‘Nice girl,’ said Louise as she and Meg went back into the house.
‘Yes. Her brother is lovely too. Which is surprising when you think how difficult her parents are.’
Meg was grateful that something had delayed Justin coming to see her plan for improvements, so, when he telephoned to say he was on his way, she was ready for him. It was a shame that Louise was in the local town for the day, so she would have to deal with him on her own. With luck, he would take the report and go.
‘So, here’s the plan,’ she said, handing him the buff folder that Vanessa had insisted would make it look more professional. ‘Of course, lots of the ideas to increase business would require fairly major changes to the house so would cost money.’
‘As we have discussed, there’s little or no money for alterations beyond a bit of paint,’ said Justin immediately, before Meg had even finished getting her plan out of its cardboard folder.
Meg sighed. ‘I’ve divided this into things that would cost nothing, or only a little.’ The only thing that would cost nothing would be moving some tables out into the garden for afternoon tea on sunny days, but he’d realise that quite soon. ‘And more major projects that would definitely increase bookings.’
‘Tell me your plans.’
‘Why don’t you just read the report?’ Meg felt grumpy because she was nervous and he was being so formal and unbending.
He sighed and now Meg noticed he looked tired. ‘Just tell me. I can read the detail later.’
She took a deep breath. Here goes, she thought.
‘Our problem is, we’re quite old-fashioned. The locals know about us, but we can’t survive on just local business and a few people who’ve spotted us in guidebooks that are several years old. We hadn’t even got an up-to-date brochure, although we have had some printed. And we’re not in any current guides.’
She hoped the seriousness of not being in guidebooks would distract him from the fact they’d gone ahead with the new brochures without consulting him.
‘Getting into guidebooks isn’t a simple business, and it can be expensive,’ said Justin.
‘I know,’ she said, although she hadn’t been certain. ‘As this is the case, we need to get in new business from other sources. So far, we’ve written to all the people who came to the banquet offering them special rates for Sunday lunch. We’ve had a few—’
‘How few?’ Justin interrupted.
‘Three – but it’s early days. And teas in the garden have been popular. But it’s always the same people. It’s good they’re coming more, but as I said, we can’t do it on local business alone.’
‘Go on,’ said Justin, looking more interested now.
‘What we really need to do is to bring the hotel up to date a bit, without losing its country-house charm. That’s one of the reasons people like it so much. But we need at least some bedrooms with their own bathrooms.’
Justin stared at her but didn’t comment.
‘Vanessa – one of my friends who’ve just been staying – said her mother, Lady Lennox-Stanley, comesto a charity race day at Shroton every year and she brings people with her. Vanessa says her mother would come here if she had a private bathroom.’
‘Where does she go at the moment?’
‘The hotel in Newton-cum-Hardy, which is much more modern, has a lot of rooms with their own bathrooms, a swimming pool, is the same distance from the racecourse as we are, but is much more expensive.’
‘Of course it’s more expensive; it has a lot more to offer. And if Lady Lennox-Stanley can afford it, I don’t see any reason why she wouldn’t go on staying there.’
‘But why would you want her to go elsewhere with her friends when they could come here? Where are your loyalties?’ She’d meant this rhetorically but saw that his expression had subtly changed.
He looked at her directly, almost for the first time. ‘Were you impressed with the hotel when you and your friends went to have lunch at the hotel last week?’ he asked.
Everything fell into place. The smartly dressed young women who was so proud of the hotel and had shown them round had obviously told Justin they had been there.
‘You work there, don’t you? That’s why you don’t want this hotel to succeed, because you work there!’ Meg found this terribly upsetting, far more upsetting than was logical, she knew. ‘Did Laura Wilde tell you we’d been?’
He looked uncomfortable. ‘Yes, I do work there, and yes, Laura did tell me about your visit. She was very impressed with the Countess.’
For a moment, Meg found herself close to tears and she didn’t know why. She took a breath. ‘Isn’t that a conflict of interests? You’re working for your father’s hotel’s main rival!’ She didn’t bother to hide her outrage.
‘I don’t think Nightingale Woods is a rival,’ he said quietly. ‘It’s a charming, old-fashioned hotel.’
