Penny slid onto the bed, her expression full of suspicion. ‘S’pose so. All depends what you’re going to say.’
‘No, I get that. And that’s fine.’ Fran swiped her phone into life, opening the email and skim-reading it. She could feel Penny’s gaze drawn to the message, too. Fran turned the phone face down on her lap. ‘Thing is, I do work for Wilding Holdings, but not as a member of hotel staff.’
Penny frowned. ‘I don’t understand.’
‘I suppose you could say I’m currently employed by Wilding Holdings twice over.’ Fran rubbed at her forehead as Penny’s frown intensified.
‘Speak English, will you, Fran? I don’t get what you’re trying to say.’
Fran took a deep breath. She didn’t want Penny’s frustration to bubble over.
‘My role is to visit Wilding Holdings hotels around the world and make reports on how well they’re looking after their guests.’
‘A hotel inspector, you mean?’
‘Not really, I’m more of a secret shopper, I suppose. I arrive as a guest, try out as many aspects of the hotel as possible during my stay, and report back to Wilding Holdings about how well I was looked after.’
‘You mean they pay you to be permanently on holiday?’ Some of Penny’s frustration slipped away, replaced by incredulity.
‘I guess. It’s only for a while, and it’s not as glamorous as it sounds.’
‘Yeah. Right. Not sure who you’re planning to fool with that narrative. The guests look like they’re having a ball from where I’m sitting. Anyway, why swap all that for this?’ Penny waved a hand around the bedroom, a fraction of the size of the suite Fran should have been enjoying.
‘I just wanted to try something different this time, I suppose.’ Fran explained about the misunderstanding with the groundskeeper on her arrival, how the idea percolated into her mind and refused to go away. ‘I didn’t think it through too hard, just headed for Madame Beaufoy’s office, and she was so busy and distracted that she didn’t question my fortuitous arrival. I took it as a sign, I suppose, that this crazy scheme of mine might work.’
‘Crazy being the operative word. I still can’t get past you wanting to work like a dog rather than lounging around in the sun. Bonkers.’
‘I’ve been doing that on and off for the last few months. And believe it or not, it is possible to have too much time on your hands.’ Fran shifted to face Penny. ‘I was bored, I suppose. I wanted to shake things up a bit. I thought Bill Wilding might appreciate a report that comes from a different angle this time. From the point of view of the staff.’
‘You think the big honcho is even going to see the report?’
Fran had to bite at the inside of her cheek to stop herself from telling Penny she knew for a fact Bill Wilding would see her report, that was a truth too far. Instead, she said, ‘It’s a new initiative. I suppose it’s far too easy to lose touch with the reality when you’re head of a huge company like Wilding Holdings. These reports are going to the board for them to appraise. And I’m sure they’ll be grateful to know.’
Penny’s expression shifted from suspicion to something bordering on amusement. ‘Good luck with that.’
‘And your cynicism is exactly why I want to carry on, put this report in, see what happens and hopefully make a change for the better.’
Penny shrugged. ‘It’s your funeral.’
‘Maybe.’ Fran didn’t agree, but she didn’t want to antagonise Penny any further. Instead, she tried to draw her in with a question to which she’d been dying to get an answer. ‘I was going to ask you at some point, but now is as good a time as any – do you know anything more about why there’s hostility between Wilding Holdings and the locals?’
‘Are you going to put that in your report, too?’ Penny’s words were still confrontational, but her expression continued to soften.
‘If it’ll help the hotel and the people working here, then yes.’
There was suspicion in the way Penny crossed her arms, her focus shifting to the square of blue sky visible through the window as she hesitated. Fran waited; she supposed it was only fair that Penny would need time to take on board everything she’d learnt. And even though Fran had gone about this in an underhand way, she needed Penny to understand she really was interested in her new friend’s best interests; however it might appear.
Eventually, Penny spoke. ‘Harry said that when Wilding Holdings bought Chateau les Champs d’Or the first thing they did was to bring in a whole load of trade from the UK to do all the renovations. Didn’t employ a single local builder or stonemason for the entirety of the project. All the furnishings and linens were brought in, too. The curtains all ready-made somewhere else, even though there’s a fantastic local seamstress who was desperate for work. It didn’t go down very well.’
Fran frowned. ‘No. I don’t suppose it did. I hadn’t thought of the impact the renovation of a place like this could have had on the local economy.’
‘I suppose it’s why the locals aren’t falling over themselves to work here for peanuts now, either. I mean, would you?’ Pennysnorted a laugh. ‘Well, obviously not. But you know what I’m saying.’
‘It’s certainly worth raising in my report – it’s something that I think Wilding Holdings should consider wherever they decide to build their next hotel.’
This was golden information, the sort of knowledge Fran felt convinced would help Wilding Holdings in the future – and there was no way she’d ever have found it out as a guest.
‘How long do you intend to be here for, then?’ Penny asked. ‘I presume you were only going to be here for a few days as a “guest”.’ She mimed inverted commas around the word, irritation gaining traction again.
