It was at the top of the ladder, just as she was about to crawl onto the roof, that she heard someone shout her name.
‘Emma! What are you doing?’
‘What does it look like?’ she shouted back, not daring to turn round in case she lost her balance.
‘Get down!’ Blake yelled.
‘I’m fine! Why can’t everyone stop babying me?’
‘Emma, please…’
This time she recognised Aidan’s voice. She twisted to look and lost her grip on the tiles. As they clattered back towards the ground, her first instinct was to grab for them, and in doing so she lost her balance, stifling a scream as the ladder fell backwards and threw her into the branches of the old apple tree.
‘Em… are you alright?’ Aidan called up, his voice now full of barely disguised panic. ‘Hang on – we’ll get you!’
She was balanced precariously in the boughs of the tree, like the cradle in the nursery rhyme that would fall with the slightest whisper of wind. There were only claws of branches holding her like a net and she needed to get control. If she could sit herself properly on a sturdy branch maybe she could shimmy along to the trunk and climb down. Feeling very stupid, and cursing her rotten luck that of all the moments Aidan and Blake could have arrived, it had to be now to see this, she started to wriggle cautiously to reposition herself more securely on the branch.
‘Stay still!’
‘I’m alright; don’t fuss! I’ll work my way—’
Her words were stolen by a loud snap, and suddenly she was falling.
Chapter Twenty-Three
The pain in her arm told her she’d badly injured it, pain that clouded her thoughts and threw her into confusion. It was all she could do not to scream out.
‘Jesus, Emma, are you mental?’ Blake shouted as he and Aidan ran to her.
‘That’s broken,’ Aidan said shortly. He swept her into his arms. If she could have spoken she’d have told him she didn’t need carrying, but she was concentrating too hard on not passing out to talk at the same time.
He hurried with her across the muddy grounds of the old station, Blake following. She closed her eyes, rain hitting her face as they went, thankful for its chill.
‘Keys in my back pocket,’ Aidan grunted as they reached the van. Blake got them out as Aidan put Emma in the front seat and fastened her in.
‘Stay here and let Tia know what’s going on,’ Aidan said as Blake handed the keys over.
‘Where are we going?’ Emma asked in a small voice that spoke her pain. She was confused and dazed and felt sick.
‘To put you back together,’ he said.
‘What, like Humpty Dumpty?’ she asked with the sudden insane urge to giggle at her own joke.
There was no reply. The door slammed at the driver’s side, the engine started with a throaty roar, and the van started to move. Emma laid her face against the cold of the passenger window and wished she could make all this pain go away.
Ten hours later Emma’s arm was in plaster. She was doped up like a Glastonbury reject and lying on the sofa of the cottage while Tia fussed and kept repeating what Aidan had told her about their hospital visit.
‘Your arm’s totally smashed up,’ she said. ‘But if you hadn’t landed on it how you did you’d have smashed a lot more. Having a messed-up arm is actually a good outcome in this scenario, which is ridiculous, when you think about it. Why were you up there? On your own, with no safety equipment and no scaffolding? You could have died!’
‘I was fixing that hole – I told you. If I hadn’t been distracted I’d have done it perfectly well without injuring myself.’
‘If Aidan and Blake hadn’t arrived when they did you’d have been lying in agony for hours. Nobody goes that way if they don’t have a reason to.’
‘You’d have been there soon enough.’
‘You still would have had to wait. I got held up trying to… well, you know, I had something to sort out.’
‘You mean that stupid date with Aidan?’
‘Yes,’ Tia said, looking sheepish and a little embarrassed. ‘I managed to abort it just before Blake said anything to him, so you needn’t worry now because he doesn’t have a clue.’
It pained Emma now to see Tia upset about it, especially when she was making such an effort and was clearly stressed about the accident. ‘Look,’ she said, ‘I’m sorry I flipped out about it. I know you meant well.’
‘I’m sorry I interfered. Em—’
‘Tia, sit down.’
