He held the door open for her. “You don’t mind stopping? Your entire journey up north has been disrupted.”
“I don’t mind.” Part of her was relieved. The further up north they’d driven, the more her stress levels had risen.
But she’d been granted a reprieve, until tomorrow at least. She was happy about that.
They stepped through the doors into a foyer warmed by a blazing log fire. A large Christmas tree sparkled in one corner.
“That’s a good start,” Will said and smiled at the woman who approached. “We don’t have a reservation, but we were hoping for dinner and a couple of rooms?”
“Dinner I can do—I have one more table if you don’t mind sitting down in half an hour. But I only have one room left and it’s up in the eaves. Restricted headroom, although you should be able to stand up in the centre of the room.” She eyed Will’s height. “Maybe. Just one bed, but it’s a big bed and there’s also a very comfy armchair.”
Just one bed? Becky frowned. It sounded like a bad romcom.
“You don’t have a second room?”
“No.” The woman glanced briefly at a couple who had walked in behind Will and Becky. “And in fact we won’t have that one for long, so—”
“We’ll take it, thanks.” Will handed over his credit card in exchange for a key, which he handed to Becky. “You go up to the room and I’ll unload the car.”
“We’ll do it together, that way you won’t have to make multiple journeys.”
He didn’t argue with her, probably because he knew better than to do so, and they managed to grab everything and staggered back across the now icy car park without mishap.
Then they negotiated the challenges of an old winding staircase that grew narrower as they reached the top of the hotel.
Becky opened the door and laughed.
“She wasn’t kidding about the ceiling height. It’s definitely a mind-your-head situation, Dr. Patterson. You might want to crawl in on all fours.”
He followed her in, ducking his head to avoid the low beams. “This building is sixteenth century. Were people shorter then?”
“No idea, but this was probably the maid’s room.” She pushed her suitcase into a corner and deposited her coat on top. “You can have the bed. I’ll sleep in the chair.”
“I’ll sleep in the chair. I can sleep anywhere. One of the benefits of a medical training.” He hung up his coat and opened his suitcase. “We have twenty minutes before dinner. Do you want to shower? There probably won’t be time for both of us to use it.”
“Of course there will. I’m not Rosie. I don’t need an hour in the bathroom and then another hour to dry my hair. I’ll be out in five minutes.” She grabbed a few things from her suitcase and headed into the en suite bathroom. True to her word, she emerged in under five minutes wearing one of the luxurious dressing gowns provided by the hotel.
Will was on the phone. “No, we’re fine. We’ll see how theweather is in the morning and send you a message. We should be with you by lunchtime so there will still be plenty of time before the party.” He listened for a moment and then smiled. “She’s fine. Yes, they had two spare rooms. Lucky for us. Anyway I need to go because we have the last available dinner reservation and we don’t want to lose the table, because we’re both starving. See you tomorrow.” He put his phone down on the bed.
She tightened the belt on her robe. “You told your mother we have two rooms?”
“Yes. It avoids speculation.”
Becky opened her suitcase. “She doesn’t think we can share a room without jumping on each other?”
“She has an active imagination, and she thinks I spend too much time at work. She likes to point out that I have a job, and a home, and that the only thing missing from my life is romance.”
“Yeah, I get that, but not with me. I mean, I’m virtually family. That would be a bit gross, right?”
He hesitated briefly and then smiled. “Totally gross. Have you finished in the bathroom?”
“Yes, I’ve—”
“You have five minutes to get dressed.” He disappeared into the bathroom and a moment later she heard the sound of the shower running.
She stared at the door and frowned, wondering why that exchange had seemed odd.
He was probably just embarrassed. Or even appalled at the thought of his mother pairing the two of them off.
