Summer at the Kindness Cafe

by Victoria Walters

  Be kind to her. Be kind to each other.

  Do what I was unable to do.

  All my love, Nick

  Eszter was sure that Nick would never have expected his mother to actually read the letter, but she hoped his words would soften her. It would show her at least that Eszter had no ulterior motives in trying to contact her; that she was there only to fulfil her husband’s last wishes. She remembered talking late into the night with Nick after he had learned of his father’s death from a family friend. He had told Eszter that he couldn’t face the funeral.

  ‘It just feels hypocritical. I walked away from them, I walked away from him, and if I turn up at his funeral and pretend to the world that I’m sad that he’s gone, then I would feel worse than I would not going at all.’

  ‘But he was your father.’ Eszter hadn’t understood. She couldn’t imagine not being there for her mother if, God forbid, anything happened to her father. ‘Besides, funerals are for the living, not the dead. Won’t your mother need you?’

  ‘She didn’t need me when she let me leave all those years ago. They didn’t come to our wedding, Eszter. That was their opportunity to make things right. I invited them and they didn’t even bother to RSVP.’

  ‘I just think you might regret not going,’ Eszter had said. She knew now she had been right. Although he had never told her, he had obviously regretted it. When he realised he wasn’t going to survive the cancer, it had been on his mind more than she had even known, causing him to write that letter and book her the flights. She felt a small prickle of anger at Nick for making them deal with this by themselves.

  Eszter had put in a small note with the letter explaining that she thought Mrs Harris should see it to know why they were here, and that she would come back to visit her in a couple of days. Eszter hoped her mother-in-law would understand why she was really in Littlewood after reading it.

  And this time not slam the door in her face, she added to herself.

  But she wasn’t all that confident about that.

  Eszter arrived at Brew and took over from Joy and Harry who stopped for a welcome break with Zoe, sitting down at a table by the window with drinks and sandwiches. Joy had checked that Eszter was happy to keep on working there after her trial had gone so well and Eszter had eagerly accepted. The job suited her and it was lovely having Zoe there as well.

  Eszter served a couple of customers, then noticed a man reading the Kindness Board and furrowing his brow at it.

  ‘Can I help you with something?’ she called over the counter to him. He was tall and lean with scruffy hair, and stubble around his chin.

  ‘I was looking at that note up there,’ he said, pointing to Louise’s plea for someone to find her earring. ‘I know where the earring is. My sister found it. Actually my niece did. It was caught in the ribbon around one of her teddy bears.’

  ‘Louise would love to have it back. I can give it to her?’

  ‘My sister has it. She’s at the hospital; I’m going to see her later though, so I can tell her. It’s best to bring it here for this . . . Louise, then?’

  ‘Well, actually, she works at the hospital. She’s a nurse there – Louise Morgan.’

  ‘Oh, great, I’ll find her there later then. Can I have a coffee to go, please?’

  Eszter made him a coffee, pleased that Louise would be reunited with her earring. She deserved something good to happen to her after how kind she’d been to Eszter and Zoe.

  Eszter watched the man carry his coffee out and wondered if Louise might just be as pleased with him as she would be with the earring. Eszter could hear Nick in her head telling her to quit trying to matchmake. She couldn’t help it though. She had always wanted to help people be as happy as she and Nick had been. And Louise was definitely someone she wanted to see happy.

  Chapter Ten

  Abbie was nervous to see Thomas again after their previous rather strained conversation. She met him in the grounds of Huntley Manor, as he was about to climb into the green jeep she had seen parked by the stables before.

  ‘The gardener said there’s a problem with the fence. Want to come with me to take a look?’ he asked as he opened up the driver’s side.

  ‘Sure.’ Abbie had to jump up to climb into the car and Thomas stifled a laugh as she half fell into the seat beside him.

  ‘You try doing that in heels,’ she said.

  ‘You really should be in wellies, not heels.’

  ‘I’d rather die.’

