‘So have you,’ says Grazia. ‘Same time next year?’
Rose breaks protocol and hugs them both.
She waves and waves until the taxi is gone and allows herself a mental pat on the back.
She’s done it: run a successful island retreat.
Dan, India, Keera, Grazia and Dianne can all change their lives from things they learned in Villa Artemis. Even Bobbi has a new world view.
Bernard, not so much.
Rose thinks she’ll take a walk in her little Greek garden before she goes into the villa to do some housekeeping.
Epilogue
‘Did we really get through this many towels?’
Rose has sent Adriana and Christos out for a walk, while she and Beata are left in the villa tackling the mound of housekeeping left behind after the week.
‘How come towels weigh so much?’ asks Rose, hefting another folded pile into the big laundry hampers they send out to be washed.
She’s taken the sheets off all the guests’ beds, removed the towels from the bathrooms, and is counting it all off Beata’s housekeeping master list.
‘It’s these white towels – they sing to people. “Use me!”’ says Beata. ‘Also, women’s work is never done,’ she jokes, walking past with the trolley of fresh laundry.
‘True,’ mutters Rose.
She’s counted it all out perfectly: two hampers, one for towels and one for sheets, duvet covers and pillowcases.
Normally, she and Adriana would have worked together on this last day of their first retreat. But Adriana needs a rest.
‘You do too,’ her little sister had protested. ‘You’ve been working with the guests all week.’
But Rose had insisted. ‘That’s all emotional stuff,’ Rose says, ‘mental work. Ripping sheets off beds is physical and it’ll be a welcome change.’
She’s done three bedrooms and has just gone into the private part of the house to get some water when she hears the villa phone buzzing and races to intercept it.
‘Hello, Villa Artemis,’ Rose says, aware that she’s out of breath.
‘I’m enquiring about the retreat,’ says a woman’s voice. ‘I’d totally missed the posts on socials about it. I love Ms Talisman. Do you think there’s going to be another one?’
Rose blinks. Wonderful but awkward. Not so cool if guests think she’s there always and answers the phone herself.
It’s much more niche for them to imagine that Rose Talisman drifts in for special weeks but that she never answers the phone.
Or pulls sheets from beds.
‘There might be,’ says Rose, hurriedly trying to channel Grazia’s accent. ‘Can you leaf me your contact details and we vill be back to you.’
After a few minutes, she races up to Beata.
‘Tentative booking!’ she says. ‘Another retreat! I said we have another retreat this month but it was full. Total lie.’
Beata laughs.
‘The woman said if there was another one, she and her mother would be thrilled. They’ll pay anything.’
‘Fantastic!’ says Beata.
