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Jinnie eventually managed to call Izzy and to tell her that the sat nav was predicting they would be home in 24 minutes. Izzy said, “That’s excellent, it gives me time to get the veg on, and the chicken will be nicely rested by the time you are here and ready. Do you want a word with the twins?” “Yes, please,” said Jinnie, “I’d never hear the end of it if I didn’t. I can hear Larry in the background going mad. I take it that’s the chicken.” “Not really,” said Izzy, “he’s only been like it since he heard you on the phone. Anyway, here are the twins.”
The twins were both talking at once, not something they usually did. They often carried out a conversation as if you were only talking to a single person, sometimes finishing off the other’s sentence. Jinnie said, “Kids, when you both talk at once, I can’t understand a word. Now listen, we will be home in twenty minutes, and Izzy will have dinner ready. You can help by laying the table and washing your hands, ready to eat. You can tell me what’s so important over dinner. I understand it’s one of your favourites, roast chicken. Now give Larry a stroke for me and tell him I will be home very soon.”
Paolo drove on to the gravel drive and stopped near the front door, which crashed open, and the twins pelted out, followed by Larry. Izzy stood in the doorway, shaking her head and laughing. Jinnie hugged and kissed the twins and stroked Larry, who was rubbing himself around her legs. Jinnie said, “I missed you too, but this is more than usual.” Willie replied, “Well, it’s a long time since we spoke to you.” Millie continued, “You usually phone every day when you are away, and when you don’t, we worry.”
“Sometimes I can’t call, like when I am on army duty,” said Jinnie. “But you went to America to see some of Uncle Rick’s hotels and a new wine place,” said Willie. “That’s true,” replied Jinnie, “but America is very big, and there are lots of places with no phone signal.” “But every American on TV has a mobile phone,” retorted Millie.
Over dinner, the twins told their mother how Miss Manson had gone around the class when they were eating lunch and spoken to everyone in Spanish. They theorised that she was trying to find out how good Mr Excell was at teaching Spanish. Then she had told them and Archie, who had a Spanish granny and had talked to her in Spanish since he was little, that they should come to her office whenever Mr Excell gave a Spanish lesson, and she would teach them not only to speak Spanish but how to read and write it.
Jinnie saw Izzy grinning and thought, ‘She knows something.’ Willie continued, saying, “We went to her office this afternoon, and it was really good. She only talked to us in Spanish the whole time. It was alright for Archie, he understood almost everything. But she used some big words we didn’t know.” Millie interjected, “But when we said we didn’t understand, she used different words, but still Spanish.” “Then she wrote some Spanish on a whiteboard,” continued Willie, “and explained what she had written. We found that we could sound out words, and it was like speaking Spanish. She said we did very well, and tomorrow she is going to bring in some Spanish books for us to try to read.”
Millie continued, “She said she has the whole series of 16 Secret Seven books in Spanish. I hope she gets us to read them.” “Oh yes,” said Willie, “we have read some, and they are good, a bit old-fashioned, but exciting stories.” “They are a bit old,” said Jinnie, “I’m pretty sure I read them when I was about your age.” “We said we were reading the Ninja Cat books,” said Millie, “but Miss Manson said she didn’t think they were available in Spanish.”
Izzy was relaxing with a glass of white wine when Jinnie came into the TV room after saying goodnight to the twins. She poured herself a glass and said to Izzy, “Why do I have the feeling you are behind this special treatment the twins are getting?” Izzy said happily, “That’s because I am. I got fed up with the kids complaining they knew more Spanish than Mr Excell, so I got an appointment with Miss Manson and explained the problem. I told a white lie that Paolo was in Italy, you were in the States, and I was acting ‘in loco parentis’. Anyway, to cut the tale short, she agreed to investigate things and phone me. Well, she did, so I knew what the twins were going to tell you.”