  Thomas shook his head. ‘I thought you said you grew up in Cornwall. You wore heels on the beach too?’ he asked, starting up the jeep and driving away from the Manor. The jeep bumped along the grounds, heading for the woods on the edge of the estate.

  ‘I started wearing them when I moved to London,’ Abbie said, remembering how she and Louise used to scamper about on the sand growing up; she couldn’t imagine doing that now. ‘At my interview, they told me I needed to wear them. The men had to wear suits, the women heels.’

  ‘And you call me old-fashioned.’

  She smiled. ‘I didn’t really question it at the time, but you’re right: it makes no difference to how you do your job, but impressions count, don’t they? Our clients expected it and I like the extra height – without them I’m often mistaken for a child.’

  Thomas chuckled. ‘Well, just don’t fall over while you’re here – I can’t afford a lawsuit right now.’ They exchanged a wry look. ‘Actually, I googled you last night.’

  Abbie’s eyebrows shot up.

  ‘Um . . . did that sound creepy? I mean, I looked at the company you worked for. They did a great job at making that new restaurant successful – what was it called – Let’s Eat?’

  Abbie nodded. ‘I came up with the ideas for the launch party. But one of the partners, Jack, it was his client and so he got the credit.’ She wished she could stop the frustration from showing on her face. She had put in so many hours on that restaurant and Jack was the one who was nominated for the best launch event award at the PR awards – and he won, of course, and didn’t even mention Abbie in his acceptance speech.

  ‘That doesn’t sound fair. By the way, I looked at the book you left for me and, you’re right, we had some great events here in the past. Do you think something like that launch could help us here?’

  Abbie was thrilled he was thinking along those lines. ‘Definitely. We could relaunch the hotel at the end of the summer with a big party. I’m convinced you need to put this hotel back into people’s minds. A relaunch would be the perfect opportunity to get everyone talking about it again.’

  ‘Wouldn’t we need to do a big renovation to justify a relaunch though?’

  ‘Not if you had a new theme or, well, just something new to display? I’m sure we can think of something that doesn’t involve going too crazy.’

  ‘This is what has been missing – new ideas. I can see that. I thought Huntley Manor needed to stay the same as it was when my parents ran it, you know? But times change and the hotel needs to change with them, I suppose, if we’re going to stay popular.’

  ‘For sure.’ She was pleased he was starting to believe that there was a chance to save the business; they just needed to think outside the box a little bit. Abbie loved this aspect of PR – working with someone to boost their business. She was an ideas person. She had loved coming up with plans at her old company. That’s why it had stung when Jack had taken the credit without even thinking about all the effort she had put in. She had wanted to call Jack out on it but something held her back. Sometimes she had felt intimidated by her boyfriend. He acted as if she had such a lot to learn and it made her think he was right, but now she wasn’t sure. Her work had won an award – surely that meant she had been good at her job?

  Being made redundant had knocked her confidence further, but she had to believe that she could do it. Jack certainly wouldn’t let anyone tell him he couldn’t. He always did exactly what he wanted to do. And that attitude had made her keep quiet at times when she knew she
shouldn’t have. Jack had been the one she ran all her ideas past, the one whose opinion had mattered the most, and now he wasn’t here so she was relying on her own instincts again. And she was rather enjoying it.

  ‘Here we are.’ Thomas pulled the jeep over by a patch of trees and climbed out.

  Abbie watched him walk through the trees to look at the fence and decided against following him in her shoes. She pulled out her phone. She had a message from Kate telling her she’d found a new flatmate. Abbie was glad she had found someone to help pay the rent but her stomach plummeted, as it meant if she did find a job in London she wouldn’t be able to go back and live in her old flat.

  ‘Right, so we need to get it repaired, which means another cost I could do without,’ Thomas said as he climbed back in. ‘This place just needs so much work doing to it.’ He sighed. ‘I honestly don’t know where to start.’

  ‘Do you have a list of what needs doing and a plan for when you can do it against your budget?’

  Thomas just looked at her.

  ‘You need to get some spreadsheets on the go, my friend. And, guess what? I love a spreadsheet.’

