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She rose early and made everybody breakfast. Well, she said everybody: Tom and Lisa. James hadn’t returned last night as he had promised. He had texted her saying he had some unfinished business. Daisy felt momentarily panicky at this news. But why should she? He was his own man. Maybe it was because James had given her the letter, set this whole ball rolling, that she felt he needed to be there every step of the way. When her more rational self took over, she knew that of course he had unfinished business: he had just quit his job, he had an apartment in London to close up for a while, he had… a girlfriend? The thought jolted her. She shook off the self-righteous feeling of ownership and they had a quiet breakfast of omelettes, hangovers still very much present.
However, over the next two weeks, and with each passing day, she felt fresh and raring to go. She had phoned Laura Ashley and other interior shops in Cirencester asking them to deliver. In fact, on the final morning of deliveries, she was just about to call up to Tom and Lisa with the bell in the kitchen, when she heard the beeping of a lorry reversing.
Tom and Lisa ambled down the stairs, clearly woken rudely by the sound of deliveries and sat heavily at the table. Daisy looked at them with affection, it was as if they were still at university. The only giveaway was Tom’s peppered hair, Lisa’s accentuated laughter lines and in her case… well, just about everything had gone south. Her friends with children often talked about how it all went ‘pear-shaped’ after having children. She hadn’t needed sproglets for nature to take its course.
Daisy had dealt with the various deliveries that had appeared in the last forty-eight hours and had used the barn at the back as a storage area. She imagined the neighbour, a very sullen man in his eighties who had never taken a liking to her or Hugh, would imagine she was having some sort of post-Hugh crisis, spending all his money wildly in an attempt to fill the void in her life.
When she had signed on the last dotted line and the barn looked like a warehouse, she walked to the kitchen, her cheeks flushed with the excitement and anticipation, in order to find Tom and Lisa.
‘Gosh, I hope you two like my choices!’ She poured herself a glass of orange juice, barely noticing the silence. When she had drained the glass, she eventually looked at her friends. ‘Guys?’
They were staring at her, smiling broadly.
‘You look positively radiant, darling,’ Tom gushed. ‘Goodness.’
‘She does, she really does,’ Lisa agreed and took Daisy in a big bear hug before standing back once more.
Daisy smile immediately faded. ‘Maybe I shouldn’t be so… you know, I mean maybe it’s not respectful…’
Tom placed his hands firmly on her shoulders and looked her squarely in her eyes. ‘Whose idea was this?’
‘Hugh’s,’ she mumbled, pushing down the panic and sadness in her heart. ‘He wanted me to do it.’
Tom nodded. ‘Exactly. He wanted you to do it and he wanted you to be happy. I imagine he’s looking down on us now.’
Daisy nodded; she knew so too. He was looking down, peering over his ridiculously expensive specs, and smiling.
‘Yes, you’re right.’ Daisy nodded again and then indicated outside. ‘Come and see?’
She was hesitant. It felt as if she was baring her all showing her friends her ideas for the rooms. They walked to the barn and she opened box after box, explaining the various French toile curtains, the linen sheets, the white bed frames. Eventually she came up for air and waited for their reaction.
‘Well…’ Tom said, his voice brimming with concern.
‘What?’ Daisy stood more upright, her heart fluttering. Why had she ever thought she could choose the right furnishings for Atworth Manor?
Tom grinned. ‘I can see you’ve decided to dodge leopard and zebra print which might be your downfall…’
Lisa snorted. ‘It’s bloody beautiful, Daisy. Bloody classy.’
‘Yeah, it really is.’ Tom pulled Daisy in for a congratulatory hug. ‘You have so many hidden talents, you beautiful woman. Hugh would be so proud. Hugh is so proud.’
Daisy felt her heart lift.
‘Good thing you got it sorted so soon because—’ Tom winked ‘—I took it on myself to sign up Atworth Manor with some exclusive agents throughout the country and Europe as James said it was worth paying a premium so…’
Daisy stared, wide-eyed.
‘We are officially a boutique B&B with 5 stars.’
‘What?’ Daisy screeched.
