Country Plot (29 page)

‘Part of the time. I've got a folder with everything laid out that I'd like to show you.'

‘You are efficient! But we must have Bill in on it – he has a first-rate brain. And anything to do with the house . . . Wait while I go and speak to him.'

Jenna turned into the kitchen to see what there was for lunch, while Kitty went on to the communicating door. She was back quickly. ‘After lunch,' she said. ‘He and Fatty are just sitting down; they'll come through when they've finished. He's as excited as me. I've promised him we won't discuss it until they get here, so we'll have to talk about other things. Tell me about your Saturday night out. Was it fun?'

It was a glorious afternoon, hot and sunny with a nice refreshing breeze. Because of the latter they didn't sit outside, where the papers would get blown about, but around the table in the conservatory. Both dogs were there too, spark out on the tiled floor for its cooling effect.

Jenna laid out her papers. ‘I've been thinking about this ever since I first got here, and Kitty told me she might have to leave, but I've had a lot of help from the family, suggesting things and answering questions, so this is a bit of a joint Freemont effort.' She smiled around them. ‘I didn't want you to think I was this much of a genius.'

‘I promise I won't think that,' Bill said solemnly. ‘Let's go.'

‘All right. I'll start with a couple of ideas which I don't think are immediately viable, but which might be worth revisiting further along the road. The furthest out came from my friend Izzy, which was to turn Holtby House into a country house hotel.'

Bill rolled his eyes.

‘Yes, I know,' Jenna went on. ‘The house is ideal in many ways, but it would take big investment and involve a lot of staff and organization; and, most importantly, it would mean it wasn't Kitty's home any more.'

‘That's what I was thinking,' Bill said. ‘Might as well sell the place as do that.'

‘I agree,' said Kitty.

‘Fine. I wasn't really proposing it as a serious suggestion, but we might as well have everything on the table. Secondly, weddings. Now that could make a lot of money. People these days are spending twenty to thirty thousand on a wedding, even quite ordinary people – and you can multiply that by ten or twenty for celebrities. The thing they're all looking for – and are willing to spend a lot of money on – is a romantic venue, and country houses are top of the list, thanks to all those films like
Pride and Prejudice
. Holtby is perfect: pretty but grand enough, set in lovely grounds, and with good accessibility – not too far off the motorway, and there's a good railway connection from Belminster.'

‘But wouldn't it involve an awful lot of work?' Kitty asked.

‘Most of it would be done by the wedding planner. They'd arrange the caterers and transport and flowers and all that sort of thing, and see everyone was in the right place at the right time. You'd have to make sure the rooms were ready, and you might have to make bedrooms available, for the bridal party to get changed in. Plus there's the question of getting the kitchen passed by the Health and Safety people – the caterers would want to use it for final preparation.'

‘It's quite a new kitchen,' Kitty said.

‘Yes, and it's well fitted. I don't think there would be much to do to get it certified,' Jenna said. ‘But it has to be considered. Also to take into account: people at weddings don't always behave very well. You'd have to put away anything valuable or fragile, and expect a certain amount of damage – drinks spilled on the carpets and marks on the walls and so on. You'd have to get a drinks licence – which is not difficult, but it's something to consider. And, of course, you'd have to get registered to hold the ceremony, which again shouldn't be a problem, but will take time.' She looked round at them. ‘I think that is one definitely to consider further down the road, because apart from generating good money, it also generates publicity, gets the house more widely known about, which fits in to the other ideas I've come up with.' She waited for comments.

‘I like very much weddings,' Fatty said. ‘Pretty bride, pretty bridesmaids. Many flowers.'

‘Drunken couples copulating in the shrubbery,' Bill added. ‘Drunken women in tight satin dresses vomiting in the flower beds.'

Kitty looked alarmed. ‘Oh, surely not?'

‘The thing would be to charge enough to make it exclusive,' Jenna said. ‘A high price keeps off bad company. But if you charge a high price you have to offer the facilities. That might mean letting them stay overnight, and while Lady Mary's room would be a wow as the nuptial chamber, you'd have to get the other bedrooms up to scratch, which means investment.'