  ‘I thought you were crazy when I first met you and now I know I was right.’

  She elbowed him in the ribs and the jeep swerved. ‘Can you not kill me, please? I don’t want to have to sue you twice.’

  ‘First she criticises my management skills and now my driving.’ Thomas drove them back up to the house. ‘You really don’t go easy on me, do you?’

  Abbie shrugged. ‘We won’t save Huntley Manor if we’re not tough about it. So, you’re on board then? We are going to have a party at the end of the summer and save the hotel?’

  ‘I still don’t really understand why you want to help so much.’

  ‘My grandparents had a lovely house in Cornwall. Growing up, I spent so much time there, running through the house and playing in the grounds. It always felt special. Huntley Manor reminds me of it, I suppose,’ Abbie told him, her mind flashing back to playing hide-and-seek with Louise and lying on the grass in the sunshine, her grandmother bringing them home-made lemonade and cookies. It had been idyllic. She sighed.

  ‘When they died, my parents decided to sell the house, even though I begged them not to. They felt the house was a noose around their necks. It did need a lot of work doing to it that they couldn’t afford, and they just didn’t see any way to save it for our family. I was too young to be able to help.’ Abbie looked at Thomas who was watching her. ‘It was knocked down and turned into flats. I don’t want that to happen here.’

  ‘I’m sorry, Abbie. I can see why you’re so passionate about this place. I think I’ve been so caught up with all the problems that I lost sight of what this house means to me. I feel the same way about it as you did about your grandparents’ home,’ Thomas said gently.

  ‘I haven’t been in Littlewood long, but I can’t imagine the town without this house.’

  ‘Nor can I,’ he said softly, looking out at the place where he had grown up. ‘I know you think I’ve given up, but the truth is, I’ve been trying not to be sentimental about the house in order to do what makes sense financially. But you’ve made me see that it’s okay to be sentimental, that houses like these are special. Owning Huntley Manor is a privilege and I need to remember that, and fight to keep it, like I know my family would want me to.’

  ‘What was it like growing up here?’

  ‘It’s hard to answer that as this was my normal. But I know that I was very lucky to have my childhood somewhere like this. I just remember lots of running around the estate, I was always outside, and the house was always full of people so I was never alone.’ He sighed and Abbie realised how much things had changed for him and the estate. She really wasn’t seeing it in its prime, but she hoped she would one day soon.

  They got out of the jeep. The morning sun was in full bloom now and it bathed Abbie’s shoulders. ‘There was a room mentioned in that book that I haven’t seen yet, I think. The Huntley Room?’

  Thomas laughed. ‘My family were not the most imaginative of name-givers, were they? I’ll show you.’ Thomas led her through the building. She still didn’t think she could find her way around it all yet, it was so vast – full of twists and turns – so it was of little surprise to her that she hadn’t seen this room before. They walked through the grand hall and to a room off to the side. Thomas opened the double doors and stood back to let her walk in first. She hated the fact that she liked this gentlemanly way of his; she supposed it shouldn’t register with her, as a modern woman, but maybe chivalry wasn’t actually dead. Just hidden out here in Surrey.

  The ballroom was mentioned in the history of Huntley Manor as being central to events on the estate – the room that showed off the house and that everyone wanted to see and talk about. Abbie found it hard at first to see that. The room was long, and narrow, with a wooden floor and a floor-to-ceiling window at the end, displaying the grounds. She looked up and gasped at the high, ornate ceiling. Thomas walked over and pulled back the drapes so the light streamed in. In the centre of the ceiling was a massive chandelier that looked as if it had seen better days. The whole room needed a bloody good clean, but Abbie turned around, looking at it, trying to picture it gleaming and imagine people milling around in their finest. It could be special again, couldn’t it?

  ‘This is where we had evening parties when my parents were alive,’ Thomas said, his voice echoing around the room. ‘But they dwindled with the guests and people didn’t seem to want lavish parties any more, just a quiet stay here. It’s been closed up for about ten years now, I think.’

