‘It’s not far from here,’ said Louise, ‘and it could be taking business that should be ours. Tell us all about it, please.’
‘The thing Mummy likes best is that several of the rooms have their own bathrooms,’ said Vanessa.
‘Which isn’t something we can currently offer,’ said Louise thoughtfully.
‘But this is such a charming house,’ said Alexandra. ‘For Vanessa’s mother, it would be like staying with friends – if she could be got here.’
‘It is like someone’s house,’ said Vanessa, looking around.
‘Someone who hasn’t redecorated for a while,’ said Meg.
‘Years ago someone told me that really large houses are only redecorated about every forty years or so,’ said Vanessa, ‘and it must be true because our house hasn’t had a lick of paint since I’ve been alive.’
‘And you’re only about twenty,’ said Louise. ‘So you’d have to wait another twenty years for it to be changed if you weren’t keen on the wallpaper.’
‘By that time it’ll be so faded, no one could object to it,’ said David, laughing.
After a moment, Meg said, ‘Would you like more tea, Nessa? More toast? If not, would you like a tour of Nightingale Woods and the grounds? Alexandra and David have already had one—’
‘We don’t mind coming round again,’ said David quickly. ‘We’re both extremely nosy.’
‘What I think we should do,’ said Alexandra when they’d inspected everything quite thoroughly and had gone back to the morning room to have some mid-morning coffee, ‘is visit this other hotel in Newton-cum-Hardy. Nightingale Woods is such a pretty house, and the gardens are lovely even if they are a bit overgrown in places. It has “ton”.’
‘What?’ said David.
‘“Ton”. I read about it in Georgette Heyer. It means class, really. That’s something I bet the other hotel doesn’t have.’
‘We already know what it has instead – private bathrooms,’ said Meg. ‘“Ton” is all very well, but it doesn’t make the place any more comfortable.’
‘It’s perfectly comfortable,’ said Alexandra. ‘It’s only the bathroom situation that could be improved.’
‘I could put that on the list for Justin,’ said Meg. ‘In “Ideas for making the hotel attract more guests”, but I don’t know how we could do it.’
‘There’s a single room next to my bedroom,’ said Alexandra. ‘It was probably a dressing room. That could be a bathroom.’
‘You have to forgive my friend Alexandra,’ said David. ‘She’s spent a lot of time recently turning random agricultural buildings into holiday accommodation. If she sees a cupboard, she’ll put a bathroom in it.’
‘Only if it’s quite a large cupboard,’ Alexandra objected. ‘It’s not that there isn’t room to put bathrooms into the principal bedrooms, the problem is more likely to be money.’
‘And taking away that single room would mean there’s one less room available,’ said Louise. ‘When people with children come, we often put them in that room, so their child – or children: it can take another single bed – can be next door to them.’
‘This is a family hotel, really,’ said Meg. ‘Mum told me that people come regularly, year after year, but in the summer holidays, mostly.’
‘It’s just people don’t go on holiday much in May, although it’s a lovely month. That’s why you three are so welcome,’ said Louise. ‘But visiting the other hotel would be a good idea.’
‘Maybe you three could go and inspect it for us? Go there for lunch, perhaps?’ said Meg.
‘Personally, I think a better idea would be if you came with us, Meg,’ said David.
‘Oh, I can’t go!’ said Meg. ‘I might have to cook lunch if anyone comes, and I must prepare something for dinner.’ Although, now he’d put the idea into her head, she did desperately want to see the other hotel for herself.
‘I think you could safely leave me and Louise in charge of any lunch guests,’ said David. ‘And I can get dinner going, just as you can.’
‘I think that’s a brilliant idea, darling!’ said Louise. ‘You haven’t had any time off since you’ve been here, and it would be fun for you girls to be together again.’
‘We just need Lizzie!’ said Vanessa.
‘We’ll have to tell her all about it, and suggest they come here for their holidays,’ said Alexandra. ‘But,David, if you think you could stand in for Meg, it would be brilliant fun to go to the other hotel!’