“She said the twins’ Spanish was exceptional, considering they were essentially self-taught,” Izzy continued. “She said their vocabulary was amazing, and she would be taking them on, together with another boy who spoke Spanish at home, to learn how to read and write Spanish, but she is worried that she can only take them so far. She knows the head of Spanish at QE Girls, who teaches ‘A’ level Spanish, and he will sit in on a lesson soon and give his opinion. She said, in her opinion, the twins wouldn’t be out of their depth if they went to QE Boys and QE Girls when they go to secondary school in a few years.”
“The QE schools are amazing,” said Jinnie, “but I think they would hate being separated.” “That’s exactly what I told Miss Manson,” said Izzy, “I said they would be much better going to the same school. She said that she has contacts at Dame Alice Owen’s in Potters Bar and that it was an excellent school. I said I would talk to you, but it’s years before they change schools.” “Wow,” said Jinnie, “I would love them to go to Dame Alice Owen’s, it is a really good school. I should know, I went there, and so did Penny, and she was Head Girl, and she married the Head Boy. But it is very hard to get in, I was only accepted because we lived very close, and Penny got in as my sibling.”
“Well, if Miss Manson thinks they could get in on merit, I would pursue that,” said Izzy. “Isn’t it half term soon, and isn’t there a parents’ day about then?” “I think so,” said Jinnie, “I will have to see if Paolo and I can have a chat with Miss Manson. In the meantime, I’m going to have to buckle down and try to make up the Spanish lessons I missed while in the States, perhaps I should try the kids’ iPad course.” “Why not,” replied Izzy, “it really is very good, I’ve learnt a lot from it, but not as much as the twins.”
***
Jinnie decided to pop into the office the following morning and then get a fast train into London for her afternoon meeting with Alan. She sat in her office and tried to catch up with her work emails, but she had a constant stream of visitors and phone calls. Brian wanted to know how much she had committed to spend. When Jinnie said, “Me, nothing. But I reckon there will be lots of divisions looking to expand on the West Coast now we have a presence there,” Brian said, “Are you predicting a rush of expansion across the company then?”
“I suspect that is what we are about to see,” Jinnie replied. “Ennios Hotels are bound to look to add to their three in LA. Rick liked what he saw and has set up a deal with Virgin Holidays to sell packages, and I can only see the number of West Coast hotels growing. He’s going to need local offices, and that will lead to Aunty JoJo’s taking advantage of the core services, and I reckon there is space for 450 outlets in California, maybe 40 in LA alone. That’s going to mean a huge computer centre on the West Coast and growth to the one here at HQ. I bet Nigel is in to see me soon.”
“Then,” continued Jinnie, “I know Charles has huge plans to make use of hundreds of acres of land that came with the winery. He might be able to fund the initial land clearance, planting, and water well from internal funds, but in a few years, when he gets his first big crop, he is going to need all sorts of investment in equipment, plant, and people, even storage and distribution. That will almost certainly need central funds.”
“Next it will be SuperBurger,” said Jinnie. “Clive has dipped his toe into America with Florida, making use of Monica’s set-up there, and I hear it is working. He already has 30-odd outlets in Florida and plans for more than double that by this time next year. In fact, the last SuperBurger board meeting was talking about opening franchise restaurants at one a week in Florida and Georgia. They are bound to want to try California, its McDonald’s biggest market in the States with over 1,200 restaurants. I can’t see Clive not wanting to have a crack at it. Then there is Frank’s Original. In the US it comes under Monica, and she has seen sales growing fast through Aunty JoJo’s, SuperBurger, and Ennios in Florida. She is certain to want to match that in California.”
“That’s some expansion,” said Brian. “True,” said Jinnie, “but it’s going to be a few years before that lot comes to maturity, but I want you to be aware of what I think is going to happen. It might not, the divisions might all decide to do something completely different, but I don’t think so. I know how my directors think. We need to be prepared.” “I think I better start looking at my financial planning,” said Brian, “I’m going to need to squirrel a bit more away so we have the cash to help the divisions when they come asking for central funding.”
