Chapter 14 #2
‘I think for now, I must earn some money. I need to get a proper job, one that pays. My grandmother has left everything she knows and loves to keep me safe. I want to repay that sacrifice in any way I can.’ He smiled at her now and there it was, that something she couldn’t quite name.
Electricity? And she realised, the scariest thing about Danial Val was that he had no idea of the effect he had on her – or what it would mean if something happened between them.
He was, she knew, the very last person on the island her mother could bear to see her being friends with, much less anything beyond that.
*
When she arrived home later that evening, her mind was full of him.
Her thoughts stitching over and back across the conversation they’d had earlier in the day.
Somehow, he’d made her feel energised, as if the inertia of going through the motions had melted away from her.
She didn’t have to keep on pretending that she would live exactly the life her mother expected of her for the rest of her days.
Indeed, if the letter she’d come across in the hotel earlier was anything to go by, Rae wouldn’t be able to keep doing the same thing for much longer either.
The hotel. That was it. She’d start off by helping Rae to save the hotel. If she could help Rae to secure the hotel and her mother to have Still Water House included in the White Book, then maybe her mother would see, she was well fit to choose what she wanted for her own future.
After dinner, she raced upstairs to her bedroom where she set to making her plans.
The following morning, Siggy had what her mother would call, a spring in her step. She had maybe not a strategy, but at the very least, a few new suggestions for Rae.
‘Well, look who’s all enthusiastic.’ She smiled when she arrived at the hotel to see Danial polishing the old brasses on the front door.
‘Hello to you, too.’
‘How long have you been here?’ she asked then.
‘For two or three hours before you even thought of getting out of bed, probably.’ He laughed and so did she, because the truth was quite the opposite.
She went immediately to find Rae to show her the work she’d done the previous evening. There were four options. The first one wasn’t really an option; it was a pathway to whatever they might do next.
‘We ask Danial if he’ll redesign the website – since he knows all about SEO – maybe we market things from right there at the front desk.
’ She pointed out towards reception. They were in Rae’s flat.
Sitting next to each other on the lumpy old sofa that had been here for as long as Siggy could remember.
‘That’s a great idea. Now, all we must decide is what we’re going to market…
’ Rae looked around the little sitting room.
It was meagre, compared to the rest of the hotel.
There was such a faded, empty air to the place.
No window to speak of, well, there was a tiny square with old-fashioned opaque glass that might have once opened out against a brick wall opposite, but had for too long been painted shut.
Now, the main source of fresh air came either from the reception outside or by leaving the bedroom door open, because in there, a huge window looked out across the car park. ‘Actually, I’ve been thinking…’
‘Okay.’
‘This is radical, but I thought, the building is too big. I mean, it’s three huge houses into one, right?’
‘Technically, yes.’ Rae sat a little straighter on the sofa next to her, obviously piqued.
The hotel as it stood today operated as one huge Georgian building, but the facade still had three front doors.
There were three staircases – although two of them were hardly ever used – and three rear exits, each leading out to the same car park at the rear.
‘What if you sold number three?’ There, that was it.
The Hope Square Hotel was a huge building, far bigger than they could ever fill in today’s terms. Siggy’s grandparents had purchased the original houses one after another and knocked them into one big building.
Number one was an end property, while number three was closest to the old bank building.
‘Who on earth would want to buy it? I mean, I don’t think I could just sell it, could I? Surely, there’s planning laws or…’ Her voice trailed off.
‘I can think of lots of people who’d want to buy it,’ Siggy said.
‘These properties are probably the most desirable on the island. Number three could easily be turned into anything from four luxury apartments to eight normal sized one- or two-bedroom flats and I mean, it’s all there – the ensuites, the original features for the most part, fireplaces and covings and with the price of property these days…
I’d say it could really make it worth your while. ’
‘Then what?’ Rae said quietly, but Siggy had a feeling that she was either shocked by the idea of something she wouldn’t have considered in a million years or maybe her mind was whirring past that letter in the day diary and doing up the sums. Like it or not, this made good financial sense.
‘Then you have a manageable size hotel. You can invest in upgrading it or you can decide to scale back, just make it into a guest house. You could even turn over a whole floor for yourself – make a proper home with a lovely sitting room and an open fire, with bookshelves and an actual window that looks out on the square.’
‘Oh, I don’t know about all that…’ Rae said softly.
‘Know about what?’ Blythe was standing at the door watching them. Her voice so unexpected it gave them both a start, so the notebook went flying to the floor in the surprise.
‘Mum, you gave us a fright.’ Siggy laughed nervously, instantly feeling guilty, as if in even suggesting the sale of part of the hotel, she’d done something wrong.
‘Nothing, nothing at all, we’re just daydreaming,’ Rae said and she got up and moved to the door.
‘Hmph, well for some. It looks like rain out there today and you pair have the time for daydreaming.’ Blythe looked around the flat as if it might yield some extra information she was not privy to.
‘Any coffee left in that pot? I’m absolutely parched.
’ She flopped into the chair that had for years been Marcus’s favourite.
‘I’ll make some fresh for you, hang on,’ Siggy said, jumping up.
‘So, what about these break-ins…’ Blythe was saying as Siggy headed for the foyer to get fresh coffee.