‘No, he’s not, I agree. But you know, having dipped your toe in the water, so to speak, with Harvey…’
‘I know, I was thinking the same. I certainly feel ready to date. But no more Tinder, please, or online dating. I might just have to start going out more. Oh God, I could even turn into a man-eater, you never know,’ Pippa laughed.
‘I can’t think of anything less likely. Well, maybe I can – Freddie becoming one hundred percent sober.’
They both giggled like schoolgirls and Pippa felt happy. It had been a good day and she was still counting her blessings.
They reached the house and pulled themselves together.
That night, while the hotel bar was buzzing, Pippa noticed that Brooke and Hector were absent.
‘Fred, do you know where Hector and Brooke are?’ she asked.
It seemed that everyone talking about them potentially getting together had firmly put the idea in her head. And she had to admit, she didn’t love it…
‘Yes, he’s taken her for dinner in Bath; I lent him my car. Said it wasn’t an actual date, though. Apparently, she needed cheering up because she’s worried about her family rejecting her or something.’
‘Yes, she said as much last night. I’m just surprised Hector didn’t mention it.’
‘Look, Pip, I don’t know anything for sure, but my suspicion is that he and Brooke might be getting closer. He’s not said anything, but I think when he saw you with Harvey he finally accepted that nothing was going to happen with you and so maybe now he and Brooke have spent so much time together that…’
‘You really think they might be, you know, romantically involved?’
‘Harry does, too,’ Freddie shrugged. ‘And to be honest, as much as I love you, I want Hector to be happy. When you made it clear that you weren’t interested, we all started rooting for them.’
‘Of course, we all want them to be happy, especially Hector.’
Pippa didn’t know why her cheeks were burning. Surely she wasn’t jealous? How could she be jealous? She had no right to be. Even if them getting together changed her friendship with Hector, she should be happy for them.
‘And they do have a lot in common,’ Freddie added.
‘What?’ Pippa asked.
‘They both love Meadowbrook,’ he said and Pippa smarted a little.
Why wasn’t she feeling as happy as she should at this? What was wrong with her? Perhaps her longing for a relationship now was stronger than she realised. Perhaps she was worried about losing Hector and even her fledgling friendship with Brooke. Or perhaps she was just being really bloody selfish.
Chapter Twenty-nine
Pippa hung up her mobile phone, cursed then panicked. It was changeover day at the hotel. They had guests coming in later that afternoon – a corporate booking, which was a real coup for the hotel, with top executives of a major retail chain – and all hands were supposed to be on deck. However, Pippa had spoken to Ross, who’d informed her that the housekeeping staff were all sick. One of them had the norovirus and it had spread like wildfire. The hotel was left with hardly any staff and no one to clean the rooms.
Pippa called Gwen first to rope her into cooking, which she was happy to do. Gwen didn’t suit retirement and was always offering to do things. However, that still left the cleaning.
‘Gem, are you at college today?’ Pippa asked as she picked up the phone.
‘No, I’m meant to be revising at home. What’s up?’
‘All the staff have gone off sick and we need to get the rooms ready. Fancy housekeeping with me?’
‘Oh, great, my most hated job.’
‘Gem, it’s a total emergency and I don’t know what else to do. I’m going to call Harry, too; she’ll hate it, but at least she can make a bed.’
‘What about Toby? If Gwen’s up at the house cleaning then who can have him?’
‘Hopefully Connor’ll be at the sanctuary so he can keep Toby with him. Oh God, let me call her now. If she’s not around, I might have to get hold of some of the gardening club ladies.’
‘Please let Harriet be available in that case,’ Gemma finished.
They’d roped in the gardening club ladies once before and it hadn’t gone well. The rooms weren’t cleaned thoroughly and instead they’d all had a whale of a time enjoying themselves and just pretending to work.
