by Carl Leckey
“Are you in the Rolls?” Alec enquires. “Yes.” I reply ripping open the envelope.
“Oh that’s nice, a Rolls and Mercedes parked out front. It should attract some upmarket clients. I don’t want them until next week though, we are not quite ready yet, I’ll go and warn the chef to prepare a fancy tea party while you read your letter.” The contents of the letter does indeed inform me Gunter and his wife intend to arrive early and he has booked a room at Alec’s hotel. He advises me the sale of the property in Germany is completed. According to his estimates after the German Marks are exchanged into Sterling as we agreed in Paris.
I am personally worth almost another fifty thousand pounds with an almost equal amount in Francs. He has arranged a Swiss bank account and deposited the money. I will receive the passbooks and paperwork when we meet. If his predictions regarding inflation in Germany are correct this is good news indeed. Bloody Hell! I slump into a chair as the enormity of the information hits me, this is getting ridicules.
Gunter warned me in Paris Oscar had left me something in his will. I had no idea it would be so much. I firmly believed he was referring to the cash we had set aside in an account for Oscar out of the profits from the OSCADA transport company.
I feel guilty now for asking Jean and Yvette to pay for the property when I have money coming out of my ears. I shall have a word with Denise. I must rectify the situation. Denise has observed me slumped in the chair I must have appeared upset she excuses herself from Marguerite and comes over to me. She places her hand on my shoulder and enquires with concern in her voice. “What’s wrong darling you look er strange is there anything?” I hand her the letter replying. “On the contrary look at this? Denise I think we will keep this windfall to ourselves for the time being, do you fancy staying over here tonight? I really need to have a long talk with Gunter before the meeting Saturday.” “Yes Marguerite told me the Gunter’s are here already.” Denise whistles when she reads the letter. “Good God who would have thought it? Oscar being so rich, I never realised he was so wealthy, I knew he had money left to him by his Aunt in Le Havre, but all the money?” I can’t help thinking thank goodness she doesn’t know the true origin of that money we used to get the business on its feet. “This lot is only the result of selling his property he left money to the peace movement.” Denise squeezes my shoulder saying. “Of course we will stay over if that’s what you want my darling. We have no change of clothes or toilet articles. If I had known we were to stay I would have packed a bag. I wonder if there are any shops nearby? I’ll have a word with Marguerite and see what we can arrange.” Trust Denise, always the practical one unlike her sister the dizzy Yvette. She returns to Marguerite. When Alec reappears I break the news we propose staying overnight. Alec is delighted. “I’ll have your room fixed up right away and I must tell the chef two more for dinner.” He is about to leave when I request. “Alec, hang on a minute. I believe you have a telephone here? May I use it? I need to contact Harry.” He shows me to the office behind the reception desk. “Please help yourself, the depot number and our number is on that card. Just unhook the ear piece and crank that handle. The operator will ask for your number and the number you require she will then connect you if the line is available. It works pretty good most of the time. Marguerite loves it I’m not too keen myself. If you have any problems give me a shout. When you have finished make sure you hang it up properly. I’ll see you back to the lounge. I have arranged for tea to be sent there.” He leaves me to make contact with the depot. Harry is surprised when I identify myself on a not a very clear line. I explain what I intend and that I will be at the depot sometime tomorrow. “Before you go?” He informs me. “That shipyard in Germany has been in contact, it looks like the deal is on if we want to go ahead.
They are able to deliver in eight weeks if we have the standard ship they have designed. That’s including the diesel engines. The Portia is due to dock tomorrow or the day after we can talk about it when you return.