Next in was Nigel. He sat down opposite Jinnie and said, “That sounds like an interesting trip to California. I’ve had both Rick and Charles on to me about computing. I have already had Joe out there, and he has tied the three hotels together in a mini network and set it up as a node on the SAP network. But Rick is talking about adding more hotels in California over the next few years. Then it was Charles talking about this new vineyard in Sonora, which I had to look up on a map. He wants it linked to the network so he can view it from France. Now that’s a lot more difficult as I understand the winery only runs on a single PC.”
Jinnie chuckled and said, “And not a very good one either, and the software seems to be some sort of freeware the manager’s son-in-law has cobbled together. I think you need to get Joe or someone else out there sharpish. I would suggest that as a minimum they need a modern, high-spec PC running all our group-standard software, that means Microsoft Office, and have it linked to SAP so it talks to Potters Bar and hence to France. But I don’t think that either Hank or Cliff, who run the winery, can run a modern computer with accounting software on it. I suggest whomever you send out there sorts out a bright young person who we can teach how to use our systems.”
“But I still don’t know how to link it to the SAP network,” said Nigel, “I have some thoughts, but do I need to plan for a big expansion of the winery as well as extra hotels?” Jinnie thought for a moment and then said, “I will let you into more of my thinking in a minute, but first a bit more about Charles’ plans for the winery. He plans to plant 200 more acres of vines, and maybe even buy in more acreage. He will be expanding production fivefold in a few years and installing computerized presses and bottling machines. But I suspect there will be more, like winery tours, a gift shop, and a café. All will need to be linked to a local server, perhaps we need to put that in earlier rather than later. It’s not a lot of money in the run of things.”
Jinnie continued, “As for the big picture on the West Coast, I think this is going to be the future of our company. I know that each division will have its own plans, but here is what I think. Over the next few years, we are going to be opening hundreds of Aunty JoJo’s and SuperBurgers, at least a dozen Ennios Hotels, a Frank’s Original Ice Cream plant or two, three or four Continental Restaurants minimum, warehouses, and a chilled distribution network. All this will need offices and, of course, a data centre linked into the SAP system.”
The last person to visit Jinnie before she left for the station was Sir Nigel. He closed the door behind him, sat down, and said, “You seem to have caused a bit of turmoil in the office this morning. Brian has half his department working on revised budgets, Nigel has people rushing around planning a data centre in California, and Belinda is looking for a West Coast refurbishment and maintenance business. I’m the only one getting on with my normal job.”
Jinnie chuckled and said, “But I have a job for you too. As you know from your last job as PM, I have a second job, and in a fortnight or so I think I will be doing it for a bit. I have an appointment to see Alan this afternoon. I would normally do this myself, but as I’m going to be tied up, I think it’s a job for our Development Director. I want a spreadsheet with all, and I mean all, our companies on it and all the projects they have in hand or in mind. I want dates, I want timescales, and I want estimated costs.”
“It needs to be divided up by financial year,” Jinnie continued. “Then I want to know how they intend to pay for it—own funds, central funds, or borrowing. I really want to get a handle on our accounts going forward. So perhaps we should also look at predicted profit, loss, and growth. You should get a lot out of SAP, and Brian will help where he can, but you are going to have to do a lot of travelling to talk to all the directors. I suppose I could have given the job to Brian, but I think he has a load on his plate already with revised budgets.”
“I’m looking forward to this,” said Sir Nigel, “I’ll start immediately.”
***
Jinnie stepped out of the lift onto the executive floor at Vauxhall Cross and was greeted by Clara, who said, “Good afternoon, Dame Jinnie, Sir Alan is ready for you.” She led Jinnie into Alan’s office, and she accepted a cup of coffee. Alan looked up from the document he was reading and said, “I’ll be with you in a moment; I was just reading a dispatch from our Ambassador in Moscow. It seems the people are putting two and two together and realise that the war losses are greater than they are being told.”
