Part 18

Archie carefully placed the laden breakfast tray down on the bedside table, making sure that he did nothing to waken his sleeping wife. There was a slight rattle from a teacup and he froze. Lexie turned restlessly in her sleep and then settled again. Archie softly crept round the end of the bed and gently slid back in. He propped his head up with a pillow and turned to gaze at her. There was never the time to just stop and stare at her during the day and she would have soon made some joke about where his mind was heading if he had.

He continued to contemplate her sleeping face. He never got bored like this just watching Lexie sleep. He knew all her little mannerisms, such as when she rolled over and always ruffled her hair and when she was dreaming her face retold the story and her nose twitched. There was nothing better than lying next to Lexie and seeing her wake up first thing in the morning. She would start with a long stretch followed by a gentle little smile as she came to and realised where she was. When she finally opened her eyes and looked at him they always had a delicious twinkle in them that he found hard to resist.

For much of his life Archie had been lonely, though he hadn't always realised it - not until Lexie had made an appearance. She just seemed to make everything in life so much clearer and simpler. Somewhere in his life, he reflected, he must have done something very good to be rewarded with someone like her.

Archie snuggled down closer to Lexie. She turned over to face him and he could see she was now waking. She gave him that smile that made him feel like the luckiest man in the world.

"What are you smirking at?" she said as she caught his expression.

"You."

"Right," said Lexie as she gave him a playful punch, "You know I find it quite disconcerting having my husband smirk at me when I wake up in the morning." She giggled and ruffled Archie's hair.

"Oh, well, in that case Mrs Macdonald, I don't suppose you want this lovely breakfast in bed that I just made you," Archie teased as he grabbed a piece of toast and waved it above Lexie's head. He reached up, tore a bit off and started to nibble it.

Lexie had to think quickly for a solution. She propped herself up in the bed and leaned forward enticingly to plant a kiss on his chest (the nearest thing she could reach). "Come here, my man".

He leaned down to give her a more passionate kiss on the mouth and momentarily dropped his guard. She made a grab for the piece of toast and slumped back against the pillows, daintily picking at the piece of toast in aristocratic fashion.

She looked coyly up at Archie. "Thank you Archie. You know I think I should make up with you more often if I'm to be rewarded with service like this."

Archie had to admit defeat on this occasion and, sitting himself next to her on the bed, pulled out a crumpled piece of paper from his pocket.

"What's that Arch?"

"It's another letter from Lizzie. It arrived this morning."

"Ooh, what's she got to say? Come on, read it out."

"Well there's not a lot really but I'll read it to you."

Archie flattened out the piece of paper in front of him and read aloud.

"How's my little brother and sister-in-law.

Just a quick note to tell you everything is working out well here in beautiful France. What on earth made you settle for cold wet Northumbria when you could have joined us down here? Anyway Martha has settled well into school so I've got more time to spend on Le Plat du Jour. It's all looking good – we had to turn away customers for the first time last week so I guess word is spreading. You were right about keeping the menu simple and concentrating on the freshest produce. All that advice you gave me when we were in Nepal is certainly paying off.

Talking of Nepal, I never really appreciated it until recently, what a tough decision you had to make back then. It was easy for me. I knew Martha's father wanted to take her off my hands for a while but tearing you away from your new wife was probably a bit cruel on my part. Sorry Lex. Thanks for letting me borrow him. We had a whale of a time and settled a good few things that should have been sorted a long time ago.

The main point of this letter is to thank you for the dress you sent over for Martha's birthday. She just adores it and I can't get her out of it.

I'm sure it is you, Lexie, that chose it – I know something of my brother's dress sense. She has sent you a little picture of herself in it. You'd both love her at the moment. She insists on showing off her French and keeps saying things to me that she knows I don't understand yet. I don't know if she is swearing at me or telling me the time of day.

Have to go now. Am off to check out one of our local growers who says his asparagus is the finest to be got. We'll see. As I've said before do try and give us a visit soon.

All our love,

Lizzie and Martha"

"Aagh, that's nice," said Lexie, "Can I have a look at the picture?"

Archie passed her Martha's picture which she perused carefully.

"You know this is really very good Arch. I think she's going to be quite artistic when she grows up. That's definitely one for the fridge." She handed the paper back to Archie who looked at it and then carefully laid it on the dressing table. They both munched on their toast thoughtfully.

Lexie was the first to break the silence.

"Do you ever wonder what would have happened if you hadn't gone to Nepal with Lizzie?"

Archie thought for a while.

"Well I suppose a lot of things would have been different. I might never have made that decision to break away from Glenbogle, you wouldn't have suffered because of my leaving, Lizzie and I would never have become close again and we would never have found ourselves running a catering business in Northumbria."

