Promised Box Set

by James Kipling

  And since I broke up with Danny—again—I had to come to Paris by myself. I told him I was prepared to take him back, to see if we could sort out our worries and problems, but after a couple of weeks, I decided to give up again, as he did not seem to appreciate me at all. I told him we could take things slowly, although deep down, I didn’t think we could get back together again after what had happened, but I still cared about him and I couldn’t deny that. So there I was, standing in the airport with my parents, waiting for the taxi to take us to the hotel.

  Before too long, the taxi arrived as planned.

  “Here it is!” cried Dad, hugging Mum and half-jumping around. I just put my case into the trunk of the car and climbed in without a fuss. Clearly, my parents were more excited about this trip than I was, even though I was looking forward to it. We were told that the hotel itself was not in the center of Paris—it was on the outskirts, so I was quite relieved yet disappointed at the same time. I could relax properly, but I also wanted to get to the city center easily to see all the sights, though I knew that problem could easily be solved.

  While we were loading the bags into the car and whatever else, I heard a heated conversation behind us. I could hardly make out what they were saying, so I turned around to look at them.

  “Just shut up with your snide comments,” cried the woman. “There’s no point in trying to deny it now, Christopher!”

  “Then why don’t you just divorce me, you stupid woman?”

  The woman gave the man a sly look. “I’m not going to let you get away that easily! I’m never going to divorce you, so when you die first—and you will because you are significantly older than me—I will be able to take all of your money… and control of your businesses!”

  The woman laughed out loud. I assumed she had found out about an affair the man had been having, so I didn’t know whether to empathize with her or dislike her for her childish behavior. Despite the blazing hot weather, the woman was wearing a fur coat. The man was wearing business clothes, so I deduced they were of a higher social class. Obviously, they were. I did not want to look that much into it, because I was concentrating more on my vacation.

  We were sitting in the taxi, seeing the sights of France, and listening to the French radio playing. I couldn’t believe how fast the French could speak! Neither my parents nor I could speak a word of French—apart from “bonjour,” so we might have been struggling. Unfortunately, the taxi driver started to speak French. I think he asked us if we had been to France before, because I heard the words “à France” and he sounded like he was asking a question, from his tone of voice. I just said, “non” and my parents looked very confused.

  “Ah,” said the driver, “c’est assez dangereuse, mais c’est très reposante et incroyablement beau!”

  I only understood one word in that sentence—dangerous.

  We arrived at the hotel, and it was the most stunning place I had ever been to! There were plants growing from the sides of the walls, and there was a miniature waterfall on each side of the gate. A young female servant came to the gates to greet us, and she helped with the luggage.

  “Bonjour, et bienvenue à l’Hotel du Soleil!” she said.

  We all looked at her, as if to say, ‘we don’t know any other word than bonjour.’

  “Oh, sorry,” the servant replied. “Hello, and welcome to the Sunshine Hotel!”

  That was quite a simple name, I thought, but it didn’t matter. This place was clearly the best hotel I had ever stayed in, and I could not wait to get inside and start my adventure.

  Chapter 26

  “I know now that this is going to be a great holiday!” my mother cried, hugging my father. “I just wish we would have done this before now!”

  “I can’t wait to get started!” agreed my father, almost dragging his suitcase inside.

  When we walked inside, we found the ambience to be stunning. In the background, beautiful French music was playing, and the whole room was spotless. The stairs were made of marble, and they reflected the glittering lights that hung from the white ceiling. It was like being in heaven. Everywhere I looked was either white or nearly white: this was the place to be for a holiday.

  At the reception, we noticed a nervous-looking woman waving us over.

  “Hello,” she said. “I’m Chloe, and I’m the manager of the Sunshine Hotel.”

  The manager was quite tall, with short, curly hair and a long, thin nose. She seemed unconfident for a manager, but that may have been due to stress.

  “This is a lovely place!” my mother expressed, knowing full well this was far and away the finest place she had ever been.

  “You’re too kind!” said Chloe, rubbing her hands together. “Now then, we’ll need to see your passports before we check you in, just so we know who you are.”

  My parents and I showed Chloe the passports.

  “Right, then,” said this seemingly friendly woman. “We’ll have your room ready in about ten minutes. For now, why don’t you sit on the balcony with the rest of the guests and enjoy the lovely day.”

  So, we were ready to begin our holiday. We took the bags, but before I left the room to go to the balcony, I heard Chloe speak to one of the staff members,

  “Adrienne. Allez à la cuisine et donnez lui des boissons. Maintenant!”