Pippa got straight on the phone to Harriet, who said that Connor was, in fact, at the sanctuary that day so could look after Toby for a few hours. Rather than complain about it, Harriet was all business and understood that this was a crisis, so was happy to muck in. This corporate booking had once again meant that Hector had been forced to vacate his room. Pippa had to admit that she was relieved when he’d told her he was going to London to see his agent for a few days and check on his flat there, so it wasn’t going to be a problem. Also, part of her thought he might have moved into Brooke’s room and she was still smarting. There was no evidence that they were together, but they were certainly very close, and having helped Brooke with the Lucky situation, Pippa wasn’t sure what was going on with them.
Although at first she’d wanted them to get together, she wasn’t sure now. Hector was important to Pippa – they were such good friends and she didn’t want Brooke to take him away from her … Gosh, she sounded like a jealous five-year-old. Maybe it was as simple as her being jealous of losing just a friendship, but she didn’t like to think that she was. Or that there might be more to it. She wanted to be happy for them, but for some reason she couldn’t make herself genuinely feel it.
Gemma, Harriet and Pippa all donned rubber gloves as they started with the rooms. Gwen, who was of course the best housekeeper ever when she worked for them, briefed them on how the rooms should be done and also warned them that she’d be inspecting them later.
‘I don’t even clean my own house,’ Harriet moaned.
Vicky used to work for her a couple of times a week but since she was now working full time at the hotel, Harriet now had a lady from the village cleaning for her, who also helped out at the hotel from time to time. Of course she wasn’t available today, typically.
‘Look, it’s time we stopped being so spoilt and did some actual manual labour,’ Pippa said. ‘It does us good to get our hands dirty sometimes.’
‘And unlike you two princesses, I’ve cleaned plenty in my time and I even clean my house. Freddie doesn’t really do much…’ Gemma said.
‘That I find hard to believe,’ Pippa laughed.
‘Should we have a tea break before we start?’ Harriet suggested.
‘No, we’ll do an hour first and then we can have a tea break,’ Pippa said.
‘Oh God, stop talking and get going or we’ll never get it done in time,’ Gemma finished, brandishing a pair of rubber gloves.
‘You know, that wasn’t easy and I think it’s good I experienced it, because our staff need to be more appreciated,’ Pippa said as she sat at the kitchen table nursing a cup of coffee and some of Gwen’s home-made biscuits.
‘Pip, honestly, we do treat our staff well. We pay above most places round here, as you know, and the perks are pretty good,’ Harriet said.
It was true. Their father, who’d run many successful businesses, valued his staff. He didn’t think that trying to cut corners was appropriate and he said if you couldn’t pay people well, then you shouldn’t be in business. Meadowbrook was run on this ethos, meaning the staff were really happy, especially as training and promotion was encouraged. But they expected loyalty in return and largely got it. They’d had one bar person who’d stolen alcohol early on when the hotel first opened, but that had been dealt with and nothing major had happened since.
‘Well, my loves, I’m impressed,’ Gwen said when she’d finished her inspection. ‘You can each have an extra biscuit.’
They beamed at Gwen as if they were children who’d been rewarded with sweets.
‘But Brooke’s room hasn’t been done yet, before you all get too excited,’ she added.
>
The three of them glanced at each other. Hector’s was being used, so he’d moved his stuff into Pippa’s apartment before leaving for London, they all knew that, but cleaning Brooke’s room hadn’t occurred to them.
‘Does it need it? It’s not like she’s paying anymore,’ Pippa said.
‘Surely you should at least make her bed and check if she needs clean towels,’ Gwen said. ‘She might not be paying but she’s still a guest.’
Pippa felt herself about to object, but then Gwen had that look on her face that said that she’d broker no argument.
‘OK, OK, I’ll do it. Just a quick tidy as Gwen suggested,’ Pippa said reluctantly.
‘Are you sure you don’t want me to help?’ Gemma asked kindly.
Harriet didn’t offer.
‘No, I’ll do it. You guys have been amazing and, Gemma, I know it’s not fair, but I need you to help out when the guests arrive. And, Harriet, I might need you, too.’