‘Let's put that aside for the moment,' Kitty said, looking a little daunted. ‘I don't think I'm up to organization on that scale.'

Jenna smiled. ‘Don't worry, I've got plenty more ideas yet. Number three is the one I've already mentioned to you – registering the property as a location for film and TV, which also includes advertising, fashion and magazine shoots. I have some contacts in that world that could be useful. The beauty of this idea is that you don't have to do anything. They move everything they want moved and put it back afterwards. They even bring their own catering van.'

‘There must be some downsides,' Bill said cautiously.

‘Well, they might cut up the grass a bit, but they're supposed to leave everything as they found it, so theoretically they ought to put the turf right if they do.'

‘Other downsides?'

‘There's a lot of competition. But the same things that make Holtby suitable for weddings will count for it for film location: good access, fine grounds – and it has a very pretty exterior. It seems to me there isn't much to say against this idea. I've got the details of an agency that registers properties for this sort of thing, and it's just a matter of contacting them and getting them to come and inspect.'

Kitty said, ‘I can't see any reason not to go that far, anyway. If they like it, and if they confirm what you've said about putting everything back – well, it seems to me like money for nothing, and any income for the house will help hold it together.'

‘So I'll put a tick against that one, shall I?'

‘I like very much movies, also,' Fatty said. ‘Will film stars come here, in costumes? Horse and carriages?'

‘That's the idea,' Jenna said.

‘Colin Firth and Huge Grant,' she said firmly, as though she were putting in an order for them.

‘Especially Huge Grant,' Jenna said solemnly.

‘I thought I was your hero,' Bill said to his wife in wounded tones.

She lowered her eyelashes. ‘A woman must have dreams also,' she said mysteriously.

‘Moving on,' Jenna said, ‘we come to my sister Harriet's idea, opening the garden to the public. With the walled gardens, the woodland walk, and particularly Centurion's Grave, I think there's enough there to make it attractive, and a lot of tourists holiday in this part of the world specifically to look at gardens, so if you can get on the route, people will come. There'd be a bit of work involved in preparation, but nothing we couldn't do ourselves, and a bit of investment – a load of bark to reinforce the woodland path, ditto gravel in the walled gardens, some signposts to mark out the route – nothing major.'

‘We used to open the garden when the village had the annual fête,' Kitty said. ‘I mentioned that to you, didn't I? I think that might be quite a viable idea.'

‘I suppose I must do my usual growl,' Bill said, ‘and ask: downsides?'

‘Well, mainly that you are in hock to the weather. If it's cold and wet, people won't come, and we've had a couple of pretty dismal summers recently. And I don't think you could charge a huge amount for entrance to the garden alone, so you wouldn't make a lot of money. However,' she went on, ‘taken in conjunction with idea number five—'

‘What an orderly mind you have!' said Kitty. ‘I'd already lost count.'

‘Only when it comes to work. You should see inside my drawers. Anyway, idea number five is opening the house to the public.'

Kitty looked anxious. ‘Oh dear, I should so hate having people running all over the house all the time.'

‘Don't worry, it wouldn't be the whole house. I've looked into other properties, and I think it would work with just four rooms, plus the hall. You couldn't have people roaming about all over the place anyway – you have to control them.'

‘You do?' Kitty said, looking alarmed.

‘Most people who visit houses like this are nice people, but you have to take precautions against the odd rogue. They have to stick to a route. Your having the two staircases is a real plus: it makes a proper circuit, and you don't have to have people coming up and going down the same staircase at the same time.'

‘Yes, I see that. And which four rooms were you thinking of?' Kitty asked.

‘I'll come to that in a moment, if I may. I'd just like to go through the financial side first, because if it's not going to work for you that way, there's no point in doing it.'

‘Good point,' said Bill. ‘Fire away.'