The meeting with Suzanne er went very well. We have agreed terms subject to your approval. You were right about having Marcel at the meeting with me I think the bold Suzanne has taken a shine to Marcel.” “That’s great Harry. I’ll have to tell Denise, she likes to be kept up to date with all the gossip.” I congratulate him and add. “Look mate do me a favour will you? Warn Marcel I would like him to come here for the weekend. He can travel with us, and I want a small car for Denise. Something on the lines you have Harry. I think she will be able to manage a car of that size. By the way we are having the farm. Oh! And yes when Jean comes in tonight will you tell him to let Yvette know we won’t be home tonight. That’s all. I’ll see you tomorrow sometime. You are right about the telephone what a difference it makes.” I hang up the ear piece as instructed. It’s not bad this modern technology I congratulate myself on my ability to utilise the equipment. I recall using one for the first time in a bunker on the front line, what a panic I was in at that time.
When I return to the lounge Denise has had her tea. She is about to leave with Marguerite on a tour of the rest of the hotel. On the table is a matching silver tea service along with dainty china crockery. This is accompanied by plates stacked with triangular cut sandwiches of cucumber and smoked salmon. Set alongside the table is a three tiered cake stand crammed with an assortment of fancy pastries. What would the front line troops think of their teenage ambulance driver now if they could see the grand life style he now enjoys I wonder? Funny thing I keep having these flashbacks to the horrors I witnessed in the war. They come at the most unexpected times. It is usually something silly like the splendour of the cake stand and the neatly cut sandwiches that triggers them. I find I have to mentally drag myself back to reality and inform Denise. “I have let Yvette know we won’t be home this evening.” She replies with relish. “That will do her good. I wonder has she bought anything in for their supper. Marguerite is fixing me up with toilet things Alec has a spare razor for you.” She lowers her voice and whispers. “She is lending me one of her night dresses. I didn’t like telling her I don’t wear anything in bed it’s a waste of time as my husband keeps making me take it off.” She might think me a wanton hussy.” She smiles kisses my cheek and leaves. Alec arrives and takes a chair at the table he pours his tea. “Did you get through to the depot? Is everything all fixed up with Harry?” He enquires. “Aye I have been in touch. I have an extra guest coming down for the weekend, can you accommodate him?” Alec is overjoyed when I reveal it is Marcel. “No trouble fixing him up, there are twenty bedrooms in this place.”
I reply. “Wow if you fill them up with honeymooners the place will be jumping. I am thinking of marrying Denise again. We might come here for our second or no it will it be our third honey moon.” He remarks “You could do worse than that my old mate. Denise is a lovely girl. Is she alright now after that horrible episode?” “Yes we are fine now. There are a couple of reasons why I want to move to the farm. The other place has a strange violent history. I think in some way it was responsible for Denise’s ills. Yes I am sure it caused her breakdown. We will be better away from the coach house.” Alec reveals something he has not mentioned until now. “It’s funny you should say that about that place. I have not told you before but I was there one night on my own. Do you know when we were getting the place ready for you, that time you went to fetch Denise? I swear I could feel a kind of presence around that staircase. I felt it so strong I went home double quick I can tell you, daft eh?” I shudder and reveal. “Not so daft Alec. We had to get a Priest into the big house to sort it out in the end. One of the rooms upstairs is real spooky. I went to look in one day Denise had heard someone crying coming from there. I only got halfway in the doorway and I felt it. “Ah ! Felt what?” Alec asks with disbelief. I felt something touching my leg.” “Oooh! what did you do then?” “I did what any brave Tommy would have done under the circumstances. I pegged it of course ha ha.” “Anyway Oscar got a Priest to come to the house he did one of those exorcisms things, t
o get rid of the malevolent spirit of a mad woman that haunted it. Then in the coach house Father Peter had to do some kind of ritual to move a couple of spirits on. You don’t know the history of that place do you? Alec urges me with a laugh. “Come on you can’t keep me in suspense spill the beans. I love a good spooky story.” He sits expectantly. I relate what the banker revealed. “We were told by someone that knows the history of the place that a couple had committed suicide in the coach house. Their spirits couldn’t move on to the afterlife because they were practising Catholics. That’s not all. He reckons the mad woman the one from upstairs in the big house? Well she was most probably poisoned in that room by one of her family. Anyway there is a grave in the garden with their three bodies in it.” Alec replies incredulously. “Bloody hell, an exorcism and a weird ritual eh? I thought that kind of thing had died out in the dark ages? Ooh! I wouldn’t fancy having a grave in my garden, how do you sleep with that under your window? Oh! I forgot you were in ambulances and witnessed worse horrors, a thing like that wouldn’t bother you would it?” “You are joking! The whole bloomin shebang frightened me near to death. You should have seen the performance when the priest did the business for my Denise. That was really scary I can tell you.” Alec sympathises. “No wonder you want to move. But aren’t Denise’s sister and Jean living there as well?”