"So can't you see Archie? There have been so many positive things coming out of that trip. Yes, I know I found things very difficult for a while but if you try and overlook that, can't you see that it was all for the good in the end. Look at the relationship you have with Lizzie now. She writes to you all the time and wants to let you into her life. She would never have dreamt of having you to stay in the old days. And come on now, you have to admit you are much happier now you have broken away from Glenbogle."

Archie had to agree that she had a point. Life for them both was certainly more positive these days.

He began to whistle to himself as they both got themselves ready to face the rest of the morning.

"If we put a new window on the wall next to the kitchen and then open up the space on the right then we could knock a door through over there so that we could get better access to the house."

"I see where you're coming from Arch, but …" Lexie leaned on Archie's shoulder, twiddling her pencil restlessly between her fingers as she screwed her eyes up and tried to imagine what the new office might look like.

" … if we did that wouldn't it spoil the overall look of the barn?"

They continued discussing their plans for the conversion of the barn. They were planning to create an office next to the newly installed industrial kitchen but they were finding it difficult to visualise. As one of them came up with an idea the other would find reasons against it and vice versa. Their thoughts were suddenly interrupted by….

"Boo!!!"

Lexie and Archie both jumped almost a foot in the air.

"Sorry. Couldn't resist it when I saw you so deep in thought. You both looked like you were on another planet," laughed Matt, who had crept up behind them.

"Hi Matt, you're just the man we're after," said Archie, "Have you got any good ideas for us?"

"We just seem to be at a complete loss with this," added Lexie. "Obviously we want it to look welcoming but still quite professional. And ideally we want to have an office area and a reception area where we can offer people a coffee and let them relax and chat about what they want."

"The trouble is I don't think we've got enough space in there for that," commented Archie. "We've been thinking we might have to use part of the house as well but we don't really want to."

"Hmm, well let me take a look." Matt peered across at the part of the barn earmarked for the conversion, "Just give me a few minutes. I might have a solution for you."

Archie and Lexie watched as Matt inspected the building. He looked at the walls and stared at the roof for a long time before getting out a tape measure and jotting down some figures on his notepad. Eventually he wandered back to the couple with a smile on his face.

"You're right about it being a tight squeeze to get everything into that space but instead of going sideways how about going up?"

"Up. What do you mean?" asked Archie.

"Well the building isn't all that wide but take another look at it. It does have height – most barns do. There's nothing to stop you building another floor in there – maybe a sort of gallery arrangement. It would give you so much more space and keep the office area upstairs while the ground floor could have some soft seating for entertaining clients. If you put a window in the roof there would be plenty of light. I've looked at the walls and I'm pretty sure that it's viable. Shouldn't be any need for planning permission, just building regulations, so we could get on with it pretty quickly."

He paused and looked at them. "Well, what do you think? Is that anything like you had in mind?"

Archie and Lexie glanced at each other then back at Matt's enthusiastic face.

Lexie grinned. "Wow, Matt. That's amazing, absolutely perfect, isn't it Arch?"

"Sure is. Matt, you're a genius." Said Archie stepping forward to clap Matt on the back.

"Actually, I thought of it the other week when I was over here but I needed to check it out first to make sure it could work."

"Well I think it's fabulous. When can we start?" Lexie enthused.

"How about I do a few calculations while I'm here and take a few measurements. Then I should be able to give you a rough estimate and maybe sketch out a few of the details for you," suggested Matt.

"Great," said Archie. "I'll give you a hand if you like."

For the next half an hour or so Archie helped Matt measure up and then they headed back into the house to find Lexie.

Matt showed them all his calculations and they were pleasantly surprised at his estimate of the final bill. Because most of his work was done in that area he would be able to put them in touch with a reliable local builder and oversee most of the project himself.

Archie and Matt shook hands over the deal. Archie looked across at Lexie.

"I know it's a bit early but how about a drink to celebrate? Have we got anything for lunch Lex?"

"Sorry Arch. You were supposed to go shopping, remember?"

"Oh well, we'll have to go somewhere else then. You'll join us won't you Matt?"

"Of course Archie. Shall we pop down to the pub? I happen to know that they've got steak and kidney pie on special today and it's my favourite.

Jill can't stand it so I don't often get the chance."

Archie looked over at Lexie. "Is that all right Lex?"

"Well if you two don't mind sorting things out between yourselves, I wouldn't mind popping into town for an hour or so. I got a phone call from the shop yesterday to say those curtains are ready for picking up and while I'm there I could see if I can match them up with some cushions.

Archie knew that she had been planning to go later in the week but understood her preferring to go into town rather than risk the possibility of meeting up with Dan.

"Oh, I'm sure we'll be able to manage, won't we Matt?

"Of course, but we will miss you Lexie?" Matt agreed. Archie and Matt headed for the door as Lexie went to grab her handbag.