Up Close and Personal (4 page)

Juliet shook her head. ‘Dante is more than a bit of fun,’ she said firmly. ‘I realize we haven’t known each other very long, but we’re soul mates; I feel it in my heart.’

Nicole smiled at her friend. ‘Then that’s all that matters.’

‘We were gutted to miss the wedding,’ Yasmin interjected. ‘Couldn’t you at least have waited till you got back to England?’

Now it was Juliet’s turn to blush. ‘Sorry, but it just felt
so right at the time. Aspen’s such a magical place. I felt like a different person while I was there … so relaxed and carefree. Dante and I did things I’d never dream of doing back home, like knocking back tequila in some backstreet dive, or having a massive snowball fight, or staying up all night to watch the dawn break over the mountains.’ Her eyes misted over, as she relived each memory. ‘And as well as being funny and kind Dante’s incredibly sexy too. Sometimes, when we’re lying in bed at night and I look at him, lying asleep next me, I almost have to pinch myself.’ She smiled impishly. ‘Not that either of us is getting much sleep at the moment.’

Nicole sighed wistfully. ‘Lucky you. I can’t remember the last time I had sex.’

‘You’re kidding!’ Yasmin cried. ‘I thought you and Connor couldn’t keep your hands off each other.’

Nicole looked down at the sleeping infant in her arms. ‘Things have changed since Tilly was born. I don’t think Connor finds me sexually attractive any more.’

‘In that case he needs his head examining,’ Juliet said. ‘Because any idiot can see you’re absolutely gorgeous.’

‘Thanks, it’s sweet of you to say that, but I’m still struggling to get rid of this baby weight.’ Nicole’s hand went instinctively to the overhang of flesh at the waistband of her skirt. ‘I wish I could be like one of those celebrity mums whose stomachs miraculously snap back into shape two days after giving birth.’

‘No you don’t,’ Yasmin said firmly. ‘The women that do that put themselves through hell – and for what? Just so they can look good in front of the camera. Who gives a shit if you’re carrying a few extra pounds anyway?’ She
threw Nicole a sharp look. ‘Has Connor said something to you?’

‘Not in so many words. He did buy me a gym membership for our wedding anniversary last week, though.’

Yasmin snorted. ‘And they say romance is dead.’

‘He didn’t even take me out for dinner like he usually does; he had to work late at the surgery.’ Nicole’s mouth tightened. ‘He’s always working late these days. I sometimes think he does it on purpose, just to avoid being at home.’

‘Why would he do that?’ Juliet asked. ‘Surely he’d want to spend every spare minute with his family.’

Nicole shrugged. ‘I get the impression he’s finding fatherhood quite difficult. I don’t think he realized just how much our lives were going to change when Tilly came along.’

‘Honestly, men can be so pathetic sometimes,’ Yasmin snapped. ‘When a woman has a baby, she’s thrown in at the deep end and just expected to get on with it. Why can’t guys be the same?’ Her gaze wandered to Juliet. ‘You know, I’m surprised you and Gus never had kids. I think he would’ve made a brilliant dad.’

‘Do you?’ Juliet said, fiddling with the stem of her wine glass.

‘Yeah … maybe it’s because he seemed like a big kid himself. He was so full of life, always laughing and joking, and he had that wonderful mischievous grin, as if he’d just put a whoopee cushion on the teacher’s chair.’ She smiled. ‘Do you remember that time he hosted the auction at the cricket-club dinner?’

‘God, yes,’ said Nicole, giggling at the memory. ‘He had us all in stitches, didn’t he?’ She turned to Juliet, but the
other woman was staring out of the window with a faraway look in her eyes.

‘Anyway, let’s not dwell on the past,’ Yasmin said briskly, sensing Juliet’s discomfort. ‘Why don’t we order some food and then Juliet can tell us all about Dante?’

‘And you mustn’t leave out a single detail,’ Nicole said, squeezing Juliet’s arm. ‘We’ve missed out on far too much already.’

Over the course of the next hour, Juliet regaled her friends with the story of her whirlwind romance. Although the three women had been in regular email contact during her stay in Aspen, this was the first chance they’d had to talk face to face. As Juliet relived her low-key wedding, her eyes shone with happiness. ‘It was amazing – just me, Dante and the mountains,’ she said. ‘And afterwards we went for dinner at this wonderful Italian restaurant Dante knows. He’d persuaded the owner to let us have the private dining room all to ourselves and when we walked in the whole place was filled with candles and dozens of long-stemmed roses.’

