The Hotel at Honeymoon Station : A totally heartwarming romance about new beginnings

by Tilly Tennant

  ‘We’ll get someone else. There must be people out there who want the work.’

  Emma took a bottle of water from the fridge and placed it on the table. Something about this situation irked her. It felt somehow engineered by Tia, even though there was no way she could have been responsible for the no-show of their original contractors. She’d seized on the opportunity to fire them a little too eagerly, though – or at least that was how it looked to Emma.

  She didn’t want to believe Tia would do that, but she didn’t know what else to think. From the moment she’d seen the Ronson brothers in Darcie’s café, Tia had seemed determined to find a way to involve them in the hotel renovations, and this situation had provided an opportunity that seemed just a little too perfect. Now, as Emma waited for her obvious answer, Tia had suddenly become coy and was skirting around it. They wouldn’t always see eye to eye on everything over the coming months and years they were business partners, but this sense of frustration with her friend so early in proceedings didn’t bode well for the survival of their future relationship.

  ‘Are we talking any people in particular?’ Emma asked, trying to keep her voice neutral.

  ‘Well we have reliable tradesmen on the doorstep. Everyone keeps telling us how good they are. They’re local and we did say we wanted to spend our money in the village to win people over – it would make sense to ask them first.’

  ‘We don’t know for sure they’re reliable or good. They might be able to fix a leaking tap for Nell well enough but that means nothing on a renovation like ours.’

  ‘They’ve got to be more reliable than the ones we’ve just got rid of. We can ask them, and if it’s too big for them I’m sure they’ll say so.’

  ‘You mean the ones you’ve just got rid of? We don’t know anything about the quality of their work, and they might well say yes just to get some money in and then leave the job when it gets too tough. You hear about contractors ditching work all the time.’

  ‘You’re thinking of big firms with no ties to the area they’re working in. The Ronsons live right next to the site – it wouldn’t be so easy for them to leave us high and dry. And we’ve only heard really good things about them.’

  ‘Do you really think their neighbours and friends are going to say bad things about them in a village this small?’

  ‘If they were no good I do think people would say so. Or they’d at least say nothing at all.’

  Emma shook her head as she checked on their fries again.

  ‘Don’t be angry, Em.’

  ‘I’m not,’ she said. ‘I just wish you’d told me what you were planning to do before you did it. We’re meant to be equal partners and already I feel like you’re becoming more equal than me. I know I’ve never been in business before but I do have common sense enough to make a decision on a situation.’

  ‘I’m sorry; I didn’t mean it to come across that way. Purcell was on the phone, you weren’t here and I did what I thought was best.’

  Emma dropped onto a chair and poured a glass of water.

  ‘I don’t suppose I have a better plan, so we’ll have to talk to the Ronsons tomorrow to see if they can fit us in. You’re right; it makes sense to get someone local, if only to show we want to be a part of this community. If they’re not free, then I suppose it’s back to the online trade listings.’

  ‘You still don’t sound very happy about it,’ Tia said. ‘I’m not really forgiven, am I?’

  ‘I’m tired, that’s all. I was hoping for a quiet night and then we have all this.’

  ‘We can have a quiet night now we’ve sorted it.’

  Emma put her glass down. ‘Have we sorted it?’

  ‘You worry too much,’ Tia said with a smile far brighter than Emma could have managed. ‘You needn’t; something will turn up eventually.’

  That mantra again. This morning Emma thought it was contagious. Right now, she just wished Tia would stop saying it.

  ‘So that’s settled,’ Tia continued. ‘I’ll see if I can track them down tomorrow and we’ll ask them.’

  ‘Maybe we should tackle that groundwork first,’ Emma said. ‘Seeing as we now have nobody to work around, it might be a good idea to clear the area before we get them in.’

  ‘OK…’ Tia said, but she’d picked her phone up and was scrolling down a page, and Emma couldn’t be sure she was actually listening to a word she was saying. Wearily, she went to take their fries from the oven. She was too tired and hungry now to care.

