Chapter 5 #3
“These look amazing.” She reached out and took a scone. It was still warm from the oven and when she sliced it in half the texture was soft and fluffy.
In front of her was a small bowl of thick clotted cream, and another of homemade strawberry jam.
She tried to remember what her mother had told her.
Cream, then jam? Jam, then cream?
Did it even matter?
Evie read her mind. “Cornish tradition says jam first then cream, but I always think that once it’s in your mouth the order doesn’t matter.”
Abby copied Evie and took a bite. “Oh—”
“I know.” Evie grinned at her. “Incredible, isn’t it?”
“It really is.” Abby found herself smiling back. “You eat this every day?”
“If I ate this every day I’d have blocked arteries. I do eat it occasionally, and then I double my morning run along the cliff path to make up for it.”
Abby laughed. “I might have to join you.” She froze.
Why had she said that? She knew better than to try and build a social connection with colleagues, particularly one she’d only met moments before.
What had come over her? Braced for a chilly rebuff, she tried to rescue the situation. “I was joking, obviously.”
“Why are you joking? I think that would be great. It would be the perfect way to show you the area and I’d love to have your company.”
“You would?” Abby was conscious that she’d put Evie in an awkward position. “Because you really don’t have to—”
“I’m not being polite, if that was what you were going to say. I think it would be great. Aren’t you going to finish your scone?”
Telling herself that she could always find a way to excuse herself from the run later, Abby finished the scone and nodded.
“Delicious. It’s great to have this experience.
You must tell me how I can be of most help.
It must have been hard for you having to take on all that extra responsibility when Gerald became ill. ”
Evie put the spoon back in the jam. “You know about Gerald?”
“I was briefed,” Abby said. “It’s important to know anything that might have an impact on the staff.”
“It has been hard, not least because everyone adores Gerald so they were all a bit distracted and anxious. Once he was out of danger things improved of course, but there is no doubt it has affected everyone. Gerald was the backbone of this place.”
And Evie had stepped in.
“That must have been particularly difficult, taking on that responsibility when everyone was shaken up.” Abby could immediately see the challenges she would have faced.
“Yes. And I was worried about him, too. Gerald was my mentor. I’ve known him since I was a toddler.
The guests adore him, as do the staff. In fact, most of them—” She hesitated and then drew a breath and smiled.
“Let’s just say his were big shoes to step into.
And we’re still not sure he’ll be coming back. ”
Abby wondered about that moment of hesitation. There was something going on beneath the surface, and not that far beneath the surface. She sensed that Evie was putting on her brightest face to cover up the fact she was struggling to hold everything together.
Abby knew that feeling. “What can I do?”
“I’ve been thinking about that.” Evie sat back in her chair. “I think the best thing is if you shadow me for the first few days, and then we can figure out where your skills will be most useful. How does that sound?”
“It sounds good.”
“Is there anything you don’t do? Any part of the hotel you’d rather not work in?”
“I’ll work anywhere. And I’ve done everything in my time,” Abby said truthfully.
“Great. I’ll give you a tour after we’ve had our tea, then I’ll take you down to the village and get you settled in your new home.”
“I’m not staying in the hotel?”
“That was the plan originally. We have a small loft room we keep for staff in emergency situations, but we had a leak in the roof a few weeks ago that still hasn’t been fixed so you’re using the apartment in the Smuggler’s Inn that we also reserve for staff.
It’s small, but the views are great and you’re right in the village so you can take advantage of all the amenities. ”
It hadn’t occurred to her that she wouldn’t be staying in the hotel itself. Was that good or bad?
Good, she decided. It might be easier to keep a little distance if she wasn’t on the premises all the time. And she could write up her reports and contact her mother without worrying about someone overhearing.
“It sounds perfect. Thank you for arranging that.”
“I’m glad you’re here. And if you see things you think we need to improve you’re to tell me right away. Don’t spare my feelings. This place is important to me. I really want it to do well.” It wasn’t the response she’d expected. She’d never met anyone as open and enthusiastic as Evie.
