‘Come on. I’ve got the keys to the café in my pocket. I’ll show you round. You won’t need to cook up here because your kitchen in the auberge is fully up to standard, but I want to tell you about the kind of set-up we hope to create.’

Belinda glanced at her friend. ‘And I’m hoping too that you’ll do more than provide some of the food.’

Fern looked at her, eyebrows raised.

‘I’ll explain more in a moment,’ Belinda said.

36

After Fern had left to walk back to the auberge, Belinda returned to the office.

‘Good you’re back,’ Alain said, pushing some papers into a briefcase that Belinda had never seen him use before. ‘I’m sorry, but I’ve got to go out for an urgent meeting. Will you be all right for a couple of hours?’

‘Yes.’

‘Nigel phoned. Said he’s going to call you after lunch.’

Puzzled, Belinda looked at him. ‘I had my phone with me. Why didn’t he phone me? I’d better call him back.’

‘Non. Wait for him to phone you,’ Alain said, giving her a look she couldn’t interpret. ‘Think he’s a bit busy for a couple of hours. Right, I’m off. Wish me luck.’

‘Why do you need luck?’

‘I’ll explain when I get ’ome,’ and Alain was gone.

Belinda gave a little laugh. His words about getting home made it sound as though they were living together. Which they were, of course, but not quite in the way it had sounded.

The rest of the day trundled on routinely. When Marie arrived to take over reception for a couple of hours, Belinda took her laptop and returned to the cottage. It was a lovely sunny afternoon and she opened the sitting room French doors and went out onto the small terrace. She was sitting out there working yet again on the website when Nigel phoned.

‘Hi, Nigel, how’s things? Molly?’

‘Molly is much better, thank you. And things, well things here have changed.’

She heard the troubled note in Nigel’s voice and instinctively responded. ‘Nigel, please tell me you’re not ill now, are you?’

‘No, it’s nothing like that, but…’ He sighed. ‘This is a difficult conversation to have on the phone, but the truth is, I’ve accepted an offer for the rest of the business, lock, stock and barrel as they say.’

Belinda sat in stunned silence. The thing she’d been worried about had happened. Nigel was actually selling the other two hotels.

‘You still there?’ Nigel asked. ‘I’m sorry to break it to you over the phone, but it’s happened so quickly, I’m still spinning myself.’

‘You never mentioned the possibility of this when I was over,’ Belinda said, dazed, trying to gather her thoughts and work out what Nigel’s news meant for her.