We agreed that I would continue with my role and the added elements I had taken on of Margaret’s responsibility since her absence. So I’m now officially in charge of the abbey. You’re to take over the day-to-day operation of the site and staff management, reporting to me with any problems.”
“It won’t make much of a difference to me. I’m not sure what Margaret brought to the table anyway.”
There was a resounding groan of agreement around the table.
“As you know, the other trustees all have jobs outside of the abbey, and having just taken on a restaurant manager we can’t afford to take anyone else on. These delays really are having an effect everywhere. I did stipulate that we would have to reassess roles as we go, so if you’re feeling the strain, do let me know. It’s going to be a difficult few months with this continued reduced income. It will be worth it, and we’ll get through it by working together and keeping all lines of communication open.”
Carrie and Anna nodded their agreement.
Katherine had increased her hours since the new year, much to Anna’s concern. Katherine had assured her she would reduce them again once the site was finished. With this date ever-changing and with an increased workload due to Margaret’s departure, she wondered if she would ever be able to return to her part-time hours.
“Has there been any word from Margaret?” Carrie asked.
“The trustees finally received a response — she was in Spain.” Katherine was pleased Anna had persuaded her to let Carrie in on what had really happened with Margaret. It made life easier, being able to talk freely, and Carrie deserved to know the truth.
Anna rolled her eyes. “No doubt trying to ruin someone else’s relationship.”
“The good news is she was happy to leave her investment in the abbey, so financially we are more secure now than we thought we would be. The bad news is — ”