‘I will; I’m just going to get you some more pillows from upstairs.’
‘Tia, please… just for a minute. I need to say this before we go any further.’
Tia sat on the armchair and folded her hands in her lap as she gave Emma her full attention.
‘I want to go home,’ Emma said.
‘Oh,’ Tia said. ‘Well I expect it would be a good idea until your arm mends; maybe you should stay with your dad—’
‘No – I want to go home for good.’
Tia stared at her. ‘But what will I do?’
‘You’ll be fine. You’ve done more or less everything anyway. You’re the one with the business head; I’ve just held you back while you’ve held my hand through everything. I don’t know that you ever really needed me.’
‘Of course I did!’
‘I won’t leave you in the lurch. I’ll make sure to sell my interest to someone who wants to go ahead with the guest house just as we’d intended to.’
‘But it won’t be you!’
‘No, but I expect it will be someone who knows what they’re doing.’
‘But I don’t want someone who knows what they’re doing; I want you!’
‘You might not want them but you’ll be better off with them in the long run. Being here is a mistake – like a rebound relationship after Dougie, only with a building instead of a man. It wouldn’t have been a very good idea with a man either, but it would have been a darned sight cheaper.’
Tia shook her head. ‘I refuse to believe that all this was about Dougie. I thought you believed in our venture. You hated your old life – you told me that all the time!’
‘I did, and I probably will when I go back, but at least I can manage it. This feels too big and too complicated. Besides, I’ve proved how useless I am today.’
‘That was an accident; you’re not useless.’
‘I had an accident because I couldn’t keep my emotions in check. It’s not just the hotel, Tia.’
‘It’s me?’
Emma hesitated. Better to get this out into the open, even though it might make her feel like a bitch. Tia had a right to know everything.
‘Tia, you’re fun and amazing and so good to be around but… I can’t cope with you. Since we arrived… it’s not just Honeymoon Station, it’s Blake. You’re with him and that’s great and I’m really happy for you, but it’s made you forget me. I feel so lost and lonely because you’re never here. People in the village talk to me but it’s not the same. I thought we’d be partners and friends but I don’t have the friends bit anymore and I miss it. Before we came here I had this vision, this idea that life in Honeymoon would be pulling together and muddling through – you and me as a team – to this eventual triumph, but it’s not like that at all. I see how close you and Blake have become and I see that you won’t need me soon at all.’
‘Of course I will, Emma! We are a team! Don’t make this decision now – you’re not of a mind to. You’re high on painkillers and you’re not thinking straight.’
‘I’d already made it before today,’ Emma said. ‘I’d just been looking for a reason to think I was wrong before I told you about it.’
‘And you didn’t find anything?’
‘No, I didn’t. I’m sorry.’
‘Em, please don’t do this. I’m sorry if it looked as if I pushed you out or didn’t need you. The truth is I need people – that’s who I am. I need Blake; he makes me feel safe and wanted, otherwise I’d always be scar
ed, but needing Blake doesn’t make me need you any less. I’ve always needed you because you keep my feet on the ground and keep me on track and without you I get crazy. I’m a dreamer, no head for reality at all, and you’re the driving force I need to keep me focused. When Jerome and I had the gym it was the same; it was always his common sense that kept everything straight. Without you, these dreams I have will always be just dreams. I can’t make them real if you’re not here.’
Emma closed her eyes. Her head was spinning; nothing made sense. Was she meant to be here or not? She’d felt so certain that Honeymoon Station was a mistake, but now she was scared that giving it up might be the real mistake. And giving it up meant giving Tia up. If what Tia had just said was true, then it was a hell of a burden to have on her conscience. Could she be the woman who left a friend in need like that? She’d spent her whole life looking out for people who hadn’t asked her to, and now she was going to skip out on the one person who’d told her she needed her.
‘I’m tired,’ she said finally.
‘Let’s talk more in the morning then,’ Tia said. ‘Sleep on it. If you still feel the same then I won’t stop you from leaving. But please, think what you’re throwing away before you do.’
