Seven hours later, she was feeling even sorrier, but this time it was for herself.
Bill and Biddy had gathered everyone in the office. The only other guests, a strapping German couple, were currently out on a day trip to La Rochelle.
Biddy closed the door behind them and Lainey saw that her eyes were red-rimmed. In that moment, she knew what was about to happen.
‘We’ve run out of money.’ Bill didn’t beat around the bush. ‘I mean, we’ve spent everything we had, and everything we borrowed on top of that. I’m afraid we’ve reached the end of the line, folks. We’re going to have to let you go.’
The bookings had thinned right out, he went on to explain, although they’d already guessed as much. At midday, a hen party of twenty had cancelled their imminent stay, and of course Wyatt’s extremely lucrative summer wedding was now off the cards too. As an absolute final straw, another section of floor had collapsed in the north tower and an ominous crack had appeared in the ceiling in the cavernous drawing room.
There was nothing more they could do, Bill continued with resignation. Their long-held dream had failed and the chateau was going on the market; hopefully someone with deeper pockets would take it off their hands and enable them to pay off the considerable amount of money they owed the bank.
‘We can pay you up until today, but that’s it. I’m so sorry.’ His shoulders were slumped and he looked exhausted; after months of desperately trying to keep all the plates spinning, the time had come to let go and give up.
But it wasn’t as if each of them hadn’t been expecting it to happen sooner or later. Lainey’s heart went out to the couple. She stepped forward and hugged first Biddy, then Bill. It wasn’t their fault, after all. They’d spent the last two years working their socks off.
‘Thanks, love.’ Biddy wiped her eyes. ‘Oh dear, I feel like we’ve let you all down. I just hope you manage to find yourselves new jobs.’
‘Don’t worry about us. We’ll be fine.’
Biddy glanced across at Anton on the other side of the room. ‘Will you two find something together, d’you think?’
Lainey had already asked herself this same question and decided that they would. It made sense. They were pretty much the perfect match, and they were crazy about each other. Why wouldn’t they continue what they’d started so promisingly two months ago?
She gave Biddy a reassuring squeeze. ‘Of course we will.’
Heading upstairs ten minutes later, Lainey found Anton packing his belongings into the two suitcases he’d arrived with. As she let herself into the room, he was wrapping up his beloved Victorinox kitchen knives; they had been his parents’ gift to him on his twenty-first birthday and were his absolute pride and joy.
‘Hey.’ She slipped her arms around his waist. ‘Are you OK?’
‘Not so bad.’ He gave her a brief kiss.
‘What happens now? Any ideas, or is it too soon?’
‘No definite plan.’ He shrugged and carefully wrapped the final knife in soft white cotton. ‘I’m going to head south. Cannes, Antibes, maybe Saint-Tropez. See what turns up.’
‘Sounds good to me.’ Lainey nodded and inhaled the scent of his body. The soft white cotton, she realised, was one of the chateau’s pillowcases.
‘How about you?’ said Anton, and she smiled knowingly.
‘Well, I thought I might head south too. I know, what an incredible coincidence! We could go together, how about that?’
‘Actually . . .’ Anton hesitated. ‘I was going to call a friend, see if I could stay with her for a while.’
‘Oh.’ Her?
‘She’s based in Saint-Tropez and knows pretty much everyone, so she’ll be able to put the word out, find me work on one of the yachts, that kind of thing.’
‘Oh.’ Lainey felt the familiar sensation of her hopes for a happy ending slithering away, like an adder disappearing into undergrowth. ‘Right, of course. That sounds . . . brilliant.’
‘Hey, you and me, we’ve had fun.’ Anton surveyed her with a lopsided grin. ‘Haven’t we? But it was never going to turn into anything serious, we both knew that. It’s been great, but now it’s time to move on to the next adventure.’
Not to mention the next girlfriend. Ah well, this was the kind of thing you got used to when you had a fatal attraction for pretty boys and were gullible enough to get your hopes up.
Again.
His eyes were roaming over her face and body, probably so he’d be able to remind himself who she was should their paths happen to cross in years to come. The next moment, he hooked his index fingers through her belt and drew her towards the unmade bed, breaking into the kind of playful grin that had got her involved in the first place. ‘I’m not leaving for a couple of hours. No reason why we can’t take our time and say goodbye properly.’
Chapter 3
‘So did you?’ Kit raised an enquiring eyebrow. ‘Say goodbye properly?’
‘No I didn’t. I turned down his most generous offer.’ It was the truth, although Lainey was beginning to regret it now.
‘Let me guess. You said no so you could feel good about yourself, but you kind of wish you hadn’t.’
She tipped her head back until it was resting against the wall behind her. ‘I hate how you always know these things.’
He gave her a companionable nudge. ‘If it was me, I’d be exactly the same. Actually, I wouldn’t. I’d have wanted to say no, but I couldn’t have walked away. So I would’ve given in and gone for it, then felt even more rejected and miserable afterwards.’
‘I’ve been there too.’
‘So you were right to turn him down, even if you are feeling like rubbish right now.’
‘Thanks,’ said Lainey.
‘And you’ll find someone else sooner or later. You know you will,’ Kit said kindly.
That sounded familiar. Oh yes, it was pretty much what she’d told poor rejected Wyatt last night.
On the bright side, at least she wasn’t as miserable as Wyatt.
‘It isn’t going to happen.’ The decision came out of nowhere, like a comet, but as soon as it entered her head, Lainey knew this was what she needed to do. ‘Not for the rest of the year at any rate. I’m not going to let it.’
He frowned. ‘What does that mean?’
‘Men, boyfriends . . .’ She flapped her hand dismissively. ‘All that . . . sex stuff, it’s just so much more hassle than it’s worth. You see someone, you fancy them, you get to really like them so you think about them all the time, and then sooner or later it all goes tits up and you end up feeling completely rotten until the next one comes along and the whole stupid circle starts all over again. And if you aren’t upset, it means it was a waste of time anyway, but if you are upset, it’s just the most horrible empty feeling in the world. So that’s it.’ She rose from the bench and gathered together her mismatched cases, because the train was approaching the station. ‘I’m taking the rest of the year off. From now until Christmas, at the very least, I shall be a man-free zone. Me and the opposite sex are on a break.’
Ooh, that feels quite empowering. Go me!