Hotel Stardust

by Susan Barrie

  “Miss Petherick,” he began again abruptly, “perhaps I’d better introduce myself formally. My name is Merlin — Roger Merlin.” “And when did you learn that mine is Petherick?” she asked.

  “Oh, that was simple,” he answered coolly. “Old Geake found that out almost as soon as you arrived yesterday, and I had only to take one look at you to recognize old Petherick's eyes. You’re his niece all right! I only hope from the bottom of my heart that you’re going to be considerably easier to deal with than your uncle, for he wasted more of my time than I find it possible to forgive him, even now.” “Really?” she murmured, as if surprised. “Then I’m afraid I'm going to be a great disappointment to you also, for my views on Treloan Manor are exactly the same as my uncle’s. I do not intend to part with it.”

  “No?” He elevated an unbelieving eyebrow. “Then what will you do with it?”

  “I haven't made up my mind yet,” she answered untruthfully, “but I could try living in it.”

  “You could,” he agreed very smoothly, “but unless you've a small private fortune of your own, you’ll find it a little expensive. Houses

  of this type are rather costly to maintain.”

  “I expect so,” she agreed, as if undisturbed by the thought, “but it might help matters if I ran it as a guesthouse — or an hotel!”

  He sat down in the chair she had placed for him and rested his elbows on the fragile arms, putting the extreme tips of his fingers together. The rather ugly scar running from the corner of his mouth to the tip of his right eyebrow became, all in a moment, much more noticeable, as if the muscles of his face had tautened a little, and he regarded her through narrowed eyes which contained all at once a rather sinister chill, like the chill of northern ice floes.

  “Listen to me, Miss Petherick,” he requested her curtly: “I have already made you a very fair offer for this place — much more than I made to your uncle, because I knew he was a rich man. But I happen to be very well aware of the fact that you are not a rich girl.” He dismissed her faint look of astonishment with an impatient movement of his hands. “Oh, never mind how I know these things — I simply know them, and that’s all there is to it! But from your point of view my offer should have been very tempting. I will make it even more tempting, and you will be extremely unwise if you turn it down, for you will never get a better.”

  Eve felt the anger she had been trying to suppress begin to rise in her again at the uncompromising tone in which he addressed her. The night before she had taken a dislike to him, but now she felt that her dislike was increased a thousand fold. His manners were the manners of a boor, and he was the most self-centred and egotistical person she had ever met. No wonder her uncle had sent him about his business!

  “Listen to me, Commander Merlin,” she requested him in her turn, striving to keep her voice very level and quiet. “If I came to you at the Stark Point Hotel and tried to persuade you — very much against your will! — to sell to me, and if I kept on pestering and bothering you, as you are pestering and bothering me, what would you do?

  I think if I was a man you would throw me out! But, in any case, you would not agree to sell, would you?”

  “No,” he answered crisply, “because, for one thing, it’s my home, and always has been my home, but today is the first time you’ve even seen this house. I don't believe you ever saw your uncle, and hecertainly couldn’t remember what you looked like, and the situation therefore is entirely different. You have no roots — nothing to chain you here! You are, if you'll forgive me for saying so, an outsider and an intruder, whereas I have known and loved this place from boyhood. Now will you consider my offer?”

  “Never,” she told him in a choked voice.

  “Not even if I become really rash and double it?”

  “Under no circumstances” she got out, with scarlet cheeks, her breath coming a little unevenly and her small breasts heaving. “Not for all the money in the world!”

  “You have no use for money?”

  “Not yours!”

  “You prefer to consider running an hotel on next door to nothing a year? Which will be almost as clever as snatching the stars out of the sky! ”

  While his eyebrows were still cocked upwards sarcastically and his eyes were filled with sardonic humor, the door was suddenly pushed inwards and Aunt Kate appeared. She had been eavesdropping without any thought or scruple outside the door for the past ten minutes, and now it had occurred to her that it was time to intervene.