I reply. “I don’t reckon on telling them, ignorance is bliss they say. Anyway they don’t live in the coach house where it all happened. Besides no right minded ghost, would tackle Yvette. She would frighten the shit out of them.” Alec had witnessed her behaviour on an occasion when poor Jean was on the receiving end of her fiery tongue. Alec pursues the reason for us moving. “You said there are a couple of reason’s to leave your place that’s only one. What’s the other?” I snigger. “Oh mate! You will never believe what happened to me? Yesterday I had to go to the big house to sort my post out.” I relate the complete saga of my visit to the brothel. Alec collapses with laughter when I finish. I reckon the ghosts are enough reason to move away from there, but having a knocking shop in your own backyard? Ha, ha. Have you told Jean? He might not want to buy the place. Ha, ha, fancy having those characters for your neighbours.”
I reply. “I hadn’t thought of that. Mind you Jean was there when Father Peter did that kind of ceremony to move the spirits on. I reckon it must have satisfied him. Maybe spooks don’t bother him as much as they do me.
Anyway bugger the ghosts. Huh? I had to do some fast talking I can tell you when Denise asked me what a brothel is for. Do you know what? You won’t believe this. Denise thinks them odd bods are bloomin women. She has only invited them over to our place for a bit o socialising.
Alec recalls. “Remember what it was like during the war? The lads were in and out like busy bees at a hive. Just for a bit of comfort you understand. Mind you it had proper women then not those look alikes you described.” His statement causes us both to laugh. Our talk of marriage prompts me to raise a question. “Incidentally, Alec? When did you get married, was it when I went home to the UK for demob?” He laughs. “You’re a daft bugger! Didn’t you know we are not really married? We don’t see the point. Me, and my Marguerite are living over the brush as they say in Cheshire. Ah! Me and the old girl are quite happy the way we are. What difference will a piece of paper make to us? There will be no kids to worry about, thank goodness. If we could have kids we would have got married. At our age we don’t have that problem anymore. It works out great this way. Marguerite gets to keep her war widow’s pension as well. We made an agreement after you presented me with the hotel. She had the money from the sale of her house to Harry. Originally we were going to use it to buy this place, but we didn’t have to then did we? Marguerite used some of the cash to furnish and redecorate the place. Now I own the hotel she owns everything inside it and she has cash left over as well.” I enquire. “This puzzles me, didn’t you tell me the reason you were allowed to stay in France for your demob was because you were married?” Alec grins and taps his nose.
This is a sign of skulduggery afoot in my army days. “Adam do you know the fella that got you an identity card?
Well he also got me a marriage certificate.” I recall the interview I had in Paris regarding my identity car. “Bloody, hell Alec, I didn’t tell you did I?
