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Jinnie left the children in the villa’s pool, with Paolo and Izzy in charge, and drove to Grantley Adams International Airport through the late afternoon traffic. She was meeting her guests off the second Virgin flight of the day. This was the one that departed Heathrow about noon and was due to arrive in Bridgetown at about 18:20. Jinnie parked the Nissan Noah in the car park and bought a ticket for up to three hours’ parking for B$3.50, and reminded herself that was only about £1.12. Why was parking so much less than in London? She strolled over to the arrivals hall and was delighted to see the plane was ten minutes early.
She was picking up five passengers, her parents and Simone, Jan and Juliette, and taking them back to Hibiscus Villa. Both her father and Jan had hired cars for the duration of their holidays, but they were being delivered to the villa tomorrow, as it was far cheaper to hire a car away from the airport. Her parents had visited before, but this was the first time in the Caribbean for the French contingent.
Jinnie’s parents were first out of customs and were pushing a luggage trolley with their cases on it. They both kissed her and complained of the early evening warmth. Jinnie told them she had cold water in a thermos in the car and it was only a few minutes away once the others joined them. James said he was on holiday and did not mind paying for a cold bottle of water, and headed off to buy some.
By the time James returned with two bottles, the rest of the visitors were waiting, again with a laden luggage trolley. In her perfect French, Jinnie explained to Juliette who her parents were and said they had previously met at her wedding to Paolo, when she was a tiny baby and her parents had been smuggled out of occupied France to attend. Juliette replied in perfect English that she did not remember that, but did remember playing in the pool at their apartment with Jinnie and her sister before the British tanks drove the Germans out, and then a visit from Jinnie, Paolo and the twins when they were three or four.
Jinnie got them belted into the seven-seater, the luggage in the back and the air conditioning working extra hard, and headed off through the now lighter traffic. For the benefit of the French, she explained that it would take about 35 minutes to get to the villa, depending on traffic. She asked them about the flight and Simone said that the Virgin flight had been far better than the Air France flight from Nice to Heathrow. Juliette took over, saying, “On Virgin the seats were more comfortable, with more legroom. The food was good and the cabin crew were polite. Air France have a lot to learn.” Jan added, “On the way home we are flying from London to Nice on British Airways, so it will be good to compare them to Air France.”
Darkness falls quickly in the Caribbean, and when Jinnie drove into Hibiscus Villa it was fully dark. Paolo had turned on the outside lights and the house and grounds looked magical in the coloured lights. Juliette said, “You live here? It is magnificent.” Jinnie said, “This is our holiday home, our proper home is on the outskirts of London and is bigger than this, but this has more grounds and a full-size pool. In England we use our next-door neighbour’s indoor pool because it gets too cold for an outdoor pool in winter.”
The twins came rushing out and hugged and kissed their grandparents before being introduced to their visitors, whom they vaguely remembered from their visit to Nice. Paolo helped James and Jan unload the luggage while Izzy was introduced, and Juliette said, “You have a nanny.” Again, Jinnie explained, “Well, Izzy joined us as a nanny when the twins were small, but these days she is a lot more. She really is my housekeeper and cook, as well as childminder, as I work full time.”
“What do you do?” asked Juliette. “I am the Managing Director of a hospitality group of companies,” replied Jinnie. “We started out just after the War of Liberation with one restaurant, but the group has grown and grown. We now have high-class restaurants all over Britain, we have sandwich shops, we have an international chain of nearly 1,000 fried chicken shops in Britain, Ireland, the Caribbean, Canada, Slovakia and Florida, we have a chain of mid-market restaurants, altogether there are only about 50, we have just opened our 2,000th burger joint, we have a chain of dark kitchens in Britain, Ireland and the Caribbean, we have a chain of ice cream parlours in the US and the UK and we also make and sell the ice cream through our UK and US shops, although that is a new business and it is still being expanded as fast as we can. There is a chain of hotels in Britain, the Caribbean and Florida. Then we have a separate chain of high-class restaurants in the Caribbean, Florida and Canada, an embryonic doughnut business that is mainly in the Caribbean, but we are just setting it up in the UK and the USA, we have a vineyard in Burgundy and are developing a second one in England, and I nearly forgot we have a contract catering business based in Barbados and the UK.”
Simone and Juliette stood open-mouthed. Finally, Simone said, “I knew you had a chain of restaurants, but I had no idea how big the company had grown. You must turn over millions of pounds, no wonder you can afford this beautiful house.” Jinnie smiled and said, “I think we actually turn over hundreds of millions of pounds, but I do not own the company, I only own 12.5% of it.”
The men returned from sorting the luggage and Jan said, “Darling, we are staying in our own little house in the garden, it is lovely. We have two en-suite bedrooms, a living room and an enormous kitchen. You must come and see it.”
