B&B OF LOVE AND FUN-7
Hi everyone. Thank you for all your reviews. Hope you are all feeling well. There is a saying and if there isn't, there should be a saying- when everything falls apart around you, write fanfiction. With no special need to elaborate, I will just say that it's very adequate for my current situation. Nevertheless, I hope, that you will enjoy this chapter...
There was no doubt, that Charles took Elsie's request seriously and he focused totally on searching the right place for B&B, which wasn't an easy job. The area was not famous for places like that and therefore, there weren't many buildings which would be suitable.
Charles knew exactly what they needed and he even wrote a specific plan for the building, in points, stating, what it should have. Elsie was truly amazed, when one night, in their cottage, when she was still hustling and bustling downstairs, to finish all the house work, she found Charles in the quiet corner of the cottage, writing a list, extremely excited, about finally having something to do.
As always, Charles was the one who acted with full engagement, so he transferred from the mood of doing completely nothing and being miserable about his current life, to the mode, when he was so involved in the project, that he literally couldn't stop talking about anything else..
Elsie could never admit that, but she felt a little overwhelmed with it and she would gladly talk about something else from time to time, but she knew, that she couldn't stop Charles's enthusiasm, especially now, when he finally got up of that chair, which was his place of misery..
When he noticed Elsie, he immediately asked her to come closer...
"Look Elsie, I made a list in points...This is everything that a place should have, so it would be perfect for us..."
"Charlie I'm impressed and very happy, that you got so involved...Oh my! That many points?"
"Well yes, we have to think about everything...This should be a big scale enterprise..."
"Four bathrooms? Six, seven bedrooms? Two kitchens? Charlie...Why do we need that many?"
"Well, we need two bathrooms for our guests, at least two, since we want four guest rooms."
"You mean like one bathroom to each guest room?"
"No Elsie...That would be too much and I doubt, that we could find a place like that...I meant two bathrooms for guests, one for Mrs Patmore and Katie and one for us..."
"I daresay, that even finding a place with four bathrooms will be a challenge Charlie.."
"It might be, but I was thinking, that if it won't have enough bathrooms, we can remake some space, to an additional bathroom, that is if there will be some additional space..."
"Exactly...We need to think rationally Charlie...Not emotionally..."
"That is precisely what I'm thinking like Elsie..."
"That is a great plan Charlie, but why do we need two kitchen? From what I heard from Mrs Patmore, her niece is not a great cook, so I'm guessing one kitchen will be enough for Mrs Patmore.."
"I thought, that the second one would be for us Elsie..In case we would like to have dinner alone, to rest from the B&B problems and Mrs Patmore..."
"Nice try Charlie...Like that's ever going to happen...I hardly think, that we will be able to take a rest from the B&B problems..."
"Well, we don't know that yet...But just in case, if you would like to cook a delicious meal for your husband.."-Charles grinned from joy, looking at Elsie, with a funny blink in his eye. His face was so adorable, that Elsie couldn't stop from kissing him...
"Oh my sweet, obnoxious man...You promised, that I will never ever have to cook, once we will live under one roof with Mrs Patmore.."
"Did I really? I would like to take that back now..."
"Oh no Mr Carson..No taking back...A promise is a promise..."
"But Elsie..What if we will want to be alone for a while?"
"We still can use the cottage...His Lordship promised that to us, remember?"
"That has slipped my mind somehow...All right, I can erase two kitchens from the plan.."
"I'm glad to hear it...That will be much easier for us, to find something sensible...I'm exhausted, I'm going to bed...Are you joining me my love?"
"In a moment Elsie...I still need to go through the plan, point by point, to make sure, that I have not forgotten anything..."
"All right sweetie, but don't be too long. I don't like to fall asleep without you..."
"I promise that I won't Elsie...Good night my sweet flower..."
"Good night my brave organizer of our future life..."
Few days later...
Just as the three of them established, they started to visit the buildings which were for sale together, all three of them...Mrs Patmore was now totally calm about Daisy managing the kitchen all by herself and she decided to join Elsie and Charles for B&B searching...They already looked through few buildings and so far, the scenario of it was always the same...
Charles was holding his precious piece of paper-his B&B plan, checking (point by point), if it was suitable for the standard, that he wished to achieve...