‘Dante sounds ever so romantic,’ Nicole said enviously. ‘I can’t wait to meet him.’

‘Why don’t you both come to dinner next weekend? I’ve invited my family over.’ Juliet winced. ‘And Piers and Eleanor, Gus’s parents. They’re going to want to meet Dante sooner or later and I thought I might as well get it out of the way.’

‘So they know you’ve got married again?’

Juliet nodded. ‘I called Eleanor from Aspen a couple of days after the wedding to break the news. It seemed the right thing to do.’

‘How did she react?’

‘She wasn’t exactly thrilled, put it that way,’ Juliet said with a sigh. ‘No doubt she thinks I’m desecrating Gus’s memory by getting married again so soon, but it’s my life, not hers.’ She reached out and rested a hand on each woman’s arm. ‘It would be great to have you two there on Saturday for moral support – and Connor too, of course. The Ingrams are terrible snobs … I have a feeling they’re not going to approve of Dante.’

‘We wouldn’t miss it for the world,’ said Yasmin, leaning to one side as the waiter deposited a trio of cappuccinos on the table.

‘And if the in-laws give Dante a hard time, we’ll spring to his defence,’ said Nicole, reaching for the sugar bowl. ‘How’s he settling in to life at Ashwicke? It must be very different to Aspen.’

‘I think he finds it all a bit overwhelming, to be honest,’ Juliet replied. ‘And I don’t blame him; I felt the same way when Gus brought me back to Ashwicke for the first time.’

‘I’m sure he’ll soon settle in,’ said Nicole. ‘And it sounds as if he’s going to be a great help running the hotel. How are things going on that front? Did the staff cope okay while you were away?’

Juliet shrugged. ‘So-so. Nathan seems to have kept everybody on a tight rein, but our occupancy rates are still low. We’ve only got a couple of guests staying at the moment –
two
piddling guests, can you believe it?’ She raised her coffee cup to her lips. ‘I’m going to make that business succeed if it’s the last thing I do. I’ve decided to try targeting the American market. Loxwood’s full of tourists in summer and Dante reckons they’d really appreciate Ashwicke’s
olde worlde charm. I’ve already written to a couple of the big American guides in a bid to get us listed.’

‘That sounds like a great idea,’ Yasmin said. ‘I can speak to the
Post
’s travel editor if you like. He’s planning a “historic hideaways” special in a couple of months’ time. I’m sure I can persuade him to include Ashwicke.’

Juliet smiled gratefully. ‘That sounds wonderful. Right now we need all the publicity we can get, because if things get much worse I might have to start thinking about selling some of the furniture.’

Nicole gasped. ‘I didn’t think things were that bad.’

‘The place is haemorrhaging money,’ Juliet said glumly. ‘The heating bill alone would pay off a Third World debt.’ She shifted awkwardly in her seat. ‘If only Gus hadn’t been quite so reckless with his investments, I wouldn’t be in this position now.’

‘He left you a bit of money, though, didn’t he?’ Yasmin asked.

‘Yes, but it’s all gone now. Most of his wealth was tied up in the house and even that’s turned out to be a bit of a white elephant.’ She noticed Yasmin looking at her watch. ‘You don’t have to get off already, do you?’

‘’Fraid so,’ Yasmin said. ‘Jumped-up soap stars generally don’t like to be kept waiting.’

‘In that case I’ll get the bill.’ Juliet turned and gestured to Pascal, who was skulking behind the coffee machine. The Frenchman winked in acknowledgement.

Juliet turned back to her friends. ‘I think I’ve pulled,’ she whispered. ‘That waiter just winked at me.’

‘He better not have,’ Yasmin said, reaching for her handbag. ‘He’s
coming round to my house on Thursday to improve his linguistic skills.’ She ran her tongue slowly round her lips. ‘I’ve heard that Frenchmen are
very
good with their tongues.’

Juliet burst out laughing. ‘I see nothing much has changed since I’ve been away. I take it you’re still single, then.’

‘You’re seeing that journalist down in London, aren’t you?’ Nicole interposed.

‘Not for much longer,’ Yasmin replied. ‘He’s getting too serious.’

Nicole groaned. ‘What’s wrong with that? It’s called
having a relationship
, in case you didn’t know.’

‘But I don’t want a relationship,’ Yasmin protested. ‘I haven’t got the time
or
the energy.’

Juliet raised a doubtful eyebrow. ‘Are you sure you’re not just scared of commitment?’

‘No.’ Yasmin hesitated. ‘At least I don’t think so. It’s just that right now I need to concentrate on my career.’