She knew more experienced managers than Evie who would have done anything to avoid asking for feedback.
“How is the hotel doing generally?” Abby didn’t reveal that she already knew the answer to that question.
“It’s great,” Evie said brightly. “Super. We have a few little staffing issues of course, but so does everyone in the hospitality industry. And costs are soaring, which isn’t easy to handle.
But I’m confident that everything is going to be fine.
Totally fine. Especially now you’re here.
I’m glad head office sent you—it’s supportive of them, and that’s good to see.
A relief, in fact, after—” Her voice tailed off and her smile dimmed a little.
“Actually, things haven’t been that great, to be honest. Lately I’ve had a bad feeling. Not sure if I’m being paranoid.”
Abby waited. Her first assessment of Evie had been wrong, she could see that. She’d thought she was bright and breezy and she was, but she was also weighed down and worried. And good at hiding it.
Evie hesitated and then glanced at her. “We’ve had this man poking around the place and it freaked me out a bit. I first saw him a month ago, when he checked in for a few days. He reminded me of a weasel.”
“A weasel?”
“He was behaving furtively. Several of the guests commented on the fact that they’d seen him loitering in the corridors behaving suspiciously. Every time I saw him he looked guilty and stopped what he was doing.”
Abby frowned. “And what was he doing?”
“Different things.” Evie shrugged. “Measuring doorways and corridors. Staring out of windows. Tapping walls. And he even asked Mrs Masters, one of our longterm guests, for a look inside the King Arthur suite. Fortunately, she isn’t afraid to speak her mind and told him exactly where to put his tape measure, but it left me with a bad feeling.
I’ve been waiting for the phone to ring and someone in head office to tell us they were selling The Alexandra, Cornwall to a grasping developer.
I imagined this place being renamed Weasel Towers.
When they called and told me they were sending you, I breathed a sigh of relief.
I’m sure they wouldn’t have done that if they were thinking of selling.
” Evie batted a wasp away from the table.
“Which is good. I had a bad feeling about him.”
Abby had a bad feeling, too. “What was his name?”
“Well, that’s the annoying thing. Or one of them.
When he checked in he said he was Nicholas Glyn.
I happened to be helping behind the desk on that day and something about him didn’t seem right to me, so I kept an eye on him.
He didn’t behave like someone on holiday.
He didn’t visit anywhere. And he asked for his room not to be touched during his stay which normally we would respect, but we had a leak in one of the bedrooms above and I had to access his bedroom and that’s when I saw the plans. ”
“Plans?”
“Building plans. They were spread out over every surface. Turns out he works for a company called Howard Developments. Known for buying land and building holiday homes, although not in Cornwall. That seems to be a first. I did an internet search—there have been a lot of complaints about the quality of his buildings.”
Howard Developments.
Abby felt a flicker of annoyance and made a note to mention it to her mother. She was confident no one had given him permission to look around the hotel.
“And this was a month ago?”
“Yes. I didn’t mention it to anyone because—well, I didn’t have any actual facts. Just a bad feeling. As a manager you can’t dump suspicions on people, can you? But he was back here last week lurking in the grounds. Phillip, our head gardener, saw him and challenged him.”
“Last week? You’re sure?” Abby mulled over the timing. That didn’t make sense, because her mother had turned his offer down before that. Why was he persisting? Perhaps he thought her mother was using a negotiation tactic.
“Yes.” Evie watched her and nodded. “Do you think I’m overreacting? I sometimes do, I know that. I’m a bit of an all-or-nothing person. I consciously have to rein myself in and focus on facts, not feelings.”
Abby wasn’t sure how to respond. Evie was obviously relieved to be able to share the stress of it, and she wanted to reassure her.
But something didn’t feel right to her, either.
“I think it’s good to be observant, and I think if you have a bad feeling about something,” she said slowly, “then it’s worth paying attention to that.”