Page 33 of Secrets and Seashells at Rainbow Bay
‘We don’t exactly have CVs . . . ’ Bill begins.
‘I bet in centuries gone by working at the castle brought with it great clout and respect from other tradesmen, didn’t it?’ I continue.
Bill nods. ‘I’m sure it did, but things are a bit different now.’
‘Bill Bailey,’ Dorothy cuts in now, ‘I’ve known your wife Hetty since she was in nappies and I used to push her pram up the hill to this castle when I was babysitting her. Even ifyoudon’t think working here is anything special, I know Hetty would heartily disagree.’
Bill’s cheeks flush.
‘Is Hetty involved in any local groups?’ I ask, inspiration striking.
‘Hetty is the President of the Chesterford WI,’ Dorothy says. ‘She’s in the local craft society too, and she’s Brown Owl at Chesterford First Brownies.’
‘She’d be most welcome to bringanyof her societies here,’ I tell Bill. ‘I’m sure we could give them a private tour of the castle when everything is up and running properly.’
‘Hetty would like that,’ Bill says, thinking. ‘That’d get me in her good books, too, which is something that happens very rarely these days, I can tell you.’
‘Excellent!’ I say, attempting to seal the deal.
‘But it still won’t get the job done any faster,’ Bill says firmly.
‘Will money?’ I ask. ‘Money to employ more staff to work with you?’
‘It will take alotof extra labour – skilled labour,’ he adds.
‘I know.’
‘And they may have to work overtime . . . ’
‘That’s fine. But we will have a completion date, Bill,’ I say firmly, in case he thinks he can pull a fast one on me. ‘And there will be penalties attached to our contract if you run over that completion date.’
Bill looks surprised, but then impressed by my meticulousness. He narrows his eyes and studies me for a moment.
‘Arthur said you were a canny lass,’ he says, and then he smiles. ‘That’s a good thing in these parts, in case you didn’t know.’
I feel myself blush that Arthur should say anything so nice about me.
‘Shall we shake on it for now, then?’ I ask, smiling at Bill and holding out my hand to him. ‘Just until we’ve agreed fully on the terms and conditions?’
‘We will that, m’lady,’ Bill says, taking my hand and shaking it firmly.
‘Amelia,’ I implore. ‘Please, my name isAmelia.’
Fourteen
Bill and I eventually come to a verbal and then a written agreement about the cost and duration of the stable renovations, and finally the building work gets under way with Bill and his friendly team arriving early in the mornings and heading home by teatime every day.
Our search for new staff is well under way too, and we’ve already filled several key positions with people from the village, which pleases me greatly. Just as Benji had suggested in the coffee shop on the very first day we met, I want to be the sort of landlord who would make the castle work for the village, not against it. We still have a few more vacancies to fill over the next few weeks, but everything so far is going to plan.
As a matter of fact, I’m beginning to get a little worried about Benji. We’ve been here just over three weeks and I still haven’t heard back from him – it seems so out of character for him not to return my calls.
I’ve even thought about ringing Davies & Davies to see if they know where he is, but I stopped myself. After all, I’m just a client, there’s no need for him to keep in touch with me once the job is finished. I just felt we’d become more than that in the time we’d spent together. I’d hoped we’d become friends, too.
Perhaps I was mistaken?
But then why had he sent Tom to see me if he wasn’t interested in helping us any more? Tom is getting on absolutely fine, I have no worries there. To our complete astonishment, Arthur was most affable when Tom’s ‘trial’ period had come to an end. Both he and Dorothy had no issues with welcoming him into our little castle family, and Tom seemed extremely pleased to become a part of it. In fact, he’d been promoted and had now begun to do a little bit of restoration work as well as all his odd jobs.
So I don’t need Tom to be verified by Benji any more; my concern is simply for Benji’s well-being.
