She’d never met anyone quite so cheerful and positive, but she was sure that some of it was a front. A defence mechanism. Abby did the same herself, sometimes.
I can’t stand people who lie to me.
Abby turned away from the window, swamped with guilt. Ironically enough she felt the same way. And yet here she was, lying.
This wasn’t going to work, and she was going to tell her mother that.
She should never have agreed to it. She hadn’t even started work yet and already she felt like a traitor. It might have beeneasier to justify if she’d understood what was going on in her mother’s head.
What was she going to do with the information Abby gleaned from her clandestine observations? Was she using it to justify closing the hotel? Looking for ways to reinvigorate it? Abby had no idea. She knew the team she worked with back in the office imagined her sitting with her mother while she confided all her hopes, plans and fears but her mother had never been like that. She made her own decisions and rarely shared the thinking that had led to those decisions, even with Abby.
Abby worked hard to please her mother and deliver what she wanted, but in this case it was hard to deliver something when she didn’t really understand the end objective. And when you weren’t comfortable with the requested methods.
She pulled her laptop out of her bag and put it on the little table by the window.
She’d work with the staff, deliver a report, but no more subterfuge.
Tomorrow she was going to walk into the hotel and confess to Evie who she was.
She slid off her shoes, stripped off her clothes and stepped into the shower, trying to figure out the best way to have that conversation.
Before today The Alexandra, Cornwall had been all about data. She could recite everything from occupancy rates to revenue performance metrics. She knew the names of every member of staff, including their age, experience and the length of time they’d been working at the hotel.
Until today they’d been names on a list in the report she’d compiled. But now?
She reached for the shampoo and lathered her hair.
Now, the hotel was more than a pretty photograph, it was a place. And the staff were more than names. They were people.
Evie was a good example. Abby had known the basic facts about her, but even after spending one afternoon with her, she could see that the situation was more complicated than she’d first imagined and that the facts at her disposal didn’t tell the full story.
Most surprising of all was that Evie had felt comfortable enough with Abby to talk to her honestly. She’d felt able to open up, and people didn’t usually open up with Abby. On the contrary they shut down, and sometimes even left the room.
And the fact that Evie had trusted her with information she hadn’t shared with anyone else gave Abby a deep sense of responsibility.
Yes, she was here for her mother, but she was determined to help Evie, too.
She’d done extensive research into the hotel as part of her report but nothing had suggested that Evie herself was concerned about the way the place was being run, or that she had fears of it closing.
Most importantly of all, her research hadn’t flagged the fact that Evie had already contacted head office to discuss the situation.
Abby rinsed her hair. What had happened to the emails Evie had sent? Who had she contacted?
Jack, presumably. That needed to be handled, as did the fact that the UK general manager clearly hadn’t spent any time at all at their Cornish hotel in recent months despite Gerald’s situation. Was that why Jack had been resistant to her spending the summer here? Had he been afraid of what she might discover?
Abby turned off the shower and reached for a towel.
The truth was that although she was deeply uncomfortable with the idea of being “undercover,” it was unlikely that Evie would have revealed any of those facts had she known who Abby was.
Evie had seemed relieved to have the opportunity to talk to someone from the outside. Someone who wasn’t already part of the close-knit team she worked with every day. If Abby told her the truth she’d hold back. She’d be wary.
In order to produce a fair analysis, Abby needed access to all the facts and Evie was only going to confide in her if she trusted her.
Which proved that, as usual, her mother was right.
She pulled on the robe that had been left for her along with the towels.
She didn’t love being “undercover” but she’d keep it going for now and once she had a clearer picture of how the hotel was operating, she’d consider how best to deal with it. And in the meantime, it was important that she didn’t get emotionally attached. Not that such a thing was likely to happen. Her mother had drilled that into her from an early age.
