‘Everything seems to be falling into place. Dad has his collection back, Molly is back in the kitchen, Colin has the garden. Everyone’s got a job.’

‘Everyone except us, you mean?’ Elle teased.

‘Well, you’re so busy with the renovation, but have you thought about what we’re going to do afterwards? How we’re going to run it day to day?’

‘I suppose someone will have to deal with the bookings, management of the staff, things like that.’

Penny shook her head, understanding what she was getting at. ‘I don’t think so, Elle, I’m happy to help out like before but I don’t think it’s my thing . . . Look what happened last time. I messed it up completely.’

‘Yes, and it brought you Colin. I think that was the hand of fate, rather than a mistake, wasn’t it?’ said Elle.

Penny laughed. ‘Maybe. You know, it’s so funny, we haven’t even had to talk about it; we just know that Colin is going to stay here and move into the cottage with me. Isn’t that funny? So much is just automatically understood between us. I could have killed him when he tricked us at Wally’s, though.’

Elle smiled. Colin and Penny had reached a stage in their relationship where everything they did and said was still very interesting to them. They needed to exclaim over it as though they had discovered a new continent.

‘I suppose we’ll all just muddle along for the moment,’ she said. ‘The important thing is, we don’t want to be running a second-class establishment in such a beautiful building. Even all the renovations won’t make it perfect.’

‘It’ll be fine,’ said Penny. ‘Look at the party. You pulled that off, didn’t you?’

Elle wasn’t convinced by Penny’s optimism. This was something that had been worrying her for a while now. The hotel could be the most beautiful building to be found for miles, as it surely would be once it was done, but that wasn’t everything, was it?

There was something else, something that their mother had, and Elle wasn’t sure that either she or Penny possessed that same quality. It was something like patience, but it was stronger than that. It allowed Anna to be constantly listening to the talk of others without it completely draining her. She was like a tree, bending and swaying in the wind, but never breaking. How did she do it? How did she clean and wait on tables and talk with people all day long, without it putting a sour smile of tiredness on her face?