‘Bloody hell,’ she muttered as she got out of the bath, ‘All we need now is for the whole roof to collapse.’

This was going to be a bigger job than she thought.

While Elle was getting ready, Penny had gone back to her own little cottage nearby to feed her cats and change her clothes. She was looking forward to this outing more than she should really, given the seriousness of the topic at hand, but it was lovely to have an opportunity to spend time with Elle. Over the years that closeness they’d had growing up had all but completely dissipated, and Penny had often longed for her sister’s strength and wise counsel, particularly when it came to affairs of the heart.

She was useless at love, had had her heart broken multiple times over the years and most recently by Paul, a tourist from Scotland, who’d been in Mulberry Bay for an extended stay a few months back. He’d sought out Penny’s advice in the tourist office not long after his arrival, and she’d practically fallen for the handsome jovial Scotsman there and then. They’d had a brief tumultuous affair, and Penny was fully convinced they were heading for happy ever after when Paul promptly told her his time in the Bay was up and he was heading home to Glasgow. Not a word about what would happen to them afterwards or whether they’d even keep in touch. She gave herself up to love too easily, she knew. Her mother was always telling her that. Whereas Elle was always just so together, and seemed to have a handle on life in ways that Penny couldn’t ever envision.

She knew that she and her sister would have vastly different ideas on how to handle the hotel from now on, and she just hoped that she’d be able to get across to Elle her own ideas and intentions for the place, instead of being steam-rolled. Though on that front, she had a secret weapon.

In more ways than one.

As she put a little mascara on, in the mirror she could see a brief smile playing on her lips. She tried to ignore it, but she couldn’t forget the thought that had just occurred to her. She could imagine what her mother would have said, if Anna were here.

‘Don’t be such a meddler,’ she mimicked out loud to herself. Her cats, Boo and Lou, watched patiently from the bed.

‘Well, it can’t do any harm, can it?’ she told them, as if they could read her thoughts. And who knows, Mum . . . it might just persuade her to stick around for a while.

She brushed her hair into a blonde halo, and wrapped a pink silk scarf from the local accessories boutique, The Wonder Room, around her neck.

Penny smiled at the mirror again, feeling pleased with herself on all fronts.