‘A bit. After all, you’re injured, even if you did need to bring me the bowls and things. And if you’re not cooking, you must have extra responsibilities to make sure the kitchen is up to standard.’ Meg was pleased with this. It made her sound as if she really understood from personal experience how large, busy hotel kitchens worked.
Justin nodded. ‘That’s true. But it wasn’t my father who asked me to look. I said it was, for convenience sake, but it was my uncle Colin, his brother.’
‘Oh,’ said Meg, surprised.
‘Although he’s not an executor of my grandfather’s will, he wants to see the deeds of the hotel too, and it appears my father may not have brought the right ones with him back to France.’
Meg glanced across at Justin as she pulled up at a crossroads. The route involved a maze of little lanes criss-crossing each other and she needed to concentrate. Although she’d made the journey a few times, she had been distracted by what Justin had been saying. Now she wanted to remember the way herself and not have to ask Justin for directions.
‘The thing is, there’s conflict between Dad and Uncle Colin,’ Justin went on. ‘Dad loves the hotel and wants to keep it. Uncle Colin wants to sell.’
‘Who was it left to?’
‘To both of them, I think.’
‘So if Andrew wants to keep Nightingale Woods, he might have to buy his brother’s half?’
‘I don’t know the details of the will, and I don’t know how things have been left, but that’s quite probable.’ Justin paused. ‘It’s unlikely the hotel will earn enough to support any sort of loan from a bank so I doubt my father could raise enough money to pay off my uncle.’
Meg felt a sudden gulp emerging and coughed. She was glad of another crossroads she had to stop at. She realised she’d lost track of where she needed to go. ‘Which way here?’
Justin frowned, implying she should know. ‘Straight on.’
‘I was distracted.’
He didn’t need to ask why. ‘I know you feel very fond of Nightingale Woods. It has a lot of charm, but it isn’t really a going concern, is it?’ he said.
‘It can be made one,’ said Meg firmly.
Justin sighed. ‘It doesn’t have enough guest rooms currently. More would need to be done up. It’s very old-fashioned and it doesn’t provide what people want any more.’
Meg didn’t reply. The first two things could be changed, but the last would take money, quite a lot of it. She thought of Alexandra, how in France she had turned all sorts of different buildings into accommodation. Surely there’d be scope for that at Nightingale Woods?
Chapter Fourteen
A couple of days later, Meg returned to the hotel at Newton-cum-Hardy, this time with the back of the car full of desserts. When he heard they were ready, Justin offered to come and collect them but Meg wanted to make sure everything arrived in as good a condition as possible. Besides, if she went to his hotel, she could leave when she wanted. If Justin came to Nightingale Woods, she was stuck with him until he chose to go.
She pulled up to the service area and opened the double doors at the back of the Mini Traveller. All the desserts were in wicker baskets and cardboard boxes, often with greaseproof paper as extra protection. A brief glance told her there had been no disasters.
Just as she was about to go to the kitchen to find people to help her unload, Justin arrived, with a couple of young men. He peered in. ‘They look good,’ he said.
‘No need to sound surprised,’ said Meg, secretly pleased. ‘You asked me to do thembecauseI’m good.’
‘I just didn’t realise you were quite as skilled as that,’ he said with a smile.
Meg leant into the back of the Mini: ostensibly to retrieve some fruit tarts; in fact to hide her blushes.
‘Would you like to come in and have a look round the kitchens?’ Justin asked. ‘Have a cup of coffee?’
Meg hesitated. She’d have loved that, but somehow it seemed disloyal to her too-small, too-old-fashioned place of work.
‘Go on,’ Justin said. ‘It’ll be good for you to see a proper professional kitchen in action.’
‘I’ve seen plenty of professional kitchens, thank you,’ she said stiffly, hoping she hadn’t done herself out of the tour.
‘Well, have a look at this one too. It would be handy for you to know how we do things in case you ever get offered a job working here.’
‘I thought you didn’t approve of women in kitchens,’ she said, delighted to be able to catch him out.
