Fran pressed her lips tight. It was a question to which she didn’t have a satisfactory answer, right now. In theory, she should be leaving in a matter of days, but she needed time to find out if it would be possible to rescue Red and bring him home to the UK. And even though she’d known all along that her role as an employee at the chateau would be a very temporary situation, the longer she spent with them, the less she wanted to leave them high and dry by suddenly leaving.
‘Would you believe me if I said that I genuinely don’t know the answer to that question? Yes, I was only supposed to be here for a five-night stay, and then travel on to the south of France afterwards, but now I’ve got myself into this situation, it wouldn’t feel right to leave everyone in the lurch.’
Penny frowned again. ‘It’s not like you’d be the first. This place haemorrhages staff. Like Angelique and Fabienne? Turns out I was right. They’ve no more got Covid than I have. They just quit.’
‘And this is exactly why I need to make this report, don’t you see?’
‘I get what you’re saying, but I don’t think it’ll change anything.’
‘Well, that’s for me to worry about,’ Fran said. ‘But first, I need to know what you’re going to do next. Are you going to tell Madame Beaufoy she has a mole on her staff?’
Penny pursed her lips, eyes narrowing as she considered her options. ‘Are you planning on dropping old Beaufoy in it?’
‘I’m not planning on dropping anyone in it. All I intend to do is pass on information.’
‘Because I think she’s doing the best she can under the circumstances,’ Penny said.
‘Point taken.’ She was surprised at the way Penny was closing ranks, but maybe she shouldn’t be – after all, Fran had just dropped a bombshell.
‘And will you mention the brilliant job done by the kitchen, especially a young chef called Harry Greenfield?’ The corners of Penny’s lips began to twitch, her eyes shining.
‘You want me to mention him by name?’ Fran edged her expression into a smile.
‘Yes please. Oh, and you could give me a standing ovation too, while you’re at it.’
Fran laughed, then nodded. ‘Friends again?’
‘Friends.’ Penny flopped back against the mattress. ‘Still think you’re clinically insane, but I won’t blab. I might be many things, but I’m no snitch.’
‘Thank you.’ Fran was tempted to tell Penny the rest of it, to open up about the real origin of her job offer with Wilding Holdings. To be able to tellsomeone. But Fran was still struggling with that piece of information herself; it would be way too much to dump on Penny while Fran didn’t know how to process it. For now, that would have to remain tucked away.
‘Anyway, we need to get on with some work,’ Penny said, on her feet again. ‘Members of staff can’t laze around in their rooms all day. What on earth would a hotel inspector make of that, eh?’
‘I’m not a hotel inspector …’ Fran said, but to the back of Penny’s head. Moving like greased lightning again, she was halfway down the corridor by the time Fran had pocketed her phone and headed after her.
After his unexpected dousing of water by Noel, Johnny decided he might as well complete the job. Lowering himself into the pool, the combination of cool water and the stinging of chlorine in the shredded skin of his hand sobered up any lingering effects of the couple of cocktails he’d consumed.
Johnny lost track of how long he spent slicing his way up and down the pool, didn’t care once he’d settled into the rhythm of his crude, but effective front crawl. Aware he was no merman didn’t stop Johnny enjoying his time in a pool. He was in no hurry, didn’t have a target score of lengths in mind, just swam until the muscles in his arms and legs started to feel like jelly.
He pulled himself from the water, sitting on the edge of the pool as he caught his breath and allowed the unflinching force of the sun to warm him. Then he wrapped up in a towel and shoved his feet into a pair of sliders.
‘See you lot later,’ he said, heading away from Noel and the others before any of them had a chance to stop him.
Back in his room, showered and dressed in lightweight shorts and T-shirt, Johnny FaceTimed Natalie.
‘Everything OK?’ he asked when Natalie picked up. She looked distracted.
‘Everything’s fine. Why wouldn’t it be?’
Snappy and uncharacteristically caustic, her tone had Johnny pausing.
Natalie was no pushover, never had been. Her resilience and strength of character had been some of the aspects which had attracted Johnny in the first place. But today she sounded down, sounded like she was doing her best to cover it up.
‘How’s Estelle?’
‘Driving me to distraction, as usual.’ Her comment was accompanied by a slight thawing in her expression, and Johnny allowed himself a hint of a smile.
‘When I get back, we should probably talk about how we’re going to—’ Johnny didn’t get to finish his sentence, his suggestion that they needed to discuss how to go about parenting Estelle once they were officially divorced was abandoned as the small person in question bobbed into the frame.
