‘What a stroke of luck, our boiler breaking,’ said Effie.
‘Is it?’
‘Ye-ah. Because now we get to work togetherandstay here together.’ Effie seemed so pleased at the prospect.
‘I guess,’ said Liv, sounding a little more sceptical. She would have far rather have been on her way home. ‘Is Robbie staying too?’ She looked about but there was no sign of him.
‘He’s probably gone to rescue some other poor souls,’ said Effie wistfully. ‘Putting himself in danger as he battles against the storm to seek out the lost.’
Dolly tutted. ‘His mam rang to say she’d made a casserole and not to get snowed in here so he headed home on foot.’
‘See, brave explorer,’ said Effie.
‘It’s only a couple of miles to Invergarry,’ said Dolly with a tut.
‘Still, in this weather,’ said Liv, hoping Robbie was all right.
‘It’s barely a flindrikin now,’ said Dolly turning her scooter around.
‘A what?’ asked Liv as Dolly headed off.
‘We Scots have four hundred and twenty-one words for snow. Someone counted,’ said Effie.
‘And I will probably experience them all before I get out of here.’
‘I could teach you what they all mean,’ said Effie clapping her hands together.
‘Come on, let’s sort the rooms out first,’ said Liv and Effie followed her upstairs.
The first room they came to was the one with the leaky ceiling and a selection of buckets on the floor and an increasingly wet patch where they had overflowed. ‘Let’s call this one a backup,’ said Liv matching the room key to the room. The next two were full of stuff and one had a broken bed but Liv figured they could move all the boxes into the room with the broken bed, which would make for one decent room. Then there was the first of two rooms with deer heads. Not her cup of tea but otherwise fine. They checked out dead Bambi room one and that seemed all in order and just needed a clean and bedding. They walked into the second one and there was a large mounted stag’s head right above the bed.
‘This is a pretty room,’ said Effie.
‘If you don’t mind being watched by him.’ She pointed at the largest head. ‘And hisdeerestfriends while you sleep, then this is quite nice,’ said Liv.
‘It’s not real,’ said Effie, pointing at the head.
Liv moved a little closer. ‘It looks real to me.’
Effie stared at the deer. ‘It’s definitely dead.’
‘I figured that was the case.’ Liv went to explore. ‘Maybe we could give this room to Aaron and Kacey, sell it as the horny room.’ Effie was giving her a puzzled look. ‘Because of the horns,’ she explained miming them coming out of her own head.
‘But they’re not horns; they’re antlers.’
‘I know but there’s nothing funny about antlers.’ Liv mulled over the options she had with the antler and horn puns. ‘The feeling horny room or they’ve got the horn?’ She opened a built-in wardrobe and got the shock of her life. Like something from aScooby-Doocartoon, bats took flight straight towards her.
‘Argh!’
‘Don’t scare them!’ snapped Effie.
‘Scarethem? What about me?’ asked Liv who was now crouching on the floor checking none were caught in her hair as the bats flapped above her.
The bedroom door flew open and in marched Fraser. ‘Heavens!’ He came in and shut the door behind him just in time as one of the bats was swooping in that direction.
‘She did it,’ said Effie, pointing an accusatory finger in Liv’s direction. ‘She woke them up.’
‘Not on purpose. Who keeps bats in a wardrobe?’
