Kristy was moving to unpack and settle in when a quiet rap on the door drew her attention. She opened it to a distinguished-looking gentleman in a pinstripe suit. His cheeks were full, well-fed and although he was no taller than Kristy, which put him at barely average height for a man, he exuded an air of benign authority.
“Madame, a word with you,” he appealed softly.
She flashed him a smile. “And you are...whom?”
He returned her smile. “A good jest, Madame,” he replied with a jovial little chuckle.
Kristy wondered what the joke was.
“May I come in?” he asked, gesturing an eloquent appeal to her good nature.
Kristy frowned over the request. A stranger was a stranger in her book, especially one who acted strangely. “What for?” she demanded suspiciously.
He made an apologetic grimace. “This room... there has been an error. If you will allow me to rearrange...”
“Oh!” She instantly slotted him into place. He was management. Had he come to tell her this room wasn’t the cheapest available, or was she going to be thrown out of the hotel after all?
He laced his hands together, revealing some anxiety over her possible displeasure. “A most unfortunate, regrettable error . . .”
Kristy stared back stonily, wondering whether it was worth the effort of making a fuss. If all the staff had a down on her, her stay here could be made too unpleasant to persist with it.
“I must...” the voice of authority continued affably, “. . . if you’ll forgive me...insist you vacate it.”
Kristy felt herself bridling and struggled to remain calm. She could stand her ground, perhaps even demand compensation for the hotel’s error, but was it worth fighting about? As much as she despised snobbery, there was not much joy in bucking a system which remained immutable no matter how many little victories could be scored against it. At least she hadn’t unpacked, so she didn’t have to suffer the humiliation of repacking.
“Please allow me, Madame, to escort you to somewhere more suitable...uh...to your needs,” her ejector said with exquisite politeness. It was a very civilized way of putting her in her place.
“You are a master of tact, Monsieur,” Kristy said dryly.
He completely missed the irony edging her words. He positively preened, beaming his appreciation of her compliment. “We have—may I say it—a worldwide reputation for tact and... uh... understanding. Thank you.”
“This place you wish to escort me to...I hope it is cheap, Monsieur,” Kristy said with blunt directness. There was no onus on her to play with subtleties. “You see, I don’t have a lot of money...”
“Say no more, Madame. Discretion. Appeasement. Understanding. With my experience...” He spread his hands in a gesture that embraced a whole world of discretion and appeasement and understanding.
“In that case,” Kristy said decisively, “I may as well get going right now. If you will excuse me, I’ll just collect my bag.” She didn’t want the services of another bellboy, not in this hotel.
“Non, non, Madame. Allow me to carry it for you.”
It surprised Kristy. She would have thought it was beneath his dignity to act as her porter. In a tearing hurry to get her out of his hotel, she thought with bitter cynicism.
She stepped back, waving a careless invitation for him to enter. He collected her canvas carryall while she retrieved her handbag. Coming here had been a silly daydream, Kristy told herself as they vacated the room. The past was gone and could never be truly recaptured. At least she’d seen the place. In the circumstances, that was quite enough.
The manager led her along the corridor. He only went a short way before putting down her bag and producing a set of keys which he flourished as though he was St. Peter about to open the portals of heaven. Kristy did a swift rethink. He couldn’t be throwing her out of the hotel after all, so this must be a cheaper room.
He unlocked the door before them, swung it open like an impresario, and eloquently gestured Kristy forward. “Madame, your room,” he announced with almost smug satisfaction.
Kristy took several steps, saw what was in front of her, and stopped dead. Was this some kind of joke? To take her out of a room and lead her to what was clearly a luxurious suite had to be the height of perversity when she had made such a point of revealing a very real need not to be extravagant.
“I can’t afford this,” she protested.
The manager looked offended. “Madame is our guest. Of course Madame is not expected to pay for anything while she is our guest.” His voice had a touch of outrage at her failure to understand his understanding.
“I think,” said Kristy forcefully, “there is some mistake.”
“Madame...uh...Holloway . . .” He gave another little jovial chuckle and added a conspiratorial wink. “The mistake has been rectified.”
He marched into the huge sitting room—complete with a conservatory and a private terrace—and into a dressing-room where he deposited her canvas carryall, thereby emphasizing her accepted status here. Kristy watched him doubtfully, certain there had been some ridiculous mix-up. On the other hand, he had called her by her own name although why he persisted with Madame was beyond her. He could not have failed to notice she wasn’t wearing any rings.
“Are you sure this is the right place for me, Monsieur? ” she asked, feeling the need to get this pinned down to something concrete.
He beamed supreme confidence. “Certainement”
Kristy gave up. She didn’t need the stress of sorting out this madness, or getting a room in another hotel. This was some management bungle and they could pay for it. She’d made her terms absolutely clear, and after all this hassle, no way was she going to be shifted again.
“One last thing, Madame Holloway . . .”
“Yes?”
The manager went to a door on the other side of the sitting room, took a key from the flourished key ring, and inserted it in the lock. “For your use only,” he said solemnly.
Kristy looked at him blankly. What did he mean by that?
He gave the key a dramatic twist. “Unlocked,” he said. Then he turned the key the other way. “Locked,” he said. “I will leave it to Madame’s discretion.”
“Monsieur . . .” Kristy expostulated, totally bewildered by the whole sequence of events.
“Say no more. Say no more. Tact. Diplomacy. Understanding. We know all these things.”
He withdrew the key from the lock, came across the room, and pressed it into her hand. It was too much for Kristy. Altogether too much.
“Monsieur . . .”
“Enough. You are our guest You pay for nothing. If this...er...delicate situation can be fortunately resolved... uh...please remember