‘That’s fine. I’ve warned Connor he’s on dad duty for the next couple of days and he’s delighted to have Toby all to himself. Actually, I quite like playing hotel. I normally only get to look at the numbers.’
‘Great, well let me go and do Brooke’s room, and I’ll see you guys later.’
‘I guess we’d better go and check the drawing room,’ Harriet remembered.
‘I’ll bring my feather duster,’ Gemma quipped.
Pippa unlocked Brooke’s room feeling like an intruder. When Brooke had first arrived, she’d told her that if she didn’t want the room cleaned, or if she wanted to be left alone, to hang the ‘do not disturb’ sign that Gus had hand-painted. Unfortunately for Pippa, she hadn’t hung it today. Brooke was out with Chris PT, working. They were increasingly gearing up for starting their new business and it seemed it was full steam ahead.
Even though it was actually her old bedroom, she still felt an impostor. Not that she could think of it like that, given they were friends, but it felt wrong. The bedding was piled up in a heap and there was a towel on the floor, along with clothes scattered around. Books littered the room – Brooke certainly wasn’t the tidiest of people, it seemed. Pippa didn’t want to do anything too personal, so she began by cleaning the bathroom, which was a total mess with loads of products lying around. But then Brooke was young, she reasoned, and living in a hotel room for months at a time probably didn’t help, given it was such a small space for a long period of time.
As she tidied the products away, she was proud of herself for not prying too much into what Brooke used; although she was tempted to see if anything other than youth was responsible for her dewy skin. She cleaned the bath, the loo and the shower then put out fresh towels. There was something therapeutic about cleaning, Pippa decided as she hummed to herself. They’d been so spoilt by Gwen as children that they hadn’t lifted a finger. Although when Pippa was married to Mark, she did the cleaning herself, as she couldn’t justify not working and paying a cleaner. It wasn’t as if Mark would have done it and he insisted on everything being immaculate. God, he was a tyrant, she thought. She folded Brooke’s clothes, put fresh flowers in the room and made the bed, thinking how delighted Brooke would be to come back to a lovely neat and tidy room.
Just as she was about to leave, she couldn’t help but notice something poking out from under the bed. There was a large holdall type bag with papers sticking out of the top. It made the otherwise now immaculate room look a bit messy and Pippa went across the room to move it, knowing how much it would have annoyed Mark. As she went to move the bag firmly under the bed so it was out of sight, somehow she dislodged some papers and they fell out. She felt bad, because she absolutely shouldn’t look at them – after all, they were private and Pippa prided herself on how important privacy was for their guests – however, something caught her eye. She tried to turn her head away, knowing how wrong it would be, but her eyes were drawn back. She picked up the paper that she was trying not to look at and read:
Proposed legal action regarding Brooke Walker and the Singer family…
Unfortunately, once she’d read that sentence, she couldn’t un-see it, and she needed to find out more.
As she read on, all the colour drained from her face and her heart started beating faster. She felt sick, she felt dizzy, and it was as if the words couldn’t be real. She sat cross-legged, leaning against the bed, pushing her hair from her eyes and feeling sweat mount on her brow. She needed to stop reading, but with each paper a new piece of information was revealed and she found she couldn’t tear her eyes away or make herself stop.
After she’d read all the papers, she carefully placed them back in the bag. Wiping tears from her face, she pushed the bag back under the bed and tried to decide what to do next. She needed to compose herself, and quickly, but how? She went to the bathroom and, seeing her reflection in the mirror, she felt as if someone had given her an electric shock as she wore the full horror of it all on her face. She splashed herself with cold water and after a while, she left the room and closed the door behind her.
She hadn’t expected that. And now, she couldn’t pretend she hadn’t read what she’d read. But she had no idea what to do about it.
