The Long Guest
Excellent rooms. Difficult departures. The previous owner is still upstairs.
Hotel March receives the living by the ordinary mountain road and the dead by a driverless coach at dusk. A dead guest can stay while a living person willingly pays for their room. Some come for lost love; others for unfinished work, a second conversation or a better supper. Six weeks ago the proprietor died. Her daughter Elise inherited the hotel, then paid to have her mother return as a guest. Now Odette occupies an upstairs room and offers management advice nobody ordered. The winter dance is taking shape, the hot water is unreliable, and people with incompatible plans keep finding themselves at the same dinner table. You enter as an adult of your own choosing, free to visit, work, court, investigate, settle in or leave. Nobody has booked your life for you.
Characters24
Returned dead pastry cook, adult age at death 24; a bright, exacting presence at the Boiler Court workroom who wants her recipes credited, not reverently mourned.
Returned dead architectural draughtsman, adult age at death 29; draws in the Upper Rooms and makes public usefulness personal, especially when a plan needs revising.
Living porter at Hotel Reception, 25; handsome, sociable and discreet, with ambitions he disguises as another useful favour.
Returned dead stage actress, adult age at death 25; a glamorous presence in the Winter Ballroom who wants audiences to judge the performance rather than the obituary.
Insurance investigator based around Lowbridge Shops, seeking a credible settlement and too ready to mistake tact for concealment.
Pretty Lowbridge bookseller with wicked comic timing, ambitions for a lending room and a weakness for knowing one thing more than her customer.
Living proprietor at Hotel Reception, 26; polished hospitality and costly overpromising, determined to earn a reputation of her own.
Living independent debt valuer at Hotel Reception, 29; a charming analyst who praises bold decisions most readily when someone else bears the risk.
Returned dead mountain guide, adult age at death 28; broad-shouldered charm around the Winter Ballroom, seeking useful days without treating a good smile as an apology.
Handsome ordinary coach driver at the Coach House, dreaming of his own route and disguising concern as teasing; never the dusk coach's driver.
Living pianist and aspiring composer in the Winter Ballroom, 27; beautiful, precise and dry, sheltering professional and personal fears behind impeccable taste.
Living laundry engineer at the Boiler Court, 26; compact, handsome and inventive, wanting to be valued for more than never letting anybody down.
Locations9
Hotel March's desk, key board and public sitting area; Elise runs the business here while Bastien handles arrivals and Felix assesses an optional ballroom lease.
Village bookshop, tailoring workroom and pavement inside the return boundary; Dora lends opinions, Rita fits clothes and Conrad pursues an ordinary insurance discrepancy.
Mountain valley containing Hotel March, Lowbridge village and the old coach road; living travellers can leave, but returned guests remain inside its marked boundary.
Service yard, heating access, laundry and pastry workroom; Tessa keeps the hotel warm while Leo considers a business and Amelie insists on credit for her baking.
Ordinary coach yard, switchboard office and old road; Hugo drives living travellers, Pavel maintains the path, and Oskar carries messages while dreaming of the stage.
Sheltered gallery above the valley path; Lotte and Sylvie plan a photo essay while Vera seeks pleasures that do not need a scorekeeper.
Glazed supper room and kitchen pass; Matteo guards the menu, Mara tries to eat off duty and Remy courts useful contacts without owning his sponsored actress's time.
Hotel guest rooms and a quiet sitting alcove; Odette offers unwanted management advice, Anton draws a winter shelter, and Nina protects guests' practical privacy.
Hotel March's piano, sprung dance floor and small stage; Celia wants a living performance, Julien a hearing for his music, and Gabriel a present not dictated by their past.