He might as well say it like it was. ‘You won’t have any authority.’

Any last hint of a smile completely disappeared at that. ‘So the offer to employ me for a year was window dressing to make me feel good about you guys taking over?’

‘I can’t employ you if you seriously like…’he stared around him in distaste ‘…fluff.’

‘The fluff’s Lorna’s’

‘Lorna?’

‘Lorna’s my mother-in-law,’ she said. She was speaking calmly, but he could see she was holding herself tightly on rein. ‘Lorna set this salon up forty years ago. She had a stroke eight years ago, and advertised for an assistant. I got the job and met Ben. Now it’s my business, but Lorna still puts in her oar. Lorna’s been incredibly good to me. If she wants pink, and the locals like pink, I don’t see why she can’t have it.’

‘Carver Salons are sleek and minimalist.’

‘Of course they are. So you’re here to toss the fluff?’

‘I’ll do the preliminaries,’ he told her. ‘That’s why I’ve come-to decide what needs to be done. By the look of it, we’ll start from scratch. We’ll gut the place. My staff will take over the rebuilding, and everything that comes after.’

‘But you’ll still employee me?’

‘We envisage a smooth transition.’

‘You’re employing me for local colour?’

‘I didn’t say that.’

‘You didn’t have to. I can’t see me fitting the image of a Carver Salon consultant.’

‘Have you ever met a Carver Salon consultant?’

‘As it happens, I have,’ she said, almost defiantly. ‘A year ago I had a…well, I needed a holiday, and my parents-in-law sent me to Paris. I wandered through your salon, just to see how the other half live. Only of course I wasn’t up to standard. I hadn’t been in the salon for two minutes before I was asked to leave.’

‘If my staff thought you were possible opposition, then…’

‘Now, that’s the funny thing,’ she said. She’d risen and moved over to one of the Christmas trees.