Loren glanced at his brother with a pleased grin. "Do what, clear the tables?"
"Oh, you know what I mean! All this. The place, the cooking, the breakfasts. For one thing, since when is Arjan such an omelette cook?"
"He's been polishing his skills a lot." Loren finished stacking the empty plates on a tray, set it on another table and returned to swipe off the stained tablecloth. "So you liked yours?"
"Yes," Loriell said and licked his fingers before resorting to the napkin. "In a word, succulent."
"Glad to hear that!" Loren said, smiling. "Now you just wait until we get the place cleared, and then we can finally sit down and talk. Sorry about last night, I don't think I remember a word of what you said."
"No need to apologize, baby brother. I was here, remember, and I saw what a beehive this place was right until closing time! Besides, you can't claim that I'd have been too awake, either." The older brother emptied his cup of tea. "In fact I'm pretty surprised that I was so tired. I'd understand it if I'd been squeezed in a coach for days on end, but traveling on a ship is so leisurely. And yet I went out like a lamp as soon as I got to bed!"
"We've seen it before," Loren said. "First you're on the road for a good while, then you get where you're going and know that this is it, now you can relax. And of course there's also the climbing up here."
Arjan appeared from a kitchen and looked approvingly at Loriell's empty cup and plates. "Ahh, you're finished! How about some more tea? Or would you like to have more toast?"
"Better not," Loriell said with a sigh. "Otherwise I'll have to be really careful not to stumble, in case I go outside today. If I happen to fall down, I'll probably roll down all the way to the beach."
"Oh, it doesn't look like you'll be getting that round any time soon," Arjan assured him. "Anyway, if you don't want anything more, we might finish with this side so we get to go on from last night."
Loren stared at his partner. "Do you claim that you still remember what we talked about?"
"Not much," Arjan admitted. "I was too damn sleepy, I'm afraid."
"Well, that makes three of us!" Loriell said cheerfully. "Because, to be quite honest, I'm not sure that I remember very much, either."
Indeed, they'd tried to sit down for a dinner together after Old Rose had finally closed for the night, but after nodding over their plates for a while they'd decided to just focus on eating and then call it a day. Now the sun was already high, the hotel guests had left for the day, and all three were properly awake once more.
Arjan and Loren began to prepare the restaurant for the lunchtime while Loriell watched them, interested. Both young men were buzzing around, unhurried and yet efficient, and after a while he decided to join in.
"Seriously, I'll feel a lot more comfortable if I don't have to sit in one place," he argued. "Just tell me what to do, order me around, and I'll be happy to help."
"You people born and bred in an inn!" Arjan sighed, shaking his head. "Do you even know how to be in one place?"
"Hey, what's that supposed to mean?" Loren quipped. "Aren't you always telling me what a fantastic model I am, and that if something involves a lot of being in one place! "
"Model?" Loriell looked puzzled.
"Model for artists when they're sketching or painting," Loren specified. "Nude."
"Nude?" his brother echoed. "And, uh, I think you said artists, in plural... Do I want to hear more?"
"Maybe not," Loren said with a chuckle. "Just remember that most of Arjan's and his father's friends are artists, painters and sculptors and so on."
"All right. I guess you know what you're doing." Loriell shrugged, still looking somewhat dubious. "But hey, now that we're alone, why don't you tell me more about this whole venture? So far we've only had to rely on what you've told in your letters, and frankly that's not an awful lot."
"No?" Loren frowned. "I could've sworn that I've told you everything about it!"
"Well, I beg to differ!" his brother said. "You wrote that you'd arrived here, were staying with Arjan's father, and liked the city a lot. Then there was a second letter saying that you were going to stay here a while. And weeks later we hear that you've found this absolutely wonderful house, and Arjan's father has helped you to somehow get things together financially so that you could buy it! Yes, baby brother, by that second letter you were already in possession of the place and quite delirious with how much work there was before the hotel could open its doors."
"Oh," Loren said sheepishly. His brother chuckled.
"Yes, it sounds like a pretty sudden turn of events. And if there have been further letters, I haven't seen them because I've been on my way here. Getting from Triell to Saygorr doesn't happen overnight, as you know."
