by CW Browning
Glancing at her watch, Evelyn waited a beat, then increased her pace, all the while still complaining under her breath. When she reached the corner, she rounded it at full speed and plowed right into a solid mass.
“Oof!”
She grunted as her nose came into contact with a shoulder and she fell backwards, stumbling.
“For the love of St Mary herself!” she exploded, staring at the blond man furiously. “What do you think you’re doing?!”
Evelyn spoke in Spanish and received a blank stare back. The man clearly didn’t understand a word.
“Es tut mir leid, Fräulein,” he apologized stiffly. “Ich habe dich nicht gesehen.”
Evelyn tossed her head and gave him an assessing look.
“Oh, you are German,” she said haltingly in German. She formed her words awkwardly, giving them a Spanish sound and wincing in her mind as she heard them come out. Lord, that sounded awful! “It is Frau. I am Senor Antonio Lucera’s wife.”
The man bowed politely. “Again, my apologies.”
“I will accept them,” she decided graciously. “I have had enough of stupidity today. Tell me, are you staying on this floor?”
“I...yes.”
“Where are the stairs? I am late for tea with the Condesa de Carilla, but I cannot find the way to the fifth floor.”
“The lift is back there,” he said, drawing an exasperated sigh from her.
“The lift is currently occupied by the biggest imbecile this side of the Atlantic,” she said roundly. Then she frowned as a thought suddenly occurred to her. “Are we near the Atlantic here? I do not think we are. I suppose I should say ‘this side of the North Sea’, eh?”
The man blinked and seemed to be wrestling between the urge to laugh and a desire to remain aloof.
“The stairs are on the other end of that hallway,” he finally said, motioning back the way she’d just come. “If you go to the end, you’ll see them.”
“They are that way?” She looked over her shoulder and peered down the hallway. As she did, she saw a dark head appear at the far end. “Of course they are! My secretary has already made me late, and now I see I was already near them when I went the wrong way. Typical! Thank you for telling me.”
Evelyn moved to turn around and caught her heel in the plush carpet on the floor. Before the man could catch her, she tumbled forward and her purse opened, spilling its contents across the hall.
“Oh!” she exclaimed, falling to her knees.
With a muffled exclamation, the man knelt beside her. “Are you hurt?”
Shaking her head, she began to reach for the tube of lipstick near her on the floor.
“No, no, I am quite all right. I caught my heel, that is all. Oh look! Everything is everywhere!”
The man turned to reach for a compact mirror and a small notebook. While he was gathering up items behind him, Evelyn shot a look out of the corner of her eye. Anna was just disappearing into the hotel room halfway between them and the lift. The door closed silently behind her and Evelyn turned back to accept the handful of items from the man on his knees with her.
“Thank you so much,” she said, shoving them all back into her purse.
He got to his feet and offered her his hand, pulling her up.
“Are you sure you’re not hurt?”
“Yes, thank you.” She brushed herself off and smiled at him before turning away. “The stairs are this way?”
He nodded and walked a few steps with her to point to the other end of the hallway.
“You can just see them from here,” he told her. “There, at the end.”
“I see them now,” she said nodding. “Thank you again!”
Evelyn strode down the hallway towards the stairwell, her back straight and her head high. Her pace was steady but her heart was pounding. He had looked right into her face. Anything could have gone wrong. If he’d been shown a photo, he could have recognized her. He could have looked up and realized that someone was crossing the hallway behind her while he was helping her pick up the contents of the purse. At the very least, he should have been leery of the fact that a member of the Spanish nobility had condescended to strike up a conversation with him in the hallway of a hotel in Sweden.
The numerous scenarios of what could have gone awry continued to play their way through her head and, when Evelyn reached the stairs and started up them to the fifth floor, her heart was still in her mouth.
What if he came after her? What if Renner was on the fifth floor? Evelyn’s step checked as that thought occurred to her and she glanced up at the next floor apprehensively. What if he had someone watching the fifth floor?
She shook her head and continued on resolutely. No. Anna had got off the lift on the fifth floor and came down these very stairs without issue not five minutes before. Everything was going to be fine. She had to get a hold of herself.
Evelyn emerged on to the fifth floor and cast a swift look up and down the wide hallway. There wasn’t another soul in sight. Exhaling in relief, she passed the empty lift shaft and walked to the end of the hall, turning the corner. There, she leaned against the wall and checked at her watch. She just had to stay out of sight here for thirty minutes. There was no fear that the Condesa would emerge from her room and go to the lobby when they were supposed to be having tea. The Condesa de Carilla was notoriously reticent, preferring to entertain privately and rarely venturing beyond the comfort of her rooms. It had been a marvelous stroke of luck, seeing her check into the hotel the evening before when she was on her way to dinner. The Condesa hadn’t seen her, which was fortunate. Evelyn had had the privilege of meeting her on two separate occasions, once in London and again in Paris. The woman could talk for hours. She was fascinating, but exceedingly annoying. However, her presence here had played beautifully into Evelyn’s plans.
