‘I’ve decided we’re going home. You’re not well, so I think you should rest up today, then tomorrow we’ll head back to Brighton.’
‘We are absolutely not doing that.’
‘Mum, don’t be silly. You’ve got a bad cough and it didn’t help that you went out walking in your bare feet.’
Moira was sitting up in bed, clutching a hot water bottle provided by Joan, and glaring at Lily, her eyebrows beetled together. ‘My feet are fine and this is just a little cough. We are not leaving Keswick until I’ve got more material for my book. I’ve nearly written the first three chapters now, and so much is coming back to me.’
Lily perched on the side of the bed. ‘I know how important your book is to you, but can you understand why I’m worried?’
‘There is no need for you to worry about anything,’ said Moira, before succumbing to another coughing fit. When it was over and she could speak again, she looked back at Lily, her eyes watery. ‘All these memories are wonderful. Just being here is making me think about what we did on that holiday when I was a child, the places my parents took me. It’s bringing it all back! I need to get on and write it all down while we’re here.’
‘But it’s not…’
‘Lily, please!’
Looking at her mother, she felt her resolve trickling away, as usual. It did seem cruel to bring the trip to such a sudden end. She remembered the consultant’s enthusiasm for their plans, the way he thought this holiday would help Moira. It probably wouldn’t do any harm to stay for a few more days, if nothing else it would give her a chance to shake off this nasty cough and regain her strength.
‘Okay, you win. We won’t go home tomorrow. But I’m not making any promises about the rest of the trip. Let’s see how you feel in a couple of days. It may be best to head back before the weekend.’
Lily was so tired, she could hardly think straight, and she didn’t have the energy to argue with her mother. She couldn’t face the thought of the long drive home right now, but everything would look better once she’d recharged her batteries. The only downside about her mother being confined to bed was that they wouldn’t be able to find a nicer hotel in Keswick. The Campbells had been very kind, but the facilities in this place weren’t up to much.
‘It would be silly not to go to Durham, while we’re here,’ Moira said, reaching across to the bedside table for her notebook and pencil. ‘It’s almost on the way home. We had a weekend there, just after we got married.’
‘Durham is not on the way home, it’s on the other side of the country!’
‘Yes, but the country isn’t very wide up here.’
‘We are not going to Durham.’
‘Suit yourself,’ said Moira, beginning to cough again. Lily grabbed a blanket from the end of the bed and wrapped it around her mother’s shaking shoulders.
‘We’ll talk about it when you’re better,’ she said. ‘And I’m only saying we can stay here for a few more days on the condition that you promise me you won’t go anywhere on your own again. You mustn’t leave this room without me. Understand?’
Moira shrugged. ‘You weren’t here before,’ she muttered.
Lily sighed; she had no right to order her mother around. If she’d been where she should have been and had spent the night in the cramped back bedroom of the guest house, none of this would have happened.
Suddenly, her head was full of Jake again. She saw him sitting on the edge of the bed earlier this morning, the definition of the muscles running across his lightly tanned back. Then he was lying beside her in the hotel bed, his brown eyes inches away from her, his hand running slowly across her stomach and down the side of her thigh.
She shut her eyes and willed herself to focus on something else. Anything else. There was no point thinking about this man, because she was never going to see him again. In the panic of the last couple of hours, it hadn’t occurred to her that she had rushed out of Jake’s hotel room without giving him her number. Or asking for his. Now the realisation hit her and the disappointment and regret were so intense, they were almost a physical ache in the pit of her stomach.
Was it worth going back to the hotel to try and find him? She didn’t even know his room number; she’d been in such a state when she left that she had no idea how many flights of stairs she’d raced down while she desperately waited for her phone to turn on and start loading texts. It occurred to her, for the first time, that he might also be feeling more than a little confused about the whole situation. She had rushed away within two minutes of waking up, and had barely spoken to him, let alone acknowledged that something rather amazing had taken place between them the night before. He might think she was regretting what had happened, or – even worse – that she hadn’t wanted it to happen at all. No, surely not? There was no way that man could think she hadn’t been up for it, or that she hadn’t had a damn good time.
But she couldn’t go back and try to find him, it would be too embarrassing. Anyway, he might not want to see her; for him it probably hadn’t been such a big deal. If he stayed in hotels regularly, she was unlikely to have been the first woman he picked up and lured back to his bedroom. Not that she’d needed much luring. More, slightly wobbly, memories of the previous night were starting to flood back now that her hangover was easing, and she felt herself blushing as she remembered the way she’d behaved. Not to mention some of the things she’d done to – and with – that gorgeous brown-eyed stranger.
‘Are you all right?’ asked Moira. ‘You’ve gone a bit pink.’
‘I’m fine!’ she said, over-brightly, as she stood up from the bed.
It was probably just as well she had no way of contacting Jake, because the memory of their night together – which had, without question, been one of the best nights she’d had in an awfully long time – would always be tainted by her guilt at how irresponsibly she’d behaved.
‘I’m going to find a chemist, to get you some cough medicine and paracetamol,’ she said. ‘I’ll be back in about twenty minutes. I don’t want you to move from this bed, do you hear me? Why don’t you close your eyes and try to get some sleep?’
Moira smiled up at her. ‘I will do. I promise. You’re such a good girl to me, Lily. Such a good daughter.’
No, she thought. I’m really not.
When she went downstairs, Archie Campbell was standing behind the reception desk.
‘Thank you for all your help, with my mother. I really appreciated everything you and your son did for us. You’ve been so kind.’
‘All part of the service.’ He beamed at her.
‘I’m just going to find a chemist. Can you make sure… I mean, if my mother gets up and comes downstairs, would you mind sending her back to bed again? Or at least stopping her from going outside?’
‘Naturally. I will barricade the door, if necessary.’ He smiled but, as Lily turned and walked towards the front door, she noted the sarcasm in his voice. He had a point; it wasn’t his job to look out for Moira, it was hers.