On reaching the counter, Toby coolly—with an arrogantly high-handed air she hadn’t previously heard him assume—requested the same arrangement of rooms they’d had the night before. There was no chatty explanation of why they were in town, why they were traveling.
Evelyn tugged on Diana’s hand, and she turned to see the little girl looking questioningly at her. They’d assumed they would have to enact the same little scene they’d used the previous evening to excuse the unusual request for rooms, but Toby had capitalized on the concierge’s dislike of children; as the concierge all but rushed to agree to the odd request and took down the details Toby fed him, the man’s relief that there would always be an adult with the children could not have been clearer.
Diana crouched so she could whisper to Evelyn, “Papa didn’t need our help this time.”
Evelyn’s gaze shifted to the concierge, busy writing in his register. After a moment of studying him, she said, “Oh.”
As Diana straightened, the concierge selected keys from the rack behind the counter, then summoned porters to ferry their bags upstairs, all the while ignoring the children as if they simply did not exist.
The children noticed, of course, and they clung to her and Toby as they went to their rooms.
Once inside, the trio relaxed somewhat.
The two porters were grateful for the tips Toby handed them as they left the room. The elder—a man in his forties—paused in the doorway, nodded at Roland, Bryce, and Evelyn, who were investigating the room, and quietly said, “It is a good thing that you keep the children close.” He tipped his head toward the foyer. “The hotel management, they do not understand children, not having little ones themselves.”
Toby thanked the porter for the information, and he left.
After closing the door, Toby met Diana’s eyes and arched his brows.
She huffed, then shrugged. “It takes all types, I suppose.”
“Perhaps they’ve had a poor experience with children staying.” Toby eyed the three now trying out the beds. “It’s lucky our trio are so well-behaved.”
Diana could recall times when the three hadn’t been the angels they currently appeared, but rather than mention it, she retreated into the room she would share with Helga and Evelyn and, with Helga, set about inspecting the beds.
She was vaguely aware that Evelyn danced in, waltzing with Rupert the Bear. The little girl sat on a chair by the door and started whispering to the bear while she watched Diana and Helga approve and then remake the beds.
Finished with that necessary chore, Diana unpacked the bare necessities for their overnight stay, then turned to Evelyn.
The little girl wasn’t there.
The door to the corridor was slightly ajar.
Diana thought it had been closed, but clung to pragmatism and told her suddenly spiking concern that Evelyn wouldn’t have slipped outside on her own. Diana turned to Helga, engaged in brushing Evelyn’s coat. “Did you see where Evelyn went?”
Helga’s head came up. From the way the maid glanced around the room, she, too, hadn’t realized the little girl was no longer with them. Helga faintly frowned. “Perhaps she joined the boys next door.”
The door between the rooms was partially open. As Diana drew near, she heard Roland and Bryce talking to Toby. She looked around the door and saw the boys and Toby unpacking their bags. She searched the room as the three turned her way and felt her heart sink. “Evelyn’s not with you.”
Toby frowned slightly. “I saw her go through to your room.”
“She came in,” Diana explained, “and was sitting by the door, but she’s no longer there, and the door’s ajar.”
The boys suggested that she was playing hide-and-seek and would expect them to come and find her.
Neither Diana nor Toby liked that idea.
Toby glanced at Diana. “Water closet?”
Even though Evelyn had never gone to the water closet or the bathroom by herself before, Diana checked both locations—just along the corridor—but no golden-haired girl with a very important bear was there.
Diana returned to their rooms to find Toby organizing a search.
They left Helga in the rooms in case Evelyn returned on her own. With Toby and the boys, Diana quickly scouted around the upper floor of the two-story building, but soon returned to the head of the stairs leading down.
“I can’t imagine her going into anyone else’s room,” Diana said. “Nor can I imagine her leaving the hotel.”
Toby nodded. “And there seem to be no public spaces on this floor.” He looked down the stairs. “Could she have slipped downstairs unseen?”