***
The twins had finished their Rice Krispies and were just moving on to their boiled eggs and soldiers when the French contingent arrived for breakfast. Jinnie looked up from adding Old English marmalade to her buttered toast and said in French, “Good morning, everyone, I trust you slept well after your long journey yesterday.” Simone replied in English, saying, “I think we all slept very well, thank you. I hope you do not mind me speaking English, but we do not have many chances to practise it. We often have a Polish or English-speaking day at home to keep in practice.” “What about your German? When we first met your German was better than mine,” asked Jinnie.
Simone replied in German, “It is a little rusty, but I can still get by. We do occasionally speak to each other in German, Juliette used not to be able to understand it, but we cannot get away with that now. I think our daughter now speaks better English, German and Polish than I do.” Willie stopped dipping a soldier into his egg and said in German, “Mummy and Daddy used to talk to each other in German when they did not want us to know what they were saying, so we learnt German. We also speak Italian and French and are starting to learn Spanish, we will have lessons at school next year. We have decided we are going to be spies when we leave school.” Juliette giggled and said in German, “Why are you telling us? I thought spies were supposed to be secret.” Switching to French, Willie replied, “But France is our friend, we will not be spying on you, so it does not matter.”
The conversation was interrupted by Izzy putting a large bowl of croissants on the table, along with a pot of strawberry jam and a jar of Nutella, before saying, “Give me a moment, the coffee is nearly ready.” Jinnie said, “This reminds me of breakfast at uni, me with cereal and toast and you with coffee and a croissant.” “Do you remember that awful weak coffee we bought at first?” replied Simone. “I do,” said Jinnie, “I have become a bit of a coffee nerd, I insist my restaurants and hotels serve good coffee and, although we have a coffee pod machine at home, I have special pods sent from one of the hotels. We have a coffee press here, but we get our coffee supplied from one of our restaurants.”
Izzy arrived back with French coffee bowls and a two-litre French press. Jinnie looked on in amazement as coffee was poured into the bowls and croissants spread with jam or, in Juliette’s case, Nutella. Jinnie said, “I did not know we had those bowls or that big press here, when did you get them?” “Amazon delivered them yesterday while you were working, I wanted to make our guests feel at home,” replied Izzy. “What about the croissants?” was the next question. “They came from the bakery in St James. They delivered two dozen this morning before you were up. I must admit I tried one and thought they were so good I had another, they go wonderfully with that Old English marmalade you are so fond of.”
***
Jinnie wanted to give everyone an easy day to recover from their travel, so they all traipsed down to the beach and took up loungers in the dappled shade under the trees that fringed the beach. Simone looked around as she covered Juliette in Factor 50 and said, “This is rather nice, I’m surprised it isn’t more crowded.” Jinnie, who was applying Willie’s Factor 50 while Izzy was attending to Millie, replied, “This is about as busy as it gets. This bit of beach only seems to be used by people who have villas nearby or by locals. The twins often play with the local children. The sea here is quite safe, but we have a rule, only paddling unless with an adult. It’s not that it is unsafe, but we want to be certain.” “I’m happy to go along with that rule,” replied Jan.
The twins showed Juliette how to dig a swimming pool and were joined by several local children, and the pool grew big and was filled through a channel to the sea. The air was full of children’s laughter and Simone said to Jinnie, “This is just wonderful, the happy laughter of children is truly joyous.” Jinnie replied, “I was a little worried that Juliette and the twins wouldn’t get on, but that clearly isn’t the case, they are all getting on famously. I guess being able to talk to each other in so many languages helps.”
“Yes,” said Simone, “at her school one or two of the children have a few words of German, it’s a hangover from the occupation, but she is the only one who speaks Polish and English. Talking to your two in English and German will help her no end. Last night we were chatting as she got ready for bed and she was talking about how they switch seamlessly from one language to another and how at first she didn’t even realise they were doing it.” “It is strange, isn’t it?” said Jinnie. “I don’t notice it now, I have got used to it. But Juliette speaks wonderful English, there isn’t a trace of an accent, you have taught her well.”
Simone said, “And your two have picked up your Parisian upper-class accent, it is rather different from my accent. My Polish is poor, but Jan has done a good job, according to his parents. As you know, they live in Gdańsk, and we were able to visit them at Easter for the first time since we were liberated, and they were amazed she could talk to them. It was lovely to see.” “I was in Poland not too long ago,” said Jinnie, “don’t ask me why, I can’t tell you, and it was impossible for civilians to travel into the country. How on earth did you manage it?”
“It is Jan’s job,” answered Simone. “After the war he was approached by the French Army to help with the Free Poles who were training in the area away from German eyes. He now works for the Free Polish Government.” “That explains a lot,” said Jinnie, “I wondered how the huge Free Polish Army had been trained. I don’t think it will be long before the whole of Poland is free.” “That is what Jan says,” replied Simone, “he thinks most of Poland will be free by Christmas, but he says the Germans will try to hang on to the far south around Krakow. If they don’t, their only route to the Eastern Front will be via Czechoslovakia.”
