Effie was a bit worried that Liv had left without saying goodbye because she couldn’t find her anywhere, but a quick check in her bedroom revealed that her bag was still there. Seeing it lying on the chair gave her an idea. A few minutes later she snuck back in and slid the envelope into the bag and made sure it was right at the bottom so that Liv wouldn’t find it until she was safely back in Blackburn and unpacking. Effie couldn’t stop the sigh that escaped. She was going to miss Liv so much.
She made her way downstairs feeling quite pleased with herself but a little sad that Liv wasn’t about and would be leaving soon. Dolly trundled up the hallway with Jock’O on her lap already standing up and wagging his tail at the sight of Effie. ‘Morning,’ she said to Dolly as she gave Jock’O a fuss.
‘I’ve invited Winnie for Christmas so I need to let Fraser know there’ll be an extra one for dinner.’
‘Hmm good idea.’ Effie couldn’t focus on Christmas Day just yet.
‘What’s up?’ asked Dolly.
‘I can’t find Liv but her things are still here so she’s not left. At least I don’t think she has.’
‘The mechanic was coming early to fix the car. She’s likely overseeing the repairs.’
‘Ooh you could be right. I’ll go and see.’
‘Hang on.’ Dolly jerked the scooter forward, which almost made Jock’O topple off and he lay down quickly. ‘You’re going to really miss Liv, aren’t you?’ said Dolly.
‘You know sometimes you just click with a person. Like Ant and Dec, Tess and Claudia, Craig and Charlie from The Proclaimers – and that’s how I feel about Liv.’
Dolly smiled. ‘You know you could always go and visit her.’
Effie came over all sweaty. Her skin prickled and her chest felt heavy. ‘I don’t know about that.’
‘There’s always the train. I’ve a friend in Blackpool so we could travel together.’ Dolly reached for Effie’s hand. ‘Don’t go back into your shell when Liv leaves. Build on this.’ She nodded and oddly Effie found she was nodding along. ‘It was always your dream to travel. And this might be a start. Baby steps.’
She did feel braver when Liv was around. ‘Baby steps,’ she repeated. ‘I guess Blackburn isn’t Burkina Faso.’
Dolly gave her an odd look. ‘It’s a lot closer than that. Will you think about it?’
‘I will,’ said Effie, trying hard to ignore the slightly faint feeling that was coming over her. Dolly squeezed her hand and with that the front door opened and was flung so hard it banged into the wall.
‘Where is he?’ yelled an irate Lizzie.
Dolly and Effie went to see what she was shouting about. Callum came in behind her. ‘Lizzie, what are you doing here?’
She glanced over her shoulder. ‘Callum, you’re like a bad smell. Please go away. This does not concern you.’
‘There’s no need to be rude,’ said Callum.
‘Talking of bad smells, you’ve not changed your perfume,’ said Dolly scooting into the entrance hall. ‘Why are you here, Lizzie?’
‘Your grandson is playing games. My money is as good as anyone’s!’
An out-of-breath Liv came running into the hotel and waved that she needed a moment to get her breath. ‘What did I miss?’ she asked.
‘Nothing,’ said Dolly. ‘Lizzie is just leaving.’
‘No, I’m not,’ said Lizzie before filling her lungs and yelling, ‘Fraser!’ Everyone recoiled.
‘Is there a problem?’ asked Robbie, putting on his hat as he came inside and shut the door.
‘Good grief, it’s PC Plod,’ said Lizzie.
‘Can you arrest her for calling you that?’ asked Effie.
Robbie shook his head.
‘Shame,’ said Effie.
The thud of footsteps announced Fraser’s arrival. He took in the crowded entrance.
‘You,’ said Lizzie stabbing a finger in his chest. ‘You can’t refuse an offer. That’s against the law in Scotland.’
‘I can and I did refuse your offer of a job. I was very clear about that,’ said Fraser.
Lizzie looked exasperated. ‘Not that. The offer to buy this place.’
