‘Elspeth,’ he began, dragging her attention away from the photo of Brown’s in 1901. ‘I asked you to come in here today because I have some bad news.’

Elle eyed him warily as his hands tapped on the desk in front of him.

‘At our recent general meeting it was discussed that although the town has been growing, the opening of the new supermarket in Hentley has had a significant impact on our profits.’

Elle felt her palms begin to sweat. She’d heard rumours about the new chain store gaining a lot of local business, but hadn’t really taken much notice of it until now. They had been assured that Brown’s was doing fine, even if the staff had all noticed that they were a lot quieter throughout the day now than they used to be.

‘Unfortunately, this has led to us having to make some hard decisions, namely, some staff cutbacks. As you’re aware, we’re about to install a self-service checkout in the near future and we feel that the service area is the most logical place we can cut back staff numbers.’

Elle stared at him, her mind racing with a thousand reasons why that idea was not the most logical at all, but she couldn’t get a single word out of her mouth.

‘As a result, I’m afraid we’ll be giving you three weeks’ notice, as of today.’

Michael continued to speak—she vaguely heard something about giving her a glowing reference and holiday pay, but nothing else really registered after that. She was being sacked.

She didn’t remember walking from the office and returning to her checkout, but she did see the concern on Pat’s face as they worked through an unexpected rush of customers. At her first break, she left before Pat could ask her any questions, heading straight for the restrooms to wash her face with cold water.

She felt sick. She’d never been fired before. Her thoughts instantly went to her parents and she squeezed her eyes tightly shut. Oh God, she was going to have to tell them she was unemployed.

You didn’t need this job anyway, darling, a voice said from behind her and Elle’s eyes flew to the mirror, only to find her lone reflection and an empty bathroom. She spun around, just to make sure she wasn’t missing something. But both cubicles were empty. ‘What the actual fu—’

Forget about this dump. Now you have time to go to Scotland.

Elle let out a small cry, shrinking back against the cold tiles behind her. ‘Gran?’ She was losing her freaking mind. She had to be.

Well, I tried to be subtle, sweetheart, but that hasn’t been working.

She was not hearing her dead gran’s voice in the staff bathroom. It was emotional stress. That was all. Elle exited the restroom and hurried back to her checkout.