Prologue
It was a place of beauty, where sheer towering cliffs plunged into the wild Atlantic Ocean below. A place of myth and legend, steeped in tales of wizards and knights, of mermaids and witchcraft.
The hotel had stood on the headland for over a century, a witness to wind and tide, to storms and shipwrecks and all manner of human behaviour.
Within its walls there had been life and death and everything in between. Love, excitement, celebration, disappointment, pain and betrayal.
Especially betrayal.
A hotel keeps its secrets. People, however, were not so reliable.
1
Evie
Take your career to the next level...
Evie stared at the screen. She definitely needed the next level because the current level wasn’t working out for her. An upscale hotel in London known for its luxurious accommodation and impeccable customer service had a vacancy. She should apply.
London. Busy. Anonymous. She’d be able to walk down a street without everyone stopping her to catch up with gossip. No one would notice or care if she arrived home early in the morning wearing the same clothes she’d left the house in the night before. She wouldn’t be greeted by winks and knowing looks from the locals or asked for regular updates. She wouldn’t have to drive to the next town to find a pharmacist who hadn’t known her since she was a baby. A fresh start.A new life.
A new job, where her colleagues wouldn’t include people who used to babysit her.
The team members beaming at her from the website seemed happy. Their careers were obviously going well. Unlike hers.
A big red button encouraged her to “apply here.” Her finger hovered for a moment and then she sat back with a sigh.
Why was she so indecisive? Why was she finding it impossible to make the decision when it was obviously the right thing to do, particularly given the current situation?
Maybe she was having a crisis of confidence, which wasn’t surprising in the circumstances.
How was she going to sell herself? How did she gloss over the fact that the hotel where she’d worked since she’d graduated was basically falling apart under her watch? Admittedly she’d only been in this role for a short time, but knowing that none of this was her fault didn’t make her feel better.
She opened a document on her screen and started to draft a few lines.
“I am a passionate professional—no, that doesn’t sound right.” Evie deleted the words and tried again, staring at the words on the screen. “I am anexperiencedhospitality professional—yes, that’s better—dedicated to delivering the highest standards of guest relations. I pride myself on offering an unforgettable and curated experience to each—”
“Evie?”
Donna, one of the receptionists, appeared in the doorway and Evie slammed her laptop shut and picked up the cup of coffee that had been growing cold on her desk.
“Hi. Everything okay?”
“Not really. I need to talk to you.” Donna leaned against the door-frame and grinned at her. “You should see your face! Picture of guilt. What are you doing on that laptop of yours that’s so secretive? I hope it’s something that could get you arrested. Your life is much too clean and wholesome.”
“Nothing.”
Preparing to apply for new jobs, because we’re all about to lose the one we currently have.
She felt a flash of guilt. Should she be sharing her fears with the staff? No. That wouldn’t be fair. They’d been through enough lately what with Gerald, the general manager, being unwell and it wasn’t as if she had any real evidence to support her fears. No one from head office had actuallysaidthey were going to be closed down or put up for sale. But it seemed the obvious path to her. The rest of the staff were carrying on as normal, cheerfully oblivious to the economic realities of running a hotel.
And it was frustrating because she truly believed she could change things. She was brimming with ideas, but the way things were currently it was impossible to put them into practice.
“Have you joined one of those dating sites?” Donna wasn’t easily deflected. “Because I said to Molly last week, I can’t remember when our Evie last had sex with anyone. She should join one of those sites. But Molly pointed out that one of the disadvantages of living in a small village is that you already know all the eligible men of the right age on account of having been born here, and if you were going to get together with them it would already have happened. You need to spread your net a bit wider. How would you feel about someone older? Edward Barnes is a nice man.”
“Edward Barnes?” Evie spilled coffee on her desk. “Are you talking about Mr Barnes the butcher? Mr Barnes who is retiring next year? He’s more than thirty years older than me.” She snatched a bunch of tissues and soaked up the liquid before it could do any damage.
“He’s seasoned, that’s true, and his hips are giving him problems but he has a gentle personality and he knows a nice piece of sirloin when he sees it...” Donna’s voice trailed off and she laughed. “Just kidding. Sort of. Unless you—”