Almost every day since she’d arrived in Honeymoon had been so busy that Emma had slept well every night, but for the first time since her arrival, she’d had a terrible night’s sleep. Breaking your arm will do that, she thought grumpily as she went down to breakfast feeling as if she hadn’t had a single second of decent rest. But she was forced to recognise that there’d been more to it than her injury. The conversation with Tia the evening before, her plan to leave, the decision that had led to it… she didn’t know what to think about any of it. This was the time when, usually, she’d call her aunt or Elise to talk it through, but this time she wasn’t going to. She didn’t want to worry them, and this felt like something big enough to have one or both of them heading straight to Honeymoon to sort her out, and that would disrupt their lives. It was bad enough that hers and Tia’s would be thrown off course for a while without subjecting someone else to it.
‘What are you doing up?’ Tia asked. She was at the stove stirring a pan of oats.
‘It’s time to get up.’
‘If you’re working, yes.’
‘I’m working. I’m not having a day off just for this…’ Emma nodded at her plastered arm. ‘I can’t afford to.’
Tia turned down the heat on the stove then rested her hands on her hips. ‘And what exactly do you think you’ll be able to do?’
‘I can carry things that only need one hand. And I can paint with one hand. I can get tea for you, go to the shop to get gum for the boys—’
‘Emma, stop it. You need to rest and mend. Maybe in a couple of weeks you can pick up light duties, but until then…’
Emma slumped into a chair at the table while Tia went back to stirring her porridge.
‘About what I said yesterday,’ Emma began after a pause.
‘Which bit?’
‘The selling-up-and-going-home bit.’
‘Right.’
‘I was confused.’
Tia turned to her with a slow smile. ‘So you’re not going?’
‘Honestly, I don’t know. I just feel so… lost. I don’t know what I’m supposed to do.’
‘Do you still believe in the hotel?’
‘I think so.’
‘Then there’s nothing else to worry about.’
‘But we’re so behind, and the money is running out, and now I’m laid up with this stupid arm which will make it ten times worse.’
‘Something will turn up, Em. It always does. Things have a way of working themselves out.’
‘You always say that.’
‘And it’s always true.’
There was a loud knock at the front door.
‘Hold that thought,’ Tia said. She turned the stove off and left the kitchen. Moments later Emma could hear the low hum of conversation and then Tia came back, followed by Aidan.
‘How are you feeling?’ he asked.
‘A bit stiff. Tired mostly. You have no idea how hard it is to get a decent night’s sleep with a broken arm.’
‘Actually I do,’ he said with a small smile. ‘Broke mine playing rugby about ten years ago. Last time I tackle a guy who’s taller and wider than my shed.’
Emma smiled. ‘Ah, then I’ll stop complaining.’
He held out a box of chocolates. ‘Nell sent these. She says she hopes you get well soon. Sid sends his best too.’
Emma raised her eyebrows to their full height. ‘Sid?’
‘Nell’s let him back in the shop. And he’s a troublemaker but he’s not a complete monster. He’ll probably wait until your arm mends before he starts hating you again.’
‘Hmm. Well it might have been worth breaking my arm just for the respite.’
‘I’d say so.’
‘Would you like a cup of tea?’ Tia asked him.
‘I’ve love one.’ Aidan took a seat at the table.
‘Toast?’ Tia asked. ‘Porridge? There’s plenty to spare.’
‘I’ve eaten, thanks.’ He looked at Emma. ‘I’ve called in a couple of favours to get the roof sorted.’
‘But the budget—’
‘Don’t worry about the budget. These are favours which mean they will barely cost. I’ve factored it all in so it’s absorbed; I just didn’t want to give anyone any more reasons to get on the roof. One broken arm between us is enough.’
Tia placed a cup in front of him. ‘Thank you,’ she said. ‘We really appreciate it.’
Emma gave an uncertain smile. ‘I don’t know what to say.’
‘You’re supposed to say thank you,’ Tia put in.
