Earl - 18. Earl Chapter 18

“Now that everyone is mobile, maybe my kind parents can give me and my… oh wait a second. George and Mary,” Tyler said, and his staff soon made their way to the group. “Mum and Dad, Mr & Mrs Carrington, this is my staff, Mr George and Mrs Mary Atherton,” Tyler said making the introductions. “It is a pleasure to meet you all,” George said as he shook the hand of both sets of parents, as did Mary.

“With you all having plans for this morning, I have delayed having Hector and Anna come over until late afternoon, say 4 pm, they are both familiar with this house, as they knew the former owners, and have had dinners here a few times,” Mary announced, “That would be nice thank you, Mary,” Katherine replied.

“Right let’s get a move on, or we will be late getting to the pub. I am leaving my car here, so I will travel with you, if that is ok,” Lucas said to his parents, “Yes, we better get moving too, I am presuming George and Mary that you are joining us?” Matthew said. “They are, as you need to drop them and me back at my place please,” Tyler said to his father.

When the Carrington’s arrived at the pub, with the assistance of the navigator app, the main carpark was nearly full of cars, and there was a large group standing around near the front door, and Lucas groaned in annoyance at the media pack. “Bloody vultures, it is the media, I suggest we park a little way down the road, and try and sneak back,” Lucas said to his parents, and Matthew continued driving.

“Take the first road left dad, I think it is called Victoria something…” Lucas instructed, “Victoria Grove?” Katherine asked, “Yes, take that one to the junction and turn left again onto… um I forgot the name it’s a girls name,” Lucas said, “Beatrice Avenue?” Katherine asked, “Yes, that is it, then turn left onto Crossways Road, and go to the end, turn let back onto the A3021, and turn into the Texaco service station,” Lucas instructed.

Once they had parked, they headed to the service station shop, which thankfully was empty, and Lucas walked directly to the front counter, “Good morning, do you know who I am?” Lucas asked.

“No, but… Wait yes I do, there has been rumours flying about that his Lordship the Earl of Portland and his friend were at the pub yesterday, and that good for nothing Derek was fired by him,” the lady replied, and Lucas chuckled.

“It was actually me that fired him, but yes I am the best friend of his Lordship the Earl of Portland, who will not be here today. I see there is a pack of reporters out the front waiting for him to appear, that back gate of yours that goes to the back of the beer garden, do you have a key for that?” Lucas asked.

“Yes sir we do, but it is for emergencies only,” the lady replied, “Believe me my dear, this is an emergency, I am Margaret, and this is my husband Liam, and this young man is our son Lucas, we are the new managers of the pub, and we need to get into the pub without the media knowing, if you would be kind enough to assist,” Mrs Carrington said to the lady at the counter.

“In that case yes it will be ok, just return the key when you have finished please?” the lady replied, “Oh wait, I may already have a copy in this set,” Lucas said as he pulled out the set of keys that were from the former manager, and the lady leaned over and pointed to the correct key.

“That looks like the one, if not just come back and get this one,” she said, and after thanking her, the Carrington’s headed to the back gate, and sure enough it was the correct key, and they locked the gate behind them. Using another key, they slipped inside un-noticed by the media. Stopping to hear if there was any staff inside, they heard so chatter coming from the kitchen.

“Here they are,” Emily said when she spotted Lucas, but she looked disappointed when there was no sign of Tyler, which made Lucas smile. “Ladies and Gentlemen, for those who did not meet me yesterday, my name is Lucas Carrington, and this is my parents, Liam and Margaret Carrington, and no His Lordship will not be joining us today, which is just as well with the crowd outside.

We were able to slip through the back gate of the garage into the beer garden to avoid the vultures, as my good fried calls them,” Lucas announced, which had everyone laughing.

“Good morning, as our son said, we are Liam and Margaret, and although technically the pub is owned by his Lordship, we are to be the full-time managers of this pub. As you can guess from our accents, we are from Western Australia, and we have run a small country pub for the past 2 ½ decades.

When not attending boarding school, Lucas here has been assisting us, so we have plenty of experience in running pubs, but not English ones, so we ask for your support, as we get settled in.

Lucas has informed us of what happened yesterday, and we have just had some other feedback from next door as well, so we hope that now with the original team back together again, we can be one happy team.Kathleen, would you mind giving me a tour of the all inside, and Lucas can give direction for you all on what needs doing,” Lucas’s mum said, as she followed Kathleen out the door, with the two girls following behind.

“Right, before we start, all of you are being paid for the time we are closed, which is till we are happy that the pub is up to a high standard of cleanliness and presentation. We have six large potted trees coming this afternoon, along with a heap of other plants and materials, so we need to remove the plants from the raised garden beds, and some of the soil too, in preparation for the new stuff arriving.