  Had she stepped into a sitcom? Emma and Tia arrived at the station to start work at eight thirty the following day to find half a dozen pensioners (presumably locals) standing around with plaques that seemed to suggest they were less than impressed by the plans for Honeymoon Station. And the man who appeared to be the ringleader was Sid – at least, he was talking to them with a loudhailer in a way that asserted his leadership, when he could have quite easily addressed everyone present in a loud whisper and they still would have been able to hear him.

  ‘This is the beginning of the end!’ he shouted. ‘The destruction of our peace and quiet, our way of life! It’s only a little hotel, they say! Corporate annihilation starts with a little hotel and before you know it there are arcades and nightclubs and chavs from all over the country congregating here!’

  There was a ripple of (unenthusiastic, Emma thought) agreement and a few signs shaken in the air to reinforce it. Emma’s gaze ran over them. They said things like: DOWN WITH HONEYMOON HOTEL and THE HONEYMOON IS OVER and SAVE OUR VILLAGE and GO AWAY CHAVS!

  Sid had his back to Emma and Tia as they inched closer to the station entrance, where the crowd had congregated, and at this point some of the protestors began to realise the owners of the station had arrived. Some of them looked rather embarrassed, and they began to whisper amongst themselves.

  ‘What’s going on?’

  Sid whipped round at the sound of Tia’s voice, his clipped razor of a moustache quivering on his indignant top lip.

  ‘It’s our constitutional right to voice our opposition to your plans!’ he said through the loudhailer.

  ‘Well yes,’ Tia said mildly, ‘but that’s usually more productive before the planning permission is granted. As the station building was sold with planning permission already granted, that horse kind of bolted long ago. I’m afraid you’re slightly wasting your time.’

  ‘We can still stop you from getting on,’ he said.

  Tia reached to lower the loudhailer from his mouth. ‘Yes, you could do that too,’ she agreed. ‘But how long do you think you can keep it up for?’

  ‘As long as we need!’

  ‘Really? Are you sure about that? I mean, we’ve got literally nothing else to do but be here, and I’m sure you all have other things you need to get on with at some point.’ Tia glanced at Emma and then back at Sid before she continued. ‘We don’t have to start work now. We can go away, get a cup of tea and come back when you’ve all had enough and gone home.’

  He put the loudhailer to his mouth again. ‘Then we won’t go home!’ he boomed.

  ‘Look,’ Emma said, ‘can’t we please be friends? We’re not trying to destroy your village – we love it. We want it to stay exactly as it is because we think our guests will love it too.’

  ‘Ah!’ Sid yelped. ‘But that’s just it! That’s just why you can’t be here! All those guests will overrun Honeymoon and ruin it. And once word gets out there’s money to be made, more business will come to cash in and our village will be gone forever!’

  ‘We won’t have enough rooms to overrun anywhere,’ Emma said. ‘We’re not trying to turn Honeymoon into Las Vegas; we just want to run a little guest house where people can come to enjoy a quiet, pretty rural location. To expand from that would kind of defeat the point of why we’re here.’

  ‘I don’t believe you! You’re trying to gain our trust so we’ll let you get on with it!’

  Tia screwed up her face. ‘It really is difficult to concentrate on what you’re saying wh
en you’re shouting at us through that megaphone. Could you put it down for a second so we can talk like civilised people?’

  ‘No!’ Sid yelled through it.

  Tia turned to the crowd of pensioners, who seemed quite enthralled by the performance. ‘Why don’t you see for yourselves what we plan to do? I’d be happy to meet with you all to go through it – maybe at the café or the pub? I can show you our plans and documents, and if you still hate them you can come and protest as much as you like. But quite frankly I think you’ll realise all this fuss is a bit of a storm in a teacup.’

  ‘We want nothing more than to be a part of the community and to be friends with you all,’ Emma said. ‘We’d even like to think our business will bring a bit of prosperity. I mean, some people in the village are already on board.’

  There was a tentative but encouraging murmur of what sounded like approval from the protestors, but Sid was far from convinced.

  ‘Oh, get everyone drunk so they’ll agree to this… how very nefarious!’

  Tia folded her arms. ‘Work will be starting either way,’ she said.

  ‘But we’d rather have everyone onside,’ Emma added. ‘We’re all going to have to live together after all.’