Looking around, she spied an alcove in the wall further down where the laundry chute was partially hidden by a potted fern. A moment later, she was concealed by the fern, settling down to wait. The timing was most important. Too many pieces were in play now. It was imperative that she wait the half hour before proceeding.
Her mind went back to the German on the floor below her. It really was a miracle that he hadn’t suspected a thing, and most especially hadn’t realized that he had been run down by the very person he was waiting for. Instead, he helped her pick up her belongings while Anna went into their room undetected, and then he was even obliging enough to show her where to go to get to the stairs.
Her lips curved and Evelyn felt the urge to chuckle. He’d done exactly what she wanted him to do. He’d seen exactly what she hoped he’d see, and it had all worked perfectly. Her role in the charade was now almost over.
The rest was up to Anna.
When Evelyn finally moved out of the little alcove she’d had plenty of time to calm down from the excitement of her lively performance. Her heart rate was back to normal and her step was light as she moved around the corner towards the lift. She glanced at the ornate dial above the shaft, smiling when she saw that the lift was engaged on the floor below her. Perfect. Everything was still going according to plan.
She continued to the stairs and entered the art nouveau inspired stairwell, starting down the steps quickly. Her heels echoed on the tiled floor, but she was unconcerned at the sound. There was no one on the stairs to notice, and even if there were, they wouldn’t think twice at the sight of a well-dressed woman taking the stairs rather than the lift. After all, the lift was engaged.
Keeping one gloved hand on the shiny railing, Evelyn moved quickly down the flights until she was nearing the bottom. There she slowed, her eyes on the opening that led to the lobby. The stairs emerged next to the lift, and she knew they would be watching the lift.
She could see people moving through the lobby as she came closer to the last step and she hesitated. Had she beat the lift down? As the thought entered her head, Evelyn heard the whirring of the gears and then a muffled clank as the lift settled on the grou
nd floor. She exhaled and waited on the last step, listening. There was the creak of the gate opening. It was almost time.
Stepping off the last step, Evelyn moved over to the wall and stood against it, her eyes fixed on the path to the front desk in the lobby. Voices echoed down the stairs from high above and then the sound of footsteps heralded the advent of guests who didn’t want to wait for the lift. Biting her bottom lip, she glanced up swiftly. She had to move out of the stairwell before the people coming down saw her. Upon entering the hotel, her goal had been to have as many people see and notice her as possible, but now it was the complete opposite. The last thing in the world that she wanted was to have other guests see her lurking at the bottom of the stairs. There could be no good explanation for it and, worse, it would cause them to notice her.
Movement out of the corner of her eye drew her attention back to the lobby and she watched as Anna strode by in her own clothing, her head high, while the porter followed with all their luggage. She was right on time.
Good girl, she thought, watching as the woman went towards the concierge desk. Then she scanned the rest of the lobby, looking for the man who had been reading the newspaper when they came in. Her breath caught in her throat as, instead of him, a tall man moved across the lobby towards the front desk, his eyes fixed on Anna.
Renner!
Casting a frantic look around for the other one, Evelyn knew she had to move. The footsteps were drawing closer and any minute one of the guests on the stairs could look down and see her standing there.
After a second of panicked hesitation, Evelyn moved out of the stairwell, glancing towards the desk. Anna was talking to the manager, waving her hand airily, a bright smile on her face. Herr Renner was standing a few feet behind, listening to every word, and Evelyn bit back a smile of her own. His focus was on the woman at the desk in front of him, not the lift or the stairs beside it.
She turned and moved quickly towards the back of the hotel and the long, narrow corridor that went past the porter’s lounge and out to the alley behind the hotel. While Anna was drawing the attention of Herr Renner and all his minions in the front of the hotel, the back alley would be empty except for the one man Anna heard them say was posted there.
And that was Renner’s tactical blunder. There was only one exit to the hotel that was secluded and out of sight from the harbor, leading straight to the busy street at the side of the hotel. And he’d left it attended by only one man. While she didn’t relish the idea of a run-in with a Gestapo agent in the alley, she liked her odds better there than in the lobby of the hotel.
A moment later, she emerged into the narrow alley. The height of the hotel and the building behind it combined to block what was left of the late afternoon sun and the narrow lane was cloaked in shadows. Glancing to her left, she saw the street ahead. Between her and the busy road lay half the length of the hotel. After looking to her right and finding a row of trash cans, Evelyn blanched at the smell of rotting vegetables and bad fish. She turned hurriedly towards the road, holding her breath as she moved away from the noxious fumes.
She was halfway down the alley when she saw him. He was leaning against the adjoining building in the shadows, dressed in dark clothes with a long black coat to protect him from the cold. Evelyn felt a shudder go through her, though whether from the sight of the man or from the sudden gust of wind that whipped between the buildings she wasn’t sure. He hadn’t seen her yet. He was watching the cars on the road ahead. But he would see her any moment. There was no avoiding it.
