Lovely Little Things in Pretty Beach : A magical feel-good romance book to escape with in summer 2021.

by Polly Babbington

  Get a grip on yourself. What are you even blushing for? This is not a date. There is no way on earth this man would want to date the over-the-hill divorcee he knocked off his bike in the laneway.

  A few glasses of wine later, lots of chat about all sorts, the pasta long gone, and a hot chocolate sauce poured over a chocolate cake, Ollie sat back in his chair.

  ‘So, Lulu. The divorce. What happened there?’

  Lulu gulped another mouthful of wine. ‘Hmm, yeah, my ex-husband decided to mount up debts all over the place, meet another woman, and announced that he liked her more than me. It really was quite as simple and cut and dried as that.’

  ‘Oh. I see,’ Ollie said, putting a spoonful of chocolate cake into his mouth.

  ‘Yep. Not pleasant. And then once the house was sold and the divorce came through, he magically has another business and another wife who appeared from nowhere.’

  ‘Ouch.’

  ‘What about you?’

  Ollie shook his head. ‘Oh, you know, it just didn’t work out.’

  ‘Oh well, here’s to being lonely and divorced.’ Lulu chuckled and held her glass up to Ollie’s. Just as they clinked glasses they heard a noise.

  Lulu looked up. ‘What was that?’ she said as Mabel jumped up from the floor, ran to the doorway, and started barking like crazy.

  ‘It sounded like it came from over there,’ Ollie said pointing to the door to the small hallway that led to the conservatory.

  ‘I haven’t even opened it since the first day I looked around. It sounds like scratching! Oh, please no!’ Lulu said as she put down her wine glass and walked towards the door. With Mabel barking madly, Lulu tentatively turned the kitchen door handle, stepped into the back hallway and looked at the doors to the conservatory. Suddenly there it was again. Only louder this time and accompanied by scurrying and squeaking.

  With Ollie right beside her, Lulu peered through the half-glass conservatory door and then, taking her phone out of her pocket, she shone her phone torch through the glass. And then she ran.

  ‘Nooooo! Oh, my goodness! There are a million mice in there!’ Lulu yelled as she lunged to the other side of the hallway and climbed onto a chair.

  Ollie chuckled. ‘I take it you’re not keen on them,’ he said, looking at Lulu standing on the chair looking on with wide eyes and her hands to her face.

  ‘I’d rather have spiders. Anything other than small furry animals in the house.’

  ‘Have you seen them here before?’

  ‘No! Not that I’ve looked and I haven’t been in here at all. Oh my god! What the heck am I going to do?’

  ‘There’s not a lot you can do at the moment. You’ll have to get the rat man in.’

  ‘The rat man! What even is that? I don’t do rats and mice and stuff. That was a blue job. A job for the man in my life and about the only thing it seems he did well. I’ve never seen a mouse inside before. Oh no! Do you mean these are actually mice?’ Lulu said, now shrieking from the chair.

  ‘I think they might be quite large mice,’ Ollie said kindly. ‘Come on, get down from that chair before you fall and do yourself another injury,’ Ollie said, holding out his hand.

  ‘God, I feel sick,’ Lulu said as she carefully took Ollie’s hand with her bandaged palm, winced as her weight went into it and climbed down from the chair.

  ‘Unfortunately, they’re everywhere. However, the good news is that they’re pretty easy to get rid of.’

  ‘Disgusting!’ Lulu cringed with her arms across her chest trying to shield herself. ‘Not only am I going to turn into a rigid old spinster in a falling-down house with the local children throwing stones at my windows on their way to school, but I’m also going to end my days being nibbled on by rats. Fabulous.’

  Ollie’s eyes widened. ‘A rigid old spinster. Interesting.’

  Lulu turned and sprinted towards the kitchen. ‘Mabel! In here now!’ she yelled as Ollie walked back into the kitchen and Lulu slammed the door behind him. Lulu sat down at the table and put her hands in her head and sighed. ‘I need this like a hole in the head. What am I going to do?’

