‘When we first bought this place, Elle was just a wee thing, and Penny was just rounding to her mother’s belly. Well,’ said Ned, ‘you should have seen us. A pair of greenhorns if ever you saw them. Anna was up and down ladders sweeping cobwebs out of corners, painting walls, or else she was on her hands and knees scrubbing the floor. When I expressed concern, she told me: ‘I’m just trying to get this baby accustomed to hard work.’ My job from the start was the gardens. I’d take Elle out there with me, sit her in the dirt and weeds, and plant and water until my back almost broke. The building was still in good condition then, but the garden was a jungle. Worse than it is now.’

He pushed his glasses back on his nose and looked at Elle. ‘You ate your fair share of dirt, I can tell you. I could only pray it would make you strong, which thank goodness, it did. Now where was I? Oh yes, we got everything to rights, and then the guests started to arrive in droves. We were driven half mad. Penny arrived in the middle of it all, but Anna just kept on going. She was so tired she was mixing up bookings, putting salt in the desserts, disaster. One day she turned a whole washing line of white sheets bright pink. But it didn’t matter. There was something about the place, even then, and about a year after we took over, she was so good at what she did, it was like she was born to it. Even guests who had experienced the early days came back again and again, because even when Anna was making mistakes, she had a trick of making people warm to her.’

There was silence around the table as they took it in. None of them could remember ever hearing Ned say half this much. ‘So,’ he said, ‘this certainly is a business that can be learned. You girls both have your own talents, and I’m not going to just sit back and watch the days go by any more. I need to keep myself busy. I’ll try to be the backbone of this place, if Penny might consider being its eyes, ears and mouth. And Elle, you do the talking.’

Touched by her father’s words, Penny’s eyes glistened as she spoke. ‘We’ll do our very best.’

After dinner, Penny said that she and Ned would clean up and asked if Elle could bring Rob up to the attic to check if there was anything saleable in there amongst the old stored furniture. It would be a start.

‘What are you playing at?’ Ned asked when they were alone in the kitchen.

‘What do you mean?’ Penny was all innocence, but then she smiled. ‘Ah, just seeing if we can’t bring about two miracles for the price of one.’