“But there was no way I could have known you would involve yourself in the making of reservations. The only people authorized to reserve banquet rooms are Ritz, Echenard, and myself.”
“And me.”
“I didn’t think of that.”
“No,” he agreed. “You didn’t. And that is exactly why you have a problem.”
“It’s your problem, too.”
“How so?”
“You’re here to make the hotel as profitable as it can be. If we don’t move your friend’s booking, we will lose Kay’s. How do you think the board is going to feel about losing one of the biggest social events of the upcoming season because you’re being unreasonable?”
“Perhaps they’ll share my view that the unreasonable one in this scenario is you.”
“And yet I’m under your supervision. Doesn’t the responsibility for my mistake ultimately rest with you?”
He sucked in an exasperated breath, unable to deny the truth of that. “If so, then what would the remedy be? Should I dismiss you?”
“Don’t you think you’ve dismissed enough people already? Because of that, by the way, you’ve got everyone on edge. They’re all waiting, wondering if they’ll be the next casualty of your cost-cutting measures.”
He could not tell her the true reasons for that. “That’s neither here nor there,” he said instead. “As for the rest, are you suggesting I should keep an even closer eye on you?”
Her eyes widened in horror at the prospect. “You wouldn’t dare.”
“Wouldn’t I? The more I think on it, the more I think it’s a wise idea. In fact, given your clever, scheming brain, I ought to be watching you twenty-four hours a day.”
“Don’t be absurd. You’ve obviously got far too much on your plate to bother with hovering over me. And it isn’t at all necessary. Why can’t we just learn to get along?”
“I’m all for that. We can start with you giving your friend your sincerest apologies for the mix-up on her reservation and suggesting she book an alternate room as soon as possible.”
“A course open to you as well.”
“Tell Devlin he has to give up the banquet room his fiancée wants because his previous fiancée wants it, too? The previous fiancée who abandoned him and broke his heart? Hell, no. I will strip naked and dance a jig on the Savoy rooftop before that happens.”
“As much as I’d love to see a hilarious display like that, I feel compelled to point out that when it comes to Lady Kay and Devlin Sharpe, you’ve got the story all wrong.”
“Which part? The part where she agreed to marry him and then reneged? The part where she jilted him at the altar, or—”
“There was no altar to jilt him on!” she cut in. “Devlin Sharpe is a scoundrel who persuaded a respectable young lady of barely eighteen to defy her family and sneak off with him to Gretna Green when he didn’t even have an income to support her! Who could blame her for realizing it would be a mistake? Thank God my cousins found them at that roadside inn and were able to bring her home before they got to Scotland. Not that it mattered in the end, of course. That blackguard decided that if he couldn’t have her, no other man could. He made sure everyone knew she’d run off with him, ruining her in the eyes of society.”
Simon stared at her, astonished. “Wait, you think he told—”
“And now,” she went on before he could set her straight about Devlin, “after she’s spent over fourteen years as the most unwanted heiress in England, she’s finally found a man to marry, and I’m supposed to tell her that the banquet room she wants is unavailable because the man who shamed her and ruined her wants it for his new bride? Never! And none of this would even be an issue if you had bothered to consult with me before you booked the room.”
“It also wouldn’t be an issue if you had put the reservation in the book when your friend first requested it. Perhaps you ought to have been doing that instead of gloating over my difficulties with the duchess last night.”
She tossed her head, showing he’d hit a nerve. “Oh, stop,” she muttered, looking guilty as hell. “I was not gloating.”
“Oh, yes, you were.”
“Well, maybe I was,” she conceded. “A little. But either way, that’s beside the point. What do we do now? The Pinafore is the only room big enough to seat Kay’s guest list.”
“What about the basement? Didn’t Ritz spend an obscene amount of money turning that into a banquet room a few years ago?”
“It’s booked also. The British Archaeological Association. They always reserve the basement for their annual dinner. Makes them feel like they’re in a cave, I suppose. We paint cave drawings on the walls with chalk, lay animal skins on the floor, serve them fire-roasted joints of beef and mutton—it’s all very silly, to my mind, but they simply adore it. Including, I might add, the Prince of Wales, who is their primary sponsor. Moving them into another room is out of the question.”
“Then, unless Lady Kay wants to go to another hotel, she will have to shorten her list of invited guests and make do with one of our smaller rooms for her wedding dinner.”
