Under New Management

by June Hopkins

  Mollie sees a tall man in a dark suit open the back door of the long car. He leans forward and holds out his hand which is, in turn, taken by someone inside. The hand belongs to a dainty looking woman with bobbed, silver grey hair. She steps elegantly out and says something to the man. Even from this distance Mollie senses the class. Two men and a young woman also emerge from the car, the two men looking distinguished, perhaps in their fifties. Both are bald. In fact, they are very alike. The younger woman looks very pretty and it is difficult to age her, but Mollie guesses that she is in her late twenties.

  The guy who had opened the car door, obviously the chauffeur, glances her way and Mollie quickly ducks back. Shit, did he see her? God only knows why but she panics and breaks into a run flying back through the courtyard to the kitchen. Once inside she comes to her senses. Christ, what is she thinking skulking about like a criminal? The thought of running into the new owners before she’s ready is not exactly appealing. Mollie orders herself to get a grip as she realises her behaviour is ridiculous. So what if they notice her? What's the worst that can happen? They might actually say hello and she might have to reply. After giving herself a few minutes, she makes the decision to behave herself. She pulls herself up to her full height and again leaves the kitchen heading for the courtyard. Surely they must have gone into the Hall by now, but just to be on the safe side she’ll stay close to cover.

  Sneaking back round to the front of the house she peers round the wall. All quiet, thank God. Her heart is hammering from the exertion. Mollie has another word with herself for being a plonker and heads for her car.

  “Blimey that was a close call.” She mutters to herself as she crosses the drive, relief flooding through her. But then she looks up. "Oh fuck, what the hell does he want?" There, lounging against his Land Rover, which he has parked next to her Peugeot, is David.

  Chapter 4

  Kieran McLaren helps his mother out of the limo she has insisted on hiring for the occasion, completely unnecessarily in his opinion. Her sole intention is to show off to Lady Sedgwick. He shows his disapproval through sarcasm, acting like the chauffeur they did not employ. Marylyn McLaren narrows her eyes at her son, "No need for childishness, Kieran," she informs him haughtily. Kieran merely smirks at her. His cousin Jack has driven the limo; he couldn't wait to get his hands on the 'beast' as he had so eloquently named it. He is still sitting in the driver's seat, pushing new and exciting buttons. Kieran shakes his head at him.

  Kieran’s beautiful sister, Megan, exits after his mother looking unruffled and faintly bored. She flicks her long perfectly straight brunette hair over her shoulder and roams her intelligent grey eyes over the Hall. Megan pouts her full lips and frowns slightly, "Very 'Pride and Prejudice’,'" she states.

  The family solicitors, the two Mr Bagleys, exit the car on the far side.

  "Well, well Marylyn. I can see why you are so enamoured of the property," comments the elder Mr Bagley as his eyes roam over the front of the Hall. He has two years on his fifty-five year old younger brother.

  "Divine, isn't it George? I could live here myself," Marylyn tells him, her eyes shining with excitement.

  Kieran shakes his head again and closes the car door. He casts a look over the place himself, scanning the width of the imposing house. As he glances to the right he notices a flash of red by an enormous tree at the end of the building. Doing a double take he watches as someone darts away and shoots through the side gateway. Seems there is a spy in the camp.

  Jack now exits the limo, “Ah Kieran, mate, what an awesome drive that is. Spot on my son, spot on. I’m so going to have to get me one of these.”

  Marylyn throws Jack a look, “Jack, please behave. At least try to pretend that you haven’t been dragged up, otherwise you can stay out here.”

  Kieran, Jack and Megan simultaneously chorus “Ooooo, get you,” and start sniggering like children.

  Marylyn is infuriated, God it’s like being out with a bunch of unruly teenagers. “That’s enough! Let’s go in and I’m warning you all, cut it out.” Her posh accent has slipped revealing a touch of her Bristolian twang, which is not a good sign. The unruly teenagers wipe the smirks off their faces.

