One-Man Woman. Carole Mortimer

could make a move on their hotel he was going to have a fight on his hands; this hotel was Ellie’s life.

      But talking of hands—that slender hand was on the wardrobe door now. He was going to open it. And he was going to find her crouched here like an—

      And then he sneezed again. And again. And again.

      Ellie had noticed him sneezing earlier in Reception, when she’d handled his booking. Perhaps he was coming down with a cold. Ellie didn’t particularly care what had caused the sneezing fit; all that concerned her was that it had distracted his attention from the wardrobe. She watched through the slatted door as he moved to the dressing table to take a tissue from the box there.

      He continued to sneeze as he walked over to open the bedroom door, and a pair of long, silky-covered legs joined his in the doorway.

      ‘Are you starting a cold?’ the woman asked concernedly.

      ‘I don’t think so,’ he dismissed slowly.

      ‘It’s a bit late in the year for hay fever,’ the woman teased throatily. ‘I hope you aren’t allergic to me, darling.’ A teasing pout could be heard in the voice.

      ‘I’m sure I’m not,’ Daniel Thackery answered with certainty. ‘Come on, let’s go and have some dinner; we’ve wasted enough of our evening together already.’

      The woman’s throaty laughter floated along the corridor as the two of them walked to the lift. Ellie stayed in her hiding place, giving them plenty of time to go downstairs before attempting to leave the safety of the wardrobe.

      The wardrobe! She disgustedly admonished herself as she finally all but fell out of the confined space, impatiently pushing back the heavy swathe of fiery red hair that grew straight to her shoulders, with a full fringe stopping abruptly above sparkling emerald-green eyes. She was not short by any stretch of the imagination—five feet nine inches tall in her bare feet—and it felt good to be able to straighten up to her full height after the cramped conditions in the wardrobe. But then, one hardly expected to have to spend any length of time inside one.

      Unless ‘one’ had been caught where ‘one’ wasn’t supposed to be!

      It all seemed so ridiculous now. She had only come up here at all in an effort to stop Beth making a fool of herself. And had almost made a complete one of herself!

      But, whatever Daniel Thackery’s reason for being in their hotel, he was hardly likely to leave incriminating evidence lying around in his suite. And to have looked inside his briefcase—even if he had left it behind, which he hadn’t—would have been a criminal offence. It was bad enough that she was in the suite at all without any real reason for being there, but there was no way, she freely acknowledged now, that she could have snooped around in his personal belongings...!

      Although she might as well turn the bed down now that she was here. She could tell Doris, the maid, not to bother with the suite, that she had done it herself while up there for another reason. She didn’t have to say what that reason was!

      It was a large double bed, and as Ellie turned back the quilt and top sheet she couldn’t help wondering whether she ought to turn the other side down too; she doubted Daniel Thackery would be spending the night alone. Her anger towards him returned as she thought of the way he had gone off for the evening with ‘Darling’ after talking to his fiancée on the telephone. The man was unprincipled!

      Which made her wonder if perhaps Beth wasn’t right; if he was completely without morals in his private life, then surely he must be doubly so in his business life...?

      She was willing to accept the possibility that maybe he was here for a reason—and she intended finding out what it was!

      

      ‘You didn’t see anything that—well, that might have given the impression James had sent him? About the divorce,’ Beth added with a grimace.

      The younger of the two sisters, Beth was nothing like Ellie to look at. She took after their mother, with her short stature and fragility of looks, her hair short and blonde. Ellie had always looked more like their father, who was a tall red-haired man.

      ‘I told you,’ Ellie replied irritably, the two of them now seated in their private sitting room at the back of the hotel. ‘I didn’t see anything.’ It had been difficult to do so inside the wardrobe! ‘Although I very much doubt Daniel Thackery is the sort of man to be “sent” anywhere.’ She could visualise his arrogant face all too easily, and knew instinctively that Daniel Thackery did no one else’s bidding but his own. ‘By anyone!’ she added with feeling.

      ‘Besides, it’s only a matter of weeks since James left; he can’t be thinking of divorce already.’ She frowned as Beth didn’t look convinced. ‘Is that really what you think Daniel Thackery is here for? I thought you said he might be after our hotel—’

      ‘Oh, he is interested in buying into hotels,’ Beth dismissed with an uninterested wave of her hand—a hand still adorned with her engagement and wedding ring. ‘I just thought that if there was any information in his room concerning this hotel it would also mean he must have spoken to James recently, and—’

      ‘I think I’m beginning to get the picture,’ Ellie interrupted wearily.

      The two of them were able to take this short time off because this was the quiet part of the evening for them; dinner was being served and the bar was open at the front of the hotel, and most of the guests were in either of those two places or had actually gone out for the evening. Daniel Thackery and his guest were now in the dining room, Ellie had been pleased to note when she’d got downstairs a few minutes ago.

      ‘Beth, James isn’t going to divorce you; he loves you,’ she said with certainty, convinced that whatever difficulties her sister and her husband were going through they were only temporary; the couple had been in love since the moment they’d met, and had been married—happily, most of the time—for the last year.

      ‘But if you really think Daniel Thackery may have seen James during the last four weeks, why don’t you just ask the man? You know him, don’t you?’ she prompted reasonably, still shaken from her narrow escape in his suite earlier.

      ‘Not exactly.’ Her sister shook her head slowly. ‘I’ve only met him once, and that was at the wedding just over a year ago. He’s always so busy that James sees him rarely himself, although he did enjoy the couple of years he worked for him. So we haven’t met up with him again since the wedding. Why don’t you ask him?’ Beth suggested frowningly, chewing on her bottom lip. ‘You’ve always been so much more forward than me, and—’

      ‘Because I don’t know the man at all!’ Ellie pointed out impatiently. ‘If you remember, I missed the wedding completely because I was rushed into hospital at the last minute for an emergency appendectomy—’

      ‘I offered to cancel the wedding—’

      ‘Don’t be silly, Beth; I wasn’t complaining, just explaining,’ Ellie dismissed irritably. “The wedding had been planned for weeks; you don’t cancel something as important as that just because one of the guests can’t make it.’

      ‘That guest was my sister!’ Beth protested.

      ‘And I talked to James and persuaded him that going ahead with the wedding was the right thing to do,’ Ellie sighed.

      ‘He shouldn’t have listened to you.’ Her sister shook her head. ‘He—’

      ‘Beth, I don’t really think it matters who was or wasn’t at your wedding, when the two of you now seem to be talking of divorce—Oh, God, I’m sorry.’ She was instantly contrite as she saw the way her sister paled; she had always had an uncanny ability to say the wrong thing at the wrong time! It was the reason why she was still unmarried at twenty-seven, according to her equally straight-talking mother; no man was strong enough to brave her vitriolic tongue long enough to fall in love with her.

      ‘But, Beth, the wedding is unimportant now, can’t you