Alan finally shuffled the pages of the document together and locked it in his desk drawer before saying, “Well, it’s always interesting to read a different view to our agents, who seem convinced that the Russian people are mushrooms—kept in the dark and fed horseshit, very much like the Germans. OK, Jinnie, I have skim-read the Defence Attache’s report on the meeting in Coronado, and it rather brushed over the details. I’d be interested to hear, in detail, what is planned.” “You’re not the only one who would like to see the detailed planning,” replied Jinnie. “They have gone away to do it and get authorisation from the President. But they are all typical Yanks and want to charge in gung-ho, with the Seals blasting everything in sight.”
“Anyway, I think I planted a few ideas in their wee brains, and Admiral Dobiecki is bright enough to have worked with me. We divided the problems into West Coast and East Coast. In the West, we will make use of HMS Anson’s visit to the San Diego naval base; on leaving, it will lay off Imperial Beach, and a sniper in the conning tower will take out the drug smugglers’ boats with explosive ammunition. On the East Coast, they use semi-submersibles, and the Yanks want to take out the yard that builds them. They were talking about sending in B-1 bombers, but it was pointed out the yard and warehouses were in the middle of a populated area. Then it became a Seal raid, blowing everything up.”
“I suggested we send in the Seals, but with a sniper,” continued Jinnie, “they could then sit a mile or so away and blow hell out of the shipyard and Fentanyl warehouses in perfect safety. There is only one problem with my plan, it requires two snipers, and there is only one of me. So, how busy is Penny?” “For the East Coast or the West Coast?” asked Alan. “Oh, I want the East Coast,” said Jinnie, “I’m learning Spanish.”
“Really?” asked Alan. “Well, I started in the summer because the twins are learning at school,” said Jinnie. “But they are really good, and I’m miles behind them.” “Well, in principle, I approve the plan,” said Alan. “The Admiral has a high profile, and between us we’ll get it past the PM. If we lend the Septics our two top snipers, we will be able to recall a favour sometime in the future. So yes, I think we can assign Penny to the mission. She is stuck in Mission Planning right now and itching for some action.”
“Now, one other thing,” said Alan, “we have a languages group now, and I think we can supply you with a full-time Spanish teacher for the next couple of weeks. Spanish will come in very handy as another language on your portfolio.”
***
The twins were home when Jinnie walked into the kitchen; they were at their regular places at the kitchen table, enjoying their normal after-school snack. As usual, it was a glass of milk and a wedge of cake. Today it was Izzy’s homemade chocolate cake with a real chocolate topping. Larry was sprawled at their feet, waiting to pounce on any dropped crumbs. He wasn’t keen on sweet stuff; he much preferred meat, but food was food.
Izzy was sitting with them with a mug of coffee in front of her and asked Jinnie if she would like one. Between bites of cake, the twins were telling Izzy about their Spanish lesson and how good it had been. They had not spoken a word of English for a whole hour and had spent the last 15 minutes starting to read the first Secret Seven story. Izzy asked, “So Miss Manson is a good teacher?” “Yes,” replied Millie, “we used to think she was scary, but she is actually really nice.” “We have learnt more in two lessons than all term with Mr Excell,” said Willie.
Jinnie said, “You remember it’s half term next week and we have visitors. I hope you remember that I have to work and so does Aunty Simone, but Izzy and Uncle Jan will be looking after you and taking you places.” “But will you be coming to the football with us, mummy?” asked Willie. “I think so,” said Jinnie, “but I’m probably going to have to go back to America in a couple of weeks.”
***
Jinnie was in her office at Maple early the next morning and wasn’t surprised when, just after Janet had delivered her first mug of coffee, Nigel and Brian arrived. Janet asked if they wanted coffee, and they waited until she had left before Brian launched into the problem. It emerged that Nigel’s plans for expansion of IT required a whole floor of Maple House for computing, and despite taking on more floors, there just wasn’t the space. Brian said, “I suppose we could take on another floor, but it’s going to cost an arm and a leg to move all that kit and specialist air conditioning and fire suppression to another floor.” Nigel replied, “But I’m afraid it’s going to have to happen sooner or later; we just need the extra computing power. I suppose we could look to outsourcing to a computer farm, but my initial investigation says it will cost even more. So, what do we do, outsource or move to an additional floor?”
