The Wedding Planner
It had caused no end of strife between them, but in the end, Jamie Fraser had to admit that his sister Jenny had been right: Lallybroch was the perfect location for weddings. Under her careful management, the old stone house and its grounds had become a luxury hotel specialising in even more luxurious weddings, attracting clients from all over Scotland and beyond.
He could burst with pride when he saw the effect it was having on the local village. He had recruited musicians, chefs, housekeepers, janitors, groundskeepers and seamstresses. A thriving industry of drivers, nature and history trails and cutesy shops had sprung up around the wedding industry. The local church, which had been crumbling slowly and under the threat of closure, had been saved and restored. Even the farm had been saved, providing the organic ingredients to feed the troops of guests who arrived every weekend.
There was only one person at the hotel who was decidedly not local. And that was the wedding planner.
Claire Beauchamp was a sharp-tongued Londoner who had been brought up in the hotel trade, accompanying her uncle around the world as he instructed butlers, housemaids and waiting staff in the old-fashioned craft of silver service. Her ability to plan and run modern weddings with old-time glamour had helped her establish her name in the wedding business in the south of England. It had been a surprise to everyone when she accepted the position at the relatively unknown Lallybroch.
She drove Jamie to distraction; she was the wedding planner, not the general manager, as he frequently reminded her. She would unfailingly retort with an in-depth critique of whatever flaw she had found in whatever part of the business. He had no idea how to handle her: putting on the charm had been a complete failure; losing his temper had brought the wrath of both her and Jenny upon him and trying to out-talk her had tied him up in knots for the first time in his life.
‘We could employ Leaoghaire instead?’ was Jenny’s default response whenever he tried to complain about Claire, causing him to throw his hands up in the air and stomp out to mutter to the horses about dark haired women who didn’t listen to him.
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