  Ollie started to clear the plates from the table. ‘You’re going to sit right there. I am going to make you a cup of tea, and then I’m going to go home and you’re going to go to bed. In the morning I will phone a rat man for you, he will arrive, do his stuff, and that will be the last furry thing you will see in the house. Well, apart from Mabel, that is,’ Ollie said and Mabel let out a little bark in recognition of her name.

  Lulu looked up at Ollie. ‘Why would you do that for me? You don’t even know me?’

  Ollie smiled and joked. ‘Firstly, I’m a nice bloke, or at least I like to think I am, secondly, I feel really bad about knocking you off your bike. It’s the least I can do. It’s why I thought I would ask you for a drink. To apologise and make sure I haven’t made an enemy in my new town.’

  Right. So, this isn’t a date then but an apology. Great. Not.

  Lulu nodded slowly and got up from the table.

  ‘Well, thank you very much, Ollie. Thanks for the apology.’

  13

  The next morning, after a restless night, dreaming about being mauled and then eaten by a plague of rats running all over Seafolly House, Lulu woke up with throbbing hands. Throbbing hands, bad sleep, and her first day at a new job. Plus, the man who made her blush and heart stop had pretty much told her the only reason he had come around to her place was because of guilt. Fabulous.

  What a complete idiot I am even entertaining the idea that it might be anything else.

  Lulu heaved herself out of bed in the tiny little study, pulled on her white full-length dressing gown, tied her hair in a knot on top of her head, and gave Mabel a stroke before she headed towards the kitchen. Looking at the neat pile of dishes from the night before beside the butler sink, she smiled wryly.

  Hardly quite the dinner for two I was expecting with my guest having to call in the local pest control.

  As Lulu ran the tap and water filled up the kettle, she sighed and looked down to the end of the garden and the sea. The grey day and mist coming off the water matched her glum mood. And then she remembered cowering on the chair and cringed.

  Idiot. Who even does that?

  She went out to the fridge with a bowl in her hand, spooned thick Greek yoghurt into it, grabbed a bottle of milk, and went back into the kitchen shaking her head and tutting to herself about the night before.

  Once the tea was made, Mabel had eaten her breakfast, and Lulu had added honey to the top of her yoghurt, she thought about going to the conservatory and checking to see if there was any evidence of the rats she had seen the night before. Too scared to actually follow through with it, though, she changed her mind and decided that she would be better off in the dark and not knowing what was in there. The next she wanted to know about the rat situation was when she got the bill to say that they had been treated and were gone.

  As she walked out of the kitchen her phone pinged with a text.

  Hi, Lulu. Ollie here. Thanks for dinner last night. Pest control can do today. I’ve spoken to them on your behalf. Are you okay with them coming over today? He said it would be a simple job.

  Thanks so much. I just need to check how much it is first. I’m not here today but I can leave a key out. I don’t want to go through that again…

  Yeah. No problems with the cost. I’ve already paid for it. Now hopefully we’re square.

  OK. That’s so kind! Thank you.

  So, do you want to call them to set a time for them to come round?

  I will.

  OK. I’ll forward you the contact.

  Great, thanks again.

  You’re welcome. See you around.

  Lulu closed her phone and shook her head feeling as if she had been dismissed.

  See you around! So, that’s the end of that, then. He’s all square and we leave it at that. Boohoo.

  Lulu thought about the night before when she had raced up the stai
rs, done her hair and carefully applied blurring cream to her face. She shook her head, cringed, and tried to put all thoughts of the dinner out of her mind. She had much more important things to sort out rather than worrying about hot men with green eyes sitting at her kitchen table. More pressing things such as rats and new jobs.

  Lulu shook her head, re-read the texts, and decided to try and forget about Ollie. After calling the pest control and arranging for them to come the next day before she left for work, she opened the door to the downstairs bathroom, looked in and then decided that she couldn’t face the possibility of a rat joining her in the shower and grabbed her stuff from the study.

  Still in her dressing gown, she walked up the stairs to the first floor and opened the door to the bathroom. No sign of rats as far as she could tell, just the beautiful old copper bath in the middle of the room looking out over the back of the house and down to the sea.