  “Forgive me, Commander Merlin,” she almost gushed, “for breaking in on you like this, but I feel that you might to know that my niece is not quite a free agent in so far as Treloan is concerned. I have persuaded her to run it as an hotel, and I am backing her in the enterprise. I feel we shall have a tremendous success.”

  “I’m sorry, madam,” he said very stiffly, rising from his chair, “but I don’t think I have the honor of knowing who you are?”

  “Miss Petherick’s aunt,” she told him, “on the maternal side, you know. Katherine Barton's the name.” She held out a friendly hand, and he knew himself forced to take it. “Delighted to meet you, Commander Merlin. We must compare notes on the successful running of hotels!”

  When he had gone, excusing himself with almost painful abruptness, Eve stood looking out of the window and thinking of him making his way to his car with a kind of deadly frustrated anger in his heart. His feelings towards herself and her aunt must be tainted with venom. But something in his face, before he left, had told her that he was the victim of acute disappointment as well, and it was so intense that she could feel almost sorry for him. To have wanted a thing so long and so badly, and to know now that it was not to be his!

  If he had even approached her in a different manner — if he had not said quite such insufferable things to her! Telling her that she had no right — no roots!

  “A most unpleasant type of arrogant male,” Aunt Kate observed, when they caught the sound of his car drawing away from the foot of the terrace steps. “I felt that it was only right to squash him, I simply had to squash him! And what’s more I will back you with every single penny I possess! True, I’m not exactly a millionairess, but I've a few things here and there that I can sell out, and we might manage to raise a loan ------- ”

  “Oh, Aunt Kate, you really are a lamb!” Eve turned to her and hugged her. “But, you know, we don’t either of us know a thing about hotels, except what it’s like to stay in a cheap one occasionally.”

  “This hotel will not be cheap,” Aunt Kate declared emphatically. “We shall charge the earth for our rooms, and that’s the way to become known. Elegance and comfort amid the charms of the Cornish Riviera. One of England’s stately homes on the very rim of the ocean; the beauties of the countryside combined with the blue English Channel! Oh, I could go on forever, only I'm feeling so very hungry I think I shall do better after we’ve had some lunch — if there is anything to eat in the larder!”

  But Eve was thinking:

  Easier to snatch the stars out of the sky! . . . But if she could snatch them out of the sky, and if she could build up a prosperous and thriving hotel on nothing more substantial than stardust (and Aunt Kate’s few stocks and shares!), what a triumph it would be! What a glorious triumph to fling in the face of Commander Roger Merlin, D.S.O. and Bar, and no doubt a few other odd distinctions as well!

  CHAPTER FOUR

  TOWARDS evening of that day, having telephoned The Smuggler and asked Mr. Geake to send up the rest of their luggage, Eve left Aunt Kate trying to make up her mind which corner of the mansion she could fit herself into and be the least overawed by its grandeur, and did what she had been badly wanting to do all day, namely go out into the gardens behind the house. And from there it was but a brief walk to the edge of the cliff.

  She looked back at the house. In the evening light it was almost exactly as she had seen it in her dream, save that there was now no mist to screen it from her sight. On the contrary, it stood forth sharply again
st the rapidly paling blue of the sky, and the rosy glow of sunset was repeated in its rows of orderly windows. A single plume of smoke ascended into the air above the kitchen quarters, for they had succeeded in getting the boiler to light, and the shadows of well-grown cedar trees lay across the sloping lawns. A solid bank of azaleas and rhododendrons coming early into bloom shut off the kitchen-garden, and soon, Eve realized, it would be a blaze of color, and the scent of the azaleas would reach even to the cliff edge where she was standing.

  She looked down. It was a sheer drop to the rocks below

  — unpleasant rocks like the pointed teeth of a monster animal. The sea seeped quietly in amongst them, and was the color of a smoky grey pearl in the softened light.

