‘Awesome. I can’t wait to see them.’
With perfect timing, we passed the lane where Autumn and Dane lived just as they appeared, so we paused and waited for them to join us. I remembered Beatrice Eccles living in the furthest of the three cottages and wondered what it looked like inside now that it was free from all the Beatrix Potter memorabilia.
Even though the quiz wouldn’t start for another hour, it was already busy in the pub. The warmth from the real fire hugged me like an old friend as I slipped off my coat and scarf.
‘We’ve got some big news,’ Autumn announced, ‘so the drinks are on us.’
I smiled as Rosie glanced down at Autumn’s hand, presumably seeking out an engagement ring, but there wasn’t one, so either that wasn’t the news or there’d been a proposal with ring-shopping to follow.
Rosie and I grabbed a table and were soon joined by Autumn and Dane with four champagne flutes and an ice bucket containing a bottle of prosecco. The pair of them couldn’t stop smiling as they poured and passed round the drinks. Beside me, Rosie looked fit to burst in anticipation of their news.
‘We’ve secured a six-book publishing deal for Dane’s books,’ Autumn announced, her eyes sparkling. ‘Dane’s words, my illustrations, first book to be out for Christmas next year.’
‘Oh, wow, that’s amazing!’ Rosie cried. ‘Congratulations.’
I added my congratulations as we clinked our glasses together and took a sip of the bubbles.
‘Was that what the video call with your agent was about?’ Rosie asked.
‘Yes,’ Dane said. ‘We thought it was going to be an update on her pitches to publishers but it was actually to tell us there’d been a bidding war and she wanted to check we agreed with her on the best deal.’
‘I burst into tears!’ Autumn said. ‘It was so unexpected. We were geared up to hear a list of rejections although, looking back, she’d probably have put that in an email rather than a video call.’
‘What sort of books are they?’ I asked.
‘Picture books featuring an animal mountain rescue team, inspired by Dane’s real-life rescues. There was a risk that a publisher might want Dane’s stories with their own illustrator’s pictures but our agent, Lena, loved the partnership of a real-life couple and thought publishers would too, which thankfully they did.’
At my request, Autumn showed me some examples of the illustrations on her phone as well as some of the verses Dane had written. The pair of them were extremely talented.
‘I’m so impressed,’ I told them. ‘Georgia knows lots of authors, some successful and some who are really struggling, and I’ve heard all sorts of stories from her about how difficult it can be to get a publishing deal.’
‘We’ve been very lucky,’ Dane said. ‘You need to get the right story on the right person’s desk at the right time and that’s a lot of stars to align.’
‘What about the books you wrote?’ Rosie asked Autumn.
‘You write too?’ I asked, my eyes wide. ‘Also children’s books?’
‘Yes, featuring the fairies and woodland animals who live in Derwentside Dell.’
My breath caught. Derwentside Dell? How magical did that sound?
‘I don’t know if you’ve explored out the back of the hall yet,’ Rosie said, ‘but there’s an avenue of willow trees by the lakeside. That’s the inspiration.’
Between the three of them, they told me how Autumn used to be an illustrator for a greetings cards company but had lost her creative sparkle. She and Rosie were long-term penpals but had never actually met until Rosie invited her to stay, suggesting there’d be no better place to recover her mojo than walking in the footsteps of Beatrix Potter. Autumn fell in love with Willowdale and with Dane and renewed her passion for drawing.
‘Lena loved both series,’ Autumn said, ‘but we decided it would be best to lead with Dane’s as we both had an involvement in that. Once we’ve signed the contract, she’ll go back out with my series and some standalone books of Dane’s.’
I loved how collaborative the process had been. Even though Rosie hadn’t written the words or drawn any of the illustrations, she’d been instrumental in it all coming together from the invite for Autumn to stay through to the suggestion she add fairies into her tales. I was used to working on my own and I functioned effectively that way but there was something so special about working with likeminded people whose questions and suggestions could spark moments of brilliance.
Listening to Rosie, Autumn and Dane right now took me back to the excitement I’d felt working with Flynn. He was a talented builder and joiner who’d been working on new-build houses when I met him but, as the years passed, he found the work repetitive and lacking in challenge. He’d become increasingly interested in the old buildings I worked on and was eager for some hands-on experience to develop his skills. I had a word with Billy, the building contractor on one of my projects, and he offered Flynn some unpaid work experience in exchange for training him. With my support, Flynn dropped some hours on his regular job and the risk paid off. He showed such a passion for restoration as well as proving himself a quick and skilled learner that he was taken on full-time the moment Billy had a position and he quickly worked his way up to the number two in the business. Billy and Flynn recommended me to their clients and I returned the favour.
When Billy retired, Flynn bought the business and his first major change was taking me on as his partner, offering a fuller service to clients. I taught Flynn a lot but I also learned so much from him. I got such a buzz from working alongside someone as passionate about restoration as me, tossing around ideas, debating differences of opinion and working together to deliver quality projects. I’d missed that so much when our partnership dissolved. There’d been a few occasions when I’d felt a buzz since then by working with a particularly knowledgeable client or engaging building contractor, but those moments were short-lived and not nearly as exciting as they’d been with Flynn. Everything had been better working with him, but I’d blown it. I’d always been the fiery one and that fire had taken hold and burned everything around it.
Realising I’d zoned out for a moment, I focused back on what Autumn and Dane were saying about what would happen next in the process. It all sounded very exciting.
‘I’ll definitely want copies for my great-niece,’ I said. ‘She’ll be four when the first one comes out.’
Thanking me for the support, Autumn apologised for hogging the conversation and asked me how I was settling into Willowdale Hall. I was waxing lyrical about how it was better than I’d ever dreamed when the door opened and Mark entered the pub. There was still half an hour before the quiz so presumably he and Georgia had come early for a drink. But it wasn’t Georgia he was with.
