Whenever people had found themselves in trouble, due to sickness, disagreements between loved ones, or just felt a bit down in the dumps, Anna had been there. She had made herself available, offering a sympathetic ear, as well as the shelter of the hotel.

One local woman told Elle. ‘When my son went and got married without telling us, I felt as though I could never like his wife. I was awful to her and it was making me bitter and twisted inside. I’ll never forget the talking-to Anna gave me. She told me straight: “Cop on to yourself, or you’ll lose them both.”’

There had been many more stories like it: stories where Anna smoothed the waters or stirred them up, whatever seemed to be best. Somehow, Elle always knew Anna would have had a better way of dealing with Doug Grant. She would have known how to butter the bank manager up, act as though she was playing into his hands. Instead, Elle had gone straight in and torn strips off him. At least she had learnt a thing or two from all of this, she reflected.

She knew the evening had been a great success. They had made an amazing amount of money from the bids, enough to cover the basic repairs and some interior decorating. People had been more than generous with their bids, realising that they could truly make a difference to this old sentinel of the community. She was grateful to Hazel for getting up and speaking, too. She couldn’t have asked them, after all that, to speak up on the hotel’s behalf.

She didn’t know if people would or not though. It was a big thing, to stand up to a man who had control of your money. Grant seemed like the kind of man who would have no trouble holding a grudge, if it came to it.

Besides, after tonight, the hotel might just fade to the back of people’s minds, the way it had before. People were good, but they couldn’t always be counted on. Life went on at the end of the day and the community had their own businesses to worry about, their own families to look after.

So ultimately everything still hung in the balance. The best she could hope for was to make the essential repairs, work on a marketing plan to increase business in a major way when they reopened, and hope that this would be enough to get the bank back on side. Depending on what happened next, Elle was also considering selling her London flat to pay off the existing arrears and help the hotel start over with a blank slate.