‘That was you?’ asked Effie.
Lizzie preened herself. ‘It’s what the big corporates do. They buy up the competition.’
‘Just lately, women speak but I don’t understand them,’ said Fraser, looking around for some reassurance.
‘I’ll keep it simple for… all of you,’ said Lizzie. ‘I put in a pre-emptive offer on the hotel. But now Fraser’s trying to worm out of it, saying it’s not going up for sale but I will get my lawyer onto it.’
Fraser held his palms up in surrender. ‘I don’t know shit about an offer on this place.’
‘Liar,’ snapped Lizzie.
‘He’s not a liar,’ said Effie. ‘We didn’t know.’
‘Yes, well you not knowing something isn’t unusual.’ Lizzie rolled her eyes at Effie.
‘Hey, let’s keep things civil,’ said Robbie, stepping forward in Effie’s defence.
‘Are you all going to play dumb?’ Lizzie scanned the room of blank faces.
‘Still no idea what you’re on about,’ said Fraser.
‘Fine.’ Lizzie threw up her arms. ‘You’ll be hearing from my solicitor. See if a day in court makes you remember.’ She made for the door.
‘Actually I did remember something,’ said Effie and all eyes turned on her, Lizzie’s being the last set, and they looked at her with derision.
‘Was it to do with fairies or witches this time, Effie?’ asked Lizzie.
‘One witch in particular although I didn’t know that at the time.’
‘Ooh is it Janet?’ asked Liv.
‘No, I was trying to be sarcastic,’ whispered Effie. ‘It’s Lizzie.’
‘Ohhh,’ said Liv. ‘Carry on.’ And she indicated that people were waiting. Dolly gave her a nod of encouragement.
‘You see, we found a box in a cupboard and I started to go through it. There were some old paid invoices but there was other stuff including letters from the solicitor after Dad’s death.’ She took a moment to keep her composure. ‘I remember signing a few things but I wasn’t in a good place and couldn’t look at them, so I shoved it all in the cupboard – until now that is. I read things I should have read a long time ago.’
‘Like the Janet and John books?’ asked Lizzie, chortling at her own joke.
‘I don’t know about those but I do know who owns the hotel,’ said Effie.
‘Fraser is the owner,’ said Lizzie although there was doubt on her face.
‘No,’ said Fraser. ‘I never said I owned it. I said I could use it.’
‘Who owns it then?’ Lizzie was getting more irate by the second.
‘My father does,’ said Fraser.
‘Actually,’ said Effie holding up her hand to get their attention. ‘He does, but I do too.’
Everyone looked surprised. ‘Effie, are you sure?’ asked Dolly looking concerned.
‘Yep. Dad left it jointly to Uncle Rory and me. Uncle Rory can run it and repurpose it with my approval but if it’s to be sold then both of us have to agree. And I don’t.’
Lizzie was going a strange colour. ‘I’m speaking to my solicitor about this.’
‘You should,’ said Effie. ‘I spoke to mine and he was lovely. I wish I’d done it years ago.’
Lizzie let out a frustrated squeal and marched out of the hotel, bumping Callum as she went.
‘Woo-hoo!’ yelled Liv starting to clap, and the others joined in. Effie felt her cheeks pink up. Liv wrapped her in a hug. ‘You complete blooming star! You stood up to Lizzie.’
Callum stepped forward, looking apprehensive. ‘Fraser, can I have a word?’
‘I’ve nothing to say to you.’ Fraser glared at Callum.
Liv leaned into Fraser’s shoulder. She would have whispered in his ear but he was too tall for that. His shoulder was as close as she could get. ‘Maybe hear him out?’
‘I’ll handle this, thank you,’ said Fraser to Liv and she backed off. He turned to Callum. ‘You’d better get after your girlfriend.’
‘She’s not my g—’ but Callum didn’t get to finish the sentence before Fraser was pointing forcefully at the door.
‘Get oot!’ Fraser’s voice was getting louder.
