Page 3 of Emergency Engagement

‘Clifford’s great-grandfather...’

‘Look, don’t get me wrong, I sympathise with you and I admire you for having the guts to come here and make your case. But the truth is, I’m doing you a favour. If you’d bought that outbuilding, you would have found yourself lumbered with a liability in five years’ time when the main hotel started to fall apart.’

Rafael swept aside any further pointless objections with a wave of his hand. ‘As a gesture of goodwill, I will reimburse you for any money you might have spent in the expectation of getting the place, although I’m assuming you will be able to make use of whatever equipment you may have bought wherever you end up?’

He paused, allowing an uncomfortable silence to gather between them before continuing with an elegant shrug, ‘I’ll admit that the prospect of a patisserie would have held considerable appeal, especially with the upstairs done up as a place of residence, but I have no intention of keeping that building. It would require too much work, given the state that it’s in, and besides, there’s no place for it, as you’ve seen for yourself from what I’ve just shown you. My team of architects lean more towards a minimalist look than shambolic clutter.’

He stood up, looked down at her for a few seconds and frowned.

‘Do I know you from somewhere?’

Sammy gazed back at him with a sinking heart.

‘So, there’s nothing I can do to persuade you to...?’

‘Completely reconfigure the design of the hotel so that I can incorporate your plans through sheer goodness of heart? No. I’m afraid not. And, like I said...’ his voice grew more gentle ‘...you’re better off finding somewhere that wouldn’t end up on the scrap heap anyway in a few years’ time. Surely there are other premises you could look at?’

‘My heart was set on Rafter’s Hotel. Like I said, it’s a really important part of the community, and it fitted the bill in so many ways. I’m sure whatever problems there were with the building’s age could have been handled.’ She raised her eyes to look him directly in the eye. ‘If you had no intention of doing anything about the situation, why did you bother seeing me in the first place?’

‘Good question, and deserving of an answer. Truth is, I like to do my due diligence when it comes to my hotels.’

‘Your due diligence?’

‘Make sure I’m not going to be treading on anyone’s toes. You’d be surprised how tedious it can be dealing with a cohort of people who decide to make a stand against something they don’t want.’

‘And the general consensus was...?’

‘That a renovation would do a lot to revive the community. My hotels come with a solid reputation and the year-round tourist influx would benefit a host of small businesses. Naturally, if Clifford had chosen not to sell, I would have shrugged and moved on, but I managed to make him see sense. I can assure you that I was extremely generous in my offer. He got a hell of a lot more from me than he would have from anyone else. Aside from that, I agreed to meet with you because, like I said, you deserved to be told first-hand why your deal went belly-up. Imay be a businessman but I’m not without some sympathy for what you’re going through.’

‘You over-paid for the hotel?’

‘I’m a generous guy.’

‘I didn’t realise billionaires made their money by feeling sorry for people.’

‘I have a personal tie to that part of the world, if you really want to know.’

‘Royal Stanton Grammar.’

She knew the school he’d attended for the two years he’d been living in the village adjacent to the one in which the hotel was located. Their eyes met and he held her gaze as he rooted through his memories, trying to dredge up any recollection of her.

His dark eyes narrowed and she fidgeted.

‘So Idoknow you...’

‘You were in Stanton for two years,’ Sammy confirmed.

‘So I was. I don’t recall your name...’

‘It was a long time ago and you’ve turned into a billionaire since then. No surprise you haven’t got a clue who I am. Making billions must have taken quite a bit of your time.’

‘Payne... Payne...’ he said softly, frowning. He sat back and stared out through the window before looking at her once again. ‘Did you plan on using your familiarity with me to your advantage?’

‘No. I hadn’t planned on telling you that I knew who you were at all.’

‘Samantha Payne.’ His eyes stayed fixed on her pale face and he tilted his head to one side and stared. Of course, he recognised her now, and was surprised he hadn’t sooner—but then he hadn’t been expecting someone from his past to show up in his present.

He’d been truthful when he’d told her he’d wanted to do the decent thing and explain the situation first-hand—while still, of course, making sure to impress on her that he was intransigent in his decision. Now, he felt a reluctant admiration for her tenacity in not backing down, even though she must have remembered that, well, even as a teenager, backing down had never been his thing.

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