After leaving the ballroom, they made their way through the more formal sitting room and library, the ‘smoking’ room where no one would dare smoke any more, then the kitchen, and the pantry. Elle continued to make notes – the kitchen equipment really needed to be modernised, and new shelving was badly needed in the pantry. They agreed that new carpeting was needed to freshen up the sitting room, and that the antique Louis XVI chair also needed careful reupholstering. Elle personally believed that new furniture outright was necessary there, but they certainly didn’t have the budget for that. The fireplace could probably use a new mantel and it went without saying that all interior walls needed to be repainted or re-wallpapered.

‘So where to next?’ Penny asked.

‘How about the dining room?’ Elle offered.

Elle walked down the hallway, heading for the space where her own family dined on festive occasions such as Christmas dinner or in celebration of a birthday. For guests, the space was used for formal dinners and smaller parties – for which all the stops were pulled out – silver platters, tall candlesticks. She wondered, with all the recent interest in TV shows like Downton Abbey, if there was a real marketing opportunity there. She recalled the time when her mother allowed Elle and her best friends Hazel and Paula and their respective partners to use the formal dining room to meet up before their debs dinner. Smiling at the memory, she opened the doors and allowed herself to be taken back to that night, so many years ago.

She remembered feeling so sophisticated in her full-skirted ball dress made of pink tulle and a satin corset bodice and Rob looked so handsome in his rented tuxedo. Though thinking back, she realised now that she and her friends looked just like any other group of debutantes – teenagers playing dressing-up in formal wear that either had too many sequins, was too revealing, or borderline silly.

‘This room is still in good shape,’ she said to Penny, ‘we just have to make it great again. The bones are already here – we just need to . . .’

‘Make it sparkle,’ finished Penny, smiling.

Following the storm, the day was as beautiful as Mulberry Bay had ever seen. Birds swooped in graceful arcs over the sea, and everything was glistening and shining where the sun touched it. People walked along the beach and ran in and out of the shallows. There was almost a feeling of celebration in the air, a sense of relief that the frightening fury of the weather the day before had abated.