‘No, that’s fine. But I do want to give you something before I get back to work.’ She waved him towards her living quarters and invited him inside.
Jamie glanced at the kitchenette. ‘It’s quite nice back here.’
Alice nipped to her bedroom and pulled a white envelope out of a top drawer. ‘It does the trick.’ She met him by the wood burner, her favourite spot in the B&B.
‘What’s this?’ he asked, taking the envelope.
‘Money for you.’
‘Whoa!’ He quickly handed it back. ‘I’m not taking your money, Angel.’
‘It’s not from me. It’s from Mabel. She had it stashed with her will and other important documents. Strict instructions for me to give this to you on your release.’
He peered inside, flicking through the notes. ‘Bloody hell, there’s about five hundred quid here.’
‘Yeah, it’s so you can replace your clothes she gave to charity.’
His face was filled with amusement. ‘She gave my clothes away?’
Alice thought it best to be honest. ‘It was after you were sent away. She had a moment where anger took control, so she gathered your things and, well . . . Erm, you do have a couple of boxes of your other stuff in the storage room. She felt bad afterwards. Anyway, she wanted you to have that.’
He was staring at the notes. ‘I hadn’t expected her to leave me anything. I know she hated me for so long.’
Alice reached for his hand. ‘She never hated you.’
‘Both Shannon and I weren’t good to her. I caused trouble, and Shannon was, well, Shannon. I never know which word fits her best.’
Alice had quite a few to describe her, but she remained silent.
Jamie raised the envelope. ‘I’ll take this to my room. Let you get on with your day.’
‘I won’t be too long, then I’ll come find you.’
‘You won’t need to look far. I’ll be the one finishing off your Christmas decorations.’
‘Oh, I don’t expect you to do that. I can sort it later. It takes so long, doesn’t it?’
Jamie shrugged. ‘First time I’ve helped.’
‘Really?’
His head dipped a touch, then he made his way back out to the foyer.
Alice went to say something but froze on seeing her mum’s beady blue eyes glaring at her from the other side of the reception desk. ‘Mum!’
‘Hello, Lizzie,’ said Jamie politely — not that it mattered. Lizzie’s glare remained firmly in place.
‘A word,’ she said flatly to Alice.
‘Not now, Mum.’ Alice gestured to the lunch customers starting to enter the dining room.
‘Kitchen,’ said Lizzie through gritted teeth.
Alice watched Jamie head over to the stepladder as she walked away with her mum.
Lizzie huffed, ignoring Demi who glanced up from the stove to see what was going on. ‘Have you lost your mind?’ she whispered urgently to her daughter. ‘Were you even going to let me know?’
‘I was coming to tell you after lunch.’
