By peering over the railing—or through it, as the boys did—they could see the disapproving-of-children concierge in position behind the counter, but even as they watched, he turned away from the foyer and vanished from their sight.
“Come on.” Toby rapidly went down the stairs.
Diana followed after the boys. A quick glance toward the counter showed that the concierge was facing the rear wall of keys and pigeonholes and was engrossed in whatever he was doing. He didn’t hear them as, careful to stand on the runner and carpets, they reached the foyer and slipped into the hallway on the other side of the stairs.
The hallway ended in a rear foyer from which three corridors radiated. According to the signs mounted on the walls, the corridors led to a range of dining rooms, parlors, smoking rooms, and courtyards, as well as to other guest rooms.
Diana felt increasingly anxious, increasingly tense, as if a clock somewhere was ticking. Standing in the center of the rear foyer, she surveyed the three corridors with their multiple doors. To Toby, she murmured, “She has the bear with her.”
He glanced her way, then stated, “We need to split up.” He looked at the boys. “You two go together, and Mama and I will go on our own. We’ll each take a corridor. Look inside any room into which she might have gone. Don’t call her unless you see her and need to attract her attention. We want to keep our search as quiet as possible so we don’t draw any attention from the hotel staff.”
“Don’t run,” Diana added. “Walk and look, just as she must have done.”
“Search to the end of the corridor,” Toby instructed, “then come back here, and we’ll see if any of us have found her.”
The boys nodded, and after sharing a quick look with Toby, Diana urged the pair down one corridor, then, adhering to her own injunction, walked far less briskly than she wanted to toward the corridor to the left. As she entered the hallway, she glanced back and saw Toby ambling in a relaxed manner down the third corridor.
While inspecting several parlors and a small library, she reflected that, despite knowing that, together with Evelyn, the so-important dispatches were missing, Toby had seemed a lot less exercised over that. If she’d read him aright, he was more concerned over Evelyn falling afoul of some censorious member of the hotel’s staff.
She reached the end of the corridor without sighting Evelyn’s curly head.
Trying not to look grim, she started back and had nearly reached the rear foyer when she heard pattering footsteps—light footsteps coming very fast toward the foyer from the corridor down which the boys had gone.
Her heart leaping, she rushed on.
She reached the rear foyer—fortunately empty—and looked down the other corridor to see Bryce almost running toward her.
He saw her and skidded to a halt.
Urgently beckoning her to follow, he started back along the hallway.
She rushed after him.
She caught up when he halted before a short wall of glass—long glass windows and glass doors.
Bryce pointed outside. “She’s there!”
Beyond the glass wall lay a small paved courtyard, cool beneath the shade of several large trees. Three round white-painted wrought iron tables with matching chairs were arranged on the old flagstones. Only the chairs about the center table were occupied, as three very old, likely Italian ladies in their teatime finery sat in the shade.
The trio were currently being entertained by Evelyn, who was showing off Rupert the Bear.
With his hands clasped behind his back, Roland stood just behind Evelyn, listening and not interrupting.
Diana took in the old ladies’ amused, interested, and encouraging expressions, and relief slid through her.
Bryce looked up at her. “We found her, and we remembered about not making any fuss, so Roland went to stay with her while I came to find you and Papa.”
Diana patted his shoulder. “That was clever thinking.” She glanced along the corridor, but Toby hadn’t appeared. She returned her gaze to the scene in the courtyard. “But I think it’s time we reclaimed your sister and returned upstairs to get ready for dinner.”
That would serve as her excuse for extricating Evelyn and bearing her away.
Diana opened the door to the courtyard and walked toward the group about the table.
Evelyn heard her footsteps, glanced around, and smiled beatifically. “And this is my mama.”
Still buoyed by relief, Diana smiled back, then extended the gesture to the three old ladies and inclined her head respectfully. She halted beside Roland, put a hand approvingly on his shoulder, then stepped past him and crouched beside Evelyn and met her eyes. “It seems you’ve found some new friends.”
“Yes!” the little girl lisped. “I went looking for some children to play with. Because of the man at the desk, I thought they might be hiding. But I didn’t find any, and these ladies told me they don’t think there are any other children here.”