Lisa joined in now. ‘Yeah, you pay quite a lot of them for the ranking so…’
‘What?’ she screeched again, realising she sounded demented but she felt as if she was being hit from all sides.
‘And,’ Tom said gleefully, ‘we have our first guests arriving in…’ He looked at his watch. ‘Three days and five hours.’
‘Holy…’ Daisy’s voice was shrill. ‘What on earth were you two thinking? We have to make plans, set things up, think about the accounts.’ She was struck by something else. ‘None of us have ever done this before and you’ve already got people coming! I haven’t even got sodding eggs!’
‘Well, lucky for you,’ Tom said gallantly, ‘I have got a few of my friends, beautiful muscles, beautiful physiques, Gloucestershire’s finest if you know what I mean, to set up all the furniture, Lisa will make beds as we go and you, dear Daisy, are off to the mecca of Bed and Breakfast Land…’
She waited, expectant. Daring not to breathe.
‘Waitrose!’ he announced.
‘What are their names? Are they from the UK?’ she asked. Maybe, she thought, if they came from Iceland they might want salmon, if they came from Japan they might need sake. OK, she agreed with herself, maybe too much for breakfast but she needed to offer them a night cap. She’d been to some fabulous bed and breakfasts throughout the country with Hugh and the service never stopped at just a bed and a breakfast. In fact, she remembered Hugh getting pissed on whisky at an honesty bar in Scotland, but forgetting to pay. It was added to his bill; he had been necking a one-thousand-pound bottle of vintage whisky.
‘Relax, Dais,’ Tom said smoothly. ‘Just do what clearly comes so naturally to you.’
‘But I haven’t even been into a supermarket since Hugh died,’ she realised aloud. ‘I’ve been getting them to deliver. I mean, I don’t know who I’ll meet and I can’t bear the looks of sympathy and pity.’
‘Well, time to face the music, Daisy darling, and get that fridge full!’
Just as she was about to protest, a minibus pulled up the drive, a dust cloud in its wake. The bus was pink with a leopard print strip around its centre.
‘What on earth?’ she breathed. ‘Is this our guests?’
‘No,’ Tom announced happily, waving enthusiastically at the bus, undoing one more button on his shirt. ‘This, ladies, is heaven.’
Out of the bus, one after another, stepped six drop-dead gorgeous men: all chiselled, all with impeccable physiques and…
‘The tightest shorts I’ve ever seen,’ Daisy whispered aloud.
‘Yes, here is my dream crew ready to build your furniture and dress your house. Dave set this company up a couple of years ago when a woman he does DIY for said she wished there were more like him; men who are good with their hands and who women feel safe around.’
Daisy looked at Lisa who she expected was having a similar surreal experience herself but, in actual fact, Lisa had started to trot down the drive, greeting each and everyone by name.
‘Dave, hi!’ Lisa chirped. ‘Gary, how’s the knee? Didn’t they tell you not to slide down the pole like that…’
Daisy smiled at the team as they approached and went to shake their hands. They all shook her hand in turn and Dave, the leader, gave her the lowdown as if she were the queen.
‘I introduce to you, the Dream Team.’
‘You are very welcome,’ Daisy said, smiling. ‘So very welcome!’
Daisy spotted James’s car pulling up – he had been opening a business bank account in Cirencester – and she suppressed her laugh: now this she wanted to see.
James parked his car and got out, making his way towards the crowd now standing outside Atworth.
‘James!’ Tom shouted, the excitement evident in his voice. ‘This is James, the guy I was telling you about!’
Six, seven counting Tom, Athena poster model men from the Eighties turned to James who held his hand up awkwardly in greeting. ‘Hi all!’
The men flocked around James, and Daisy and Lisa laughed until they cried and only laughed some more when James arrived at their side, his usually carefully placed hair ruffled.
‘Well, they all seem lovely,’ James said, his voice genuine if not dazed.
‘The account all sorted?,’ Daisy said, only semi-jokingly.
‘Yep, all in order.’ He touched her arm gently. ‘You look radiant today.’
Daisy found herself blushing and she didn’t know why. She was glad when Lisa dragged James to the barn to show him the new items for the house.
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