“It might settle your stomach. At least nibble a piece of toast.” She sliced off the corner and put it on a plate for Abby. She held it out. “Here. You should—”
“I’m not who you think I am.” Abby blurted out the words and Evie stared at her, the plate still in her hand.
“What?”
“I’m—” Abby closed her eyes briefly. “I’m not some random summer employee. I’m a member of the senior management team. I’m based in head office in Boston, although I do spend a lot of time on the road and in hotels and it’s true that I’ve worked in almost every role during my time. I’m not only here as an extra pair of hands for the summer. I’m in charge of special projects. I was sent here to help out for the summer, that’s true, but also to give the board a full and honest picture of how the hotel is functioning.”
Evie put the plate down. Slowly she picked through what Abby had just told her. “I don’t understand. What do you mean ‘a full and honest picture’?”
“The hotel is not performing as well as it should, but you already know that.”
“Yes, I do. I’ve been worried that—”
“And you were right to worry.”
Evie felt as if the ground had shifted beneath her feet. Panic gripped her with icy fingers. “What are you saying? Are they going to sell us? Are we all going to lose our jobs?”
“No! I—” Abby rubbed her hand over her face again. “Honestly? I don’t know what she’s planning.”
“She?”
“Alexandra Strong.” Abby swallowed. “My mother.”
“Yourmother?” Evie stared at her. She knew who Alexandra Strong was, of course. The woman was a legend. She’d started the company from nothing and now she ran a thriving hotel group (although The Alexandra, Cornwall wasn’t so much thriving as barely surviving). But she’d never met her, of course. To Evie and the rest of the staff, she was nothing more than the person behind the name of the hotel. And talking of names... “But you’re not Strong. You’re Jones. Abby Jones. Did you use a fake name?”
“No. My mother changed her name to Strong when we moved to Boston. It was important to her. A statement. I think it was all part of leaving her past behind, but it’s not something she talks about in any depth. She wanted me to keep her mother’s name, as a tribute. My grandmother. She was Madeleine Jones. I’m Madeleine Abigail Jones. Known as Abby. As well as being a reminder of her mother, her goal was always for me to work in the company and she thought it would be easier for me to be accepted if I wasn’t immediately recognised as her daughter. So at work I’m Abby Jones. Sometimes I use—”
“Stop. Enough. It doesn’t matter.” Her heart thumping, Evie cut her off. “I don’t care what you call yourself. The only thing that matters is the reason you’re here. And it seems you’re here to spy on us.” She couldn’t sit for another moment. Stressed and shaken, she sprang from her chair and walked across her office to the window, trying to hold it together. Trying to figure out the implications of what she’d just learned. Tristan had warned her, hadn’t he? He’d said that she was too trusting, and he’d been right.
Tears of fury and misery stung the back of her eyes.
She felt stupid.
Panic rippled again. What exactly had she said? What had she told her?
So much.
Too much.
“Evie.” Abby’s voice was quiet. “I know you’re upset and I don’t blame you.”
“Why didn’t you tell me the truth?” Evie turned to face her. “I don’t understand how you could do such a thing. We ran together. You sat in my garden and we talked. And you never once even hinted—” She swallowed. “Why?”
“The theory was that if I was under-cover I would be able to do a more accurate assessment of the situation. If the team had known I was from head office, they wouldn’t have been so open.”
“And you were okay with that?”
“No, I wasn’t.” Abby looked so wan and miserable that Evie almost felt sorry for her.
“So why not tell her that?”
“Because my mother is persuasive, and I spend my life trying to please her. And despite my aversion to the idea of not revealing who I was, I could see the logic of what she was saying.”
It was too much to take in. Evie couldn’t believe anyone would do such a thing.
“I let you into my life.” Overwhelmed by the enormity of it, she took a breath. “I invited you to my home. Introduced you to the people in the village. I told you things.”
Abby held her gaze without flinching. “Yes.”
