Page 86 of Highland Getaway
I push the door shut, then turn back to her.
‘Are you OK, Sabrina?’ I ask cautiously. ‘It’s just, I’ve never seen you .?.?.’ I’m about to say ‘eat’, but change my mind at the last minute. ‘I’ve never seen youlike thisbefore,’ I say instead.
‘Oh, Rosie,’ she sighs, sticking the fork she’s holding into the cake. ‘Of course you haven’t. I’ve been on a diet since I was in my early twenties. That’s when I started the business. That’s how long I’ve been trying to make a success of my life; to stay in control of it all. And now I don’t know why I even bothered, because I’m going to lose everything I’ve worked for anyway. So now I just think I might as well have eaten the bloody cake when I had the chance. You know? Always eat the cake,’ she adds, offering me the fork. ‘Don’t be me, whatever you do.’
‘If this is about Luna, and what she said earlier,’ I say carefully, crouching down until we’re at eye level, and pushing away the fork she’s holding out to me, ‘you could just, you know, apologise to her, instead of .?.?. well, this.’
I gesture towards the cake, and Sabrina stares down at it miserably.
‘She said she hates me,’ she says, her voice wobbly. ‘I think everyone hates me, Rosie. I probably deserve it, to be honest. But this business has been my entire life, and it’s just so hard to watch it fail that I suppose it was easier to blame Luna than blame myself. And now I’ve lost Luna too, which is awful, because she was a really good assistant. And she was my best friend.’
She sniffs loudly, and I reach over and awkwardly pat her on the arm, feeling a bit like I’m petting a lion who might turn on me at any second.
‘Luna doesn’t hate you,’ I remind her. ‘She took that bit back, remember? She said it was the way you’d been treating her she hated, not you personally. I think maybe if you just tried talking to her? Maybe you could figure something out together?’
I let the suggestion hang in the air for Sabrina to consider. She sniffs again, but doesn’t try to argue, which I take as a good sign.
‘Just have a think about it,’ I suggest. ‘Luna’s still here. Only because the driveway’s blocked so she can’t leave yet, obviously, but still .?.?. you have time to fix this, Sabrina – the thing with Lunaandthe campaign. You can do this.’
I straighten up again, uncomfortable with my new role as motivational speaker and life coach.
‘That’s just it, though,’ says Sabrina quietly. ‘I don’t think Icando it.’
She reaches for the cake again, and I pull it quickly out of reach.
‘Of course you can,’ I say firmly. ‘You’re Sabrina Bates. You’re .?.?.’
I’m about to say ‘terrifying’, but stop myself just in time. ‘You’re really good at what you do,’ I say instead. ‘Anyone can see that. You’re just having a bit of a wobble, that’s all. You’ll be back to your usual, confident self in no time.’
‘But I’m not confident at all, Rosie,’ she replies. ‘I just pretend. And now I’m about to be caught out, because I planned this big, elaborate party for the hotel launch tonight – you know, the one I was telling you all about, with the countdown to midnight?’
I nod, vaguely recalling something about a countdown.
‘I invited all these people,’ she goes on. ‘Mostly from the hotel industry, but some local celebrities, too. Important people, you know? And I’d booked this great band – well, Luna had. They were supposed to be the best ceilidh band in the Highlands, she said. But I’ve just had a message saying all flights into Inverness have been cancelled because of the storm. The rail lines are down, too, apparently. So now none of them can make it, and everything’s ruined.’
Her voice breaks on the last syllable, and I risk another quick pat on the arm as I consider the fact that, for all her bravado, Sabrina’s turned out to be yet another one who’s faking it until they make it. In Sabrina’s case, though, she actuallyhasmade it; she just needs a bit of help remembering that. And I think I know someone who can help with that.
‘Um, I think you might have to forget about the band and the celebrities,’ I tell her, not wanting to add to her distress by telling her about the tree currently blocking the hotel driveway, on top of everything else. ‘I’m not sure it matters, though. No one cares about celebrities, and all of those other people you mentioned, though, Sabrina. They’re not the “important people” you think they are. So I think you should go ahead with the party. It’s just the guest list you might need to think about changing.’
Sabrina listens carefully as I outline my plan to her, and, a few minutes later, I leave the pantry with a fresh list of party-planning tasks on top of my existing villager-mediation duties, and the spark of an idea making my heart beat a little faster.
I might not be leaving the Highlands as the best version of myself, like I was promised, and I might not ever see any of these people again after tonight, but I can at least make sure we all go out with a bang. And if I can help mend some bridges between Hunter and the villagers in the process – and make up for whatever damage I might have caused with my stupid video – then so much the better.
I just might need a little bit of help is all .?.?.
Chapter 35
I find Luna in her room, packing her suitcase, and not looking remotely like the daring, undercover spy Lord Glenmuir accused her of being just a few hours ago.
Still, sheistechnically the reason he’s spent the last few days attempting to terrify me, and I’m hoping she feels just guilty enough about that to help me out with tonight’s launch party.
‘But, I don’t understand,’ Luna says, a few minutes later, once I’ve finished explaining my plan. ‘I don’t work for Sabrina any more. She fired me. I quit. Well, she fired meandI quit, I suppose. I was just about to try and walk to the village to see if any of the trains are running, so I can get out of everyone’s hair.’
‘Oh, they’re not running today,’ I say, remembering what Sabrina told me. ‘The trains are all cancelled because of the storm. And you won’t be able to get to the village, anyway: the road’s blocked by the fallen tree.’
‘But there are people out there clearing it now,’ Luna protests, glancing out of the window. ‘I can see them.’
I quickly flick the curtain shut.
