Page 26 of Dr. CEO (The Doctors)

I frown. “What plans?”

“If I was to draw up plans. Like viability plans for the gardens staying open, will you look at them?”

I push my hands into my pockets. “I’m not going to lie to you, Kate. The flower gardens are too close to the house. I don’t want hotel guests to feel like they’re being gawked at by coach parties. And the swimming pool area is right over the red and blue borders.”

“What if we relocated the tea shop?” she asks. “You could put the pool there.”

“Come and see the plans.” She’d see for herself things were organized a certain way because it made the most sense.

“I’ll come and see the plans if you promise to look at any proposals I give you with an objective mindset.”

She was nothing if not tenacious. I couldn’t help but be drawn to that.

“I’ll look at whatever proposals you provide.”

She started to smile, and I had to look away so it didn’t break my train of thought.

“I’m not saying I’ll change anything. I have a team of people who have thought all this through and things have already been submitted to planning. So it’s very unlikely anything will shift.”

“But you’ll look?” She searches my eyes like she wants to see the promise in them. I’m many things, but I’m not a liar.

“Yes, I’ll look.”

Our eyes lock for one second, two, then three. It’s me who looks away first. I glance over to the lake. “You like it here,” I say.

“Who wouldn’t.”

She’s right. It’s beautiful. A far cry away from Pittsburgh, where I grew up.

“Can I walk you back?”

“Don’t ruin it,” she whispers.

Despite the woman in front of me being a near-stranger, a thud of responsibility lands in my gut and I shake my head. “I won’t.”

TWELVE

Kate

The turnout for my meeting is better than I’d hoped for. Granny couldn’t make it, but she wished me luck. I need it, too, because going through the figures for the tea shop, which I was privy to, and flower gardens, which I’d obtained under duress, it was clear the earl was operating at a considerable loss. But luck is back on my side because there are nearly fifty people here, squeezed into the Golden Hare. It goes to prove people aren’t happy with Vincent’s plans. He’s going to have a fight on his hands.

George isn’t happy with me taking over the place for the next hour. I offered to work the rest of my shift for free, but I really sold him on the idea because he’d have a captive audience of customers, ready to put down their money as soon as our meeting finished, which I’d timed to coincide with the pub opening and the start of my shift.

I lift myself up onto the bar, grab a wineglass and tap it with the knife I use to cut lemons, trying to get everyone’s attention.

“Thank you all for coming,” I say as all eyes face me. “I thought we needed a meeting to discuss Vincent Cove’s plans for Crompton House.” I ignore the murmurs coming from the crowd. “As you know, he’s submitted his plans but permission hasn’t been granted yet. The deadline for objections is this Friday. That doesn’t give us long to make a plan.”

“What are you thinking?” asks Basil.

“Well, I thought we should all repeat a similar argument. That way the local authority are more likely to take us seriously. If we take a scattergun approach, we’re easier to ignore. We need to be joined up. First, I think we need to talk about the loss of jobs.”

“But he’s going to keep some gardeners on, and everyone else can apply for positions in the hotel,” Rupe says.

“Exactly,” I reply. “Horticulture isn’t some kind of unskilled work. It’s a passion. A calling. It takes training and heart and—”

“Honestly, I don’t mind a change,” Amarjit says. “If he wants to pull me off gardening and have me unloading luggage and ferrying it about, I’m happy as Larry. I heard you can make good money from tips on top of your salary.”

“Okay, but that’s just you,” I say with a little more bite in my tone than I intend. “We don’t all feel like that.”

---