"Good morning, girls! Isn't it a splendid, splendid day!"
Rachel Horwood left her daily bag of lemons on the floor. Her lemonade was a celebrated afternoon courtesy for the Bed & Breakfast guests. Every morning she came at five thirty, prepared breakfast and went to the market. There she bought the supplies for the following day, which were delivered to the house. All but the lemons - those she liked to bring personally. Then, she got the juice ready, put it in the ground floor fridge and helped Pat, and now also Kathy, with the cleaning. By noon they all went home and the house was left entirely at the guests' care.
"Hasn't this ever been a problem?" had asked Kathy one of her first days collaborating there. "The fact that there's no one here for so many hours, I mean."
"No," was Mrs. Horwood's categorical answer. "The guests have to pay in advance, plus a deposit. Besides, they are all honorable people, our visitors."
"But what if they need something or something breaks down?"
"They know this is not a hotel. What do you do if you rent an apartment and something goes wrong in the middle of the night? You wait till the following day and then you call your landlord. It's the same here. And they have Pat's phone number and mine visibly framed next to the reception desk - where we never leave any money - in case they really, really need to call us, which they never do."
"Or rarely," qualified Pat.
"But then they all have a copy of the front door key, or else it is perpetually open?" insisted Kathy.
"They do, of course," replied the woman, whom Kathy figured was in her late fifties or early sixties. "Don't worry, dear. If Pat or I had sensed any danger or suffered any inconvenience, we would have told Mrs. Sloan or be telling you now, would we not?"
"Absolutely. Nevertheless," slipped Pat, "knowing that I can be contacted at any hour… I never seem to be able to fully relax."
"Don't get me wrong," she quickly added. "I'm not complaining or anything…"
Kathy had tried not to sound like a condescending boss when she'd sincerely expressed her gratitude for having been given an insight into the workings of the business, and especially the things that could be improved on.
Five days later, she was glad to see that they seemed to be as comfortable with her as she with them. Nevertheless, at lunch with Jesse, she brought up the matter of those emergency hours Pat and Mrs. Horwood were not really being paid for, which was still going around in her head.