  Satisfied she has regained control, Marylyn says, “Shall we?” She turns and totters off towards the beautiful stone steps.

  “Um you go on. I’ll be along in ten, just going for a quick smoke,” Kieran informs them.

  Marylyn stops and glares at him, “Kieran really! Must you? Such a revolting habit.” She speaks for the benefit of the Bagley’s, and throws a long suffering look in their direction. They smile at her in sympathy. Before Kieran can respond, she re-aims her piercing grey eyed glare back at him. The look is one that he knows only too well; it says, ‘Do not dare to contradict me, and most of all do not even think about revealing the fact that I also indulge from time to time.’

  Kieran sighs. He catches Jack’s eye, who is sending him subliminal messages of ‘Take me with you, please’ but Kieran ignores him. Jack needs to learn to stand up to Marylyn, and if he can’t it’s his look out. He’ll have to do without. Kieran turns and heads for the gardens across the drive, “I won’t be long,” he throws over his shoulder.

  Marylyn sighs. No point arguing with him. They would have to go in without him. She turns and heads for the steps anxiously negotiating the gravel in her beautiful, but too high, shoes. The rest of the party dutifully follow in her heavily perfumed wake.

  Kieran is left alone. Crunching across the gravel he notices a tall man in a Land Rover parked further down the drive; probably works here or waiting for someone.

  Wandering into the immaculate gardens, Kieran raises an eyebrow. The exterior of the Hall is well lit but this far from the house he only has the moonlight to rely on. Luckily it’s a clear night and the moon is bright.

  Lovely, he thinks as he takes in the smell from the freshly mown lawns and cleverly planted shrubs. He doesn’t know much about gardening, plants and stuff, but he would bet his right arm that this garden was one for all seasons, planted to ensure beauty all year. Someone has taken great care here with the designing and planting.

  Kieran makes a point of not retaining staff from their takeovers unless they proved worthy. Any staff wishing to stay on had to go through the interview process like anyone else and pass the intensive training programme. He had learnt this from his first takeover. A very expensive lesson, as it happened and one he intended not to repeat. However, Kieran is far from stupid. He is well aware that for every bad apple there would be a number of good ones and the good ones he intended to keep. You couldn’t beat experience and knowledge. If it worked, why change it? And this garden worked. Kieran’s eye for detail didn’t miss much. Even if the gardener turned out to be eighty, with one tooth in his head, he would be staying.

  He lights his cigarette and has every intention of enjoying the peace and quiet before what he anticipates will be a very long evening. He wanders around for a while and then lounges against a tree trunk out of sight of the house. He stops staring out at the dark garden when he hears voices. He pricks up his ears and listens for want of nothing else to do.

  Mollie marches to her car with her head high and tries to get to the door without speaking to David, but he steps into her path.

  “Mollie, I need to speak to you. You won’t take my phone calls, or reply to my texts and I can hardly come to your house after your father assaulted me,” David informs her haughtily.

  Mollie stops stock still and glares at him but then, changing tack, she smiles sweetly. “David, if you don’t get out of my way Dad won’t be the only one who assaults you.” She says in a deceptively honeyed tone.

  Behind the tree only ten feet away Kieran pricks his ears up further. This could be amusing, he thinks.

  “There’s no need for that Mollie. Is that the only thing your family is capable of, using violence? We have things to talk about. I can’t believe you are trying to rip me off for all this money. You must know that I don
’t have that sort of cash.” David whines at her.

  Mollie snorts unattractively at him, “Oh I might have known! So that’s why I’m honoured by a visit. Money! You weren’t so keen to talk when you kicked me out of our home; when you humiliated me by moving your boyfriend in the next day; or after I had to suffer the embarrassment of an HIV test, were you? Thank God we hadn’t actually had sex for the best part of a year, or I would still be waiting for the results now.”

  Kieran’s eyebrows shoot up. This really is interesting. He shuffles round the tree to sneak a look at the couple. He sees a tall, boyish looking man with blonde floppy hair and an angular face. There is a slightly sulky air about him and Kieran doesn’t spend much more than a cursory glance on him.