  ‘We’re hardly going to welcome you into our midst when you’re hell-bent on destroying our way of life!’ Sid scoffed.

  But when he looked to his crowd for support, they didn’t seem quite as resolute. Emma was beginning to see that one or two had most definitely been coerced into coming along today when they probably hadn’t been quite as enthusiastic about the cause as Sid. Most of them looked a lot older than him and likely to fall over if they were expected to stand out there for much longer.

  ‘I’d go to the café,’ one lady said quietly. ‘I’d like to see the plans.’

  ‘Will there be trains running again?’ another asked.

  ‘Will there be pensioner discounts?’

  ‘Will you be doing ballroom dancing nights?’

  ‘What about Christmas parties?’

  Sid turned his quivering moustache and disapproving glare on them and they immediately fell silent.

  ‘Are you all soft in the head?’ he demanded. ‘First that café and now this! Slippery slope – that’s what this is! Next you’ll be inviting Richard Branson to turn us into a theme park!’

  ‘Seriously, Sid?’

  Everyone looked now to see Blake and Aidan Ronson standing behind Emma and Tia. Blake was grinning lazily, but though he appeared relaxed and unconcerned, there was a steel in his eyes that suggested otherwise. ‘We’re seriously doing this?’

  Aidan folded his arms and fixed his stare on Sid now too. ‘Wasn’t it bad enough that you made Darcie and Tariq feel about as welcome as shingles? Now you’re doing the same to these ladies. That’s not the kind of place Honeymoon is and we’re not about to start. Or have you forgotten our granddad? If he’d arrived in Honeymoon today, would you have led a protest to hound him out too?’

  ‘No, but—’

  ‘Then clear off,’ Blake said.

  ‘But they don’t just want to live here,’ Sid began to argue, and now the loudhailer was down at his side. He waved his hand at Tia and Emma. ‘They want to—’

  ‘They want to make a decent living,’ Aidan said. ‘Isn’t that what we’re all trying to do in one way or another? Everyone has a right to make a better life for themselves wherever they choose to settle.’

  ‘Not here,’ Sid said, but he sounded sulky now, as if he already knew he’d lost the battle.

  ‘If Honeymoon is anything,’ Aidan said, ‘it’s a place that welcomes anyone who needs a new start.’

  Emma wondered vaguely if there was something about her and Tia that screamed ‘women who needed a new start’, but she was impressed by Aidan’s eloquence nonetheless. It seemed his reminder of Honeymoon’s values was persuading the other villagers too. As one, they lowered their banners and began to mutter amongst themselves.

  ‘Well,’ Sid said haughtily as he eyed the brothers, ‘don’t say I didn’t warn you.’

  Blake folded his arms across his broad chest and gave a wry smile. ‘We won’t.’

  Sid’s accomplices started to shuffle off. Some of them asked after the brothers’ health or parents. One or two even mumbled apologies to Emma and Tia, like well-behaved children who’d been led astray by a naughty boy but who were now regretting it, which was a bewildering turn of events but very cute. Sid himself was less generous, and Emma had the feeling they hadn’t seen the end of him or his disapproval. But he left with the last of his crew, admonishing them as they went.

  Aidan turned to Emma and Tia. ‘Are you alright? I’m sorry about that – it’s not the sort of welcome you’d usually get in Honeymoon.’

  ‘Well I suppose we’re not your usual sort of visitors,’ Tia said.

  ‘We do understand their fears,’ Emma added. ‘We just don’t know what we can do to settle them.’

  ‘Time,’ Aidan said.

  Blake nodded. ‘It’s mostly Sid. He’s a bit weird about newcomers and he likes to stir up trouble.’

  ‘I think he just needs a decent hobby to keep him out of mischief,’ Aidan said. ‘He’s got far too much time on his hands.’

  ‘You mentioned Darcie and Tariq,’ Emma began. ‘Weren’t they treated kindly when they moved here?’

  ‘Oh, that was mostly Sid too,’ Aidan said. ‘Most everyone else either liked them or had no opinion either way. I think Darcie is a bit of a nervous type…’

  ‘I got that feeling too,’ Tia said.

