a long measured look and then shrugged. ‘Okay. Yes. This is what I would do. But would they be as good as you? Would they practically run the place when I’m not here?’
Emma’s heart skipped a beat. ‘Are you planning on going somewhere?’
‘Maybe. This place is doing well. Makes me think I might like to open another one.’
Terrific. Was everyone moving onto something except her? ‘Where?’
‘New York.’
Huh. If only she’d actually made the move to trying theatre. She’d have been in with a shot of getting a job to pay rent while going for auditions.
‘I guess I’m asking what you want more,’ Rudy said. ‘Your name in lights? Or, maybe, your name above this door?’
Emma started shuffling the pile of party requests. He wanted her to run this place for him while he scouted out and set up a bar in New York? ‘I want my name in lights, Rudy. You’ve known this from day one.’ Her heart felt heavy because, okay, day one had been three years ago and she hadn’t been able to make it happen.
Rudy looked at her shrewdly and then got up and headed for the door before pausing and saying, ‘You don’t have to answer now but think about it will you?’
Left alone in Rudy’s office once more, Emma didn’t know what to think. Could she really manage this place for Rudy? Could she really give up chasing The Dream in favour of being surrounded by people who were pursuing that very same dream? Every night, could she watch happily as one by one they started their new adventures and made it in the industry, or would it make her bitter?
Not much of an adventure for her, she thought and immediately felt awful because sweet, sweet Rudy was offering her more options than she’d given herself for the last three years.
With a huge sigh she pulled up her emails hoping to distract herself.
She was young and single with talent.
When did she get to start her adventure?
Idly she clicked on a new email from Kate:
To: WritingHerOscarAcceptanceSpeech
From: Kate Somersby
Subject: Season’s Greetings
Attachment: Invite
Emma, Hi!
Beyond excited to show you the mock-up of the invitation we’ll be sending out.
Can you do me a massive favour and give me your honest opinion? We’ve been working on these for so long I’ve got analysis paralysis!
Oh, can you pay particular attention to the last business and give me your thoughts?
Intrigued, Emma clicked on the attachment and was hopelessly enchanted when an old-fashioned cream-coloured linen envelope, whizzed across her screen and came to a stop, looking like something straight out of a Jane Austen novel. It had her name and address written on it in flowing script, like it had been written with fountain pen and sent by messenger to end up on a silver tray, waiting to be sliced open with a beautifully engraved letter opener.
A second later and it was turning itself over and opening up right in front of her eyes.
The flowing script in the middle read:
This Christmas you are cordially invited to the grand opening of The Little Clock House on the Green…
Oh, wow. Emma squinted past the cursive script. Was that the actual Clock House in the background? It looked so stately, so fabulously and so quintessentially English, that she felt an unexpected pang of home-sickness.
Which was completely ridiculous, since LA was her home, not England.
The envelope closed up again and divided into four triangles with a number and a ‘play’ symbol in the centre of each one. Charmed she clicked on the top triangle of the invitation and as it ‘unsealed’ itself to open up, she read:
Beauty @ The Clock House
Day Spa
Manager: Kate Somersby.
Smiling, Emma clicked on the second leaf and with a smile on her face watched it magically open up to read:
Hair @ The Clock House
Hair Salon
Manager: Juliet Brown
She clicked on the third:
Hive @ The Clock House
Rentable Co-Working space
Manager: Daniel Westlake
And then she clicked on the last one:
Cocktails & Chai @ The Clock House
Tearoom/Bar
Manager: Emma Danes
Emma stared at the screen in shock.
Absurd excitement shot through her, exploding like fireworks. Reaching out she quickly clicked back onto the email to make sure she wasn’t imagining things.
How about it, Emma?
Fancy coming to Whispers Wood and setting up Cocktails & Chai?
p.s. I can help out with airfare.
p.p.s. On days off you could finally get to visit where Jane Austen lived.
Ooh, that was sneaky.
Kate knew she’d wanted to do that for as long as she could remember.
p.p.p.s. And as Jane Austen once famously said … If adventures will not befall a young lady in her own village, she must seek them abroad.
Emma
Emma adjusted her grey wool beanie to a more attractive angle and wrapped her dusky-pink pashmina more securely around her shoulders as she wrenched open the front door of Wren Cottage.
She was late.
So
