Jenna felt sick with relief. ‘Are you sure?’ she asked, gazing steadily at her mum, even as she asked the question of everyone.
Reassuring voices came straight back at her.
‘It’s no trouble at all.’
‘We’d love to have them.’
‘They’re such nice children.’
‘Besides,’ Rosie added, ‘Sam needs you, and he’s done enough forusover the last couple of years. Least we can do is chip in to help him out now.’
‘What about Seb?’ Stella asked quietly. ‘Is he still not working in the bar?’
Jenna shrugged. ‘Sam didn’t mention him, and he wasn’t working last night.’
Mac shook his head. ‘It’s not right, is it? The North Star’s his responsibility, not Sam’s. It’s time he started to come out of his shell and back into the real world. I mean, I know he’s grieving, and I sympathise with that, but Sam’s his son. He needs help, and Seb needs to join the living again.’ He considered the matter a moment then turned to Alison. ‘How would you feel if I offered to do a few shifts there, love? Would you mind?’
Everyone stared at him.
‘Oh,’ Jenna said happily, ‘I think that would really help Sam out!’
‘And hopefully,’ Stella added, ‘you can have more contact with Seb. Help him see things in a new light. I think it’s a great idea.’
‘What do you think, Alison?’ Mac asked anxiously. ‘I don’t want to abandon you. It will only be till he’s solved his staffing problem.’
‘Of course I don’t mind. I think it’s a great idea,’ Alison told him, nudging him. ‘You do day shifts, Jenna can do the nights, and the rest of us will take care of the children.’
‘That’s that sorted then,’ Kendra said happily. ‘Poor Sam. He’s had a right time of it these past few years, hasn’t he?’
‘And you couldn’t get a nicer man either,’ Rosie said. She gave Jenna a sly look. ‘As I’m sure you’ve noticed.’
Jenna barely heard her. She was so swamped with relief that she hadn’t had an argument with her mum and that the rest of them hadn’t turned on her that she felt quite drained.
‘Mummy, do you want to paddle with us?’
She glanced up, smiling as the twins hurried over to her. In T-shirts and shorts, with sunhats perched on their heads, they looked happier and healthier than she’d seen them look in weeks.
‘Do you know,’ she said cheerfully, ‘I think I do.’
Jumping up, she grabbed their hands, and together they ran laughing and shrieking into the cold North Sea.
11
Both Jenna and Mac settled in at the pub fairly easily. Mac needed a bit more guidance when it came to pulling pints, but Jenna had remembered her time behind the student bar very well, and Sam was impressed.
‘I still can’t believe you’re both here,’ he told Mac one afternoon. ‘It was so kind of you and Jenna to help me. I honestly don’t know what I’d have done without you.’
‘It’s no trouble,’ Mac assured him with a grin. ‘It’s got me out of sorting those shepherd’s huts anyway, so I’m perfectly happy.’
‘I heard they’d arrived. I was in town getting Mrs Lambert’s prescription and some shopping for the Wilmots, but everyone was talking about your big delivery when I got back.’
Weren’t they just! Everyone in the village knew that Mac had purchased three shepherd’s huts and planned to hire them out to people wanting to reconnect with nature and with each other.
The builders and plumbers were currently hard at work on the utility room in the annexe at Watersmeet, making a shower and toilet block for guests with access from the field.
‘They look smashing,’ Mac explained to him as they got the pub ready for opening. ‘Timber framed with corrugated iron cladding. Two are blue and one’s green.’
‘And they’re completely off grid?’
