Page 73 of The Village Inn of Secret Dream

‘Right,’ began Belle in a calm voice. ‘The customers are going to be arriving any moment and I’d rather they enjoyed the new décor rather than hear you two going at it hammer and tongs!’

Andre and Brad both took a deep breath at the same time but continued to glare at each other.

‘It’s important that you’re a team tonight,’ she said, looking directly at Andre. She knew that he was the problem. He had no man-management skills and he was borderline rude and bullying towards Brad most of the time. ‘Everything is riding on this being a successful opening,’ she said. ‘So let’s keep the hysterics to a low-level simmer until later, okay?’

Both men gave a grunt in reply and Belle shook her head.

‘Look, nothing’s going to go wrong tonight,’ she carried on. ‘Everything will run smoothly.’

At which point, the lights flickered on and off.

Thankfully they came back on after only a few seconds, but the brief power outage had caused Andre to go from smooth operator to complete slightly hysterical diva, shouting at both Belle and Brad.

He was almost incoherent by the time Pete joined them in the kitchen.

‘What the hell is this?’ Pete shouted.

Belle turned to him. ‘Andre is having a meltdown,’ she told him, rolling her eyes.

‘So I heard,’ he said. ‘Along with everyone else.’ He turned to look at his chef. ‘Look, the electricity is always a problem around here. Get everything prepped and ready. Just concentrate on the cooking and leave the hysterics for later, okay?’

Andre gave a hissy humph under his breath and turned his back on them to continue to prep the meat.

Brad was looking as if he were about to bolt, so Belle nodded reassuringly at him. ‘You okay?’ she mouthed.

He shrugged his shoulders and returned to chopping up the vegetables.

Belle and Pete walked back out into the narrow hallway.

‘What do you think?’ whispered Pete. ‘Are we going to be all right?’

‘I honestly have no idea,’ said Belle, smiling at his lack of assurance for once. ‘But it’s too late now as the first customer has just arrived.’

‘Well then,’ said Pete, with a grimace. ‘Bring it on.’

But he didn’t move, instead looking down at her, before leaning in to kiss her gently on the lips. ‘For luck,’ he said before walking away.

Belle touched her lips as she stood alone in the hallway, figuring they might just need all the luck they could get.

40

Despite his rare nerves, Pete was feeling proud as he showed his family to their table in the restaurant. It really did look great, he thought. The new lighting was bright and cheerful. The dark tables and chairs looked stylish and offset the beams tremendously well.

‘Oh, this is nice,’ said his mum, in an overly forced cheerful tone of voice. ‘Don’t you think so, Tilly?’

Grandma Tilly was looking all around her in amazement. ‘It’s very pleasant,’ she said, waving across the room to where Frank and Stanley were sitting. ‘If a little stark in here.’

Pete gave a start at his grandmother’s criticism. ‘Stark’s a bit harsh, isn’t it?’ he said, laughing. ‘It’s called modern, Grandma.’

‘Just saying,’ said Grandma Tilly. ‘Place could do with warming up a bit. That’s all. Both in temperature and those bright bulbs.’

They all glanced up at the bright white LED lights that Pete had wanted so much.

‘It’s not the most flattering of lighting for one of advanced years,’ said Grandma Tilly, as she sat down. ‘It certainly won’t do my dating prospects any good.’

‘At least the fire’s nice,’ said his mum, with a nod of approval.

Pete spun around and saw that Belle had indeed just lit the fire.