  ‘Yes,’ Aidan continued. ‘So I think she was spooked and I can understand why – even one voice shouting for you to leave feels unkind when you’re in a new place trying to fit in, and especially when you’re as unsure of yourself as Darcie is.’

  ‘Most people were just glad to see the café stay open,’ Blake said. ‘Personally I think they’re both decent people and you won’t find a better fry-up than Darcie’s in this county.’

  ‘But you don’t seem like other people round here,’ Tia said.

  Blake raised an eyebrow. ‘You mean our knuckles don’t drag on the floor when we walk? Don’t worry – you can say it. Honeymoon must seem quaint and backwards to you.’

  ‘God no!’ Emma exclaimed. ‘We weren’t going to say anything like that at all, were we, Tia?’

  ‘Believe me,’ Tia agreed warmly, ‘you hit the nail on the head when you said we were looking for a new start, and this place looks like a pretty good new start to me. We both intend to stay and we intend to make the most of it.’

  ‘New start, eh?’ Blake regarded Tia with hungry interest now. Emma saw it clearly – he fancied her as much as she fancied him.

  It seemed that Aidan noticed it too – the knowing look he shared with Emma said it all. And if she wasn’t mistaken, it seemed a little weary. As Nell at the shop had said, everyone knew Blake had an eye for a pretty girl and it looked as though Tia was next in his sights. As long as it doesn’t end in a car crash, Emma thought. The idea that she had enough to stress about without throwing a disastrous fling into the mix wasn’t a new one, but she was beginning to wish she didn’t have quite such strong cause to keep worrying about it.

  Emma took a moment to appreciate that while Blake was obviously the player, Aidan was handsome too, certainly better-looking than she’d originally given him credit for. He was less muscle-bound than his brother, but there was no mistaking the seductive qualities of his brown eyes and thick hair and more-than-capable physique. There was a softness and intelligence that was very appealing, something his brother didn’t show so obviously. While Blake would waste no time in ripping your clothes off, Emma thought that perhaps Aidan might take the time to really know you first, and she couldn’t deny that was quite attractive too. If life had been different for her right now – if she’d been minus the hurtful break-up, crippling debt and stress of a building project that was already beginning to cause her to question her sanity in taking it on – she m
ight have been very interested. But she wasn’t like Tia and she couldn’t juggle it all. She didn’t think Tia could, for that matter, but her friend was clearly very willing to give it a go.

  ‘So,’ Blake said, tearing his lustful gaze from Tia for a moment. ‘You want to show us your plans?’

  ‘Plans?’ Emma asked, glancing at Tia.

  ‘What you want out of us?’ Blake continued. ‘We can’t give you an answer about taking on the work if we don’t know what it is.’

  ‘Right…’ Emma said slowly, trying to communicate silently with Tia without anyone else being able to decipher it. They’d discussed employing the brothers the previous evening, but goodness only knew when Tia had organised it because Emma certainly hadn’t seen her make the call and they’d been together pretty much since. She must have done it quickly too – it was the only way to explain them being here this morning. The suspicious side of Emma had to wonder if her friend had engineered all this even before she’d sacked their previous contractors, which meant she’d intended to fire them as soon as she’d learned there was a more attractive option in Honeymoon. Emma didn’t want to believe that, and she had a feeling Tia would deny it if asked, but it was hard not to see it as a red flag.

  ‘I can show you round,’ Tia said, already edging closer to Blake.

  ‘Both of us ought to do it,’ Emma said deliberately. ‘It is our joint venture after all.’

  Tia gave a careless shrug. ‘I just thought you might want to get started on other things while I filled Blake and Aidan in.’

  ‘There’s not a lot I can do in the meantime – we did a lot of clearing yesterday and it’s probably better to work from now on bearing in mind what Blake and Aidan need to get their work done…?’ Emma looked to them both for support and Aidan nodded agreement.

  ‘That makes a lot of sense. No point in you ripping out a load of old flooring or something to find we needed to do something else first.’ He paused. ‘I take it you both plan to labour on site alongside us? Or are you wanting to leave it all to us?’