Jinnie said, “But there is a third option. We take a floor, but we don’t move the computer room; we move everyone else on the floor, and when we have empty space, we enlarge the computer room to the whole floor.” Nigel said, “I think that could work. It also has the advantage that we won’t have to switch to our emergency backup facility while we move computing to another floor.” Jinnie added, “Nigel, I suggest you get Belinda involved and cost moving all us executives to a new floor, and Brian, could you see if we can get yet another floor?”
Jinnie switched on her computer and started checking overnight sales. Everything was looking good; year-on-year equivalent numbers were up. New openings were trading well. Jinnie was particularly interested in the Ennios Worthing, as this was early in October, a period when trade under its old ownership had been particularly poor, and she was happy to see that occupation was up to 85%, an unprecedented level for the time of year, and the hotel was already fully booked for the Christmas and New Year periods. Rick seemed to have turned the place around already.
Next, she checked out the three LA Ennios hotels and finally the Ennios York and was delighted with what she was discovering. Bookings everywhere were solid, and occupation rates were in the high-profit zone. Jinnie decided that her next accounts check would be the UK version of Frank’s Original Ice Cream. She suspected that sales would be somewhat seasonal, and as she had no old accounts to compare to, this wasn’t simple. Overall, sales were marginally up on the previous month; she suspected this was good but wasn’t sure, as the company was expanding. However, the profit and loss figures showed a decent and growing profit. Jinnie made a note on her ‘to do’ list to talk to Dominique; she would know if the business was doing as well as it looked on paper. Scott was the production and distribution man, while Dominique had her head around the accounts.
Jinnie had her head in the Bearcat Catering (UK) numbers, which were unsurprisingly in the red, as they didn’t take over the North Sea contract until the first of December. But she was able to see that spending was under control. She fully expected to lose money on the contract in the first year and to break even in the second. The set-up cost was substantial, but it was a sprat to catch a mackerel; it was her way into the multi-billion, highly profitable UK contract catering business. There had already been one or two tentative enquiries, but Jinnie sensed they were being sounded out, and the big opportunities were yet to come.
Suddenly, Jinnie sensed a movement and, looking up, saw Alberto glide into her office and gently close the door behind him. Jinnie smiled and said, “Good morning, this must be something important for you to close the door.” “Good morning, Jinnie,” replied Alberto. “Yes, I have something rather important I want to discuss with you. As you know, I will be celebrating my 75th birthday in February, and I have concluded that will be an appropriate date to retire as Chairman of this fine company. I doubt my input will be missed; you and the other directors have the company ticking over perfectly, and it is now such an enormous concern, I can hardly believe it all came from that little restaurant on the High Street that I opened with a few of my Army friends.”
“Well, I am the last of those original directors,” continued Alberto. “I now have a beautiful home and more money than I know what to do with. We were sat at home this morning, and I realised that I have no need to keep working. The business is in more than capable hands, and we want to visit the old country while our health lets us. It’s decided, the 15th of February will be my last working day, and from then I will become a pensioner. I will apply for my enhanced state pension and my company pension, and I could live perfectly comfortably off them. But I will hang on to my shares in the group; the dividend payments will keep me in luxury.”
“Oh, I will be sad to see you go,” said Jinnie. “I always knew this day would occur, but I hoped it wouldn’t be soon. I have had a few thoughts about succession. I think there is only one person who could possibly step in as chairman, and that’s Sir Nigel. A chairman requires a certain presence and authority, and he has both. He now knows enough about the business and is respected by everyone; I think he is a perfect fit.” “So do I,” replied Alberto. “In fact, he was going to be my suggestion. I think this needs to be done formally, so I will be tendering my resignation at the December board meeting, effective from my 75th birthday. Will you propose Sir Nigel as the new Chairman?”