Mrs Patmore was very displeased about such specific expectations and she thought, that it was highly unreal, to think about such high standards. In her opinion, it would be better to try to buy anything, that would be possible to remake to their needs...
Elsie's head was spinning around, trying to adjust to two different points of view, from her husband and her friend, slowly realizing, that it's going to be extremely difficult, if not impossible, to reconcile those points of view...
Moreover, Mrs Patmore was not an easy person to please and even though she was more willing than Charles, to lower the standards of expectations, she simply wasn't going to just buy anything... Some of her remarks were difficult to process...
"You call this a kitchen? There isn't a proper stove, that I could work with..."
"You mean there are only two rooms in here? The add said about a spacious place for living...It would be recommended, if you didn't waste people's time, we could have a look at another property at this time.."
"I'm certainly not going to use the outside bathroom...I'm not sure if you are aware of that Sir, but we are living in the 20's. So it would be nice, if you could adjust your house to modern standards..."
"You think that this is a reasonable price for such place? I seriously think, that you should check the local market, before putting a price like that...
Mrs Patmore might have been a client from hell, but certainly Charles was not an easygoing one too..
"You see Mr Laddish, we are going for something really big here. We want a place, that Downton has never heard of, that's why we have such high standards...Yes, I realize that it's a lot, but we are not going to lower our expectations..."
"Yes, I know how the local market looks like, believe me, we know it very well by now, but this is a crucial decision for our lives, we can't just settle for anything..."
"No Mr Bennett. I do not wish to change the profile of our company to a local tea shop. B&B is so much more than a tea shop, it's a place that suppose to attract customers, wanting them to come back next year..."
And so on and on...Elsie, unlike herself, kept very quiet during those meetings, but after everyone of them, she felt like her head was getting bigger and bigger and she had that growing urge, to disappear, to run away, as fast as she could, asking herself, why on earth did she have that idea in the first place?
Evening, the Carson's cottage...
"Elsie, please remind me, why did we want to run a B&B with Mrs Patmore? Because I can tell you one thing, she is nothing but trouble...She is turning every owner against us...It's impossible to find anything, with her attitude..."
"Well Charlie, it's not like you are so easygoing yourself...Your plan seems unrealistic, in the light of what we seen recently..."
"Elsie...I just want this place to be perfect and I'm anxious to find it already..."
"And we will find it Charlie..I promise, when the right time comes...Just relax and try to think about compromising a bit..."
"That is the word which does not exist in my dictionary..."
"Unfortunately, I'm aware of that...Being your wife for some time and your work colleague for over thirty years..."
"You were always more than a colleague Elsie and you know that..."
"I do know, as were you...Always..."-She kissed a tip of his nose..."We will find it Charlie, but in the meantime, you and Mrs Patmore need to chill out a bit, otherwise we will have a very difficult time ahead..."
"I will do my best Elsie, but I can't promise anything...
Few days later...
Elsie was coming back from the dentist. She visited the new dentist- Mr Fowler, for the very first time.. Old doctor Hamlish retired and gave his practice to his distant cousin, who opened the cabinet on the edge of the village...Elsie, happy about the visit being behind her, was enjoying a little bit of silence and peace, which was something that she was definitely lacking these days...
Being a mediator between Charles and Beryl, was not something that she could recommend to anyone, it took most of her life energy...
Suddenly, when she was walking back towards the village, a building caught her attention..It was standing a little bit outside the main road, but it was very interesting architecturally..Elsie suddenly had this strange, inner feeling, that sometimes was haunting her, as a part of her Gaelic heritage and she felt, that she needed to see it from a closer perspective...
Her heart was beating rapidly, especially when she saw the sign "for sale" in the front lawn...Not knowing anything about it yet, she instinctively felt, that she just found a place of their future and she knew, that she needed to announce it to Charles and Beryl immediately...
That's all for today my lovelies...Poor Elsie, being trapped between two very demanding people, who are close to her heart, but difficult to bear with...Beryl, being the customer from nightmares and Charles with his "Plan"...Obstacles are in their way, but everything seems to be heading in the right direction... Hope you had fun reading it...Have a wonderful, summer weekend!