“Answer the question. Are you a historian?”
“No, I’m not a-”
“Correct. You’re not a historian. You go around correcting people as if you know everything about the Middle Ages. You don’t know anything.”
“But that’s not true.”
“See, there you go again, defying authority. You need to learn when to keep your mouth shut, young lady. Now I’ve spoken to Cleo and she’s given me the authority to pay you in lieu of giving notice. Go change out of that costume and then go home.”
“But I don’t want to go home. I like working here.”
“You should have thought of that before you started bad mouthing the guidebook.”
“But-”
“This conversation is over, Natalie. We’re done here.”
Natalie opened her mouth and then closed it. In the hours that followed she thought of a dozen great lines she could have said but in the moment all she could manage was, “Fine.”
She walked out of the office and closed the door behind her. Fired from her job. Unemployed because she couldn’t keep her mouth shut.
She headed into the staff room and changed back into her normal clothes.
She would miss the place. Sure, she hadn’t really made any friends working there but the site itself was beautiful and getting to work somewhere with so much history was hard to beat.
She drove home, trying not to be angry It was just so unfair. The countryside rolled away but she barely saw it. A month’s pay in lieu of notice. How long would that last?
She was going to have to start looking for work straight away. And get the book finished, stop procrastinating. Prove the MacGregors weren’t as bad as they’d been portrayed through history.
She got home an hour later, parking on the street, the drive taken up by the cars of her housemates. So, they were all home for once. She didn’t think to wonder why.
Unlocking the door, she heard laughter and conversation, but it stopped as soon as she called out, “I’m back.” She leaned down, picking the mail up off the doormat.
“Natalie,” Karen said, sticking her head out from the dining room. “Can we have a word?”
“Can we do it later. I’m having a very bad day.”
“It’s kind of important, yeah? Come on through.”
She walked down the hall and into the dining room, feeling a growing sense of dread.
The others were sitting around the table. None of them were smiling. “We’ve been talking,” Karen said, motioning to an empty chair. “And we think it might be for the best if you moved out.”
“What? Why?” Natalie began to wonder if this was a nightmare. Nothing this bad could happen to a person in one day.
Winnie took over. “You don’t fit in, Natalie. We thought you’d come out clubbing with us and stuff, but you just sit in your room not talking to anyone. Last night you really spoiled our buzz.”
“But you know I’ve been working on my book.”
“See,” Karen pointed at her. “That’s it right there. You’ve been writing that book of yours forever when you could have been having fun with us. You’re only young once.”
“I’m twenty-five.”
“Exactly. You should be partying, getting laid, going wild.”
“What if I don’t want to?”
“Then maybe find somewhere more suitable. We’ve rung the landlord and told him. We thought a week to clear your stuff out would be more than enough time.”