  Half an hour later, after a quick wash in the tub, Lulu tucked a white silk shirt into navy-blue flowing trousers and turned sideways. As she looked at her stomach in the mirror, she took off the trousers, yanked herself into what was called on the label ‘shapewear’ but what she called ‘I wish I had stuck to the diet’ knickers and hitched them nearly up to her neck. Putting the trousers back on she nodded her head from side to side.

  I can’t breathe that well but hey ho, it’s not quite as protruding as it was. Though I’m not slimmer. But smoother? Yes, I certainly am. That will have to do.

  Lulu cursed herself for driving and not walking to her new job, finally found a parking space in the Old Town, and turned off the car. She put her jacket on over her silk blouse, slipped on navy-blue heels with beautiful bows on the front, checked her hair in the rearview mirror, got out of the car, clicked the remote, and headed down the cobbled road to the hotel.

  An email had arrived from Helen with explicit instructions on her day, what she should wear, what time to arrive, and details of her first few days of training. As she’d read through it she realised that what had been said about the receptionist being one of the most important jobs in the hotel was indeed correct. The Cavendish Group took it very seriously and paid appropriately. Her first few days would be in Pretty Beach, followed by a day shadowing one of the receptionists in the very exclusive boutique hotel in Pettacombe Bay.

  Ten minutes later, Lulu rolled her shoulders back, held her head up high, said hello to a man who was standing on a ladder outside the hotel working on the huge hanging baskets on either side of the front door, and sucked in her stomach as she walked into the lobby. Soothing classical music and that same expensive smell hit her nostrils and she took a deep breath in.

  A new job in a beautiful exclusive hotel. Without any furry little friends. Kick in those grateful vibes, Lulu Drinkwater.

  As Lulu approached the desk, from a small door behind a huge palm, Helen appeared with a smile.

  ‘Ahh! Great timing! Good morning, I thought you’d be here a few minutes early. I’ve got a couple of coffees coming to the table in the window,’ Helen said and gestured towards the cafe on the other side of the lobby. Then seeing Lulu’s hands exclaimed, ‘Oh dear! What happened to you?’

  ‘I had a rather large altercation with a car and my bike. As you can see, I am the one that came off worse. I’m sorry about how it looks.’

  ‘Yikes. Don’t worry about that! Are you okay?’

  ‘I’m fine. It looks a lot worse than it is,’ Lulu lied as she moved her hands and pretended that she was okay. ‘The bandages will be off very soon and I can still use my hands perfectly.’

  ‘Good. As long as you are okay,’ Helen replied and led Lulu into the cafe area.

  They sat down at the table and a couple of minutes later were joined by a tall older man who arrived in a cloud of exquisite smelling scent and an immaculately pressed shirt.

  ‘Lulu. This is William Sandon. He’s been with the Cavendish family for, oh what, thirty years is it William?’

  William sat down and nodded his head. ‘Indeed it has. Where does the time go? I still feel like I’m twenty years old.’

  ‘And he’s now joined us down here in Pretty Beach to semi-retire. He’s the other half of your part-time hours. But we are putting you with him for your first week or so. You’ll be learning from the very best,’ Helen said with a huge smile.

  William chuckled. ‘Ahh, I don’t know about that, Helen. I’m just very good at sweet-talking the customers.’

  ‘Isn’t that what the job is all about?’ Helen laughed back and Lulu swallowed nervously whilst trying to continue to hold in her stomach wondering quite how good she was going to be at this job.

  Helen lowered her voice. ‘We also have some very special guests next week in Pettacombe when you are going to be there.’ Lulu nodded as Helen leant forward. ‘As in royalty.’

  Lulu swallowed again and her eyes widened and Helen continued, ‘Obviously all the security checks are in place and they travel with their own staff and bodyguards. They’ve been coming to us for years. A couple of Atlanta’s sons actually know one of them from university. They don’t want any special treatment. In fact, quite the opposite. Most of the time they stay well under the radar, go on lots of coastal walks, and head out for pub lunches. Anyway, just to let you know what is going on when you are there. You’re more than likely not going to have anything to do with them but you need to be in the know.’

  Lulu smiled and tried to put a look on her face as if to say that she was quite used to dealing with royalty as she went about her day and inside felt butterflies flying around her stomach.

