‘I can— we can—’ her voice trailed off.
‘You should go,’ Claudine said. ‘I will cancel the visit. We don’t have the budget to re-do those rooms – you know that. The decor you chose was not cheap. And there is really no need for you to be here now. I am sorry, I will not be able to extend your contract further. I am sure you understand.’
Was this financial or was she being punished for her negligence? Either way, Bella didn’t blame her.
She opened her mouth to argue, but then realised that there wasn’t really any point. What else could Claudine do? Even if it hadn’t been her who’d caused the fire, she’d have had to let Bella go anyway. If the hotel was in trouble and this might have been its final chance at solvency, then pretty soon – barring a miracle – there wouldn’t be a hotel to work at. And there certainly wasn’t space for a project manager who’d managed to spend thousands of euros making things better before tearing the whole thing down.
‘I’m so, so sorry…’ she began. ‘I—’ But she found she had run out of words. She looked at the woman who’d been her boss, who’d started to become her friend.
Claudine leapt to her feet so suddenly that Bella stepped back in shock.
‘Ah, yes,’ she hissed, leaning forward over her desk. ‘You are often sorry! But this is not something that a “sorry” can fix! You are incompetent, careless. Foolish! I should never have taken you on – and now you have ruined everything!’ Claudine’s eyes flashed and Bella took another step back. ‘I want you out of my hotel. And if I have anything to do with it, you will never work in the French hospitality business again.’
‘But Claudine… I?—’
Claudine’s expression was so thunderous, Bella’s words fell away. ‘Just go,’ she said. ‘Go back to your beautiful home. Or, better, back to England. I never want to see you again.’
Filled with sudden, nervous energy, Bella rushed to her office, gathered her things and made her way to the lift. The doors opened to reveal Madame Roux with her dog and some sort of wheeled basket at her feet. She regarded Bella’s tear-stained face as she entered the lift.
‘Ground floor?’ she said, raising a well made-up eyebrow.
Bella nodded, miserably.
‘So you are leaving?’
She nodded again, not trusting herself to speak.
‘Claudine asked you to go?’
‘Yes,’ she managed. ‘The fire. It was my fault, you see. I— And now everything is ruined and… well, you know the rest.’
Madame Roux shook her head. ‘I have already told you. When you are old, nobody tells you anything. Certainly not Claudine. What’s the rest?’
Bella looked at the old lady. It couldn’t hurt to tell her; after all, everything was already as bad as it could get. ‘Claudine’s in financial trouble,’ she said. ‘She’s struggling with the hotel, and hoped she’d be able improve things if the presentation went well. But now?—’
Madame Roux frowned. ‘Silly girl.’
‘We all get ourselves in difficulties sometimes.’
‘Perhaps.’ The old lady looked thoughtful. ‘But now you are going too, just when Claudine needs you most.’
‘Claudine made it quite clear I’m not welcome.’ Bella fought to keep her voice under control. ‘She never wants to see me again.’
‘Pah!’ The word was loud and made Bella jump. ‘Of course she says things, but she doesn’t mean them. Claudine is proud; she won’t be able to ask you for what she really needs.’
‘Which is…?’
‘Comfort. A friend.’
Bella sighed. ‘If you’d seen her…’
‘Oh, I can imagine. But that is just her exterior. Surely you are old enough to understand now that nobody is the person they present to the world. It’s just a version of themselves they think is palatable enough for others to like. We are all secretive. We all have our worries, our pain. Claudine needs you.’
The lift reached the ground floor, giving its habitual lurch. The doors slid open, revealing a reception covered in footprints, one of the large plants turned on its side. Bella held her finger on the ‘door open’ button to prevent them closing and turned to Madame Roux.
‘I just can’t. I— I should never have taken this job in the first place. And I’m definitely not the right person to help Claudine now. She’s much better off without me. I can’t go back there. I just can’t.’
Madame Roux regarded her steadily. ‘We do not know what is possible until we test it.’