  The woman, however, is certainly worth a longer look. The bright red Russian style coat identifies her as the unknown spy. The irony that he is now spying on her from behind a tree isn’t lost on him. He smiles wryly to himself and goes back to his appraisal of her. She has thick, long blonde hair which nearly reaches her waist, but it is her face which catches his attention. She is gorgeous. She has a heart-shaped face with wide eyes and a full mouth. He wishes he could see what colour her eyes are. She looks about 5’ 6” tall with a curvy figure. Very nice, very nice indeed. Perhaps the countryside would have more to offer than first appeared. He has a brief, ludicrous image of her dressed in an old fashioned bodice ripper of a dress, not unlike a tavern wench, but with a white milking cap and her hair tied up in bunches. He shakes his head quickly to remove this vision, and tunes back into the conversation.

  David lifts his chin at her attack, “That’s a cheap shot Mollie. I told you that I was careful. I always used condoms. There’s no need to be so dramatic.”

  Mollie snorts again, “After you have lied to me for years, do you really expect me to take your word for it? Don’t make me laugh.” Her voice drips contempt.

  David’s cheeks colour at her words. The truth of them makes him go on the defensive.

  “Look, I have already told you, I didn’t fall for Kevin to hurt you. This isn’t about YOU at all. I can’t help that I’m gay. I cannot believe you are being so homophobic, I would have expected better from you.”

  Mollie glares at him in disbelief, “David, are you taking the piss? I couldn’t give a fuck about your being gay and you damn well know it. What I do care about, however, is that we have been married for five years, together for six. We were talking about having children for God’s sake. You cannot seriously expect me to be OK with any of this. You should have been honest from the start. What right do you honestly believe you had to use me like that? Steal six years of MY life for your own convenience!”

  “Don’t be ridiculous Mollie, we’ve discussed this. I didn’t steal your life, you wanted to marry me. I hardly strong-armed you up the aisle. You haven’t done so badly out of it. We’ve not had a bad few years. You weren’t exactly in the best place when we met; you clearly still loved that guy from uni.”

  Mollie’s eyebrows shoot up to her hairline and she stares at him incredulously. Her mind shoots back over the years trying to make sense of the accusation. Had she been in a bad place? No, she had been going out a lot, having a great time if memory served. Sure, David had been her first relationship since her breakup with a former boyfriend, but had she turned to David on the rebound? No, she didn’t think so, but what if. . ? As Mollie’s thoughts rattle through her head she unwittingly offers David an opportunity.

  David is on a roll now. He watches her frown as she mulls over his words and, believing he has found a chink in her defences, he hammers the point home. He has thought long and hard about their relationship; he needed something to fortify his argument and a dim and distant memory provided the answer.

  David thinks he is onto a winner. He can’t even remember the name of her ex, and truthfully they had been apart for over a year before he met Mollie. He has no idea whether she still cared for the bloke or not, but that is irrelevant as long as she believes that she isn’t completely innocent.

  Ignoring Mollie’s shocked face, which he reads as admission of guilt, he continues, “I didn’t see it as a problem. I didn’t give you a hard time over that. In fact, I think that I was more than understanding. You aren’t exactly blameless in all of this Mollie.” Mollie’s eyes widen further and she thinks that they might actually pop out of her head.

  David continues, “I told you why I couldn’t come out earlier, and I haven’t found anyone worth coming out for until now. Kevin is ‘the one’. I don’t expect you to understand.” He tells her in a sneering tone.

  From somewhere in the area of her feet and with lightning speed, a white hot rage shoots up through her body. Mollie’s hand opens and before she knows it, connects with David’s cheek in a stinging, satisfying slap. His head shoots back as his hand flies up to cover his burning face. He stares at her, stunned by her anger.

