Daughter of Riches (47 page)

Bernard smiled. ‘With you to keep me in line, Sophia, I should think there's very little danger of that. Now, how does three o'clock tomorrow afternoon sound to you?'

‘All right I suppose.' Sophia was still irritated at not being taken into Bernard's confidence. ‘If you are being so businesslike I'm surprised you haven't sent out formal agendas. I'll take the minutes if you like.'

Bernard, who was quite used to Sophia's sarcasm, only smiled.

‘That's not such a bad idea. You could say this is our first board meeting.'

‘I expect you are wondering why I've called you all together,' Bernard said. He was standing beside the fireplace in the sitting-room of the annexe. Clutched to his chest was a brown manilla folder but the label, if there was one, was hidden in his deep-blue Guernsey sweater, and his expression gave nothing away.

‘We are wondering, yes,' Nicky said from his wheelchair which was positioned in the convenient gangway between table and door.

‘It's quite exciting isn't it?' Catherine settled into the big soft armchair, curling her legs up beneath her and hugging them.

But Sophia, who was expecting Robin to start crying at any moment – he had seemed to have colic when she had given him his last feed – merely shifted impatiently.

‘Oh do get on with it, Bernard. Tell us what it's about and we can all get on.'

‘All right, I'll put it in one sentence. I want to buy another hotel.'

He looked from one to the other of them, a faint smile on his lips, his eyes direct. After a moment Nicky laughed.

‘That was short and sweet. Come on, Bernard, elaborate. Tell us what you have in mind.'

‘Very well. The Summerton in St Clements Bay is up for sale. It's in a prime position, right on the coast road and facing out to sea with its verandah practically on the beach. I knew it as a boy – I always thought it must seem like a little bit of heaven to mainland visitors staying there. But it was occupied by the Germans during the war. They made a pretty mess of it and obviously the owners haven't had the heart to go in and do anything about it. It's been empty – and falling into a worse state of repair – ever since. Now they've decided to put it on the market and I would like to buy it.'

‘What with?' Sophia asked.

‘That's the whole point, really. Although we've been doing very nicely, both with the guest house and the tourist agency, I don't actually have the wherewithal. We would have to remortgage La Maison Blanche as collateral. And La Maison Blanche isn't mine to use in that way. It belongs to the three of you – and to Paul.'

‘And Mama,' Catherine said.

‘No,' Sophia told her. ‘Strictly speaking Papa's will left everything to be divided equally between the four of us with the proviso that we should always afford Mama a place to live. He was thinking of simplifying matters, I expect, when he did it, though he could never have guessed that when we inherited, Mama would be quite incapable of making any decisions anyway.'

‘Right. And since Catherine is still under twenty-one her share is a trust. But she's an intelligent young woman and I feel it is only morally right to ask her opinion too.'

Catherine smiled at him. She liked Bernard. He never treated her like a child and she sometimes thought Sophia gave him an awfully rough deal.

‘If you think it's a good idea then I expect it is, Bernard,' she said.

‘Thank you for your confidence, Catherine,' he said seriously. ‘What about you, Nicky? And Sophia?'

‘What exactly do you have in mind for the Summerton?' Sophia asked.

‘I'd like to see it become a good class hotel, medium to top end of the market. I'd like to include on the premises all the facilities that people staying at other hotels come to the agency for and more – a private swimming pool, a ballroom with dancing and a cabaret nightly, a beauty shop where the ladies can be pampered. I am quite certain Jersey is just coming into its own as a holiday island – if the Tourist Board promote it properly I can foresee the day when visitors will come flooding in, and who could blame them? Now the war is over everyone wants a good time and to make up a little for what they have been forced to miss. I want to make the most of the boom I know is coming – and to do that we have to expand.'

‘But suppose it doesn't work out?' Sophia said. ‘We could lose everything, couldn't we, if we put La Maison Blanche up as security?'