"Believe me, we do!" Arjan said, then gave the restaurant a critical look. "All right, everything's ready now. Why don't we go to the gazebo for a while now?"
"A good idea," Loren agreed. "I'll go get us something to drink."
Loriell hadn't had time to see the garden yet, so they gave him a little walk around before sitting down inside the gazebo. It was wonderfully cool, and the slight sea breeze wafting through it also drove away most of the insects that danced in the shade of the surrounding bushes.
"What a haven you have here," Loriell said, full of awe. "Tell me, Loren, whatever gave you that crazy and wonderful idea in the first place?"
"It was Old Rose itself." Loren poured cool, transparent lemonade into tall glasses. "We were just walking around here, quite by chance, and I swear it called to me."
"The ghost of a hotel, huh?" Loriell teased.
"I don't know about that, this place has been a private home. I just felt that it wanted to have people inside it once more, and knew how to bring them in."
"Well, you sure are doing that! And I'm so glad that I agreed to make the trip here!"
Loriell sighed, marveling at the sight over the sea. "All right, I've had enough time along the way to curse our parents a few times for being so damn persuasive. Especially when I've been shaken around in an overcrowded coach. But now I understand so much better all those people arriving our inn, cranky and exhausted and short of temper, and I also have many ideas for when I get back home. Things we could maybe do in a different way, and new services that wouldn't be very difficult to add to what we're offering at the moment."
Arjan laughed heartily. "What did I say? You just can't shake the innkeeper instincts, ever!"
The brothers just smiled and toasted with their glasses.
"Anyway," Loren said then, "I'm sorry for not writing more. I guess I was so carried away by what was happening... it simply didn't occur to me that I should tell you a bit more about it all."
"Or maybe you were too exhausted to spend a lot of time writing about stuff that you'd already spent the entire day thinking about?" Arjan suggested.
"That could well be it," Loren admitted. "So, I hope Mum and Dad didn't send you here to drag me home by the ears?"
"Not exactly, though you really can't blame us if we were rather alarmed. First you leave with this young, nice, level-headed young man, then months pass while we keep getting letters from further and further away, and finally we hear that you're in Saygorr, setting up your own hotel! "
"Well, when you put it like that, I must admit that it sounds rather dramatic," Loren mused.
"Especially when we think how damn young you are," the big brother said sternly. "There was quite a lot of worrying, believe me. Mostly we were wondering exactly how deep in debt you'd got yourself, did you really understand all the liabilities and such, did the whole plan have any chance in hell to be viable, let alone profitable. And how you'd survive if the whole thing went bust soon."
"Hey, we're talking about your parents here," Arjan put in. "You can't imagine that they wouldn't worry for you!"
"I'm not imagining," Loren said. "Damn, now I feel so guilty... But I'm glad that you're here now, Loriell. Now we have the opportunity to show you how this is all going! Then when you go home, you can tell them everything."
"I'm counting on you to convince me," Loriell grinned, "and I'm not going to be too easy to convince. After all, I was sent here so that I'd be able to give a first-hand report and look at things as an impartial outsider, never mind that you're my brother. And that's what I'll do, too. Of course I'll have to write home today, to let them know that I've arrived safely and haven't found you sleeping in rags under a boat on the beach, like Laramm suggested."
"Oh, is that what he thought?" Loren grimaced upon hearing their middle brother's name. "Fuck him."
"Damn it, he was just joking!" Arjan snorted, exasperated. "Hey, do you think you could finally forgive him that he caught Geyder's interest and not you? Because if you keep going on like that, I might imagine that you're not happy to have landed here with me."
"It's not that, and you know it!" Loren protested. "But you remember, don't you, that we didn't exactly part as best friends, and –"
"That kind of thing takes two," Arjan grunted. "So why don't you just get over it? It's not like you'd have to deal with him on a daily basis any more."
Loren sighed and slowly rotated the glass in his hand, watching how the liquid inside it swirled.
"I guess you're right," he said reluctantly. "But, Loriell, why don't you tell me a bit about how everybody's doing back home? For instance, my dear brother Laramm?"
"Working like a horse," Loriell said flippantly. "And I guess you also want to know if he's still together with Geyder? Yes, very much so. Incredible, isn't it?"
"Who'd have thought," Arjan said. "I thought it'd burn out pretty quickly."
