‘Yes,’ Eliza said.

There was a brief silence. ‘What did you say?’

‘Yes. Thank you.’

‘Just like that?’

‘Yes.’

‘Without any excuses about busy schedules, or Gillian’s demands, or needing to be in Melbourne to make sure there’s a glass of water for the keynote speaker at a conference in three months’ time?’

Once, Eliza might have taken offence. Today, she almost laughed. ‘None.’

There was a pause. ‘Eliza, have you started drinking?’

‘No.’

‘Let me get this straight. I’ve asked you out of the blue to do something completely unexpected, on the spur of the moment, and —’

‘I’ve said yes.’

Eliza held the phone away from her ear as Olivia uncharacteristically whooped down the line.

CHAPTER THREE

As soon as Eliza hung up, she rang Rose’s mobile. Her friend picked up after five rings. Eliza could hear children shouting and laughing in the background.

‘Rose, I’m sorry. I know it’s hell hour. Can you talk even for a minute?’

‘Every hour is hell hour. My children are demons. Hold on, I’ll lock myself in the laundry.’ After a pause, Rose’s voice came on the line again, the background quieter now. ‘Is everything okay?’

It only took Eliza a few minutes to explain all that had happened.

‘That selfish cow,’ Rose said about Gillian. ‘I hope she has a fifty-hour labour and those twins don’t sleep until they turn ten.’

She sympathised about the eviction notice. ‘At least it will only take you five minutes to pack up.’

She also wanted to know every detail of Maxie’s surprise wedding. Eliza explained that Hazel had been offered lighting design work on Broadway, for a big production of The Railway Children. She’d be away for at least a year. It had made Maxie realise just how much she loved her and she’d proposed. Hazel immediately said yes. Not only were they getting married, Maxie had decided to press pause on her UK acting career and move to New York with her. Perhaps even make time for the playwriting she’d been talking about for years now.

‘But they don’t want a big fussy wedding,’ Eliza told Rose. ‘Hazel’s so private. So they decided on Gretna Green, the eloping place in Scotland. Olivia said she’d secretly organise for me to be the second witness. She wants it to be a complete surprise for Maxie.’

‘What a wedding present! And then what will you do afterwards?’

Eliza shared that news too. After Olivia heard what had happened with Eliza’s job and flat, she’d invited her to stay at the Montgomery for as long as she wanted.

Rose repeated the name of Olivia’s hotel, sighing. ‘It even sounds fancy.’

Olivia had recently sent Eliza a link to the hotel’s redesigned website. It was as elegant as the Montgomery itself. The logo was a stylised flower, the line ‘Family-run for four generations’ beneath it. The main photo showed the hotel’s exterior, three adjoining Victorian terrace buildings in Edinburgh’s West End. Ivy covered all three storeys of the middle building. A photo gallery displayed an inviting sitting room complete with open fire, a formal dining room with crisp linen and gleaming glassware, luxuriously cosy bedrooms, each designed to reflect a floral theme. Evident in every image was the art collection: portraits and landscapes from all around the world.