  From where she stood she could see, a few yards farther along the cliff, the beginnings of a somewhat perilous path which led to a sheltered strip of sandy beach from which it would be delightful to bathe on a warm day. And it would be delightful to sun-bathe, too. Treloan had all the facilities of a first-class holiday hotel combined with some grimly beautiful surroundings, but somehow Eve could not see it as an hotel, only as the dream house she could never bear to part with — least of all to one man who had all but demanded it from her!

  She shielded her eyes from the sun's glare, and looked across the bay to that long arm of land, faintly hazy now, which shot out to terminate in Stark Point, and on which was the Stark Point Hotel. It was a truly magnificent headland, and from all she had heard of the Stark Point Hotel it was a truly magnificent hotel, catering only for those whose leisured hours were made possible by being exceptionally well-to-do. During her one night at The Smuggler she had seen an announcement, pinned to one of the walls, of a Grand Opening Dance to mark the beginning of the summer season, for during the winter, not altogether surprisingly, the place was not so busy. And Mr. Geake had been loud in the praise he had bestowed on Commander Merlin’s most successful experiment so far.

  But although Eve strained her eyes, seeking to defeat the glare of the sun, she could make out nothing beyond a vague jumble of white and a few pin-points of diamond-bright light which might have been flung back from crystal-clear windows, to indicate that there was any building of any size on the headland.

  Somewhat to her surprise, during the next few days Aunt Kate lost none of her enthusiasm for the plan which she had so heartily agreed to sponsor, although the thought of her cosy Surrey cottage, shut up and waiting for her, must often have tugged at her heartstrings when the size and the impressiveness of Treloan Manor tended to be a little overpowering. They went from room to room inspecting all the possibilities of every nook and corner, and were left to form the opinion that Hilary Petherick must have been one of the world’s most conscientious sybarites. Wherever it was possible to put in a bathroom he had put it in, and, moreover, they were sumptuous bathrooms, lavishly equipped. The bedrooms were frequently divided into suites, with dressing-room and private sitting-room adjoining, and Aunt Kate thought they might ask almost any fantastic price for the privilege of occupying one of them. And the view from the windows was certainly attractive enough to entrance any guest in the summer-time.

  But they would have to proceed slowly, Aunt Kate said wisely. It was no use imagining that they could turn the place into an hotel overnight, and they would have to be content with a kind of guesthouse arrangement until they were more sure of their own feet, merely inviting a few carefully selected—and therefore favored!— individuals to share the amenities of Treloan for that first summer.

  Fortunately the condition of decorative repair throughout the house was excellent, so there was nothing to do in that direction, but there was the question of staff to be considered, as well as a great many other things.

  The downstairs rooms, for instance, were far too ornate and too full of valuable objects like the Louis Quinze chairs in the drawingroom, to be entirely suited even to a luxury hotel, and so they decided to sell much of the rarer kind of furniture and replace it with something more practical. Only the dining-room was left as it was when they first saw it. Eve could not bear to separate that lovely rosewood table from the equally lovely Regency sideboard, and it was decided that as a country-house background was one of their assets, the dining-room, with the addition of a few smaller tables in the great window and the various alcoves, was entirely right as it was.

  The next item to be settled was how soon Eve should send in her resignation to the school where she had taught history for over two years, and Aunt Kate was all for her doing so without delay, maintaining that she could always find another job if the need arose. And then the question of where their staff was to come from was a big one. Aunt Kate herself was going to act as housekeeper, and Eve had an old school friend who was out of a job, an excellent cook, with a Domestic Science degree, who she thought might be willing to take over that department. And so a telegram was dispatched to Chris Carpenter, snub-nosed and freckled, who responded immediately by saying that she’d be delighted and would be with them in a few days.

  But a couple of really first-class chambermaids who could also act as housemaids, and at least one waitress, were essential. The gardener had already been set to work restoring some order to the lawns and shrubberies, which apparently Uncle Hilary had not cared about so greatly as the interior of his house, and his wife was willing to “oblige” in any way she was most needed in the kitchen.

