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appeared, took one look at Ruby’s face, and tugged her into the office and closed the door.
    “Tell me what I can do to help.”
    She dropped into her seat behind the desk, her head in her hands as she groaned.
    “I honestly don’t know. We’ve never lost the electricity here before. They’ve been working on the power lines down in the village over the last couple of days; I guess someone must have knocked out a cable.” Ruby hated the sound of fear in her own voice. “I don’t have a clue what to do, Ford.”
    He dropped on his haunches next to her chair.
    “Yes, you do. You’re the manager, and if I know you, you’re damn good at it.” He rubbed her back as he spoke. “Let’s prioritize. It’s going to go dark pretty soon, and it’s bloody cold. We need heat, and we need light.”
    “The wedding, Ford. Emma and Niall’s wedding…”
    “The wedding will happen.”
    “How? We have no caterers, and no entertainment,” she said, her hands pressed against her cheeks. “And no flowers! And no bloody lights!” Much as she knew that it was futile to panic, she couldn’t keep her voice steady.
    “Think, Rubes. Get a pen and paper. We need to make a list.”
    Within minutes, they had a list of all of the staff on site, all of the guests they needed to account for, and a prioritized to-do list to make the wedding happen.
    She gathered the staff, but just as she was about to set them to task, there was a knock on the office door. Ford slipped out for a moment, and when he reappeared around the door he cleared his throat.
    “Rubes, you need to come out here for a sec.”
    She frowned, but he just opened the door wide and nodded for her to head back into reception. She was greeted by a small crowd, Emma and Niall’s friends and family, all gathered and ready to pitch in and help.
    For a few seconds, Ruby said nothing at all, because she couldn’t speak around the lump in her throat. And then she looked at Ford, and his small nod of encouragement was enough to galvanize her. She needed to rally her now numerous troops into action.
    Every fireplace was to be laid and lit. Ruby said a silent thank-you that they had enough candles around the place to illuminate a small cruise ship and sent a group off to gather them up. Then Ford marshaled several of the male staff and guests, and together they took responsibility for building and lighting every fire in the place. All of the bedrooms would be warm, and the numerous fireplaces downstairs would do the trick for the public rooms.
    Emma’s grandmothers worked together, taking charge of flowers. The hotel’s winter flower arrangements were pulled apart to make a bouquet for Emma, and what was left was used for buttonholes for the groomsmen.
    Ruby dispatched several of the waiters to brave the outdoors to drag up the industrial-size barbecue from the garden store rooms and instructed them to collect all of the summer lanterns and candle jars whilst they were down there. Over the last few summers they’d hosted some amazing summer weddings, the gardens ablaze with fairy lights and hand painted jam jar candles hanging from the branches of the trees. She might not be able to give Emma a balmy summer evening or fairy lights, but she could give her candlelight. Lots and lots of it.
    In the kitchen, Emma’s cousins and friends worked alongside the scant kitchen staff to prepare plates of sandwiches and bowls of salad to accompany the barbecued burgers, and raided cupboards to find cookies and niceties to arrange on plates. It was an undeniably eclectic mix, but utterly charming because of the love taken to put it together. The pre-ordered white three-tiered wedding cake took pride of place in the center of the table. One thing they thankfully weren’t short on was champagne, and Ford filled upturned barrels with snow to keep them chilled outside the back door.
    “We still haven’t sorted entertainment,” Ruby fretted. Everything else had proved surmountable, but she