Falling for the Secret Millionaire by Kate Hardy

Author:Kate Hardy
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Harlequin
Published: 2016-11-27T05:00:00+00:00

CHAPTER SEVEN

ONLY ONE OF the builders on Nicole’s list could actually come to look at the cinema within the next couple of days. One was too busy to come at all and the third couldn’t make it for another month. She’d already cleared out as much junk as she could from the cinema so, until she’d seen the builder’s quote and agreed the terms of business, Nicole knew she couldn’t do much more at the cinema. All the paperwork was up to date, too, and she was simply waiting on replies. To keep herself busy instead of fretting about the downtime, she headed for the archives.

There were newspaper reports of the opening of the Kursaal in 1911, but to her disappointment there were no photographs. There was a brief description of the outside of the building, including the arch outside which apparently had Art Deco sun rays in the brickwork, but nothing about the ceiling of stars. She carefully typed out the relevant paragraphs—the font size was too small to be easily read on a photograph—and was about to give up looking when the archivist came to see her.

‘You might like to have a look through this,’ she said, handing Nicole a thick album. ‘They’re postcards of the area, from around the early nineteen hundreds. There might be something in there.’

‘Thank you,’ Nicole said. ‘If there is, can I take a photograph on my phone?’

‘As long as you don’t use flash. And if I can think of any other sources which might contain something about the cinema, I’ll bring them over,’ the archivist said.

Halfway through the postcard album, Nicole found a postcard of the Electric Palace; she knew that, in common with other similarly named buildings, its name had changed after the First World War, to make it sound less German. Clearly by then someone had painted the outside of the building white, because the sun rays on the arch had been covered over, as they were now.

She photographed the postcard carefully, then slipped the postcard from the little corners keeping it in place so she could read the back. The frank on the stamp told her that the card had been posted in 1934. To her delight, the inscription referred to the writer spending the previous night dancing in the ballroom—and also to seeing the film It Happened One Night, the previous week.

Clarence would be pleased to know there was a reference to Frank Capra, she thought as she carefully photographed the inscription.

Gabriel, she corrected herself.

And that was the problem. She really wanted to share this with Gabriel. Yet she already knew how rubbish her judgement was in men. Getting close to Gabriel Hunter would be a huge mistake.

Then again, the man she was getting to know was a decent man. Maybe he wouldn’t let her down. Or maybe he would. So it would be sensible to keep it strictly business between them. Even though she was beginning to want a lot more than that.

* * *

On Saturday night, Nicole was sitting on her own in her flat.

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