Vera, here you are. Sir Alistair and I were so worried when we couldn’t find you.”
Lily felt a little as if she were wrenching herself out of a trance, but she managed to tear her gaze away from the older woman’s and shift it to the two people who were approaching. The young woman had dark hair, nearly black, that fell in a straight line to her shoulders. The name tag on her crisply ironed white shirt read Lucy. The man she’d called Sir Alistair was tall with finely chiseled aristocratic features that went with the wine-colored smoking jacket. Lily guessed his age to be somewhere between sixty and one hundred. He looked vaguely familiar—like an old friend she hadn’t run into in years.
“You could hardly expect me to remain in my rooms. The bathroom was flooding.” Turning to Lily, she murmured in a stage whisper, “Think Titanic an hour and a half into the movie.”
“I fixed the leak temporarily,” Lucy said. “Tony will see to it first thing in the morning. And of course, we’ll have a cleaning crew in.” Pausing, she sent an apologetic smile at Lily. “Dame Vera is one of our permanent residents, and she loves to tell fortunes.”
Vera rose from the settee. “I don’t tell fortunes. I see into the future. It’s a gift that carries with it a great deal of responsibility. Disaster is near and the fate of Henry’s Place hangs in the balance.”
Dame Vera? The name had a memory tickling at the edge of her mind.
“You don’t have to worry. You’ll always have a home here,” Lucy said in a soothing tone.
“A new owner might not see it that way.”
Lily shifted her gaze away from Dame Vera’s piercing stare in time to see shock appear on Lucy’s face.
“Tony would never sell this place. He promised Uncle Henry that he would keep it. It’s our family home—and yours, too.”
“Time will tell,” Dame Vera said, slipping back into her booming soothsayer voice. “In any case, it wasn’t necessary to bother Sir Alistair.”
“She didn’t bother me, my dear,” the man said. “I came over to see if—”
“You came over to check on me.” Vera glared at him. “I don’t need a keeper.”
Sir Alistair. The name along with the British accent finally rang a little bell in the back of Lily’s mind. Sir Alistair Brooks was a British film star she’d seen in a number of late-night movies. And Dame Vera? Lily peered more closely at her soothsayer.
“The day I get so forgetful that I can’t find my way back to the rooms I’ve been leasing for more than half my life, you can book me a suite at Bellevue,” Vera continued.
“I knocked on your door because one of your old movies is on the late show,” Alistair said. “Blithe Spirit. Elvira was one of your greatest roles, and I have a nice bottle of Merlot.”
Vera snorted. “What you have is a lecherous mind. And you know I prefer champagne.”
“One of these days, you’re going to agree to let me educate your palate.”
Vera slipped a hand through his crooked arm. “I’ve been drinking champagne since—”
“I know, I know—since Sir Richard Harris drank it out of your slipper. Well, he’s gone, but I’m still here. And I don’t believe they have suites at Bellevue,” he said as he led her toward the elevator.
“If that’s your way of suggesting that I move in permanently with you, you can dream on.”
“Always, my dear,” Alistair replied.
Lily had to suppress the urge to applaud as the elevator doors slid shut on the couple.
“I hope she didn’t bother you,” Lucy said as she leaned down to pinch out the candles. “There was quite a leak in her suite, and I’m the only one on duty tonight.”
“Don’t worry about it,” Lily said. “That’s Sir Alistair Brooks, isn’t it? The British film star?” Growing up in boarding schools, she’d clocked a lot of hours watching old movies while other kids were home for the holidays.
“Yes,” Lucy answered, giving her a surprised look.
“And Dame Vera Darnel. I didn’t put it all together until I saw them walk away. They appeared together in film versions of Taming of the Shrew and A Midsummer Night’s Dream. I must have seen both of those at least twenty times. And about ten years ago they did a stint together on Day by Day.” The daytime soap had been a favorite in the boarding school she’d gone to.
Lucy smiled at her. “Not many people recognize them anymore.”
“They’re guests here?”
“Permanent ones. Their suites occupy the eighth floor—right above the family suites on the seventh floor. They were my Uncle Henry’s first guests, and the fact that they signed a ten-year lease fifty years ago gave him the financial security to open the hotel. They’ve been leasing here ever since.”
“Is the leak a bad one?” Lily asked.
For the first time, worry replaced the smile in Lucy’s eyes. “I’m sure that Tony can handle it. The plumbing has been acting up a bit more than usual lately. I’m sorry that I wasn’t here to welcome you when you arrived.”
“No problem,” Lily said. But it occurred to her that she would have to include the incident with Dame Vera and the problem with the plumbing in her report to her father. Feeling guilty, she rose and followed the younger girl to the reception desk.
Once she was behind the counter, Lucy beamed a smile at Lily. “Why don’t we start over? This is where I say, I’m Lucy Romano. Welcome to Henry’s Place.”
“I’m Lily McNeil and you must be Anthony Romano’s sister?”
“Cousin,” Lucy said. “But he’s really more like a brother. I’ve lived here in the hotel all my life. Usually, I work in the kitchen, but all the men in the family are out tonight. My cousin Sam got married a month ago, and they’re playing poker at his new place.”
“I spoke with Anthony on the phone.” Lily drew a credit card out of her purse. “I have an appointment to talk with him in the morning about renovating the hotel, and he made a reservation for me to stay here tonight as a guest.”
Lucy’s fingers flew over the keys of the computer. “I’m so glad you have a reservation. We’re booked solid. Thanks to the plumbing problem, there isn’t a room to be had. Now…” Lucy leaned back in her chair. “All we have to do is wait for the slowest computer in the world. I keep telling Tony that he has to get a new system. All he says is that he’s got it on the list.”
While Lucy chattered away, Lily glanced around the lobby again. In her mind, she pictured it as it had been in its prime. It was really a crime to have let it deteriorate this way. At least when her father took it over, the lobby would be returned to its original beauty.
“Uh-oh,” Lucy said with a frown.
“What?”
“I’ve
