But still, a tiny part of her had truly believed that what she and Rob shared was special. That it had no equal. She had thought that if she could just be close to him one more time, then maybe he would realise it too.

She had been so, so wrong. All that was left for her now was the hotel. That, and maybe a couple of cats. Penny’s did seem to have adopted her.

Elle comforted herself with the notion that at least she couldn’t be altogether repellent.

Sometime after midnight, the guests began drifting away in pairs and groups. The rain had never made good on its promise, and instead a gibbous moon hung low and majestic in the sky. Elle remembered that she and Penny had always tried to see a face in the moon. Sometimes it looked friendly, sometimes not. Tonight it was giving nothing away.

She bade a personal farewell to every last guest. Penny was nowhere to be found and her dad had his feet up in the dining room, catching up on old times over a whiskey with Della and Jim. He seemed in especially good spirits tonight. Everyone had remarked that it was good for Ned to have his two daughters back under the same roof.

Hazel, having had one too many glasses of wine, was propped up by a grinning Glenn. ‘We’re not used to this kind of thing, any more,’ he said. ‘Your bad influence, Elle.’

‘We did it, yay!’ laughed his wife as they staggered down the drive. Her words seemed to bounce off the water and the low sky and come back to Elle in a kind of mocking taunt.

Emptied out of guests, the hotel felt haunted and lonely. Elle went through the rooms one by one, turning off the lights.

From the outside, the building appeared blind and abandoned once more. She thought back on the evening. It had been a fine occasion, all said and done. Now she just had to wait and hope that somewhere inside Doug Grant lay a beating heart that might be swayed in their favour.

Her heart quailed at the thought of tomorrow’s clean-up. She didn’t know if she had the heart for it.

The hotel was a bit like Cinderella, beautiful and regal for one night until the clock chimed midnight.

Chapter 36

The next day, the storm that had been threatening the day before hit with a vengeance. It seemed to have extra vigour from having held back a day.

‘To think,’ said Colin, over breakfast. ‘I was supposed to have been on a plane today.’

‘Will you get refunded for your tickets?’ Ned asked. Such practical things were as always his first concern.

‘Actually,’ Colin muttered, reddening. ‘I never quite . . .’

‘You never booked your ticket home at all, did you?’ Elle challenged, teasingly.