I am just an ordinary pub cook, so chef Julian, I will be leaving you in charge, but I want the kitchens, plus the cold and dry stores to be spotless by the time we open again, that includes ditching all food, no matter what the cost is, it must all be gone, as we will be starting with fresh food, and the only things I want to see in the freezer are products like icecream , sorbets and anything like that.

Arran and Toby, I want you both to help the Chef to remove anything that is moveable out of the kitchen so all the kitchen walls and floors can be scrubbed clean. I know it is not your fault that they have come to this stage, but we are having a new beginning, which means a thoroughly clean slate.

We may even get the kitchen and dining room painted, and do some remodelling of the main bar area too,” Lucas said to the staff gathered. “Anything that we can do sir?” Emily asked, “Yes, Emily and Arianna, can you please clean out the bar area completely till it is bare, I want all glasses to be packed away, into boxes, and we will get a heap of new ones, these can go to a charity shop somewhere of your choosing or shared amongst the staff.

All bar tables and chairs can go into the function room across the way, and we will deal with them later, I want the walls and floors to be cleaned, and we will probably paint there too, I will decided that with my parents later,” Lucas announced, before setting off to find his father, who was in the courtyard.

I have found a garden shed out the back, so I am pulling up all the plants in the raised garden, that is what you wanted wasn’t it?” Lucas’s father asked, “Yes dad, that is perfect, I have issued jobs to everyone, so when you and I have finished with this, we will need to help Emily and Arianna with moving the tables and chairs from the bar into the function room. But before you get to grubby, here are the master keys, go and check out your new apartment on the top floor, it is marked Manager’s Residence,” Lucas said as he handed over the keys.

Lucas heard some shouting out the front, so he dashed inside and headed towards the front door which was wide open, with his mum holding a straw broom, and Lucas almost burst out laughing, as she scorned the reporters, swatting the broom at them.

“You are trespassing, leave us be you rotten vultures, curse the lot of you,” Lucas heard his mother say, and stepping beside her, Lucas put his hand on her shoulder, and she put the broom against the door. “Good afternoon reporters, I am sorry to say that his Lordship is no longer on the island, as he had urgent business to deal with on the English mainland, so we ask that you leave us be, as we prepare for reopening,” Lucas announced to the reporters.

“Are you the young man, who had been seen with this Lordship on his first visit to the UK?” one reporter asked Lucas, “I am not here to answer questions, only to inform you that Mr & Mrs Liam Carrington from Australia have accepted the position of Managers of this fine pub, and after a week or two of renovations it will be open for business once again, thankyou for your time, good day to you all,” Lucas said, as he ushered his mother inside, as she grabbed the broom and waved it around a few times, before going inside, and Lucas closed and locked the front door.

When they were well away from the front door, Lucas turned to his mum, “That was a little over the top wasn’t it? Now you are going to have your picture on the front page of the paper,” Lucas said to his mother, “ Come up here dear, and check out our new residence, it is quite nice inside,” Lucas’s father called from upstairs, and she set off to see their new home, forgetting about the media outside, who had decided to wait around for a little while, just in case.

“Hey Lucas, how are things going over at the pub?” Tyler said when he answered the phone, “Just dandy mate, thanks for letting us deal with the vultures, actually mum just threatened them with a broom, saying they are rotten vultures and she said curse them all,” Lucas replied, “Oh man, I wish I was there to see that,” Tyler responded as he chuckled at the thought of Mrs Carrington threatening the media with a broom.

After nearly a week of work, the whole pub was now gleaming clean, inside and out, and the courtyard looked much better with the new garden beds, and the large potted trees. Mum had hired a folk band to play on the first night of opening, which was advertised widely throughout the island and the Southern section of England.

Some changes had been decided, which included no smoking inside the pub, and the opening hours had changed from 9am to 10pm Sunday to Thursday and 1am on Friday and Saturday to 11am to 10pm seven days a week. Although his parents would be living in the pub, Lucas had made arrangements to rent the cottage from Tyler’s parents at Elm lane, and drive to work each day.

Matthew and Katherine had settled into their new home, and Matthew would spend four days a week, on the main farm, and the other days at home, where he has another smaller mob of cattle on his home property. Tyler spent most of the time travelling between the Welbeck and Bothal estates, keeping tabs on operations on both properties, with the castle now open for tourist three days a week, on Tuesdays, Thursday and Saturday’s, with the other days reserved for the staff to keep the place spotlessly clean.

Tyler was kept updated on what is happening in Darwin, with the Northport City now kept busy with regular harbour traffic, and after many attempts to complain about the new facility, the Chinese company gave up trying and continued to run its own operations, while Northport Wharf ended up being an additional berthing facility for the Royal Australian Navy, with dry dock facilities constructed, to allow any size ship to be brought out of the water for maintenance.

Tyler had plans to visit Darwin at least twice a year, even with the great distance in travel required, so that he can see for himself how the new facilities are operating, and to catch up with Hamysh and Sebastian at least once a year.

The End