“Well, if you promise, Mr Grant, that it will be a sunny day tomorrow we won’t complain. Actually, I won’t complain if it rains all week because I can be lazy,” said John.

“You are the limit. Tomorrow, you will walk twice as far to make up for today.”

They laughed and John and Helen got on with their breakfast. Then they went upstairs. They laid on the bed, Helen read the history of the village and surrounding. John watched sports on the TV. When it was lunchtime they went down and sat at their favourite table.

“Even when it rains it still looks lovely. It is so relaxing sitting her and watching the rains come down,”

“I agree with you there, Helen. I think we buy the hotel and stay here forever. You feel like being in another world. Look at the beautiful trees, their leaves slowly start to colour. I also, like many others, never sat down and really looked around to notice how beautiful nature really is. We’ll come here more often.”

“Will we, John? Oh, that would be lovely.”

The next morning, as promised by Mr Grant, the sun was shining. Helen and John went up the valley on the road because the paths were still too muddy and slippery. They walked the opposite direction as the day before and came to a little village. The innkeeper told them over their lunch that they could walk further up the valley and then come back with the local bus service at 5 o’clock. They were highly delighted about the advice and soon set of. The valley started to narrow and the road began to lead slowly up the hill. Half way up they came to a small village with a pub where they had some drinks. Outside it looked like the end of the world. The hills were all around the village and they could not longer look further down the valley. After another fifteen minutes the bus came and they got on. The bus didn’t go straight down the road. It branched off several time and went through villages hidden between the hills. By the time John and Helen came back they were so amazed by what they all saw. They quickly showered and changed for dinner.

“John, I can’t believe what a day we had. It really was an experience. I would never have thought we would have such a lovely time.”

“I agree with you and as I said before we will come here more often. Whenever we get fed up with the life in town we pack our bags.”

Helen quietly looked at him. She could see John was bothered underneath it all but he could never talk about problems easily. She remembered, when she tried to bring up the subject, he never answered. They both enjoined their stay so much and got closer together again. ‘Maybe if she left it alone he would come round when he is ready,’ Helen thought.

They had sunshine for the rest of the week and took advantage to explore the countryside every day. Soon Saturday came and they had to go back.

“Thank you, Mr Grant, for all your attention to make our stay a real pleasure and you’ll never know what you and this hotel had done for us. We’ll be back as often as we can.”

“Thank you for your compliment. I am so glad you enjoyed your stay with us and we will look forward to seeing you again,” said Mr Grant.

On the way back home John pulled over and stopped the car at a lay-by.

“Helen, I don’t want to go home before I said this. I am really sorry for what happened with that girl and me. I don’t think there is any excuse but I promise you it will never happened again. This week staying in that hotel really put my head right. All I can say is sorry, but these words are not enough to express my feeling.”

“John, it was a lovely week and we found each other again. Thank you for talking to me about it.”

                                                               THE END