A glance at her watch told her that the new guests were due to arrive soon and she knew that what she’d discovered was far too big to deal with right now. God, for ages Pippa had thought there was more to Brooke than she seemed, but she’d grown to trust her, which she now realised she shouldn’t have done. She should have gone with her first instincts. Brooke had managed to fool everyone, pretending to be their friends, or at least that was how it felt. In fact, lately, even Pippa felt as if they were friends. Despite all her early suspicions about Brooke and her initial distrust of the woman, it had never once crossed her mind that what she’d discovered would be the real reason she was at Meadowbrook.
‘Is everything all right?’ Harriet asked as Pippa joined Gemma and her, who were putting the finishing touches to the reception area.
Bright and vibrant, the fresh flowers smelt divine, Pippa thought, but she felt sick to her stomach.
‘Yes, just a bit tired,’ she lied. ‘Right, what do we need to do before these guests descend?’
‘Well, Pip, I thought maybe we should draw up a list of jobs for each of us for the next couple of days, so we know who’s doing what, which might save us some time,’ Harriet suggested.
‘And I’m all yours, too,’ Gemma offered. ‘I’ve juggled college so I can help out.’
Pippa nodded. She didn’t trust herself to speak. How she was going to get through the next few days, not just with the guests but with her family and also Brooke, she didn’t know, but somehow she had to. It was far too dangerous to let anyone know what she’d discovered, not when they had guests arriving. For now, she’d have to push it to the back of her mind and somehow get rid of the rising nausea, knowing that it was definitely not the norovirus, but Brooke causing it.
Chapter Thirty
If it hadn’t been for the information that she held inside her, it would have been a great few days. But it was busy, exhausting, successful and horrible all at the same time. Pippa had barely eaten since her discovery and she felt sick all the time. She’d kept most of her chat with her family to the hotel and the minute she could clock off she’d hidden in her apartment, trying to make sense of everything when nothing made sense.
She wished that Hector was around, she had the urge to talk to him before she spoke to anyone else. She wasn’t sure why, but possibly it was because he wasn’t family. Not only was he a good listener, but he was also calm, and she definitely needed someone to calm her down. But, of course, that wasn’t going to happen as he wasn’t around. But her guests most definitely were – some very demanding but pleasant senior executives who liked everything to be just so. They’d got fully involved in Meadowbrook experience. They’d painted, had a Great British Bake Off style competition and they’d even been involved in the sanctuary for half a day, feeding animals and grooming the ponies, w
hich they’d enjoyed. It was a real change from their corporate city life but they’d embraced it fully.
But when they were at the hotel, it was all expensive wine, whisky, vodka and tequila. Gerry had been sent out a number of times to collect things they didn’t have, which was pretty unusual, as Meadowbrook usually stocked the best of everything; however, this group managed to challenge that supposition. It was lucky in a way that they were keeping Pippa, so busy that she could only think about Brooke when she was alone in her apartment, and because she was so tired, not even the worry was managing to stop her from sleeping. But when she woke, she felt an unfamiliar panic and anxiety that was alien to her as she remembered what she’d read in Brooke’s room.
If only Hector were here, she thought once more. She really needed him, and now more than ever. A couple more days and he’d be back at Meadowbrook, the current hotel guests would have departed and she could finally tell someone what she knew.
Pippa felt sad. Her feelings about Brooke had been dismissed by everyone as just her being silly and although she thought there was something going on with Brooke at times, she didn’t expect this. The enormity of the situation meant she didn’t feel pleased about it, at all. In fact, she felt scared, wretched and alone with a terrible, horrible secret.
When she finally said goodbye to the guests, Gemma, Harriet and she collapsed in the drawing room. Although the staff were finally better, they still weren’t allowed back until these particular guests had gone, just in case. They didn’t want anyone to catch a sickness bug under their watch. Not at the prices they were paying. And they didn’t need another threatened lawsuit when they’d only just got rid of William.
‘I’m so looking forward to getting back to normal. Actually, working in a hotel is damn hard,’ Harriet smiled. ‘And I even think motherhood might be easier than this.’
‘It has been hard work, but these guests were particularly demanding. God, it’s lucky I had you guys to muck in. I don’t know how to thank you.’
The Ticket to Happiness Page 26