Elle thought that maybe it might have something to do with her mother’s own contentedness. She could listen to others all day, safe in the knowledge that happiness did exist: she had it, so they could too. She was able to dispense advice and comfort from a place of experience; she was no hypocrite. Could Elle ever aspire to the same thing, achieve the same mantle?

Because no matter what Penny said, she knew her family did expect that. Elle would be the face of the hotel, and the rest of them would be the puppeteers behind the scene. Because of them, clean towels would magically appear, beds freshly made, garden perfectly manicured, and roast lamb and tiramisu would wow the palates of guests. But Elle would be expected to be its heart, its Anna.

She had thought she would be happy when they got the hotel back. She could see it taking shape, see the day ahead when it would appear to her finished and perfect, just as she had imagined.

But her heart still chafed, restless. It wasn’t that she wanted to leave Mulberry Bay and return to London. She knew that she was finished with her life there, and while she felt that a move back home was the right decision, she worried that she couldn’t hold a candle to Anna or the amazing things her mother used to do. She could still throw herself into the running of the hotel while the others helped out, though. She loved spending more time with Ned, and watching Penny and Colin fall deeper in love, as sickeningly annoying as they sometimes were.

But something was missing, Elle knew. She could carve out a new life for herself in Mulberry Bay, but somehow she knew that it wouldn’t quite fit.

One day, when the hotel renovations were almost complete, a high breeze blew over the bay, bringing relief to the early summer-sun-soaked little town. It was to bring guests too, though that couldn’t have been predicted in the morning when Elle, Penny and Colin sat in the dining room to think over plans to get new reservations for the hotel, and soon.

‘Well, we will have to advertise in all the national papers, of course,’ said Penny. ‘Something like: “Famous Historic hotel returned to former splendour”. Should we do a special deal?’

‘No, no “twenty per cent off” offers or free dinners,’ said Elle. ‘From the very beginning, people have to see this place as being aspirational, as being truly special,’ she said. ‘We can’t seem cheap, or desperate.’

‘I hate to point it out,’ Colin mumbled, ‘but we are somewhat desperate.’

‘Yes, yes, I know that,’ said Elle irritably. ‘But I just feel like if we get off on the wrong foot then things will never be completely right again. It has to be perfect.’