Madeleine woke and immediately looked through the window and out over the fields to where the summer house stood.
She thought of Emily Ennis’s words, the ones she’d read the night before and wiped the tears from her eyes. Emily had been so young, so naive and so desperate to be loved. She’d fallen for a man who her family disapproved of, a man beneath her station, a man so anxious to be recognised as a hero that he went to war at just eighteen years old to become a soldier, yet he was still a man that her father didn’t deem worthy.
Madeleine needed to know what had happened to Eddie. The next page of the diary had shown pictures, drawings and had clippings from newspapers folded into envelopes.
The telephone rang and she answered. ‘Hi, Jack, is all okay?’
‘Mrs Frost,’ Jack’s voice sounded nervous. ‘You seem to have a delivery.’
‘Jack, you sound anxious. What is it?’
‘It’s a bed, Mrs Frost. In fact, it’s quite a large, Victorian four-poster bed. Do you know anything about it?’
Madeleine’s mind flashed back to her father and the conversation they’d had about the new bed that he’d found. Following his death, she’d totally forgotten that it would be arriving and, with all that had happened, room four, where it was intended to go, still hadn’t been finished. She placed the phone down in its holder and went into Poppy’s room.
‘Come on, sleepy girl, we’ve got to get up. Let’s go see Nomsa.’
Jack was right. The bed was indeed one of the largest she’d ever seen. It was currently standing on the back of a truck, covered in bubble wrap and cardboard.
‘Where do you want it, miss?’ the lorry driver asked as he lowered the tailgate.
Madeleine looked at Jack. ‘Do you have any idea what my father would have done?’
‘Of course, Mrs Frost. Would you like me to take care of it for you?’ Jack said as he immediately jumped into action. He not only began organising the deliveryman, but also the staff within the hall. Within an hour, the bed had been offloaded and placed in the Rose Room where it was to be kept until room four was ready.
Madeleine went into the office and searched through her father’s computer for phone numbers. There was a file on the desktop labelled ‘refurbishment’. Opening it, she found the most comprehensive filing system she’d ever seen. Inside the main folder, there were sub folders: one for each room, and in each of these were colour boards and pictures of wallpapers, furniture, curtains and carpets. Each room had its own supplier list and priority lists for which jobs came first and what had to be added to each room.
Madeleine noticed that her father had been laying new water pipes between the rooms that were not yet connected, new heating systems and fire detection equipment. It was only now that she realised how admirable her father had been. All of this was for the future of the hotel and what’s more, it was foresight into his future. It certainly wasn’t the actions of a man who hadn’t planned to be here, a man who would take his own life.
‘Look at this, Jack. Do you know about any of this?’ She showed him the file, the colour boards and the plans.
‘Of course, Mrs Frost, let me show you.’ He went into a room next to her father’s office and returned with a full-sized colour board. It was adorned with pieces of material, pictures of settees, beds and phone numbers. Each phone number had an arrow that pointed to a different part of the board; this indicated which supplier was responsible for which job.
‘Thank you, Jack. I can see now why Father relied on you so much. You’re a star. Oh, and while you’re at it, if you’re dating my sister, you’d probably better start calling me Madeleine.’
Madeleine smiled as Jack turned away and blushed.
‘Yes, Mrs Frost… er, Madeleine.’
Her father really had relied on him and now her sister trusted him too and she not only approved of Jess’s choice, but envied them both.