Page 2 of The Inn on Bluebell Lane
“C!” Ava cried. “C in something. Mommy, I can’t read.”
“There’s a C in Brecon too, sweetheart,” Matthew said with a smile, his blue eyes glinting with good humor. “Good job, knowing your letters. We’ll have to go to Brecon someday. It’s lovely.” He glanced at Ellie and placed a hand on her knee. “The Brecon Beacons. Have I told you about them?”
“No,” Ellie replied, and then, fearing her voice sounded too flat, added quickly, “Beacons—what are they? Lights?”
“No,” he answered, “although that’s a good guess, considering their name. They’re actually mountains. Well, hills really, I suppose, about half an hour from here. Beautiful place to hike.”
“Oh…” She wasn’t sure what else to say, as they’d never really been a hiking family, and fortunately at that moment, Josh called out “D in Cardiff” and she was able to turn her attention back to the game.
Maybe she should have known what the Brecon Beacons were, she reflected as the game continued around her—E in Brecon, F in Cardiff. She had been to this little corner of Wales a couple of times over the course of their marriage and, who knew, they might have trekked to the Brecon Beacons at some point during one of those stays. They’d done a few walks certainly. Ellie knew she needed to stop feeling so touchy, so raw, as if every mild remark of her husband’s was some kind of criticism of her.
It wasn’t. At least, she hoped it wasn’t. But she suspected he was well aware of her reluctance to live in Wales, which deepened with every mile they traveled. She’d do her best to be cheerful for the sake of her family, but it didn’t mean it wasn’t hard.
“G in Abergavenny!” Josh called out, his voice rising in competitive excitement. So often when he played a game, he lost to his older brother, so the possibility of beating Ava held some satisfaction. “H in Hospital!”
“No fair!” Ava wailed. “I don’t know what comes after H!”
“I, darling—”
“I in Cardiff!” Josh cried.
Ellie closed her eyes.
Thirty-five laborious minutes later, they were only at M, just as Matthew pulled into Bluebell Lane, the quaintly named rutted track that was devoid of any flowers on this late August afternoon, the rusted gate half-hidden by long grass and hanging off its hinges. Bluebell Inn, as the farmhouse where Matthew had grown up had been named once it had been turned into a bed and breakfast over twenty years ago, was on the edge of the village of Llandrigg. With a population of twelve hundred, it comprised little more than a village green, a primary school, and a couple dozen houses.
Ellie had been to her mother-in-law’s house only three times before: once after they’d got married, and then a big trek across the Atlantic when Jess and Ben had both been small—those two weeks had passed in a slow, sleep-deprived blur of jet lag and culture shock. The third and last time had been around three years ago, a long-awaited visit, and the one that had made Matthew wonder if they should move back.
“It’s a slower pace of life, less materialistic,” he’d proclaimed, while Ellie had noted the teenagers in black hoodies loitering by the bus stop, vaping and scrolling through their phones, just like they did back in America.
In any case, more frequent visits over the years had never seemed all that practical, since Gwen preferred to visit them in America during the down season, when she had fewer guests, while in spring and summer the house she operated as a bed and breakfast was often booked, so there was no room for Ellie, Matthew and the children to stay. She’d always made that very clear, as Ellie recalled.
Except, now, of course, there was plenty of room, because a few months ago Gwen had decided she couldn’t manage the B&B on her own, and so Matthew had had the idea of renovating the house, with the plan of eventually taking over the running of it… hence the push to move.
“Here we are!” Matthew called out as they pulled up to the rambling stone house that looked simultaneously charming and as if it had seen better days. The whitewash was flaking off the walls and the ivy climbing across the front looked as if it was completely obscuring the upstairs windows. A few slate tiles were missing from the roof, and the garden, Ellie could see under the now steadily falling rain, that it definitely needed some serious maintenance; it was a wild tangle of bushes, with a few chickens pecking among a patch of grass.
Well, she told herself bracingly, that was why they were there. That was why they’d completely uprooted their lives—to help Gwen out, to give Matthew a focus after being made redundant at the midlevel banking job he’d never really liked. They were here to experience new things, to have an adventure, to come together as a family… She’d spun it a dozen different ways to her children and friends, as well as her own abject parents missing them being stateside, but right now all of it rang horribly, clangingly false.
She didn’t want to be here. That was the thorny truth that she kept thrusting aside, pretending she didn’t feel it burrowing inside her, deep enough to draw blood. And, she really had to stop thinking like that, for the sake of her husband and children, her family’s wellbeing, and frankly, her own. It didn’t help matters, considering they were already here, and here they would have to stay, at least for the foreseeable future.
Taking a deep breath, Ellie checked her reflection in the side mirror—her face looked pale, the expression in her hazel eyes set a little grim, and after an exhausting day of travel, her dirty blond hair was limp and flat. Never mind. She’d have a shower later, and in any case, she wasn’t trying to impress anyone, not even her mother-in-law.
Squaring her shoulders, she climbed out of the car.
“Come on, guys!” she called to her four children, who were still in the car, every single one of them eyeing the house with wary uncertainty. Ellie wasn’t sure if they even remembered the last time they’d come; Ava and Josh certainly didn’t, anyway. “Let’s go and see Granny!”
With determined cheer, she flung open the door to unbuckle Ava, who, at four, was at least one member of the family eager to begin this new chapter, for now. When Ellie broke the news about her pink canopied bed… well, that was bad news for tonight, she supposed.
Now, Ava scrambled past Ellie, pelting toward the house as she yelled, “Granny… Granny!”
Over the roof of the rental car, Ellie met Matthew’s gaze, and a sympathetic smile quirked his mouth.
“It’s going to be okay,” he said quietly, and while Ellie appreciated the sentiment, she wondered how on earth he could know whether it would be good or not, or even somewhat okay. Still, at least he had acknowledged, in a roundabout way, the validity of her concerns, which she had admittedly verbalised to him on several—somewhat heated—occasions, and she was grateful for that.
“Come on, Ben, Josh, Jessica!” Ellie called.
Silently, her children trooped out of the car and toward the house—Josh reaching for Matthew’s hand, Ben bounding ahead, Jess slouching behind. Ellie gave them all bolstering smiles before falling in behind Matthew.
“How long has it been since we were last here?” she asked. “Three years, right?”