“Nothing. Nothing at all. Ignore her.” She should have gathered the staff together and given them a talk on appropriate behaviour.
“But why would she want to find herself in the landlord’s apartment?”
Evie sighed. She should probably be honest. Abby had a right to know what she was dealing with. “Because Tristan, the landlord, is single and particularly good-looking, and because everyone in this village is obsessed with meddling with other people’s love lives. Please ignore it. That’s what I try and do.”
Abby gave her a curious look. “They meddle with your love life?”
“Oh yes. You get used to it.” That wasn’t exactly true of course because she’d never got used to it. “It’s particularly bad in your teenage years when you’re gawky and uncertain about who you are and everyone has an opinion. For example, my first kiss was round the back of the pub and I thought we’d been discreet. Then the next day four different people told me they didn’t think he was right for me, and they also told my dad.”
Abby laughed. “That must have been a little limiting.”
“Very limiting. And it still happens.” She thought of Martin,and then pushed the thought aside. She wasn’t going to let Martin ruin what was otherwise a perfectly good day.
“I can’t imagine living in a place where everyone knows everyone else.”
“Well, it’s heaven or hell, depending on your taste. It’s impossible to keep secrets in this place. On the other hand if you want everyone in the village to know something you don’t have to waste time or money on a mailing. Just tell Marie in the ice cream shop. And while you’re there order a scoop of her vanilla and honeycomb.” She pushed open the doors that led to the kitchen.
Every surface gleamed and the staff were in the process of prepping for the evening.
There was no sign of Luca but Evie made a mental note to thank him for organising his domain so well.
“This is where the magic happens.” Evie paused as Alina, one of the receptionists, stuck her head around the door.
“Evie! There you are. The Hunters just checked out. They were complaining that their breakfast was cold so I removed it from their bill and offered them a free night next time they’re staying.”
Evie felt a ripple of frustration and resisted the urge to bang her head against the wall. They couldn’t afford to over-compensate. “Did they complain about their breakfast at the time?”
“I—I don’t know.”
“I did a walk-around this morning and all they said to me was ‘good morning.’ We encourage guests to tell us right away if they encounter anything during their stay that falls below the standard they were expecting. We can’t fix something at the end.”
“Right.” Alina looked confused. “I thought our aim was to have happy guests.”
“It is, but we need to do that while keeping an eye on our profit. It isn’t all about discounts. Sometimes we just need to do better.”
Alina nodded. “It’s just that Gerald always—”
“I know,” Evie interrupted quickly, conscious that Abby was listening, “but next time there’s a problem give me a call and I’ll talk to them.”
“Okay. I’ll do that.”
Alina left and Evie led Abby back to the office. She wished Abby hadn’t witnessed that. It was mortifying. She’d wanted to impress Abby, and instead that encounter had been a demonstration of staff inexperience and her own ineptitude as a manager. Abby wasn’t to know how hard Evie had worked to try and change things. She was probably wondering what sort of outfit she’d joined.
Her mood deflating again, she grabbed her bag from her desk. She hoped the Hunters weren’t going to leave a bad review. It was true that Gerald probably would have offered them a big discount, but she was fast becoming aware that his misplaced generosity (or maybe it was his aversion to conflict) was one of the reasons the hotel was losing money.
Pushing that aside, she smiled at Abby as if nothing was amiss. “I’m going to take you down to the village now and get you settled in your new home. I can show you around so that you can orientate yourself.”
They walked to the back of the hotel where Evie’s car was parked and loaded Abby’s luggage into the back.
“It’s stunning,” Abby said as they drove back along the coast. “And it’s such a pretty day.”
“Yes, you timed it well. Which is good. I want you to see it at its best. Hopefully it will stop you wanting to run away from us.”
“Why would I run away?”
Because this place is slowly collapsing and you don’t want to be buried under the rubble.
Evie concentrated on the road. It had been easy to tell Abby about the weasel and her concerns for the future of the hotel. Not so easy to confess that she was struggling to manage the staff. That felt too personal.
