Page 53 of Not Exactly Mr. Darcy
“Love your work!” George called as Marge departed.
Liv turned to her grandmother. “So, how did the interiors go?”
Gran explained that they had finished the first two rooms and would tackle the dining and smoking rooms tomorrow. “Thanks to those dustcovers, it’s actually mostly just dust we’re dealing with. So we’re on track to have all of the public rooms done by Friday.” She looked at George. “That is, if you are still prepared to tackle the Lady’s Parlour.”
George nodded. “We’ll have it spick-and-span by then.”
Liv nodded like this wasn’t news to her. When she’d get time to help George, she didn’t know, but apparently George thought Liv was helping clean the Lady’s Parlour, so she’d better help. “When did you want us to do that?”
“Us? Oh, I didn’t mean you. I meant me and Liam.”
“You and … Liam?”
He glanced up, finally meeting her gaze for what felt like the first time today.
“I thought you would be too busy doing the garden stuff to clean inside.”
A long moment passed as the four of them glanced at each other.
Then Liam cleared his throat. His gaze veered away from hers again. “I’ll make the time.”
“I’m happy to help—”
“It’s fine,” he snapped.
Clearly it wasn’t. She tucked in a suddenly wobbling lip and turned to Tobias. “H–how did the garden work go?”
He told her, but she barely heard him, as she concentrated on maintaining an impassive face. Her grandmother kept looking at her. George too. Like they were both wondering why there was tension between her and Liam. Which made three of them. What had she done to upset him?
“And you, Liv?” Tobias asked, seemingly unaware of the undercurrents at the table. “You mentioned something about social media.”
Liv nodded. Drew in a steadying breath. “I … I was hoping to create some interest in the Hall, so I spoke to my sister who works in graphic design and social media marketing. She gave me some advice about the need to brand well. I was looking at the website, and we desperately need to get that updated.”
“But that will cost money,” Liam protested.
“I know.” She sighed. “To do it well will cost a lot of money. But it pays off when people see it and then want to come visit.” She opened her laptop and showed them the Chatsworth website. “See how the pictures and graphics here make it look warm and inviting? That’s what we need to do. But we don’t have the money to spend thousands on getting a professional website like this. We can spend a couple of hundred and have someone like my sister, who has designed websites in the past, give us a mates’ rate deal and get something up and running quickly. I was speaking with her about it today, and we might be able to get something happening in the next couple of weeks.”
“That soon?” George asked.
She nodded then clicked open a couple of designs that Elinor had done in the past. “I know it’s not quite the same kind of business, but you can get the idea and see how we can create something that looks friendly and welcoming. Compare what she’s done here, with this.” She clicked open the current dusty Hartbury Hall site.
“I see what you mean,” George said. “It looks kind of old.”
Like it had been designed when Apple was just a seed in Steve Jobs’ mind. “It needn’t be too expensive, especially as I can do a lot of that stuff myself. To save time, we can copy and paste a lot of the same information. But it does mean that I need access to get into the old site. Even a modern refresh of that would be helpful, so we can tie in and use similar colours and create a consistent feel with our social media. See how Chatsworth has a similar palette across their platforms? It gives a sense of warmth, earthiness, vintage vibes, and greenery. I think we could strive for something similar.”
“It’s really nice, isn’t it?” Tobias said, and the others agreed.
She glanced at Liam. “What do you think?”
Liam swallowed. What did he think? It was hard to think, because he had a headache from being out in the sun too long without a hat. He should’ve drunk more water today too.
Conscious that everyone was looking at him, he shrugged. “I guess.”
George rolled her eyes, and Liv’s shoulders sank a little, like she was disappointed in his answer. And that was fair. He was disappointed in some of his actions today too.
“So one of the things I wanted to ask was what kind of feel you want our marketing to portray,” Liv continued. “Do we all agree that this kind of colour palette and toning are good?”
The others nodded. “I like it,” George said, defiantly, he thought.
