‘Will you consider it?’ She might as well ask him straight out. ‘You said you would give us another chance, and you have to also recognise that the entire community is behind us.’

‘What I recognise is that there is currently a solid investment opportunity here for the right buyer,’ he told her curtly. ‘In any case, this isn’t the time or the place for such a discussion. Come to my office tomorrow afternoon and we can talk further. I can only hope that there won’t be a repeat performance of last time.’

‘There won’t,’ Elle assured him, almost afraid to dare to dream.

‘This time tomorrow, then.’

The truth was that Doug Grant was in a bit of a tight spot. If this investment consortium weren’t interested, he would have to let the family have another go at the hotel. Hopefully, these people would buy. The hotel was a shack, the property market wasn’t great in the area at the moment, and according to Paddy this was the only interest in the place there had been. Getting the place off the loan books wasn’t going to happen in the short term, that was for sure, and his area manager had been on at him to bring under-performing business accounts back into the black.

There was another annoying factor too. For the past two days, he had been bombarded with emails and phone calls about the place and this family. Locals bleating into his ear about how much they loved the hotel and what it meant to them.

He’d found a selection of handwritten letters on his desk only that morning.

Dear Mr Grant,

I wonder if you have ever set foot in the Bay Hotel. I think, if you had, you would be less likely to see the town part with such an illustrious piece of community history, dating back from 1883, when the original owner built the property for his loved one. You may be intrigued by the interesting mix of architecture . . .’

This particular letter went on and on in what was, to Doug’s mind, intolerable detail about the history of the place.

Mr Grant,

It occurs to my wife Della and I that before this you have only worked in cities. Perhaps you do not know that one of the primary roles of a bank manager in a small town is to support the local business community. I’m afraid that in light of your treatment of the Bay Hotel, my wife and I will have no option but to move our business accounts, including all associated wages and staff accounts, to the Wexford branch.

Yesterday morning, he had been stopped in the street and subjected to complete strangers’ ‘fondest memories of the hotel’, dreary nostalgias which he had little time for. Behind it all was the implication that people would leave the bank if it did not demonstrably support the business community.