Not Exactly Chaucer , livre ebook

The Conrad Press - Wendy Mason

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201 pages

English

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In this contemporary twist on Chaucer's 'The Canterbury Tales', tour manager, Bailey, strives to ensure that her guests enjoy their three-week tour of Australia - for many, the holiday of a lifetime.Then Bailey discovers that her tour operator - Australia Unleashed - has been taken over, she has a secret shopper among the guests and her career is on the line. She remains determined in her quest. However, her good intentions disintegrate into a cocktail of chaos!Take a slice of mystery; a shot of skulduggery; a measure of prejudice; a twist of romance and a dash of humour. Put them all together, shake and enjoy, as the twenty-one travellers each tell their stories, form new relationships and discover things about themselves that will change their lives forever.

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Publié par	The Conrad Press
Date de parution	07 février 2020
Nombre de lectures	0
EAN13	9781913227869
Langue	English

Informations légales : prix de location à la page 0,0200€. Cette information est donnée uniquement à titre indicatif conformément à la législation en vigueur.

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Not Exactly   Chaucer
Wendy Mason

Not Exactly Chaucer
Published by The Conrad Press in the United Kingdom 2020
Tel: +44(0)1227 472 874   www.theconradpress.com   info@theconradpress.com
ISBN 978-1-911546-91-7
Copyright © Wendy Mason, 2020
The moral right of Wendy Mason to be identified as author of this work has been asserted in accordance with the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988.
All rights reserved.
Typesetting and Cover Design by: Charlotte Mouncey, www.bookstyle.co.uk
The Conrad Press logo was designed by Maria Priestley.

By the same author St Francis – An Instrument of Peace (Novum: 2018).

For my wonderful husband, Harold, whose endless support has made this book possible.

The Characters in Not Exactly Chaucer
K ate Bailey is the tour guide. She is forty years old, divorced and misses her son, Duncan, who now lives in Scotland. She loves her job and is totally dedicated to providing the best possible care to her clients – no matter how difficult they may be.
Barbara Bath is a seventy-year-old, flamboyant retired agony aunt. She is currently a widow, having been married five times, but is frequently on the lookout for a replacement. She dresses in silk suits, wears hats and several valuable diamond rings.
Cynthia Clerk, a sixty-five-year-old spinster and recently retired Hospital Administrator. She tends to be rather shy in social settings.
Angie Cook is a retired sixty-eight-year-old widow, with a tendency to drink too much. She always wears brightly coloured kaftans and turbans.
Brigadier Andrew Friar is a fifty-year-old retired military man and fundraiser for Help the Hero’s. He is single, with pleasant manners, and well spoken.
Dr James Hunt is a sixty-five-year-old wine importer, travelling with his long suffering, fifty-six-year-old wife, March. He always has a lot to say about everything, especially wine, and very loudly. She has an interior design company and hopes that the holiday will patch up their marriage.
Tony Knight is a thirty-eight-year-old former soldier. Always polite and charming, he is single, tall and good looking – in a roguish kind of way.
Frank Lynne is a sixty-year-old farmer travelling with Paul Pardoner, a twenty-eight-year-old social worker.
Maddy Mancipal is an attractive, single, thirty-two-year-old, who works for the police. She is on sabbatical from her job for a year.
John Miller is an ostentatious stockbroker is in his mid-forties. His humour sails close to the wind at times, and he scoffs at the very idea of commitment.
Nigel Monk and his wife, Pryor, are an ‘adorable’ sixty-five-year-old couple. Pryor wears a pendant inscribed ‘love conquers all’ and has two very spoilt dogs, who she keeps in touch with through Skype.
The Nunnes, both sixty-eight-years-old, are very challenging guests that like nothing more than to find something to moan and complain about.
David Parsons, the retired Dean, is a calm, gentle, sixty-eight-year-old widower, who always wears his clerical garb.
Professor Harold Reeve is a retired seventy-year-old Black African American from Arkansas. He is devoted to his English wife, Cher, aged sixty-one, to whom he has been married for sixteen years. She is a published author.
Fyrne Schipmanno is a dark haired, attractive, forty-year-old physiotherapist. She is single, of Sicilian heritage and a feminist.
Jujh Singh, a Sikh is in his late thirties and joined the tour from India. His father is a hotelier and a Maharajah.
Sumoner White is a photographer in his late forties. His interests lie with younger women because he believes they become ‘clucky’ as soon as they reach thirty. He is not interested in marriage or becoming a parent.

