The next few days passed for Mandy in a blur of activity. Katerina, who was slim and small, slept in Mandy’s motor-home luton. Since Ruarc point-blank refused to agree a wage for her, Mandy said she would reimburse Katerina out of her own pay.
The wages Katerina said she’d previously been paid whilst in the UK were so pitiful it would be no great hardship, Mandy thought.
At least, Ruarc agreed for Mandy to take a laptop from the farm shop and install it in her motor-home so Katerina was able to make a start with improving the Web site design aspects of the motor-home business.
Customers came and customers went. Sometimes Mandy felt optimistic and sometimes she felt in the depths of despair. The recession was biting hard and everybody had horror stories to report about shops closed down and businesses failing.
But the motor-homes were looking spic and span and the customers were reading the information now sellotaped to the motor-home windscreens alongside the price and obviously valued the information.
Entries for the motor-home competition were also now going strongly and the telephone and email information was proving invaluable for follow-up calls made by Gladys who looked in her element.
Gradually the motorhome rental side of the business was growing and, although no motor home sales seemed imminent, Ruarc had begun to treat Mandy more like an employee and advisor than a lackey.
Perhaps he had warned Ralph off too because his son hadn’t been around causing problems with Katerina.
For a few days, Mandy had been worried about the gang-master coming around for his share of Katerina’s wage however, as it turned out, it seemed the gang-master had so many workers that, if one went missing, it was not so important, especially one as weak and tiny as Katerina.
A group of fishermen entered the competition and then came around to make a regular motor-home hire booking. Seizing the opportunity of regular business, Mandy was even able to agree a special deal price with them which left them very satisfied.
It seemed they needed the motor-home to go away together for regular sea fishing expeditions.
After the first trip, the four fishermen left the motor-home they had rented in quite a state but Katerina with a shrug and a smile quickly set to work to make it spic and span and good as new.
One day, a middle-aged man turned up and quite took to Mandy. He was going into hospital soon for radiotherapy and didn’t want to travel the 60 miles each day for treatment. His plan was to park the motor-home at a campsite near to the hospital for the duration of the treatment. He told Mandy that, when his treatment was over, if it was successful, he would come back and try to persuade Mandy to go out for a date with him. Mandy found herself shedding a tear as the man drove away in his rented motor-home.
Which made Mandy wonder about Tom Hutchinson. For somebody who seemed so keen, it had now been several weeks that he had not called. Perhaps his plans had changed or perhaps she had mis-read his intentions.
Each day, Mandy went to work at the motor-home sales office, greeting customers and working hard to make sales. Katerina started her day cleaning the motor homes then sat studiously updating Rick’s motor-home sales web site on the laptop.
When the month-end came, Mandy handed Katerina her share of Mandy’s wages and was pleased to see Gladys was also continuing to be paid.
The grand finale to the motor-home hire promotional competition was rapidly approaching and Mandy made arrangements with the local press and media to televise the prize-giving. It would be good public relations for Ruarc’s motor-home sales business.
Mandy’s only worry was that Ruarc was insisting his suppliers should come down and join in the celebrations.
Mandy had not forgotten Ruarc’s special relationship with his suppliers and, according to him, their special needs.