Evelyn began to mutter angrily in Spanish as she walked. Perhaps he would think she was a crazy foreigner and leave her alone. But one swift look from under her eyelashes disabused her of that hopeful thought. He had straightened up and was staring at her, trying to see her clearly in the gloom. Increasing her pace, she also increased the volume of her muttering, her voice carrying through the alley. If he knew Spanish, he was listening to a diatribe on the curse of having incompetent employees who couldn’t even have the car brought round to the right entrance of a hotel. If he didn’t know Spanish, he heard only anger in her tone. Either way, the man was watching the same performance that had fooled his counterparts inside earlier.
Lifting her head, Evelyn looked at him and pretended to have spotted him for the first time. Her step checked in surprise, then her anger increased as if she was offended by him staring at her.
“¿Quién crees que eres?” she demanded, tossing her head.
The man didn’t answer. Instead, he continued to watch her with a heavy frown on his face. His lack of response made her nervous and she took a closer look at him as she strode down the alley. He had both his hands in his coat pockets and his hat was pulled low over his forehead, casting his face into shadow. As she drew closer, he moved suddenly away from the side of the building, partially blocking her path to the road.
“Why are you back here?” he demanded in German, his voice deep and gravelly. “You shouldn’t be back here. This is no place for a lady.”
By the time he’d finished speaking, he’d blocked her path completely, pulling his hands from his pockets. Evelyn’s eyes narrowed sharply. So much for slipping by without any unpleasantness. She waited until she was within reach of him before answering softly in his own language.
“Who says I’m a lady?”
His eyes widened in surprise, but it was too late. Evelyn moved swiftly, grabbing one of his wrists and twisting it sharply. He gasped in pain, but the sound quickly turned into a cry when she used the painful angle of his wrist as leverage to spin him around, twisting his arm up behind his back. Before the cry could escalate into a full roar, she used her other hand to smash his head into the side of the hotel. A sickening crunch sounded as his nose made contact with stone and he grunted in agony. He tried to push himself back, using the wall in an attempt to turn himself towards her, but Evelyn drove her fist into his kidney, robbing him of the ability to make any noise at all. As he fell forward against the building, she released his mangled arm and sliced the edge of her palm down into the side of his neck. She stepped back as his eyes closed and he slid down the building, unconscious.
By the time he came to, or someone found him, she would be long gone.
After shooting a swift glance down the alley towards the rear door, she turned to hurry away from the prone figure in the shadows. A moment later she reached the busy street and emerged from the alley. Shoving her hands deep in her pockets, Evelyn strode away from The Strand, blending into the throngs of other well-dressed pedestrians and disappearing into the growing shadows.
Chapter Twenty-Four
As the lift attendant opened the latticed gate, Anna took a deep, silent breath before stepping out into the lobby. When she’d opened the door to the porter upstairs, she’d caught sight of a man hurriedly disappearing around the corner at the end of the corridor. Even though she knew the Germans were watching the room, she had still felt a surge of fear at the visual confirmation. When she left the room with the porter a few minutes later, there was no sign of him, but she knew he was still there.
Just as his companions were all over the lobby and outside.
Squaring her shoulders, she walked across the large, tiled lobby towards the desk. Out of the corner of her eye, she saw Herr Renner step out from behind the very column she had stood behind this morning. Ignoring the sudden trembling in her legs, she went to the front desk, trying desperately to act as if everything was completely normal. Her heart was pounding in her chest, and by the time she reached the support of the smooth wood counter, she was convinced that her entire body was shaking. The concierge didn’t appear to notice anything the matter, however, as he came over with a ready smile.
“Ah, Miss Salvesen,” he greeted her. “I understand you’re leaving us.”
“Yes.” Anna set her purse down, relieved when her voice came out clear and steady. “Miss Richardson ran into an old friend this afternoon. She has a house in the city and invited us to stay with her. Miss
Richardson felt it would be impolite to refuse.”
“I understand completely.” The concierge turned to retrieve the registration card from the drawer on the wall behind him. “Shall I forward the bill to her new address?”
“No. I’ll settle it now.”
“Very good.” He returned with the card and handed it to her. “If you could just sign under Miss Richardson’s signature there.”
Anna picked up the pen and signed her name, conscious of the pair of dark eyes watching her every move and listening to the conversation. Herr Renner had moved close by, apparently waiting patiently for the concierge to finish with her. When she finished, she opened her purse and extracted the money Maggie had given her earlier. She carefully counted out the correct amount, passing it to the man, then added a rather large addition for him.
“Miss Richardson extends her gratitude for a delightful stay,” she told him with a smile.
He inclined his head and pocketed the extra smoothly. “It was our pleasure. Shall I call a car for you?”
“That’s not necessary. Her friend is having one sent round.” Anna picked up her purse and glanced towards the entrance. “It should be here now. Thank you very much for everything.”
“Our pleasure. I sincerely hope you’ll visit The Strand again.”
Anna smiled and turned away from the desk, motioning for the porter to follow. As she turned, her eyes met Herr Renner’s and a shock went through her. There was nothing but polite disinterest in his face, however, and she turned to walk towards the entrance, exhaling silently. His eyes had been cold and impersonal, but there was no doubt that he had been watching her very closely.
Resisting the urge to look back over her shoulder, she continued across the lobby, forcing her stride to remain unhurried. She mustn’t appear to be rushing. Maggie had been very clear about that.