PART ONE

1. Day One – Perth
B ailey sat at the hospitality desk, positioned to give her a panoramic view across the hotel’s lounge. She checked the guest list and fiddled with her badge. The logo: Australia Unleashed , underscored her name: Kate Bailey . Not that anyone called her Kate, nor did she encourage it.
She glanced at her watch: eight-fifteen. Some of the early risers should be finishing breakfast anytime now. She breathed in the irresistible smell of bacon. Her stomach twisted into a knot. Hunger, or the apprehension she always experienced on the first day of a tour?
The door to the dining room whooshed open. Her heart quickened. Her first guest?
A familiar waitress emerged balancing a tray on one hand.
‘Coffee?’
‘That’s so kind of you, Cheryl.’
‘You looked in need. How’s that handsome son of yours? Duncan, isn’t? He must have finished university by now, is he home?’
‘I wish.’
‘Oh, dear. Is he all right?’
‘He’s met a girl. His “soul-mate.” She wants to stay in Scotland to be near her parents, and he’s been offered a really good job with a top accountancy firm in Edinburgh.’
The idea of Duncan being away for three years had been bad enough, but the thought of it becoming a permanent arrangement had never crossed her mind. Karma. Now she knew how her parents must have felt when she’d married at seventeen and abandoned Scotland in favour of Australia.
‘I’ll see him at Christmas, but only for a couple of weeks.’
‘You know what they say: “a son’s only a son until he finds him a wife.” What you need – apart from coffee – is a touch of romance in your life.’
Bailey flinched. Why did everyone presume she needed a man, just because she was forty and single?
‘I tried that once,’ she shook her head slowly. ‘Never again.’
Cheryl placed the tray on the table.
‘Thanks for the coffee,’ Bailey said. She sipped her drink. Hot, black and strong, exactly how she liked it.
A flurry of rain, sprinkled with tiny hailstones, splattered against the ceiling-to-floor window beside her. Her guests would be disappointed to wake to this unseasonal weather, especially after the sweltering heat of their various stop-over breaks in Hong-Kong, Dubai, or Singapore. Not an impressive start.
Of course, it would improve. For the next three weeks her guests would enjoy a stunning array of colours, scents, and sounds: the cool greens, fragrant lilies and laughing kookaburra of the Margaret River region; the hot reds, eucalyptus and didgeridoos of Uluru; and the turquoise blues, ozone and crashing surf of the Barrier Reef. In stark contrast, Australia’s vibrant cities awaited, including their current location, Perth, together with Melbourne and Sydney. For some guests, this would be their holiday of a lifetime. Expectations would run high and as Tour Manager she needed to ensure they were met.
The door to the dining room whooshed again. Five guests strolled purposefully towards her. She felt the familiar thrill as the adrenalin surged, part nerves, part excitement. It always happened when she met her guests for the first time.
The first man looked like the amicable villain in her favourite TV soap – six-foot-tall, muscular, late thirties, with his hair shaved short. His jeans and black T-shirt were smartly pressed, and he carried a leather jacket draped over his arm.
Two older couples followed.
The first, a silver-haired pair, dressed identically in Burberry check trousers and white tennis shirts, reminded her of Tweedledum and Tweedledee; with mutually unfriendly expressions, furrowed brows and pursed lips. The man carried their matching red anoraks as his partner foraged in her large purple tote bag. Her hand emerged clutching a bottle of antibacterial gel. As they approached, she proceeded to spray first her own, then her partner’s, upturned palms. He rubbed his podgy hands together and glanced at his watch.
The second couple chatted together quietly as they approached, heads touching, arms entwined. His navy polo shirt with burgundy stripe complemented the pale blue of hers.
Bailey stood to greet them. ‘Welcome to Perth.’
Her first guest reached across the desk and firmly shook her hand. His brown eyes twinkled as his face broke into a broad grin.
‘Good morning. You must be Kate? I’m Tony Knight.’
‘Please. Call me Bailey. Everybody does. Did you enjoy your stop-over, Tony?’
‘Brilliant. Great hotel in Singapore – very central.’
‘And your connection flight?’
‘I got in about six last night, which gave me plenty of time to explore.’
Bailey turned towards the silver haired couple beside him. The man glared at her; the woman sniffed.
‘Mr and Mrs Nunne,’ he said, ignoring her outstretched hand.
Bailey’s hand trembled slightly as she ticked their names off her list. ‘Welcome. What time did you arrive in Perth?’
‘Two o’clock this morning, after a five-hour delay in Dubai. Ridiculous.’
‘I’m very sorry. I did hear that a flight got delayed for technical reasons.’
‘And now we hear that our schedule has changed – Melbourne after Uluru and then back up to Cairns? Extra travel. Huge temperature changes. I’ll be surprised if we don’t all go down with pneumonia.’
Bailey’s heart sank. Why was there always one?
‘I’m so sorry. The alterations to our planned schedule are due to internal flight issues. You’ll find a complimentary bottle of wine in your room as an apology for any inconvenience.’
Mr Nunne grunted. ‘Poor planning, more like. We’ll be writing to complain.’
Bailey fixed her smile firmly in place and turned to the next couple.
‘Nigel Monk and this is my wife, Pryor. We’re pleased to meet you, Bailey. What have you done with the weather? This temperature’s a bit of a shock after Hong Kong.’ His voice, gentle and teasing, delivered with a friendly smile.
‘I’m assured this weather front will clear later today.’ She handed each of them an envelope. ‘I’ve prepared these. They contain a map of the city, details on the free tram service, a few ideas on places to visit, and complimentary tickets for the famous Swan B