Do Not Disturb – Part 3

Do Not Disturb – Part 3
Cressida McLaughlin

The charming new bestseller from the No.1 bestselling author of The Canal Boat CafeRobin is devastated that a rift has come between her and her neighbour Will. To add to her anxiety, the other residents of Campion Bay are relying on Robin to halt a property developer’s assault on the Bay’s unique charm. But Robin needs Will’s help to stop them − perhaps it’s time to reveal why she really came home to Campion Bay.In between finding the perfect English breakfast tea for her guests and checking her reviews on Tripadvisor, Robin decides that only the personal touch can bring Will around. Could Lorna, the quiet and enigmatic new guest offer a solution, or will Tim, her single-minded ex, make sure that it’s he − and not Will − who gets the five-star treatment…This is the third part in four-part serial.

The Once in a Blue Moon Guesthouse

Part 3

Do Not Disturb

CRESSIDA MCLAUGHLIN

Copyright (#u179653bb-2424-51c2-9503-f82ccb73058c)

Harper

An imprint of HarperColl‌insPublishers Ltd

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www.harpercollins.co.uk (http://www.harpercollins.co.uk)

First published in Great Britain by Harper 2017

Copyright © Cressida McLaughlin 2017

Cover layout design © HarperColl‌insPublishers Ltd 2017

Cover illustration © Alice Stevenson

Cressida McLaughlin asserts the moral right to be identified as the author of this work.

A catalogue copy of this book is available from the British Library.

This novel is entirely a work of fiction. The names, characters and incidents portrayed in it are the work of the author’s imagination. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, events or localities is entirely coincidental.

All rights reserved under International and Pan-American Copyright Conventions. By payment of the required fees, you have been granted the non-exclusive, non-transferable right to access and read the text of this e-book on screen. No part of this text may be reproduced, transmitted, down-loaded, decompiled, reverse engineered, or stored in or introduced into any information storage and retrieval system, in any form or by any means, whether electronic or mechanical, now known or hereinafter invented, without the express written permission of HarperCollins.

Ebook Edition © March 2017

ISBN: 9780008219260

Version: 2017-03-03

Table of Contents

Cover (#u81552ede-052e-5f98-858c-723b823a70dd)

Title Page (#u2f107f27-25d7-5375-9a6f-eb0c75b73ab2)

Copyright (#ue4d9df43-bcb8-5363-b644-c43b82956daa)

Chapter One (#u0dccfad5-10df-5300-b3f8-09abd48f6373)

Chapter Two (#ub5b87c64-c26a-5b0e-b2d0-54567eabdf37)

Chapter Three (#litres_trial_promo)

Chapter Four (#litres_trial_promo)

Chapter Five (#litres_trial_promo)

Chapter Six (#litres_trial_promo)

Keep Reading … (#litres_trial_promo)

About the Author (#litres_trial_promo)

Also by Cressida McLaughlin (#litres_trial_promo)

About the Publisher (#litres_trial_promo)

Chapter One (#u179653bb-2424-51c2-9503-f82ccb73058c)

Robin Brennan opened the oven door and, waiting for a waft of steam to disperse, took a second batch of moon-shaped chocolate-chip cookies out and slid them on to the cooling rack. She stared at them, her hands on her hips. The cookies, once they were cold, would go in the heavily stoppered glass jars she had bought at a gift shop in the centre of Campion Bay, and would sit on the landing next to a sign that said Midnight cookies; please help yourself.

Running a successful guesthouse, her mum Sylvie had written in The Bible, the guesthouse manual she had given to Robin when she and Robin’s dad had moved to France the previous month, is all about attention to detail. That’s what guests will notice, that’s what will complete their stay and make them want to come back again and again.

Robin hoped the cookies would be popular with her guests, but wasn’t convinced they would complete anyone’s stay. She had thought that making them, mixing the dough and chunking chocolate up into irregular chips, using the cutter to create moon shapes, would take her mind off what had happened the day before. So far, however, it had failed.

She had been running the Campion Bay Guesthouse for two weeks. It was her third Monday, and she was confident that, for most of her guests, the experience of staying had been a good one. But there was one guest – and Robin wasn’t sure he was even a guest any more – with whom she’d managed to get it spectacularly wrong. She started tidying up the kitchen, putting the cooking implements in the dishwasher while her kitten, Eclipse, watched her from the doorway.

Will Nightingale had arrived in Campion Bay the day Robin had opened the doors of her newly refurbished guesthouse. He was the nephew of Tabitha Thomas, who had lived in the house next door, number four Goldcrest Road, until her death the year before. Will had made the journey from London to sort through his aunt’s possessions and decide what to do with the house, and had come to Robin for shelter after discovering that Tabitha’s house was uninhabitable; a home for mice and spiders rather than people.

Putting him up in her most precious room, Starcross, Robin had liked the tall, green-eyed man instantly, his easy manner and directness compelling her to offer to help him with the house clear-out. They had been getting to know each other; she had taken him on a tour of Campion Bay the previous day, and had found herself in his arms, kissing him, as the rain fell. The memory made Robin shiver; the feel of his lips on hers, his strong arms holding her, had felt powerful and magical and right, even though she hadn’t known him long.

But then everything had gone wrong.

Once she had cleaned the counters, Robin poured herself a glass of water and sank into a chair at the kitchen table. Eclipse jumped immediately on to her lap, his tail tickling her nose as he circled and circled on her thighs, trying to find the most comfortable position. Robin scrolled to the messages in her phone, rereading the text her friend Molly had sent her, the one that she’d stupidly asked Will to read aloud. It was like picking a scab, it was painful and the result was inevitable, but she couldn’t help it.

Number four Goldcrest Road was a focus of interest in Campion Bay. The seafront houses were desirable properties, spacious and elegant with beautiful views. Robin’s childhood sweetheart, Tim Lewis, now a successful property developer, had been sniffing around Tabitha’s house with a view to converting it into swish apartments. The other residents of the road – her friend Molly, Mrs Harris who owned the Seaview Hotel, Ashley and Roxy at the Campion Bay Teashop – were opposed to such a development, and once Will had arrived, Molly had come up with the idea of a charm offensive. She had been encouraging them all to be extra nice to him, to show him what a wonderful place Campion Bay was in the hope that he would decide to hold on to his aunt’s house, and keep Tim Lewis and his unpopular plans at bay.

Robin hadn’t felt entirely comfortable with Molly’s idea, but once the acts of kindness had begun and Will had been genuinely touched by them – the invitation to dinner at Taverna on the Bay, cupcakes from Ashley, mate’s rates at Molly’s beauty parlour, Groom with a View – she hadn’t had the heart to tell him. Then Molly’s text had laid bare the plan, and Will had assumed that the time Robin had spent with him, helping at Tabitha’s house, the tour of Campion Bay, had all been part of the scheme to stop Tim buying number four.

He hadn’t given her a chance to explain that everything she’d said and done was because she liked him. Ever since he’d turned up on her doorstep with his smile and his warmth and his gorgeous dog Darcy, she had been able to think of little else. She had wanted to spend time with him, for their relationship to grow – and it had. But then, after the text, she could see how it must appear, and now she didn’t know how to prove to him that her feelings were genuine.