  Then there was the question of advertising, which Aunt Kate went into very seriously, and a car, without which they would be lost, from the point of view of collecting stores, as well as visitors from the station. Eve, who was very well able to drive—in addition to making herself responsible for the accounts, and the general management of the place, which might also involve the duties of a kind of hostess—consulted Tom Geake on the subject of buying a second-hand one. Tom Geake had a certain amount of sympathy for “The Commander”, as he called him, not getting Treloan, but he was also inclined to watch with amusement and speculation the next moves of the two very pleasant females—especially the younger one, who he thought downright attractive—who had spend a night in his inn.

  So he lost no time in putting Eve on to a reliable man in Truro, who soon found her the kind of car she wanted at the price she wished to pay. It was not a handsome car, but it went beautifully, and it was sufficiently roomy, and she didn’t think it would break down as soon as she’d written the cheque for it. Mr. Geake drove her into Truro on the day that she was going to drive it out of the car salesroom, and in the afternoon she put it in the car-park while she did some shopping.

  It was market-day; the place was full, and so was the Blue Boar when she had lunch there. She spun out her shopping because she was going to meet Chris Carpenter at the station on the train which was due in at 4.20 p.m., and shortly before four o'clock she thought she might as well drive to the station.

  But the car-park was still wedged with cars, and her own was sandwiched between a farmer's shabby utility truck and a magnificent cream and silver affair which was the most striking car in the park. It would even have attracted notice outside the Dorchester in Park Lane, or so Eve thought.

  She maneuvered her car very gingerly away from the side of the cream and silver prodigy, seeking also to avoid the utility truck, but, possibly because she hadn’t driven for some little while—although her licence was without sign of blemish—she accidentally caught the near wing of the big car an undeniable glancing blow. Biting her lip with annoyance, she got out to examine the damage, saw a huge bulldog with a bored expression and great jaws that were inclined to drool a little surveying her from the back seat of the cream car, and then heard footsteps approaching briskly.

  There was the light tap-tapping of high heels and the firmer crunch of masculine feet, but when she turned the first thing she actually saw was a Siamese kitten perched on the shoulder of the elfin girl with golden hair whom she had seen for the first time in the hallway of The Smuggler in Treloan. The girl was wearing tailored slacks and a white sweater,
and her hair looked even more golden in the sunshine of afternoon. Beside her, to Eve’s infinite disgust and faint horror, considering what she had just done to his car, was Commander Merlin!

  He was looking closely at Eve, but his look contained no actual recognition until she flushed up and addressed him, her voice hurried and apologetic:

  “I'm so terribly sorry,” she got out, hoping the bill for the damage would not be too enormous, just when they wanted every penny they possessed—“but I’ve had an accident to your car!” She indicated the once faultlessly beautiful wing. “I’m afraid I was guilty of a slight miscalculation. . . .”

  Her voice trailed off.

  He went closer to the damage and inspected it, while the goldenhaired girl with the French accent peered interestedly over his shoulder, and then looked at Eve with a faint twinkle dancing in her eyes. They were such glorious eyes that even at that most awkward moment Eve was fascinated by them, and she was fascinated by the charming soft voice as the girl exclaimed:

  “You give it one very big—biff, I think you call it?— is that not so? And poor Rogaire’s beautiful car is not so beautiful anymore!”

  “It certainly is not,” Roger Merlin agreed quietly, but he did not seize the opportunity, as Eve had half feared he would, to vent open and biting disdain upon her.

  “I’m so terribly sorry,” she repeated. “Of course you must let me have the bill for the damage.”

  Afterwards, when she got back to Treloan and told Aunt Kate about the unfortunate episode, Eve could not help feeling that, on the whole, the conduct of her future rival had been much more restrained than she would have believed possible. He had every cause to feel annoyed, to say the least, and the last time they had met the sparks had almost literally flown between them. Yet, apart from looking at her with peculiarly cold blue eyes and ignoring her request to make herself responsible for the repairs to his car, he did and said nothing more shattering than introduce her to his companion.