  Later on that day, Lulu had been thoroughly briefed on the hotel booking system which she had picked up straight away. Inside, she’d let out a huge sigh of relief as William had informed her that she would be able to work on her own in no time at all. He’d asked her if she’d had any experience of hotel systems before and she’d replied no, but that she knew her way around the shopping software on her website fairly well, and it was overall run along a similar principle.

  After checking in her first client on her own and dealing with a woman who was freaking out because she’d left her designer hair conditioner in London, Lulu was feeling it. The day had been full of learning and talking, and she felt as if her cheeks hurt from smiling and attempting to be friendly.

  So, it was extremely welcome when mid-afternoon William handed over to another receptionist, told Lulu to get her bag, and led her over to the lifts.

  ‘Okay, get ready for the Cavendish treatment,’ William said. ‘I’m taking you up to the staff room. There’s one in every Cavendish hotel. Let me point out that it’s not your average staff room,’ William said as they stepped into the service lift and he pressed the button for a few floors up.

  A few minutes later, after making their way through to what felt to Lulu like a labyrinth of corridors, William swiped a keycard over a pad and pushed open a door.

  Inside, two huge sofas on top of a thick rug sat facing each other beside a fireplace with a little flame-effect fire flickering in the grate. The room smelt of the same expensive candle smell and two large vases of flowers were placed just so on a coffee table in the middle.

  William pointed to the sofas. ‘Right, make yourself comfy. What can I get you?’

  Lulu looked over to the small immaculate kitchen area. Three huge glass jars held various biscuits and cookies, domed cloches covered chopping boards holding croissants and what looked like a lemon cake sat in a clear cake tin.

  ‘Wow! I didn’t expect this,’ Lulu exclaimed looking over at a line of speciality teas on the worktop of a small kitchen area.

  ‘I know. How gorgeous is it?’

  ‘It is really nice. Calming, somehow,’ Lulu said as the very low classical music and lavender scent wafted around.

  ‘All very clever business decisions by the Cavendish family,’ William said with a smile.

  ‘What do you mean?’

  William lowered his voice. ‘One small but exceedingly we
ll-decorated backroom, two expensive sofas, a few kitchen cupboards and a dishwasher, and the chef makes a few extra cookies and cakes and bingo, happy staff on their breaks who don’t leave the hotel.’

  Lulu nodded. ‘I see what you mean.’

  ‘Atlanta Cavendish is a very smart businesswoman and she has been wonderful to me as I have been to her. Hopefully, you’re going to like it here too. I’ve not known many people leave over the years… that is if you work hard and do well. The bonus at the end of the year will see to that.’

  ‘Bonus. Oh, I wasn’t told about that.’

  ‘Oops. Sorry. It’s normally actually a surprise.’

  ‘Don’t worry. I’ll keep that to myself,’ Lulu said as William handed her a cup of tea, squeezed around the sofa, and opened another door to a small room with two huge massage chairs and a massage table.

  ‘In here there’s a massage lady who comes in a couple of times a month, and if she’s not here you can settle yourself down into one of those chairs and use the meditation app.’

  ‘Goodness. That’s a very nice perk,’ Lulu replied.

  ‘Welcome to the Cavendish Group, Lulu. You’re going to get on very well here I can tell,’ William said as they sat down on the sofas and Lulu sunk into the gorgeous down-filled cushions.

  ‘So, William. Who else runs the group? You said earlier that it was still very much a family affair.’

  ‘Hmm. As much as it can be with the size it’s grown to now. It was such a good idea and I started in the first one all those years ago. Atlanta inherited a small boutique hotel in Chelsea. It was run down and to be quite frank awful. She had loads of offers to sell it to one of the big chains. Instead, she ran with the boutique thing but went very exclusive and high-end. No one was doing that in those days and it just took off. In terms of the family running it, there are four brothers and two sisters. Both the girls are now married and living in London and three of the boys work in the business. The other one is filling in for a bit but he’s not been involved as much. That's it, really. Atlanta isn’t down here much especially with Helen here now. The fast train means Atlanta flies in and out quite briefly and leaves us to it.’