Page 17 of Autumn at the Willow River Guesthouse
The two turned and shared a high five, Uncle Gus’s hand dwarfing that of Aunt Gert’s. Lily, watching them with increasing nervousness, couldn’t quite decide whether she had wandered into a circus or a lunatic asylum.
After taking Aunt Gert’s hand and giving her a quick pirouette, Uncle Gus’s smile abruptly dropped. ‘Right, back to business. Lily, your father told us that he thought it would be good for you to get a nice overview of how things work around here. Just for a bit of work experience.’
‘He thinks that all I can do is push buttons and make conference calls,’ Lily said.
Aunt Gert cocked her head. She pulled a pair of spectacles out of a breast pocket and arranged them on her nose before looking up at Lily. She looked a little like a wizened hen, her eyes narrowing behind the precariously placed spectacles which also made her nose appear thinner.
‘Tell me, dear, what salary were you commanding where you only had to push buttons and make conference calls?’
‘A hundred and twenty grand a year,’ Lily said, feeling her cheeks redden.
‘Oh Lord, we’re in the wrong profession,’ Aunt Gert said, throwing her arms up in the air again.
‘Starting,’ Lily added with a sheepish grin. ‘Plus quarterly performance-based increases and bonuses. All in, closer to two hundred.’
‘Gosh, no wonder your jeans look as expensive as my car,’ Aunt Gert said.
Lily shrugged. ‘A hundred quid. On sale.’
Uncle Gus chuckled. ‘Well, don’t you worry, dear, we’ll clear the button pusher out of you in no time. We’ve got someone coming in about the blocked downstairs toilet in the afternoon, but we’ll save you the upstairs. And then there’s the changeovers. However—’ he clapped his hands again, ‘—first, we’ve got her in the annexe to take care of.’
Uncle Gus and Aunt Gert both gave a dramatic ‘Oooh,’ as they turned to face each other.
‘Her in the annexe?’ Lily said, frowning.
‘She requires her breakfast at nine-thirty sharp every morning,’ Aunt Gert said.
‘When the cycle path opened and tourists started piling in again, we decided to expand a little bit,’ Uncle Gus said. ‘We had the conservatory added, turned a couple of storerooms into guestrooms, and acquired the annexe.’
‘The annexe,’ Aunt Gert echoed, as though it were some secret chamber that required a password to enter.
‘We also decided to take on permanent guests, if there were any such offers,’ Uncle Gus said. ‘Just as a kind of insurance policy to get us through the quiet months. And when Victoria asked, we agreed.’
‘Victoria?’
‘Victoria Borton,’ Aunt Gert said. ‘She’s a writer.’
‘A writer.’ This time it was Uncle Gus’s turn to echo.
‘Quite a famous one, I believe.’
‘A writer?’
‘A writer. Ooooh.’ This time, both echoed Lily.
‘So all you have to do is take her breakfast down to her, wait around for half an hour, then bring the trays back.’
‘Why do I have to wait around? Can’t I pick them up later?’
Uncle Gus and Aunt Gert exchanged a glance.
‘Ah, of course,’ Uncle Gus said. ‘She doesn’t know about the annexe.’
‘The annexe.’
Uncle Gus went out of the kitchen and through a door into a glass conservatory where tables were arranged around the windows. Some needed to be cleared: Lily guessed it would be one of her first jobs.
‘We forgot to mention that the annexe is not exactly on site,’ Uncle Gus said. ‘In fact, it’s a little off site.’