Callum held up his hands. ‘Fraser, I’m sorry about everything. I dunny want to make things worse. You know where I am if you…’ Fraser’s frown was deepening. Callum shrugged. ‘You know where I am.’ With that he turned and walked out.
Fraser looked visibly relieved as he turned to Effie. ‘Is there anything else I should know?’ he asked her.
‘Sorry, I was going to tell you but it was all a bit crazy this morning with the solicitor and the estate agent and then Lizzie turned up.’
‘That’s okay. What are your plans for this old place?’ Fraser looked apprehensive.
‘I don’t know, but I want you to go ahead with the restaurant and maybe if that goes well we could do some refurbishment and reopen the hotel.’
‘Can you afford to do that?’ asked Fraser.
‘Yeah. Dad left a lot of investments. No wonder the solicitor kept writing to me. Whoops.’
‘But you didn’t put it on the market?’ asked Liv looking confused.
‘No that was Uncle Rory,’ said Effie. ‘Apparently he told the estate agent that I would sign whatever he told me to. I guess he thought he could treat me like an idiot too.’ She didn’t like how that made her feel.
‘You’re not an idiot,’ said Liv giving her arm a squeeze.
‘Very astute businesswoman I’d say,’ added Robbie. ‘Well done.’ Everyone’s words made her feel better, but Robbie’s meant the most.
‘Thanks,’ said Effie.
‘Actually I came over because I wanted to show you something,’ said Robbie, guiding her into the library and leaving the others chatting in the entrance. Robbie put a video into the old player. ‘Have a seat.’ He pointed to the window seat.
Effie wasn’t sure what was going on and wondered if maybe she should be doing something else rather than sitting down to watch a film. ‘Is it going to take long because—’ Effie was interrupted by her father’s voice. She turned to watch the TV screen. There was her dad. She felt like time had stopped. ‘Dad?’ A much younger version of her father was looking at her from the television. His hair was longer than she remembered and he was holding a microphone.
‘It was my mam and dad’s wedding anniversary,’ said Robbie leaning towards her and whispering.
‘Uh-huh.’ Effie couldn’t take her eyes off the screen.
Her dad smiled into the wobbly video camera. ‘And this one is for my little girl: Effie,’ he said. A sob caught in her throat. She watched as a tiny version of herself, probably only about three or four years old, ran to her daddy who scooped her up into his arms and kissed her cheek. The music started and her dad started to sing ‘Wherever I Lay My Hat That’s My Home’. Effie couldn’t look away. It was like a portal to the past. To hear his voice and see his face meant so much to her.
The song ended and he passed the microphone to Robbie’s mother who started talking, but Effie was fixed on the figure of her dad carrying her off to one side. She noticed how her chubby fingers were gripping him tightly and she could almost feel how good that sensation was. That feeling of love and safety. And then he was gone and it was just Robbie’s mam talking about cake. Robbie stopped the video.
‘Robbie,’ said Effie. ‘That’s amazing.’ She tried to wipe away the tears but there were a lot of them. Robbie passed her a tissue, which she gratefully took. ‘How did you find this?’
‘My mam mentioned about him singing at their anniversary do years ago so I had a dig around and found this. There’s a place in Glasgow where they can copy videos onto files, so we’ll do that and then you can listen to your dad anywhere and anytime you want to.’
‘Robbie, I don’t know what to say.’
‘You don’t need to say anything. It’s just nice to be able to help people. Well, you especially. You know I think you’re great, don’t you?’
Effie blew her nose. She didn’t feel great. She felt all puffy-eyed and mixed up. She was happy to see her dad but sad too for what she’d lost. She was lucky to have a friend like Robbie. ‘You’re great too,’ she said.
Robbie looked at the floor, seeming a lot less like his confident policeman self. ‘Do you think maybe sometime in the future we could be great together?’
It took Effie by surprise but the notion made her a little giddy. ‘I think maybe we could.’