‘Yes, I mean thank you,’ Emma said. ‘It’s more than we deserve.’
‘Speak for yourself,’ Tia said wryly as she spooned some porridge into a bowl and sat down. ‘I deserve it.’
‘Yes, but you’re not an idiot,’ Emma said.
‘True.’ Tia looked at Aidan. ‘Help yourself to sugar.’
‘He doesn’t take it,’ Emma said.
Tia bent her head to eat her porridge, but not before Emma caught a knowing smile.
As Tia ate, they chatted a little about the plans for the day’s work and how they were going to manage without Emma. She continued to argue for being on site to assist in some capacity, while Aidan pointed out what a liability having an incapacitated person there would be, how many health and safety laws they’d be breaking and that she’d end up slowing work down rather than helping. She didn’t like it, but in the end she had to agree to stay away, though only on the proviso that they reviewed the situation the following week. Her priority, for the time being, was admin, website-building for when they opened, stoking a social-media buzz and general public relations (by which they meant getting round Sid and his crusading pensioners).
‘Right,’ Tia said as she finished drying up the breakfast dishes. ‘I’ll pop back at lunch to see you’re OK, Em.’
‘I’ll be fine.’
‘I’d rather see for myself.’
‘I’d rather you cracked on. I’m holding things up enough without you rushing back and forth to see if I’m OK.’
Tia hesitated and then nodded shortly. ‘Ready, Aidan?’
‘Give me a minute, would you?’ he asked. ‘I’ll follow you down.’
Tia frowned slightly but then told Emma she’d see her at teatime and left them.
Emma waited for Aidan to speak. It felt like a telling-off was coming for her foolishness on the roof of Honeymoon Station, and if it was she’d already decided she deserved it and would sit quietly until he was done.
‘Tia says you want to leave,’ he said.
‘Oh…’ It wasn’t what she’d been expecting and it threw her. ‘I don’t know… I’m just… well like I told you before, I’m sort of all at sea.’
‘I know and, like I said to you then, the build will work out; ha
ve a little faith.’
‘It’s not just the build. It’s me. Tia has slotted straight into the community here but I don’t feel I have at all. I don’t feel as if I belong and I don’t feel wanted.’
‘Who on earth has made you feel like that? Apart from Sid, who’s treated Tia in exactly the same way. Everyone else has been friendly.’
‘I know, I can’t explain it. They’ve been friendly but I don’t feel as if that really means anything.’
‘I know it’s hard being the newcomer. And village life is so different from what you had before, I expect. I can imagine if you haven’t lived here forever it might not seem as if you belong in the way everyone else does. But people will accept you in time and you’ll feel as if you’ve always been here.’
‘That’s not to say I couldn’t get used to it, it’s just… I had this dream of what it would be, like a postcard or an old cosy TV drama where it’s always sunny and everyone is rosy-cheeked and welcoming and work on the station would be like a barn-raising or something with all your neighbours, done in a flash with a dance afterwards… Silly, I know. I mean, I didn’t really think that was what it would be like but I had that dream… It’s hard to explain.’
‘Try. I’ll do my best to understand.’
‘Well I sort of had that image in my head of things being idyllic and people being pleased about our arrival, but the reality is some people are awkward and some situations are awkward, and we have to worry about every penny, and the work on the hotel is backbreaking and it feels like it will never end.’ Emma drew a breath. ‘I’m being melodramatic again, aren’t I?’
‘You don’t think you could make Honeymoon your forever home at all?’
She shrugged.
‘There’s one story I haven’t told you,’ Aidan said. ‘Want to hear it now?’
‘I’ve got nothing else to do.’
‘Right. Settle in, this one might take a while.’
Emma held back a frown, wondering now where this conversation was going.
‘There was a boy,’ he began. ‘Many years ago he was chased across Europe with his family by a complete dickhead with a funny moustache—’
The Hotel at Honeymoon Station : A totally heartwarming romance about new beginnings Page 23