‘It's a possibility,' Bernard said gravely. ‘That is why I felt I needed to talk to all of you together. I don't happen to think it is very likely – if I did I would never be suggesting it. I'm not a fool. But actually I did want to talk about La Maison Blanche too. I think the time has come to upgrade it. ‘‘Guest house” is not really the right image any more. I want to turn it into a hotel.'

‘What's the difference?' Catherine asked.

‘A fine dividing line. When we installed the lift that was a step in the right direction and so is the new chef, temperamental though he might be. But I have a few more plans in mind – a cocktail bar, for one, where guests can enjoy a pre-dinner drink, and perhaps a night porter so we don't have to lock the doors at night.'

‘It all sounds very ambitious,' Nicky said. ‘Where would you find the space for a cocktail bar? La Maison Blanche isn't very big.'

‘Exactly.' Bernard was beginning to enjoy himself. ‘ I think what we should do is buy a house for us to live in and make the annexe part of the hotel.'

‘More money,' said Sophia.

‘Yes, I'm afraid so. But if we ever want to get this off the ground we have to be prepared to speculate.' Bernard's eyes were shining with enthusiasm. He tapped the manilla folder. ‘Here I have various sets of details from the estate agents. The Summerton is amongst them, of course, but you'll also find particulars of some of the houses I thought might be suitable, too. I'd like you all to have a look at them.'

‘Just a minute, Bernard,' Nicky said. ‘This all seems very cut and dried to me and I don't care for it. It's my mother's home you are talking about. She might not be very compos mentis these days but that's no reason to disregard her.'

‘I'm not disregarding her. It will benefit Lola just as much as the rest of us if I can lift us into another league.'

‘And if it fails and we end up without a business and without a roof over our heads either?'

‘It won't fail,' Bernard said shortly.

‘How can you be sure of that?'

‘I don't know. I just am.' Bernard spoke with a zeal that was also quietly confident. ‘Anyway as regards the house I am quite willing to take that on as a purely personal thing. Sophia and I have a growing family; we need a home we can call our own. Catherine, of course, would be welcome to live with us, though I dare say before long she'll be off to college and then getting married. And of course that invitation extends to you too, Nicky.'

Nicky nodded. ‘Thank you, Benard, that's kind, but I think I shall stay where I am if it's all the same to you. The lift and the wide doorways are convenient for my chair. A small house probably wouldn't be. And I'd be on hand during the winter months to act as a sort of live-in caretaker.'

Bernard nodded. ‘I take your point. But I hope we won't need a winter caretaker. I intend to push the image of Jersey as an all-the-year-round resort. The holidaymakers won't come, of course – at least not the ones who want to worship the sun – but business people might. What better place for a conference when mainland Britain is in the throes of a dreary November or February?'

‘Good heavens, Bernard,' Sophia said. ‘You have got some ambitious ideas!'

Bernard smiled. ‘ I've always believed in setting my sights high, Sophia, and generally speaking I have to say it works. Now, I'll put these property details on the table so you can all have a look at them. And when we've come to some agreement amongst ourselves I'll write to Paul, tell him what we plan and ask for his blessing.'

‘I don't suppose Paul will mind much one way or the other,' Sophia said. ‘And I for one think you are right, anyway. I don't care much for the thought of all the upheaval but I know that's a very negative point of view. On balance I'm all for pressing ahead and trying for real success.'

‘I agree.' Nicky wheeled himself over, holding out his hand for the manilla folder containing the property details. ‘I take my hat off to you, Bernard, you've done a great deal more than I would have been able to do even if I still had all my faculties. Go ahead, I say. Make an offer for this other hotel and raise whatever cash you need to put it in order. I'm right behind you.'

‘Catherine?'

‘Oh – yes.'

‘That's it, then,' Sophia said. ‘Seventy-five per cent backing for your plans, and the other twenty-five per cent almost certain. Now I must get on. Louis will be waking up from his afternoon nap and I think I can hear Robin crying.'

She got up, hurrying upstairs to the big sunny room that served as a nursery.