I nearly got jailed when I showed mine to a fella at the British embassy in Paris when I applied for a passport. They know all about them phoney identity cards. The bugger even knew where they come from.” “Ah! You worry too much Adam. It satisfied the army. That’s all I wanted it for. I am going to tell you a secret now, just keep it between ourselves. The guy that makes the phoney documents was in the army with me. We knew him as Peter. He was billeted with my lads in the depot as a cover. He was a forger in civvie street, one of the best they reckon. Peter was already in jail when he was recruited by army intelligence. He had two choices, either work for them or stay in jail for a very long time. Naturally he chose the latter. When the Armistice was declared Peter got it into his head they would double cross him and send him back to jail. To cut a long story short, he deserted and went under cover. No one knows where he is. If that fella you met in Paris knows where he is. Why doesn’t he go and catch him? Tell me that why don’t you? To be honest I don’t want to know where he is myself,” he adds with a wink, “but I do know how to contact him, if you need any more phoney paperwork.” I reply. “Thanks Alec for telling me. I think I will give that option a miss thank you all the same. If you do know how to contact him tell him the buggers are on to him. Those buggers in intelligence are already on my tail for a reason I won’t try to explain.” Alec abruptly changes the subject with an apology. “I am sorry Adam I have to put you and Denise on third floor.
Your mate Gunter has rented the whole top floor for him and his misses. It’s our Presidential suite. He insisted on paying up front, well business is business I am sure you will appreciate that. I understand it was previously used by the top Generals during the war.” “Good for you Alec, we will make a business man out of you yet, how long has he booked in for anyway?” Alec replies proudly. “A whole bloody week with options to stay longer, he must be loaded. He never batted an eye when I told him the price?” I inform him. “Ha! Don’t you worry about my associate Gunter he could buy and sell us all if he had a mind, he’s going to look after the legal affairs of OSCADA that’s one of the reasons he’s here. So Alec, me old mate you will be seeing a lot more of him in the future as you are to be a board member and all.” Alec replies with feigned coyness. “The state of me from a grease monkey to a hotel owner, now a bleedin board member, all in a short time, what would my dear Mother say about her wayward son if she was still alive today?” “Where will it all end?” I question with a roar of laughter. Denise returns with Marguerite. “What’s all the noise about?
We could hear you laughing from as far away as the kitchen? Are you going to share the joke with us, or is it too rude for our delicate ears Adam?” Denise enquires. “Oh we were only talking about old times, just memories nothing you Ladies would appreciate. So! Am I going to see our room and the rest of this grand establishment?” The hoteliers, as Alec laughingly insists we call them give us a guided tour. They are particularly proud of the dining room. It is strategically placed with a huge bay window overlooking the sea. The table located in the bay window is set for four adorned with a crystal vase of fresh flowers and a huge candelabra.
Alec informs us formally. “Madam and Monsieur this is where you shall dine this evening.” “But it is only set for four?” I protest. “Yes Monsieur, tonight for the one night only you will be exclusively served by the hotel management.” He laughs. “Besides the waitresses don’t begin work until tomorrow, so you will have to put up with us. You will have to forgive any blunders we make as we are totally untrained in the art of serving others. However we will join you for drinks after dinner if Monsieur and Madam will permit.”
I have to laugh but feel the need to warn him. “You are awa
re that the Cogan’s have their own type of food Alec? They are of the Jewish faith.” He replies “That has been arranged. Gunter gave me notice of their requirements when he booked by letter. You may be assured the chef has taken care of their needs. We have a supplier that can handle our orders for kosher food. It arrived on time this morning and is on the menu tonight.
I personally went to see the Rabbi at the synagogue in town for his advice. They only had sandwiches in their room when they arrived last night, we could handle that. It’s been a good exercise for us. To be honest we had not thought of peoples special diets. Don’t worry we will be on the alert for all our guests needs in future. Hey Adam it’s given me a good idea, we could make Kosher food a speciality of our hotel. I might induce big Jewish wedding groups to use us. I shall have to take advice from our friendly Rabbi on what they would require for their wedding breakfasts. They do have wedding breakfasts don’t they?” I reply. “My advice to you Alec my old mate is, ask Gunter.”
After the guided tour of the very impressive hotel this includes an introduction to the chef. He presides over the very modern immaculate kitchen. Denise and I retire to our room to freshen up before dinner the en suite is splendidly furnished also overlooking the coast with spectacular views of the sandy beach and English Channel.