“So, what do you do now?” asked Jinnie. “I have got into the tourist business,” said Simone. “We now get lots of people coming from all over France, now the beach has been cleared and there are no travel restrictions or rationing. I work for a company that offers what I think you call package tours, we organise travel, accommodation and tours when they get to the South of France. We even get some people coming from England, Switzerland and Austria, but the Austrians mainly go to Italy, it’s nearer. I am also involved in local politics, I was mayor of Nice for a year, but I am now on the Regional Council. I mainly work with the hotels, finding the good ones and negotiating the rooms, checking the restaurants and the facilities, I enjoy it.”
“So, you recognise a good hotel and a good restaurant?” asked Jinnie. “Oh yes,” said Simone, “and I like to take Jan and Juliette to stay in the hotel and eat there, we like to pretend we are English visitors and see how we are treated. It’s a good test of how they are with our overseas visitors.”
***
Shortly after midday, the twins and Juliette arrived complaining that they were hungry. Reluctantly, Paolo put his Kindle to one side and said, “I suppose we had better introduce our guests to Anderson’s.” The waiter quickly pushed three tables for four together for the nine guests and brought them lunch menus. The twins were busy telling Juliette that they only had a snack lunch because they had their main meal at night. Sometimes they came here to eat because it had become a superb fish restaurant. Jan was listening to the conversation and said to Jinnie, “Perhaps we could come here one evening, we all really enjoy a good fish restaurant.” Jinnie replied, “I think that could be arranged. We often eat here because it is so good.” Millie interjected, “We thought it was because you own it.”
Jinnie said, “I don’t own it, I only own half the company that owns it.” Simone said, “I don’t remember you mentioning it in that long list of businesses we talked about yesterday.” “That’s because I was only telling you about the TT SuperBurger Group companies. This is a business Anderson and I own,” replied Jinnie. James said, “Well, that’s news to me, you haven’t told your mother and me.” “I’m sorry,” said Jinnie, “but I thought I had. You also don’t know that Anderson and I have started a chain of fish restaurants on the South Coast with the intention of growing it quickly.” “Huh,” exclaimed James, “another thing to be careful about on my register of interests.”
The twins talked Juliette into having a hot dog with a pile of onions and “red sauce”, and a Pepsi Max, which their mothers approved of because it contained no sugar. Jinnie decided on a toasted ham and cheese sandwich and Izzy and her mother decided to have the same, so Simone joined in, not really knowing what she had ordered. The men all ordered a cheeseburger and Jinnie said, “Don’t go filling yourselves up on a pile of chips, we have cold chicken for dinner tonight with loads of salad and jacket potatoes.” So they ordered only one portion of chips between them. Willie asked, “Tonight, can we empty out the potatoes and mash them up with loads of butter and then eat the skins with more butter?” “Of course,” said Jinnie, “I intend to do the same. The chicken and salad are all from Aunty JoJo’s and will be delivered at six o’clock. But to make life easy we are having frozen jackets done in the microwave. Then it’s going to be apple tart and cream, I hope everyone likes the menu.” Jinnie was happy when everyone nodded yes.
The children’s hot dogs arrived first and were attacked ravenously. Next came the toasties and Simone sighed and said, “It’s a croque monsieur, I didn’t really know what I had ordered, but this is good.” Jinnie said, “Sometimes the English names of things can be a bit confusing, we have some Canadian friends who have the same problem. But if you are not sure, ask and I will do my best to translate.” After lunch, everyone made their way back to the beach and the twins wanted to go to the sea, but Paolo said he needed a snooze, although he was up for a mid-afternoon dip in the villa’s pool later, when the sun was on it.
Simone said to Jinnie, “This is the life, lazing in the sun, watching the children play on a beautiful beach, I’m hardly surprised you bought a home here. This is paradise.” “But you live in the south of France, the weather is good and you have a lovely apartment across the road from the beach,” said Jinnie. “You English have a saying, ‘The grass is always greener on the other side’,” said Simone, “I think it’s something to do with being on holiday, you see things with a different eye.”
***
The following morning, Jinnie said, “I really need to check in with the office this morning. Why don’t you all carry on to the beach, and I’ll be with you as soon as I’ve had a look at the accounts and checked my email and messages?” Simone asked, “Are you going to do that on your iPad?” “Good God, no,” replied Jinnie, “it’s on the local 4G network, like my iPhone. It’s OK for most things, but I have a powerful PC in the office tied in by satellite to the company network computers in Potters Bar. We use SAP for all our data storage and most of our programs, from HR records to the accounts and the hotel booking system. A sale in, say, Florida goes onto the American network servers in Florida and via the SAP server farm in the States and down to Potters Bar. I can log into the Potters Bar system, and we reckon I could see that transaction in Florida about two seconds after it happened. It is virtually real time.”