  Her voice trembles, “You complete and utter pig! You string me along, waste years of my life pretending to be something you are not and then treat me like it’s my fault! Who the fuck do you think you are? You really are a nasty bastard, aren’t you? Don’t you dare come begging me not to take you to court to get MY money back. I’ve lost my home, my husband, even the fucking cat, you lying, cheating scumbag. My savings paid for your windows, your kitchen and your bathroom! If you and your boyfriend can’t afford to buy me out, then you’ll have to sell the house and move into his Mum’s with him, won’t you? Now get out of my way and don’t speak to me again unless it’s through our solicitors, do you hear me?”

  She stops yelling at him, but continues to glare at him with venom. She notices a movement over his shoulder which diverts her attention from David’s shocked face. She peers at the figure lounging against a tree behind him. Oh great. Just great. The first time she’d kicked off and some complete stranger witnessed the whole thing. Well he could go to hell as well. Mollie glares at him, the stranger simply smiles at her flashing bright, white teeth in the gloom. He is clearly enjoying the show and makes no move to leave. She wants to stamp her feet in frustration.

  David steps away from her, unaware of their audience. “You are completely mad. I can’t talk to you when you’re like this. You are such a bitch, is it any wonder I left you? Kevin would never behave like this.” Still holding his stinging cheek he gives her a contemptuous look and flounces away.

  Mollie stands and stares as he gets into his car and drives off, her mouth literally hanging open like a fish. When did he become so camp? And, more importantly, when did this whole embarrassing scenario become her fault?

  Shaking her head in disbelief, she glances back at the stranger. Come to think of it, isn’t he the chauffeur? He is still leaning against the tree watching her, his arms crossed as if he could happily stay there all night. Looks quite buff, actually. Clearly thinks he’s all that and a bag of chips. Oh this is unbelievable. She puts her hands on her hips and confronts him. Raising her eyebrows, she questions him, “Really?”

  The chauffeur merely smirks at her and shrugs his shoulders. Flustered, she stomps to her car, gets in and starts it without looking his way again. As she speeds off up the drive, furiously spraying gravel in her wake, angry frustrated tears fall down her face and drop unchecked into her lap.

  Kieran smiles as he watches the car fly up the drive. Fair play, she let him have it. Couldn’t blame her either, the bloke was a right stuck up prick. From what he’d heard of the argument he couldn’t blame her for screaming at him, or slapping him. Christ, he knew women who would have had him castrated in those same circumstances, poor cow.

  Ah well, down to business. An entire evening hosted by Lady Evelyn Sedgwick. Awful woman, but admittedly he wouldn’t have found this gem had she not been an acquaintance of his mother, and he had a great feeling about Sedgwick Hall. This would be the tenth hotel in the McLaren Group. The possibilities were endless. He visualised a spa, shooting weekends, weddings and top business conferences. He could even go as far
as the odd music festival. Oh yes, they would certainly get a return on their investment here. He pulled up the collar on his suit jacket as the chill started to invade and made his way to the front door. Let the negotiations begin.

  Chapter 5

  Half an hour later, Mollie is sitting in her parents’ front room cringing with embarrassment as she watches (with one eye open) her father dance, Zumba style, round the coffee table. Bloody hell, she wished she’d kept her mouth shut now. It has to be said that Jim Brown is ecstatic; the words “show me the money, shooowww mmmeee the moonneyyy” are being accompanied by the relevant descriptive hand movements. He is dancing from Mollie to her mother, Lindy, and shoving his face in theirs to labour his point.

  Jim is forty-nine years old, fifty in four months’ time. He is tall and broad from years grafting on building sites and is still a good looking chap. His dark brown hair is speckled with grey which lends his features a distinguished air. His eyes are a greeny-blue colour; they seem to change with his mood, and right now they appear dark blue in his excitement. He has a nice face, sort of trustworthy which, mixed with his good looks and confident manner, make him a fabulous charmer. Women literally swoon around him which drives Mollie mad but doesn’t bother her mother one jot. Mollie sighs as his antics continue.

  “Dad, cut it out look, you’re embarrassing yourself,” Mollie states in disgust.