It was a lovely, spring-like morning. There was a light mist hanging over the valley and as Belinda drove into the village, the sun’s early rays were colouring the sky behind the hill in a pinkish frenzy. Had it been anywhere but Brittany, Belinda knew she’d be thinking how beautiful it was. The bakery was open and even with the car windows closed, Belinda caught the tantalising smell of freshly baked bread. Maybe a warm pain au chocolat would bribe Alain into being, if not nice to her, at least civil? Worth a try.
Five minutes later, she was driving out of the village, a bag of delicious croissants on the dashboard, out of reach of BB sitting beside her and sniffing the air.
Ten to eight and there was no sign of Alain’s car outside the office, so Belinda parked but kept the engine running for some heat, before taking out her notebook and reading the notes she’d made for this meeting. She was determined to make Alain realise that Nigel had high standards for all his hotels and wanted the same for this new venture. Alain Salvin needed to know there was going to be no cutting of corners or shoddy workmanship in order to get the site ready for the season. She hoped he realised they were both in for a lot of hard work in the next few weeks and months.
It was one minute to eight when BB pricked his ears at the sound of an approaching car. At least he was on time, Belinda thought. By the time Alain had parked, Belinda, with BB on his lead, was standing waiting for him by the office steps, holding her tote and the bag of croissants. She’d decided a friendly ‘hail-fellow-well-met’ approach was worth a try.
‘Good morning,’ she said. ‘I thought a cup of coffee and a croissant before we start? We need to get an action plan put together, so after coffee perhaps we could start with a walk around the place and discuss what needs doing. Then we can decide what is the most urgent.’
‘I ’ave a plan worked out – I know exactly what it is that needs doing,’ Alain said. He walked past her and unlocked the office door.
Belinda bit her tongue and followed him inside, trying to contain the rising anger she felt at his rudeness. Somehow she had to get him onside, losing her temper and being rude back was not the way, however much she was tempted. She took a deep breath.
‘Well, perhaps you’d care to share this plan of yours with me and we can talk about it.’
He ignored her and she watched as he switched on the computer before moving to a worktop with a kettle, a couple of mugs and a jar of instant coffee. He switched the kettle on before glaring across at her.
‘I told Nigel I don’t need his troubleshooter ’ere, I can sort the site alone. I know the place, I’m local, I actually speak the language, I ’ave the contacts, and I don’t mind getting my ’ands dirty with physical work when necessary.’ He looked her up and down. ‘Which is something I doubt you’d do even if you were capable.’
Belinda, sensing she was staring at him in open-mouthed astonishment, quickly closed her mouth, wishing she could think of a crushing reply that would put Alain Salvin in his place once and for all. But he was speaking again.
‘How about we ’ave a truce? You deal with the paperwork, tidy the office, look pretty for visitors, make the coffee, and moi? I do the rest. D’accord? Black for me. No sugar,’ he added, nodding towards the kettle, before he moved across to the computer.
Knowing she was likely to tell Alain exactly what she thought of him if she wasn’t careful and that wouldn’t help matters, Belinda took her time unclipping BB from his lead so he could explore the office, before walking slowly towards the coffee making utensils. To her annoyance, BB made a beeline for Alain, who bent down to stroke him. Watching him stroke BB, Belinda remembered Fern’s comment that he was a lovely man, and that Lady liked him. Maybe it was just her who rubbed him up the wrong way? Whatever the cause she needed to sort it out.
‘That’s an awful lot of assumptions you’ve made about me, Mr Salvin, and my role here,’ Belinda said as she put three big heaped spoonfuls of coffee granules into a small mug, her