Jinnie logged on to her PC and spent a while browsing the accounts. After about twenty minutes, she decided that things were looking good and the main company savings account was particularly healthy. Jinnie made a note to talk to Brian when he and Belinda visited their own holiday home the following week. The next thing was to check her emails, of which there were not too many, as her personal assistants in Potters Bar and Crawley had clearly filtered them. There were several divisional monthly reports to the board, which she read through with interest.
She learned that the vines that had been planted on the South Downs were growing well and, although it was only their first summer, some had produced grapes. There was not enough to start making any wine on site, but a lorry load had been shipped to the French vineyard, added to their production, and some “English” wine should be available in the autumn. It was noted that, due to a warm summer, the harvest was very early. The Cotswold and Worthing Ennios Hotels were now included in the monthly figures, even though the refurbishment work in Worthing was continuing. In her absence, Sir Nigel had produced the Trattoria Trevi report and he concentrated on two new restaurant openings in Limerick and Worthing. He described the Limerick restaurant as trading as predicted, which Jinnie knew meant it was early days and the business was making a profit. But he described business at Worthing as spectacular. The evenings were already booked six weeks in advance, the lunchtime trade was regularly so good they were turning customers away, but it was the breakfast trade that had surprised everyone, as it had been predicted to be very slow but instead was trading so well that he was wondering whether to experiment with longer openings at several city centre restaurants.
Jinnie paused for a moment and thought through the cost of opening for breakfast, it would only suit certain restaurants, she felt. Again, she made a note on her iPad to talk it through with Alberto. Nigel also reported that the restaurant at the Bordeaux winery had found space in an old building and Belinda’s design and costing were in hand. The next email Jinnie opened was another one from Rick. She was a little surprised, but he explained he had found a city restaurant, as had been authorised. It was in central Manchester but would not actually be available for about six months, as the current owner wanted to combine its sale with his retirement.
Rick continued, saying how, under the circumstances, he wondered if the main board might allow him to look at buying a hotel in France. He rather liked the idea of opening in Europe and, with the Trattoria Trevi opening in France, he had been looking into things there and thought he might be able to make money from a hotel in the South of France, possibly at Cannes, Antibes or Menton. It had to be somewhere the English knew, as he wanted to attract British holidaymakers. Something clicked in Jinnie’s brain, she had only learned the previous day that Simone was employed checking out hotels and restaurants for tourists to the South of France.
After a couple of hours, Jinnie decided that she had done enough work for the day and shut down her PC and strolled to the beach. As she neared the beach, she could hear the children and, as she emerged from the tree line, she saw they were in the sea with Paolo, Jan and James, playing with a big beach ball. Simone and her mother were watching from the loungers in the shade, and she flopped down on the lounger next to Simone and said, “They seem to be enjoying themselves.” Simone replied, “It’s lovely to see, Jan works so hard and travels a lot, he hardly ever gets a chance to relax and it’s a real treat to see him and Juliette able to spend time together.”
Jinnie said, “I’m glad we’ve got a few minutes to talk. Something came up this morning. How would you feel about doing a bit of work for me? It’s right up your street. The hotel division is thinking about buying a five-star hotel in the South of France, it would be for tourists, not for business. So, I guess it needs to be near a beach, have a decent pool and several places to eat, ranging from snack bars to classy restaurants. Of course, we would pay you for your time and effort.”
“I can think of half a dozen hotels that could fit those criteria without doing any work,” replied Simone. “I think you have a saying that applies, ‘Money for old rope.’ I don’t know that it would be right for me to charge for such simple advice.” “I was thinking more along the lines of me introducing you to Rick Earle, the Managing Director of our Ennios Hotel Group, and the two of you visiting your recommendations so that Rick could sort out what he likes. But I think we could perhaps go further. Rick wants to organise tourists from Britain as well as from France.”
“Are you offering me a job?” asked Simone. “Well, I suppose I am,” said Jinnie, “I hadn’t intended to, but as we have talked about it, I think it would make sense. Exactly who would employ you and what you would do needs a bit of thinking about. Let’s start with Rick, but if you don’t get on, I have an idea about Trattoria Trevi Restaurants. I would like him to work with you to build our chain of hotels, first in France and then in free Europe. In the past we have talked about hotels in Italy and Spain, as well as at major airports. They are a bit different, as they tend to rely on business travellers who don’t stay very long, maybe a night or two. They want things like gyms, business suites, good restaurants and more executive rooms. It’s what we offer at Heathrow, Southampton and, to a degree, in Miami.” “I’m interested,” said Simone, “it’s a bit like what I do now, but more varied.”
Chapter 21, A Night at the Continental
© WorthingGooner 2026
