giving her a look she couldn’t interpret. ‘Think he’s a bit busy for a couple of hours. Right, I’m off. Wish me luck.’
‘Why do you need luck?’
‘I’ll explain when I get ’ome,’ and Alain was gone.
Belinda gave a little laugh. His words about getting home made it sound as though they were living together. Which they were, of course, but not quite in the way it had sounded.
The rest of the day trundled on routinely. When Marie arrived to take over reception for a couple of hours, Belinda took her laptop and returned to the cottage. It was a lovely sunny afternoon and she opened the sitting room French doors and went out onto the small terrace. She was sitting out there working yet again on the website when Nigel phoned.
‘Hi, Nigel, how’s things? Molly?’
‘Molly is much better, thank you. And things, well things here have changed.’
She heard the troubled note in Nigel’s voice and instinctively responded. ‘Nigel, please tell me you’re not ill now, are you?’
‘No, it’s nothing like that, but…’ He sighed. ‘This is a difficult conversation to have on the phone, but the truth is, I’ve accepted an offer for the rest of the business, lock, stock and barrel as they say.’
Belinda sat in stunned silence. The thing she’d been worried about had happened. Nigel was actually selling the other two hotels.
‘You still there?’ Nigel asked. ‘I’m sorry to break it to you over the phone, but it’s happened so quickly, I’m still spinning myself.’
‘You never mentioned the possibility of this when I was over,’ Belinda said, dazed, trying to gather her thoughts and work out what Nigel’s news meant for her.
‘It hadn’t kicked off then. It was when word got out about Moorside being sold that I started to get enquiries for the other two. Molly and I talked about it and decided that it was too good an offer to refuse and now would be a good time for us to retire to our place in Cannes and enjoy some sunshine.’
‘Can’t see you retired somehow,’ Belinda said. ‘I give you six months and you’ll be running a club somewhere on the coast.’
‘Don’t think Molly will let me,’ Nigel said. ‘With this health scare of hers, she’s determined we’re going to take things quieter, enjoy life. Now, Belinda,’ and Nigel’s voice changed.
Belinda tensed, dreading what was coming next.
‘The new owners are happy to keep you on as manager for Riverside and for you to live in your apartment until New Year. But in January they intend to review the situation.’
Belinda suspected there would be a hidden agenda in there. Use her expertise and pick her brains and then, come January in all probability, they’d ‘restructure’ the business and she’d lose her job and her home. Maybe it would be better to leave before she was pushed.
‘Can I have time to think about it before agreeing to stay on? Perhaps it’s time for me to have a change too,’ Belinda said. ‘When is the sale due to be completed?’
‘End of June. Whatever you decide, I promise Molly and I will see you all right. We’ve already earmarked a healthy bonus for you from the sale proceeds. A reward for all you’ve done over the past few years.’
‘That’s so good of you, Nigel, thank you. Have you sold the campsite as well?’
‘Still under negotiation, but yes, the idea is to sell that too.’
Briefly, Belinda wondered how Alain would feel about that. She knew how she felt as Nigel ended the call. Sick at the unexpectedness of it and shattered as yet another problem reared its head in her life. It seemed as if her whole world had started to implode since she’d arrived back in Brittany.
Belinda was still sitting outside when Alain got home, playing an aimless game of solitaire on the laptop while trying to get her head around the three major problems life had hoisted on her. First, there was the problem of her father. Should she go and see him while she was over here in France? Or would it be too painful for both of them? Second, should she stay, keep her home and work for the new company until the end of the year – or leave? And last, but not least, was Chloe’s imminent move to Vendée. Go with them? Or not?
She could hear Alain moving around in the kitchen and the oven being slammed before he appeared on the terrace.