One-Man Woman

Well, at least they were still going to dinner! For a few moments there Ellie had had a terrible feeling that she might have landed herself in a worse position than she had originally thought she had. What if Daniel Thackery had brought that woman back here to— to—? There was no way Ellie could have stayed hidden in the wardrobe with that going on in the bedroom!

He was fully inside the bedroom now, closing the door behind him to walk over and sit on the side of the bed, his back towards Ellie, his shoulders broad in the black evening jacket, that overlong dark hair brushed over his collar.

If Ellie could have stopped shaking long enough she might have been able to appreciate—in an abstract way, of course—that Daniel Thackery was a very attractive-looking individual. But as it was taking all her energy to stop her teeth from chattering too loudly with fear of discovery all she knew at the moment was that he was in the room—and she wished he weren’t!

Especially as she could now see what she had come looking for. His briefcase. Standing neatly beside the bedside table. All she wanted was one brief little glimpse inside there, to see if what she suspected was true.

Beth had an altogether different reason for wanting to know what Daniel Thackery was doing here—an emotional reason—and it had been because of that very emotion that Ellie hadn’t thought Beth the right person to come up here. Now that this had happened she was more than a little relieved that Beth hadn’t been the one; much as she loved her younger sister, she knew Beth would have given herself away. And then God knew what would have happened! It would—

‘Hello, Angela,’ Daniel Thackery drawled as his call was answered, turning to lean back against the headboard, swinging his legs up onto the bed.

With his shoes still on, Ellie noted. Really, some people had no respect for other people’s property. This might be a hotel, but even so...

‘Yes, of course I’m back in England,’ he answered drily now. ‘I’m well aware the wedding is next week. No, you don’t need to send me an invitation.’ His expression hardened along with his voice. ‘As one of the key participants, I think I’m well aware of the time of the wedding and exactly where it is! Just organise everything with your usual efficiency, Angela, and trust that I will be there, at your side, at the right time.’

The man was getting married next week! Ellie gave an alarmed glance towards the closed bedroom door. ‘Darling’ was in the other room, waiting for this man to take her out to dinner—and God knew what afterwards—and he was in here on the telephone talking to his fiancée about their wedding next week! And he didn’t exactly sound thrilled at the prospect either. Not that Ellie was so surprised by his attitude; it fitted in with what she already thought of him. She detested men like this—men who thought—

‘OK, fine.’ He sighed heavily now. ‘I’m sorry too. I agree, this attitude is nonproductive for everyone involved. Yes, Angela, I love you too. Take care. And I’ll see you next week.’ He put down the receiver on conclusion of the call, then put his folded arms behind his head, his eyes narrowed, his expression enigmatic, obviously deep in thought—until a sudden sneeze, quickly followed by another one, had him sitting up on the side of the bed again, his expression now one of deep irritation.

Ellie was glad of the diversion—couldn’t quite believe the telephone conversation she had just overheard. Daniel Thackery wasn’t even going to bother seeing his fiancée until the wedding next week. What sort of—?

Her attention shifted back to him as he slowly stood up, her restricted view still only allowing her to see up as high as his waist. He just stood there, making no effort to leave the room. Why didn’t he move? Leave the bedroom. The hotel suite. The hotel!

She breathed a sigh of relief as she saw that he was finally moving—that relief quickly followed by dismay as she saw him bend down to pick up the briefcase before crossing the room. That must be the reason she hadn’t seen the briefcase earlier; he must have taken it out with him, and now he was taking it out with him again. Damn! He—

Her breath caught in her throat once again as he came to an abrupt halt in the middle of the room, turning slightly before taking a step towards the wardrobe. Oh, God, no. He had left something in his suit earlier when he’d changed. And now he was going to open the wardrobe door, find her here—and all hell was going to break loose!

‘Darling?’ A knock on the bedroom door accompanied the woman’s call. ‘We’re going to be terribly late if we don’t go down now.’

‘I’ll be right with you,’ Daniel Thackery called back.

Ellie could almost feel the warmth of his breath through the slats of the door as he stood so close to her now. Her own breathing seemed to have stopped seconds ago and not resumed. She could see his hand now, a long, slender hand, the nails clipped short, reaching out towards the wardrobe door. Oh, God, he was going to open it!

What was she going to do? What was she going to say to him? Would she need to do or say anything? The chances were he would take one look at her and call the management. And she was the management! When he finally called the police the only explanation she would be able to come up with would be that she had wanted to look inside this man’s briefcase—through his private and confidential papers. They would lock her up and throw away the key!

This man was Daniel Thackery—an entrepreneur of world renown. She very much doubted that the police—or even Daniel Thackery himself—would believe that the only papers in his briefcase that she had any interest in were ones that might concern her family. If there were any such papers. Which she wasn’t convinced of at all.

Beth had been the one to go into a panic when a secretary had telephoned the hotel a couple of days ago and booked a suite for Daniel Thackery for an unspecified length of time, claiming that it would all depend on ‘how long it takes him to conclude the business he has in the area’. Because Beth was convinced that part of that ’business’ was the acquisition of this hotel!

Beth had met Daniel Thackery at her wedding to James just over a year ago—the other man was an old friend of James’s from their schooldays. And she remembered a conversation she had had with Daniel Thackery at the reception given downstairs in one of the function rooms about the hotel business, and how impressed he had been with the efficient running of their hotel, and how he’d said it was a business he was interested in getting into himself. And now, knowing that they’d overstretched themselves financially because of an extension to the hotel, and that they were actually in danger of losing the hotel altogether if they didn’t very quickly do something about it, Beth was convinced that Daniel Thackery, being the opportunist that he undoubtedly was, had come here to snap up their hotel.

In itself Beth’s theory wasn’t too convincing as far as Ellie was concerned—their small, seventy-bedroom hotel was surely not in the league Daniel Thackery liked to play in. But aside from Beth’s argument that it wasn’t a business he knew, only one in which he wanted to get in on the ground floor, was the fact that James and Beth had separated a month ago and James was privy to the seriousness of their financial dilemma—information he could have passed on to his friend Daniel Thackery. Beth also had a second worry, Ellie knew, and that was that Daniel Thackery perhaps had some information concerning James’s possible divorce proceedings.

Anyway, in the end Ellie had felt she had no choice but to come up to Daniel Thackery’s suite and at least make a token show to Beth of having a look around. Because if she hadn’t she knew Beth would have done it herself. And, considering Beth’s emotional state since her separation from James, that definitely was not a good idea in Ellie’s opinion. To Ellie’s mind, there was still hope for Beth and James to sort out their differences, and she certainly didn’t want her sister to add fuel to the fire by being caught spying on one of James’s friends.

Although it was strange the way Daniel Thackery was carrying the briefcase around with him every-where... Maybe Beth’s idea concerning the hotel wasn’t so far-fetched after all. Well, if Daniel Thackery thought that just because they were financially stretched at the moment he 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.