“I would be delighted to do so if you second it,” said Jinnie, “but I think we ought to tell him of our little plan first. You never know, he might not want the job.” “That would be rather awkward,” chuckled Alberto. “I think we would have to headhunt someone if he said no. The only other person I could think of is you, and I rather suspect that you much prefer being the CEO.” “You are 100% right,” replied Jinnie, “but let’s cross that bridge when we come to it. Do you want to talk to Sir Nigel, or shall we do it together?” “Together, I think,” said Alberto. “From his Outlook calendar, I see he is in Crawley with Clive this morning but will be back in the office after that. I suggest we speak to him this afternoon—how about 2:30?”
“Before you get into demob mode,” said Jinnie, “I wonder if you would mind giving me your opinion on a couple of things. I need to tell you I have been called up again for reserve service. I understand it will be in a couple of weeks, and they are sending me to America on an exchange visit to Virginia Beach. I don’t have all the details yet, but I suggest we ask Sir Nigel to step up again. He has done an excellent job in the past. Besides, it gives Janet a good reason to invite him to a meeting with us.”
“But I want your opinion on a couple of ideas,” continued Jinnie. “I think I told you I had a French friend from my university days staying with me in Barbados, and I had offered her a job working for us. Let me explain. Simone currently works for a French holiday company sourcing rooms in upmarket hotels on the French Riviera. She also organises tours and restaurants. Rick wants one of his next hotels to be on the French Riviera, catering for British tourists and offering excursions. I decided that seems like a good fit. Simone is fluent in English, Polish, and German. OK, her German comes from before liberation, like mine, and will probably never be used.”
“But I have been thinking about expanding into Free Poland before anyone else does. It is a huge market, and at the moment it is untapped by any of the big American chains—no KFC, no McDonald’s, no Dunkin’ Donuts, no Starbucks, no Domino’s, no Subway, and no Taco Bell,” said Jinnie. “Simone’s husband is a Pole and has a huge in with the new Polish government, and I know the new Free Polish President and his son, who is a British Rear Admiral. The Poles are very close to Britain; we were the base for the Free Polish Forces. I would like to use Simone and Jan to sound out the Poles and to lead us in to help rebuild the nation, starting with a chain of Ennios Hotels, then SuperBurger, Aunty JoJo’s, Trattoria Trevi restaurants, even wineries. I bet you didn’t know they made wine in Poland.”
“Wow, that’s some plan,” said Alberto, “and I suspect you could make it work. But it would cost a fortune. Can we afford it? We have big plans in North and South America.” “I think that Brian will confirm that at the moment our expansion plans across the Atlantic are self-financing,” replied Jinnie. “The Aunty JoJo’s, Ennios Hotels, Continental Restaurant, and Frank’s Original chains in the US and Caribbean don’t need group funds for their plans. Here in Europe, most of our chains are enormous cash generators. Every single SuperBurger, Aunty JoJo’s, Artisan Sandwich Shop, Trattoria Trevi, and Sybaritic is making money, and it is pouring into our reserves. OK, we have put some funds into Frank’s Original, but the investment is paying off; the business is already making money. Artisan Donuts and TT Wineries (UK) are about the only businesses consuming cash at the moment, but both are nearing break-even.”
“What about the French Winery?” asked Alberto. “I checked it on SAP just now”, answered Jinnie. “It is profitable and has cash reserves, but it will probably use most of them to expand its new subsidiary TT Wineries (USA), but return to profit next year when we have a first half decent crop of grapes out of the South Downs. It won’t be until the year after we see the full crop that we reap the full benefits. I think Rick should be looking for two or three big hotels in Poland tomorrow, and I think we should be funding them centrally as they will pay us back very quickly.”
Jinnie was just getting going, she had lots more to say, about Trattoria Trevi, Aunty JoJo’s etc. but was interrupted by her desk phone. Jinnie grabbed it and said, “Hello.” The voice in her ear said, “Hello Dame Jinnie. It’s Dawn on reception here. I have a Professor Carlos Sanchez here, he says he is your new Spanish teacher, and to tell you Sir Alan has sent him”.
Chapter 27 – The French Visitors arrive
© WorthingGooner 2026