‘OK. Looking at other properties, it seems to me you could start off by charging seven fifty for a combined ticket for the house and garden. You have to pitch it right and not put people off until you get established, and that feels about right to me. And you could charge two fifty for the garden alone. On a nice day there'll always be some people who fancy a stroll in pleasant grounds, and they'll pay a small amount for the privilege, so you might as well take it from them.' She looked at her notes. ‘I would recommend opening only on Saturdays and Sundays to begin with. Realistically, that's when most people would come anyway. Though if it worked, you always could look at opening for more days during the six weeks of school holiday – mid July to the end of August. But for now, opening Saturday and Sunday from ten until four would catch the main flow of visitors and still give you all the rest of the week to yourself. And on the experience of other houses, you could get a hundred people a day through the doors.'

‘Really?' Kitty said, brightening. ‘Do you think so?'

‘That's only three people every ten minutes,' Jenna said. ‘Of course I'm talking averages. On a wet day out of the main season it will be less, but on a fine day in high season you could easily double those figures. But taking it as an average of a hundred a day, two days a week, from the beginning of May to the end of September at seven fifty a head, that would give you an income of thirty thousand a year.'

There was a silence round the table, and she couldn't tell if it was disappointed or awestruck. ‘Well?' she said. ‘Is that the kind of figure that would make it viable for you?'

Kitty hugged her arms. ‘Thirty thousand? It would make all the difference in the world! It would be enough to keep the house going and to do the repairs I've been putting off. It would be the saving of us!'

‘I hadn't thought it would be that much. I was thinking more along the lines of ten thousand if we were lucky,' said Bill. ‘Do you really think that's possible?'

Jenna was pleased. ‘Certainly possible. I've tried to estimate on the conservative side so as not to raise false hopes. Of course, you wouldn't hit the ground running – it would take time to get known and build up the footfall. But you have added value – wonderful artefacts, steeped in history, and loads of connections to famous people, which would give you the edge over other houses. I'm convinced word of mouth would quickly put Holtby on the tourist map.'

‘Footfall? Added value?' Bill laughed. ‘I like it when you talk management-speak. Makes what you say all the more convincing.'

Jenna grinned. ‘Ah, but your thirty thousand is only the beginning. There are all sorts of ways you can add to that. Film locations we've dealt with. Booked, private tours on closed days is another – with all the history here, I'm pretty sure that would be attractive. Historical societies, Townswomen's Guilds, WI, Round Table, old people's homes – they're all looking for nice, safe, interesting outings. And the entrance fee doesn't have to be the only money you take. People on a day out love to spend money. The biggest thing, if you can manage it, is teas. Tea and cake – it doesn't have to be elaborate, but a sit down and a cuppa will really add to the attractiveness of the house. You'd catch the garden-only people that way, too. Tea on the terrace – put that in your advertisements. Or in the conservatory when it's wet.'

‘Tea and cake – is that all? Not sandwiches?' Fatty asked.

‘I'd keep it simple to start with. Nothing perishable. Sandwiches are labour-intensive to make, and if they don't sell on Saturday you can't keep them for Sunday, the way you can with cake.'

‘What a clear-thinking girl you are,' Kitty said admiringly. ‘But it seems mean only to give someone cake for their tea.'

Jenna laughed. ‘You're not inviting them as guests,' she reminded her. ‘These are strangers who are paying you money. I promise you, cake will pay, sandwiches won't – at this stage of the enterprise, at least. The downside,' she added with a glance at Bill, ‘is that you'd have to make some investment to begin with. Tables and chairs, crockery and so on.'

Kitty sat up straighter. ‘But my dear, we have all that stuff in the cellar! Folding tables and chairs, and boxes and boxes of cups, plates and saucers. And the big teapots, and two huge urns. We used it when we had the garden party for the village fête, but it goes back further than that. These big houses all had their open days. I think Peter's grandfather probably bought the furniture, and his father the crockery.'

‘Well, that's excellent,' Jenna said. ‘That makes a big difference. So what do you think about teas?'