Page 25 of The Inn on Bluebell Lane

Jess felt an ache between her ribs, a physical pain.

How was your first day? she texted back.

Rlly gud! Chloe texted with a bunch of smiling emojis and thumbs up. Emily and I are in Mrs. Lerner’s class. She’s so cool.

Acid churned in Jess’s stomach and the pain between her ribs got worse, until she felt as if she might gasp out loud from it. Couldn’t Chloe have commiserated with her, just a little? And not mentioned Emily? Mrs. Lerner was the fun, hippyish teacher who all the girls in school loved. Jess couldn’t stand the thought of Emily and Chloe sitting together with their cool teacher while she was stuck all on her own with teachers who didn’t even know her name and had just yelled at her for being late or in the wrong place when neither was her fault at all. Life was so unfair.

Sorry, got to go, Chloe texted. Lunch is over.

Lunch being over… or more important people to message? Cooler people who actually lived in Connecticut instead of halfway across the frigging world?

Jess tossed her phone away without replying. The tears that had burned behind her lids all day started to trickle down her cheeks. She couldn’t stay in Llandrigg, she absolutely couldn’t, not for another day, another second, never mind a year.

She had to find some way to get out of here. And fast.

CHAPTER 14

ELLIE

It was past six before Ellie got back to Bluebell Inn, practically wilting with exhaustion. She’d met with Matthew’s doctor and a physiotherapist, and the good news was he’d be able to return home tomorrow morning. The bad news was that, in addition to the six weeks with his arm in plaster, he’d have months of physiotherapy afterwards, something he’d tried to take on the chin, but she could see how down he looked, angry with himself for getting into such a scrape, for being so seemingly stupid. Not, of course, that she’d say anything like that to him, but she still felt it.

If he hadn’t been so desperate to prove himself… if he’d been sensible, and thought through things, and consulted a professional…

If they hadn’t upped and moved to Wales at all…

No, she definitely was not going to let herself think like that. At least, not for too long. In the car on the way home, she’d let herself have ten minutes’ luxuriating in self-pity, and then she’d shaken her head, given herself a stern talking-to—out loud, even—and thought practically about the future. About her children, who had had their first day at school and she had absolutely no idea how any of it had gone, because Gwen had not texted her, even though Ellie had texted her twice, asking how everything was. The lack of response wasn’t entirely unexpected, because her mother-in-law didn’t check her phone all that often, but it was still worrying.

“Hello?” she called as she came into the house, trying to pitch her tone bright, even though she felt like curling up somewhere and going to sleep for at least twelve hours. “I’m home!”

“Mommy!” Ava hurtled out of the kitchen, tackling her around her waist so hard that Ellie took a stumbling step backward before she was able to right herself. “Mommy, where have you been? Where’s Daddy? You didn’t pick me up from school.” The last part was flung at her accusingly, even as Ava wrapped her arms around her waist even tighter, burrowing her head into Ellie’s stomach.

“I’m so sorry, sweetie. I wanted to be there more than anything.” Gently, Ellie stroked her daughter’s soft hair as a pang of guilt assailed her. How could she have missed her children’s first day in a new school, a new country? She really should have been there; she should have told Gwen she could do it herself. “Did Granny tell you about Daddy’s accident?” she asked Ava.

Her daughter tilted her head to blink up at her. “Yes, his arm is broke.”

“Broken. Yes, but not too badly.” Actually, quite badly, for a break, but she wasn’t about to explain that to her four-year-old, or, for that matter, to her thirteen-year-old.

“But he’s going to be all right, she said,” Ava insisted, a fearful, petulant tone creeping into her voice. “She said he would be ab-so-lutely fine.” The way her daughter sounded out the syllables made Ellie smile despite her tiredness.

“Yes. Yes, he will, sweetheart.” Gently, she untangled Ava’s arms from around her waist and held her hand. “Where is everyone, Ava?”

“I’m in here!” Gwen called, and Ellie came into the kitchen. Her mother-in-law was smiling, but she looked tired, standing at the stove, stirring something, her shoulders a little slumped. There was a tub of crayons and a dozen sheets of scribbled-on paper on the table.

“Thank you so much, Gwen, for holding down the fort,” Ellie said. “I don’t know what I would have done without you.”

“It wasn’t a problem. I gave the children toast and jam, and they did a bit of coloring. Well, the younger ones, anyway. How is Matthew?”

“He’ll come home tomorrow morning, thank goodness. Where are the others? Did they have a good first day?”

“Upstairs, I think, although not on the top floor, yet. I thought you might want to have a look, and there’s dust everywhere…”

“I’m sure.” Ellie hadn’t even thought about the mess that would need to be cleared up. Would she even be able to get her things from her bedroom? “The kids all seemed okay, though?” she asked Gwen.

“Yes, for the most part.” Gwen paused. “Jess seemed a bit stroppy, I suppose. She didn’t tell me how her day went, but it didn’t seem as if it went all that well, if her behavior is anything to go by.”

“She was really grumpy,” Ava chimed in. “And I almost wet my pants.”

“Ava…” Gwen protested, smiling a little in apology. “You didn’t.”