  Abbie shook her head. ‘This is it, Thomas. This is the reason we throw the end of summer party. You need to open up this room again. I know so many companies that would hire this out, if not for parties, then for work events. It could be stunning. And if you added French doors at the end to lead into the gardens, then the summer party could happen right here. What do you think?’ She turned to face him, smiling at the thought of this room getting its groove back.

  He looked at her for a moment. ‘You really think so?’

  ‘Trust me on this. This is going to put Huntley Manor back on the map. We just need to find you a budget to get it looking good and start organising the event.’

  He looked around the room dubiously. ‘I don’t know. It sounds like a lot of work and expense.’

  ‘You are going to have to invest a little bit if you want the hotel to be successful again, but I think we can do it without spending a fortune. Won’t it be worth it if you save your house?’ Abbie couldn’t remember feeling as passionate about her work as she did right now. She could feel it in her bones that this was the right thing to do. Maybe it wasn’t as important to be ambitious in your career progression as it was to work on things you actually believed in. Maybe that’s where she had been going wrong in London. If she thought about it – losing her job there hadn’t felt nearly as crushing as the idea of not saving Huntley Manor felt right now. She crossed her fingers. ‘What do you think?’

  Thomas nodded. ‘I think we should do it. I trust you. But I’d need your help. And it’s too much work, too much to ask of you when I can’t pay you.’

  Abbie’s heart was in this too much for her to walk away now. She thought about how to convince him. ‘As long as you give me a killer reference then it’s okay. You’re giving me something to do whist I’m in Littlewood, plus it will look great on my CV.’

  ‘If we pull it off.’

  ‘When we pull it off.’ She closed the gap between them and held out her hand. ‘So, we’re doing this then?’

  He shook her hand with a grin. She found herself smiling right back at him. It felt like they were a team already and she was excited to see what they could do there together. ‘You, Abbie Morgan, are very difficult to say no to.’

  ‘Maybe I should put that on my CV too.’

  Chapter Eleven

  ‘Excuse me – Louise?’

  She swung arou
nd on her chair to find a man by her desk. She recognised him as Hazel’s uncle. He always looked kind of scruffy and as if he could do with a few big meals, but she couldn’t help notice again his big, deep brown eyes and the dimples in his cheeks when he smiled at her. ‘Can I help?’ she asked, hoping Hazel was okay.

  ‘Actually, I think I can help you,’ he replied and held up a sparkling stud. She gasped. ‘I saw your plea on the Kindness Board in Brew. Hazel had found it on the bear you gave her.’

  ‘Oh, I looked on her cubicle floor, I didn’t even think about checking the bear! Thank you so much.’ Relieved it had been found, she took out the one she’d been carrying in her pocket, slipping them back into her ears again. ‘I can’t believe you saw my note on the board. It actually works!’

  ‘I always look at it when I’m in there; I love reading about all the acts of kindness in the town.’

  Louise nodded. ‘Me too. Harry and Joy will be thrilled it worked.’ She realised she was smiling a bit too much at him and looked away. ‘Well, I was really upset that I had lost it so thank you again for bringing it back to me.’

  ‘Of course. Hazel says you’re her favourite nurse, so I’m glad I could do something for you, no matter how small. I’m Alex, by the way.’ He held out his hand and Louise shook it quickly. Warmth spread through her at the brief contact. ‘Do you live in Littlewood too then?’

  ‘Yes. I’m always in Brew,’ she said before realising she shouldn’t have said that as it looked like she was hinting to see him there or something. ‘Well, not always, I mean, I get coffee there sometimes,’ she amended quickly, feeling her cheeks turning pink. She stood up abruptly. ‘I should go and check on something.’

  ‘Sure. Well, maybe I’ll see you here again or in Brew. I have to get coffee before work or I can’t function. It’s worrying really, isn’t it?’

  ‘Okay, bye,’ she trilled as she grabbed her clipboard and rushed away, wondering why he was making her feel the need to flee so badly. She glanced back to find he was watching her and gave her a little wave. She ducked out into the corridor and took a deep breath.