While Grace did not realize it, she was becoming very comfortable with staying in the cottage. In her mind she kept telling herself that she needed to get back to Dublin, and back to work in the city, and that the cottage needed to be put up for sale.
The next morning Grace went out for a short run. She had gotten over her pulled muscle and with the weather as beautiful as it was she wanted to take advantage and get in a short run. As she was returning to the cottage from her run she slowed down to look at the newly painted cottage with the refreshed garden. It was so inviting. She also noticed that she was not the only one looking at the cottage.
Donovan was standing by his front gate looking at the cottage.
“Lassie, it looks like it did many years ago,” Donovan said with a hint of a tear in his eyes. “I never imagined I'd see it this way again. You have done a wonderful job with this.”
“Thank you Donovan. I hope it brings a lot of offers and a good sale,” Grace responded knowing this would be a surprise to Donovan.
“Oh, so you are not going to open it as a B&B again?” Donovan asked already knowing the response.
“Donovan, I can't run a B&B, and live in Dublin and keep my job. It would be impossible,” Grace needed to have Donovan on her side.
“What ever you decide lassie. I'm sure the cottage will be fine, now that it's all fixed up,” a dejected Donovan replied and turned to go back into his home.
Grace felt bad but there was nothing else she could do. She headed inside to make some lunch for Donnie from the last night's leftovers. As he had before, he complimented everything she served. He would be finishing up the painting today and Grace could contact the real estate company tomorrow. She wanted to take some digital pictures of the cottage, inside and out, that the real estate agent could use.
It must have been close to 7:00 while Grace was going through more paperwork when she heard a car pull into the gravel front drive. When she got up to look out the window, she didn't recognize the car, or the woman getting out. Grace headed to the front door.
“Oh, honey, look. I'm so glad we found it,” the older lady chirped. “It's just like it was before. This is just perfect.”
Is there something I can help you with?” Grace asked the woman from the porch.
“Oh, sweetie, we really hope you are not full up tonight. We've been traveling all day to get here. Where's Aine?” the woman asked.
Grace still had trouble talking about Aine's death. “She's no longer with us. She passed a while ago.”
“So sad, so sad. Are you running the cottage now? We'd really like a room for tonight. There are no other B&Bs in the area here and we've driven so far today.” The lady was putting Grace in a bad spot and Grace didn't know what to do.
It's not like Grace had something special to do that night. All the rooms were set up to show for a Realtor. So why not. And this couple seemed very nice. What could one night hurt?
Sunday, March 13, 2011
All Roads Lead to Swatragh - Chapter 17
Labels:
Bed and Breakfast,
fiction,
Ireland,
Northern Ireland,
Swatragh,
travel
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