"So did we all," Loriell admitted. "It hasn't, though, and we all keep hoping that it wouldn't. Or that, if they really fall out at some point, it wouldn't get so messy that Geyder decides to leave. He's one hell of a blacksmith, especially good at shoeing horses. Exactly what we need. Dad would hate to lose him."
Loren shook his head in disbelief. "I still wouldn't believe it if it was anybody else telling me this. Laramm being serious about someone? I always thought he's the luckiest bastard under the sun when he never managed to get anybody pregnant, the way he was wooing all girls around the town!"
"You're not the only one," Loriell said with emphasis. "I guess you never heard Dad give him an earful about his behavior? Not that it ever had much effect, of course. And now he's such a reformed man!
Arjan smirked.
"I might say something, but it's probably too lewd to be said aloud," he murmured under his breath.
"I heard you!" Loren grinned evilly. "And I think I can guess what you're thinking... But, well, what about the others?"
"More or less just like when you left. The inn is doing well, there's always stuff to do to keep the place in good repair and the stables full, Mum keeping all the helpers under control... "
"You're still not married?"
"Not yet," Loriell said with a hint of pride. "We decided to wait until I get home from here."
"Hey, really?" Loren perked up. "Who is she? Do I know her?"
"I think you might remember," his brother said. "Deliane. The goldsmith's daughter."
"Sure I remember!" Loren smiled. "The one who used to wear her hair in one long braid when she still went to school, right?"
"Congratulations!" Arjan put in.
"Thank you – yes, that's her." The older brother beamed. "She's even gone to the girls' school in Oreyon to lean to cook better. Wants to be the head cook one day."
"Oops... I hope there won't be clashes with Mum and sis!"
"I'm sure they'll get along just fine," Loriell said confidently. "Deliane knows that no matter how much she studies, she'll still have a lot to learn from Mum, and learning it all is going to take time."
"Time..." Arjan dug a clock from his pocket and whistled. "Good heavens, Loren, there isn't that much time left until the lunchtime! And I still haven't typed today's menus, either!"
He jumped on his feet and Loren patted his backside.
"You go and start working on them, me and Loriell will bring this stuff indoors. Will be there in a moment."
The two brothers got up as well and picked up the empty jug and glasses from the table.
"My fault, sorry," Loriell said. "Shouldn't have distracted you, especially as I had breakfast so late."
"There's no panic," the younger man assured him. "We did already clean the place, it's just that typing the menus takes a moment and Arjan can't do it until Sami comes and tells him what he'll be cooking for the day. Timon only comes around this time, too, so we're by no means horribly late."
"Oh, good to hear. And remember, now that I'm here, I'm only happy to be used as free workforce." The big brother winked. "That way I'll also get a better idea of how things are going. Besides, I'm taking up a paying customer's room, so I really need to do something by way of compensation. Are you really sure I shouldn't pay for that room?"
"We won't even hear of it," Loren stated firmly. "By all means, you can help us around, but you're not paying and that's final... oh my!"
They'd stepped out from the shelter of rose bushes, and Loren was staring at the cart that had been parked outside the door to the kitchen. The horse harnessed in front of it was nodding off, grateful for a break after the long climb, and a young man was busy hauling inside a fish that looked nearly as long as he was tall.
Loren turned to his brother and grinned. "Looks like I know at least one thing that'll be on the menu today!"
"What the hell is that?" asked Loriell, wide-eyed. "I've never seen a fish that size!"
"A rosebelly tuna," Loren explained as he hurried towards the kitchen door as well. "Absolutely delicious, just you wait until you get to taste Samiell's tuna steak. Come, let's go give them a hand. Those must go into the ice room as quickly as possible."
"Right, lead the way!" Loriell squared his shoulders as he walked after his younger brother up the sandy path. "I don't know if I can do anything about a monster like that, but I can always try."
When they got closer to the cart, they peeked into it and Loriell nearly jumped backwards as he saw the enormous, blue-black claws reaching out from a small barrel.
"What's that, giant crawfish?"
"Lobster," Loren corrected, looking delighted. "Oh yes, they sure could use an extra pair of hands getting those indoors. Come!"
Loriell followed him, casting a deeply suspicious glance at the cart over his shoulder.