How things had changed! she thought – and Bernard with them. These days he was so positive and powerful it was difficult to remember the quiet and rather diffident young man he had once been. But perhaps the strength and ambition had always been there concealed beneath his unprepossessing manner. It was just that she had never been able to see it until that night when he had asked her to marry him and laid down the ultimatum that had changed the balance of power between them for ever.

Sophia smiled to herself. Good for you, Bernard! she thought.

And was warmed by a glow of love and pride.

That summer was one of the busiest Sophia had ever known. As she supervised the loading of all their possessions into tea chests and spring cleaned the new house they were moving into, as she went over the interior decorators' suggestions for colour schemes at the Summerton, which Bernard had been successful in buying, and which he intended to rename the Belville, as she chatted to guests and took charge of a hundred and one household arrangements and all with her ‘three babies' as she referred to Louis, Robin and her mother, to look after, Sophia wondered how on earth Lola had managed to run a guest house with four small children under her feet.

Looking at her now it was almost impossible to believe she had ever been such a strong and driving force. The sleek hair had turned dove grey and her severe hairstyle did nothing to hide the gauntness of her once-handsome face. She had put back on some of the weight she had lost in the concentration camp but it seemed to have gone on in the wrong places – it was her stomach now that protruded rather than her breasts and she would never recover the good health she had once taken for granted. Every germ that was going seemed to find her, she went down constantly with colds and influenza and all too often they turned to bronchitis and even, on one occasion, to pneumonia. Sophia had thought then that she was going to lose her but somehow she had pulled through. Even more disturbing was what had happened to her mind – sometimes she was perfectly lucid, at others she seemed to forget Charles was dead and wandered about in distress looking for him. Once Sophia had found her in the garden in her nightdress and she had become quite abusive when Sophia tried to persuade her back indoors.

‘I have to find your father! Don't you care about him? How could you take this attitude, Sophia? It's not the way I brought you up! Now if Paul was here things would be different. Paul would make sure his father was all right …'

‘Yes, Mama, I know, but he's not here.' Sophia had learned it was best not to argue. She also realised nothing she did would ever really satisfy Lola. But there it was. She was glad that at least she could do something for her mother. If only she had had the opportunity to do the same for her father!

The new house they were buying was very close to where Susan Feraud lived and when she had a spare minute she was able to see her for a chat. Sometimes Susan called at the house and she and Sophia had become firm friends. Since Molly was only a few months older than Robin there was always plenty for them to talk about.

‘You are lucky, having a little girl,' Sophia confided to Susan, looking at Molly who was round and pretty and always pink-and-white clean in her smocked dresses and little gathered sun-bonnet. ‘Not that I'd swop Robin of course – or either of them for that matter – but I should love a little girl! They are so little trouble compared with boys, aren't they?'

‘I don't know about that,' Susan said sagely. ‘I'm sure there will be all sorts of problems later on that we haven't even thought – of yet – like boyfriends for instance. I can't say I'm looking forward to that. I remember accusing my mother of having forgotten what it was like to be young – now I'm beginning to think the trouble was she remembered only too well!'

Sophia laughed. ‘Perhaps Molly will fall in love with Robin. It would be nice, wouldn't it, if they got married?'

‘Mm. Though of course she may prefer Louis. He's that bit older than she is and he really is a very handsome little boy.'

‘Yes he is, isn't he?' Sophia said, pleased. She did not add that he was also too often a very naughty one, or that bringing him up was beginning to be a bone of contention between her and Bernard that threatened to disrupt their family life. To say that, even to as close a friend as Susan, was getting too close for comfort to things Sophia preferred not to think about, but which she was unable to ignore all the same.

‘Why are you always so hard on him?' she had yelled at Bernard one evening when he had spanked Louis and put him to bed for systematically ripping holes in every one of Robin's soft toys and pulling the stuffing out. ‘He's only a child, for goodness' sake!'

‘He has to learn he can't go around being deliberately destructive.'

‘He's not. Really he's not. I expect he's just jealous. Children often do odd things when a new baby comes along.'