Either way, this quality in Ritz’s character was something she’d accepted long ago. It couldn’t be the reason she was hesitating, could it? And it certainly couldn’t be because she harbored any romantic hopes about Simon. That was all over. So what was making her hesitate?
During the past ten days, as they had toured the hotel and surveyed the progress of carpenters, tradesmen, and decorators, she’d felt enveloped in a dreamlike haze. As usual, Ritz had asked for her opinions and solicited her advice, but not once had he asked her for her acceptance of his offer, and now she appreciated that was because he’d taken that acceptance completely for granted. She, however, was not quite so sanguine, and she did not understand why.
“Either way,” she said, neatly sidestepping in case Ritz did actually press her for a formal answer, “I’m not really sure I want to live in the hotel. It was all very well before. I mean, after Hamish died, I had toleave Stratham House and I had no home of my own, so living at the Savoy was quite convenient. But after five years of living in a hotel, I’ve grown a bit tired of it.”
“Lease an apartment, then. There are several nearby.”
“I know. I looked at a few, but…” Delia paused, wriggling a little in her chair, hating to be put on the spot this way, so she took refuge in flippancy. “But they are so expensive. When the house agents told me the rent, I nearly keeled over.”
“My dear!” Ritz stared at her, looking stricken. “Is that what makes you hesitate? I had no idea you were strapped for cash. All the years we have known each other, and I have never known this. You should have told me.”
She wasn’t short of money, not in the least, but she seized on the excuse. “Oh, you know how it is with my lot,” she countered lightly. “We don’t talk about money.”
“Of course, but it’s not a problem at all. I can easily fix you up.”
Delia blinked, bewildered. “Fix me up?” she echoed. “How?”
He shrugged. “The usual way, of course. The hotel will extend you credit.”
“Oh,” she said, relieved by that reply, though she wasn’t quite sure what she’d been expecting him to say. “I know we have extended credit to hotel guests in the past, but I’m not a guest, and anyway, I do hate charging things. When the bills come due, they are always so much higher than one expects.”
“But, my dear, you are my friend. For my friends, the bill never comes due!”
She stared, riveted, more of Simon’s words echoing in her head.
And extending credit to his friends who never pay? Is that promotional, too?
“I wasn’t sure,” she said, keeping her voice carefully noncommittal, “that sort of thing was possible.”
He chuckled. “I had no idea you were so naïve, my dear.”
“Neither did I,” she murmured with feeling. “But I’m getting a quick education. Do—” She broke off and gave a little cough. “Do very many of our friends do this?” she asked, striving to keep her voice as casual as possible. “Charge things to the hotel and not pay for it?”
“Of course! Friends, employees—”
“Employees, too?” she cut in.
“Of course. In return, they are loyal to me. They do what I want done and do not question it.”
“Including me,” she murmured.
“When you came to work for me, I thought you understood all this. I assumed you did not take advantage of these opportunities because you had no need to do so, but now I see that you simply didn’t know how it works. Still, there is no need for you to worry about the cost of your apartment. The hotel will pay for it.”
“Do your fellow investors know that?”
He waved that aside as if it didn’t matter. “I decide these things. They do not need the details.”
This, she realized, was what the investigation had revealed to the Savoy board and why the hotel had not been making a profit. Not just a few bottles of wine or credit to aristocratic clientele, but fraud on a massive scale. As Simon had told her.
Delia felt sick to her stomach, nauseated not only by this entire scheme, but also by her own unknowing part in it. She’d always assumed that most people were like her—that they paid their bills eventually, that their loyalty to Ritz stemmed from respect and affection, not bribery. “Is this how it’s always been?”
“Of course.”
Once again, she’d been a mug. How many times did that have to happen before she learned her lesson? When it came to judging the character of men, she was hopeless. Granted, her fondness for Ritzwas platonic, not romantic, but still… Her only comfort was that she wasn’t the only one who had been fooled. It had taken Richard and Helen eight years to figure out what was going on. “The Savoy board didn’t seem to understand that this is how it works,” she murmured. “That was why we all got fired.”
“Bah!” he said contemptuously. “They have no imagination, no vision, no idea what is needed to run a great hotel. But here—” He broke off and leaned back, spreading his arms in an expansive gesture that included the nearby Ritz hotel. “Here we will show them how it is done. Here…”
Ritz’s voice droned on, but Delia scarcely heard. Simon had wanted to tell her about these schemes, but he’d been unable to do so. Something about legalities and confidentiality agreements.