‘But there’s more to life than work,’ said Nicole. ‘Isn’t it time you started thinking about settling down?’

‘Just because you’ve got the husband and the baby and the Audi estate doesn’t mean I have to follow suit,’ Yasmin said.

‘No, of course not. I just want you to be happy, that’s all.’

Yasmin grinned. ‘And do you know what makes me happy?’

‘No, but I’m sure you’re about to tell us.’

‘A well-chilled bottle of Dom Pérignon and hot, no-strings sex.’

Nicole threw back her head and laughed. ‘I won’t argue with that.’

3

It was three days after Juliet’s return and Reg Cundy was performing a random inspection of Ashwicke Park’s guest bedrooms. Since Nathan had hired him as head of housekeeping four months earlier, Reg had carved out a nice little niche for himself. His job was relatively straightforward and involved overseeing the hotel’s small team of chambermaids, as well as maintaining a daily inventory of laundry and cleaning materials. But still Reg managed to perform his duties with the maximum amount of grumbling and the minimum amount of effort, his working days punctuated by twice-hourly tea breaks, sly reads of the paper and even the occasional snooze.

A more experienced hotelier would have been able to see they were being taken advantage of – but Juliet was a complete novice. Besides which, she was far too busy in her role as hostess-cum-receptionist to keep tabs on everything that went on behind the scenes. All the staff knew this, and the vast majority milked the situation for all it was worth. It was a shame, Reg thought as he pushed open the door to the magnificently proportioned, if slightly shabby, Wordsworth Suite. Having worked in a number of country-house hotels during his long career in the hospitality industry, he knew that Ashwicke Park could be a highly profitable business in the right hands. In fact, he could’ve given Juliet a few useful pointers – but Reg, who was only
two years away from retirement, wanted an easy life. What’s more, he wasn’t being paid enough to act as unofficial consultant. His employer, he told himself as he began a tour of the room, would just have to learn the hard way.

Pausing, Reg ran his finger along the top of a picture frame, sighing as it came away thick with dust. Still, he told himself as he wiped his hand on the side of his uniform trousers, what the eye can’t see the heart can’t grieve over. The bedroom having passed muster, he went through to the en suite and immediately spotted several pubic hairs decorating the soap dish. As he wiped them away with a wodge of toilet paper, he made a mental note to reprimand the chambermaid responsible. He knew he was fighting a losing battle. Most of Juliet’s staff were inexperienced youngsters; it was hardly surprising that they cut corners.

Re-emerging into the bedroom, Reg spotted a scrap of fabric poking out from under the bed. He bent down to pick it up and saw, to his amusement, that it was a pair of knickers. The correct protocol would be to obtain the name and address of last night’s guest, before posting the freshly laundered underwear back to her, but that would require far too much time and effort. Chuckling to himself, Reg stuffed the knickers into his trouser pocket. Then, worried that he may have over-exerted himself, he sank down on the bed. A few feet away, the mini-bar stood tantalizingly. Reg found himself licking his lips as he looked at it. He knew that drinking on the job was a sackable offence, but he
was
awfully thirsty.

After less than a minute he gave in to temptation. Reaching into the refrigerated cabinet, he removed a miniature of Glenfiddich. ‘Bottoms up,’ he said, raising the bottle to
an imaginary companion before draining it in a single gulp.

All he had to do now was conceal the evidence – and Reg was a past master. Heading over to the complimentary beverages tray, he placed a teabag in one of the china cups. Then he carried the cup to the bathroom and filled it with water from the tap, prodding the teabag with his finger until it turned the water a convincing shade of amber. All that remained was to fill the empty whisky bottle with tea and return it to the mini-bar. As and when a guest discovered the switch, it would naturally be blamed on the room’s previous occupant.

Having completed his cursory inspection, Reg departed the Wordsworth Suite and set off down the corridor towards his next port of call. As he passed the cleaning supplies cupboard, he noticed the door was slightly ajar. Through the aperture he could see porter-and-sometime-laundry-assistant Charlie standing in the semi-darkness, staring fixedly at the tiny flickering screen of one of the newfangled handheld gadgets all the youngsters seemed to have these days.

‘What are you doing in there?’ Reg bellowed as he yanked the door open.

Charlie started and stumbled backwards, sending a mop clattering to the floor. ‘Nothing,’ he said, gulping hard.

‘Well, it doesn’t look like nothing to me.’ Reg held out his hand. ‘Give it here. You know very well that electronic devices are banned at work.’