Secrets to a Happy Ending

Chapter 4

The following morning Lydia awoke to the sound of the birds singing, she stretched and looked around the room.

She got out of bed and headed over towards the closed curtains and she threw them open. The sunlight streamed into the room filling every dark corner previously hidden by the curtains, ahead of her was a door that led out to the balcony, and she opened it and walked out.

The air outside felt warm and fresh. Lydia looked at her watch. It was 6.45am she looked around and then glanced ahead of her. Amazed by what she saw she staggered a little and moved back towards the bed and sat down.

The view was amazing; she could see miles of rolling countryside, and in the distance magnificent mountain tops, she saw stretches of woodland and windy roads leading up the mountain sides.

She grabbed her camera, and stepped out onto the balcony and started taking pictures of the view. She heard a door close below her and peered over the balcony to see who it was. She heard a man speaking in Bulgarian, it appeared to be a local bread man who was heading back to his van.

Then Lydia looked to her left and saw the bottom of the village, it was very picturesque with traditional Bulgarian style bungalows, with white picket fences outside. The gardens from what she could see were full of flowers of different varieties roses, carnations, and forget me not's.

Lydia went into the room and got dressed; she put her iPad, tape recorder and notebook into her bag and headed down for breakfast. Downstairs at the dining area there was already some workmen sitting there eating breakfast, she walked past and smiled at them.

"Good Morning." She said,

One of the workmen stopped eating and looked up smiling back at Lydia.

"Dobro Utro" Replied the workmen.

"Oh you're Bulgarian?"

"Yes, yes we are Bulgarian. My name is Ivan and this is Filip and this is Dimitri."

All three workmen stood up to greet Lydia.

"Oh please no, go on with your breakfast, don't let me disturb you." Said Lydia.

The three men sat back down and continued to eat their breakfast. Lydia walked over to a table in the corner of the room and sat down, she began to look at the menu to see what was on offer. Gladys came out from the kitchen with a tray carrying a pot of tea and some mugs, there was toast and different jams which she placed on the table in front of the workmen. She said something to them in Bulgarian, which Lydia did not understand but they were all laughing. Gladys then walked over to Lydia's table and greeted her with a warm smile.

"Good Morning Lydia, did you sleep well?"

"I slept incredibly well and the bed is extremely comfortable. I went outside this morning. You weren't wrong when you talked about the view."

"Isn't it something, it was that view that helped me decide to move over here in the first place."

"How long have you been here Gladys?"

Gladys pulled up a chair and sat down by Lydia.

"Let me see, it's been just over three years now. I will never forget the first day I came to the village, I was so captivated by the white picket fences outside the houses, and beautiful gardens. And after three years, even more has happened, we have a beautiful square now with shops, a restaurant it's a really nice place to visit."

"Yes I did happen to notice some of the houses, whilst I was on the balcony this morning, they are very picturesque I have to say, not looking as run down as some of the villages I passed."