The Mermaid Garden(45)
“We’re going to get busier.”
“It’s all relative.”
“He’s charismatic, but I’m not sure how he’s going to suddenly fill the hotel with wannabe painters.”
“Don’t be so negative. You haven’t come up with any better ideas.”
“Actually, Dad and I are going to start a literary club.”
“Really?”
“Didn’t he tell you?”
“No, he didn’t.”
“We’re going to invite famous authors to come down and give talks.”
She nodded thoughtfully. “It’s a good idea, Jake.”
He looked surprised. “Yes, it is.”
“Have you approached anyone yet?”
“No. But we will soon. Dad and I have to work it all out. It’s only an idea at the moment.”
“Well, you’d better do it quickly or you won’t have a hotel to invite them to speak in.”
“It’s not that bad, is it?”
Marina closed her eyes and sighed painfully. “It’s bad, I’m afraid. I wish it wasn’t true, but it is. We’re sinking into the mud.”
“God, I didn’t know it was that desperate.”
“I don’t suppose your father wanted to worry you.”
“Perhaps you’re overreacting.”
“I wish I was, but I’m not. I’ll do whatever it takes to keep this place. I don’t care how low I have to stoop.”
The men returned to the bedroom as Jake was just stepping out into the corridor.
“Do you like your sitting room?”
“It’s charming,” Rafa replied. “And I like the way you have retained all the old bathroom fittings. It’s so English.”
“Sometimes the old things are better made than their modern equivalents. These fittings have lasted nearly two hundred years; some of the modern fittings last only two before they begin to crack or leak,” Grey explained.
“For sure,” Rafa agreed emphatically.
“We’ll leave you to freshen up and sort yourself out, and wait for you outside on the terrace. Can I get you something to drink?” Marina asked.
“Coffee, thank you.”
“It will be waiting when you’re ready.”
The trio walked downstairs, careful not to talk about the artist while they were in the stairwell, the acoustics being such that the entire hotel could hear conversations there. Rose and Jennifer were still giggling to each other behind the reception desk while Tom and Shane were loitering in the hall, waiting for new arrivals to summon them outside or for the existing residents to appear in the hall and ask directions to the gumboot room or some other part of the hotel, for it was a confusing layout of rooms and guests often lost their bearings.
Marina instructed Tom to tell Heather to bring coffee for all of them. As they walked through the drawing room they greeted a couple of Americans who had come for the weekend, sitting on the comfy sofa by the redundant fireplace, drinking Earl Grey tea. Grey hung back to answer their questions on the history of the house, leaving Jake and his stepmother to walk on through to the terrace.
It was an unusually clear day, with not even the most delicate wisp of a cloud in the sky. The ocean was calm and looked almost as blue as the Mediterranean Sea. Marina sat down and lost her gaze there awhile, her thoughts drifting aimlessly on the gently undulating water. Jake stopped to talk to the waiters, quietly discussing the business of the day, and Marina was left alone to contemplate her predicament.
She was sidetracked a moment by the sight of a grandmother with her grandson, sitting quietly at the end of the terrace, playing Old Maid. Her expression softened as she took in the tender sight. The grandmother let the child win and feigned annoyance at losing. The little boy grinned up at her, his cheeks as rosy as crab apples, and demanded to play again. The grandmother shuffled the cards patiently, as if she had no desire to do anything else but spend the morning entertaining him. Marina envied them with a painful yearning and had to look away.
Jake joined her at last, and Grey appeared with Rafa. She swept the little boy and his grandmother from her vision and settled her attention onto Rafa, grateful for the distraction.
“I see you have supplied paints and paper,” he said, sitting down.
“I didn’t know what you needed, but took the liberty of guessing, based on what Paul Lockwood worked with last year. Our guests will need materials, although some will bring their own.”
“I have brought supplies, too, but thank you.”
Heather stepped out with a tray of silver pots and pretty cups. One of the waiters helped to unload it, placing a plate of biscuits in the center of the table.