  I did not know what she said, but she seemed quite aggressive. Perhaps Chloe wasn’t as nice as I thought she was.

  Anyway, we walked outside onto the balcony, which showed us a view of the beautiful French countryside. I looked out for the Eiffel Tower, but no such luck yet. I was looking forward to climbing it, and seeing Paris from the top. I knew that my time would come.

  There were other guests sitting around the balcony, drinking glasses of various beverages. I saw a young couple, a fairly young couple and an elderly couple. They were all looking at us, somewhat expectantly.

  “Hello!” said the elderly man.

  “Hello,” I said back, taking a seat right in the middle of all of them.

  “Anyway, as I was saying,” said the fairly young woman, “we were quite surprised to see you here, Stephanie. You never said you were coming!”

  “Well, it was to celebrate our engagement,” replied the young woman, holding the hand of the man next to her.

  “After the wedding, we are going to Tenerife, but we just thought we’d have a romantic stay in Paris first,” added the young man.

  “How long is it now?” asked the other man. I saw a wedding ring on his finger, so it was obvious that he was married to the woman sitting next to him, although anyone could deduce that.

  “Four months,” replied Stephanie, almost jumping up and down with excitement. “I still can’t believe it when I say that!”

  “We’ve been married for ten years, haven’t we, Alan?” said the woman.

  “Yes. Shona and I came here for our anniversary. Even though we had a party, I wanted to celebrate a little more,” said Alan, giving his wife a kiss.

  I looked at the married couple and thought it was unusual. Just looking at them, you would not think they would be able to afford a luxury holiday and a party at the same time, just for one special occasion.

  “Well, this is certainly the place to be!” replied the old woman. “Frank and I have been coming here for almost thirty years, and we still love it!”

  “Really?” said Shona.

  “Yes. Paris is literally the city of love.”

  “How long have you been married?” asked Brendan, the one who was engaged to Stephanie.

  “Sixty-one years,” the old man replied with pride.

  There were gasps all around. It was amazing to see such happiness in the atmosphere. I had never had that much. Instead, I was generally always stressed out and couldn’t even afford to go on vacation, but the hotel had introduced a special offer, and we were fortunate enough to be the first to get a place.

  I then noticed that, apart from Brendan and Stephan
ie, who were about to get married, I was the only one here who was not married or with someone. That made me slightly depressed, but I didn’t worry because I was determined to enjoy myself.

  Soon, the servant who Chloe had yelled at came in with some drinks.

  “Your...drinks,” he said, with a broken accent.

  As all this conversation about love and happiness was going on, I heard voices in the background. I was stunned when I turned and saw that those voices belonged to the very same people I’d seen arguing at the airport!

  “Oh, hello, Veronica,” said Chloe, with a bitter tone of voice.

  “Chloe, my old friend!” cried Veronica, clearly sarcastic.

  “How are you these days?” asked Chloe.

  “Still as happy as ever,” Veronica said, unconvincingly.

  “So, are we going to get checked in or what?” said the man.

  “Yes, Christopher,” replied Chloe.

  “We want the best service in the hotel!” cried Veronica.

  “Well, you’ve come to the right place,” said Chloe, trying not to be overly dramatic.

  Chloe checked them in, and told them their rooms were ready.

  “So, later this evening, are we having cocktails?” said Christopher, rubbing the palm of his hand against the back of hers.

  Chloe moved her hands away from his. “As we always do,” she replied, swallowing the lump in her throat.

  “Oh, that’s fantastic,” said Christopher, winking at Chloe.

  Veronica laughed it off just to hide the embarrassment, if there was any. They walked upstairs in silence, and that was that.

  “I hate that bitch!” cried Stephanie.

  “So do I,” said Shona. “I can’t believe she’s here.”

  Chloe was listening to our conversation.

  “How do you know her?” I asked them.

  “Over the years, she’s done all sorts of things,” Alan said.

  “Like what?” my mother asked.

  “Well, she lives in the town we live in, in that big, fancy house. Anyway, years ago, she got pregnant by this wealthy man, and she blackmailed him, telling him that if he did not give her any money, she would terminate the child. Anyway, she did have the termination in the end, though she pretended that she was pregnant still. So, he was paying her money, and by the time she was five or six months gone, she said that he could have the child. She carried on, pretending to be pregnant by carrying a watermelon around on her stomach. That man was now with another woman, and Veronica was jealous of that, because he had previously dated her. Anyway, Veronica did not reveal her lies until she pretended to go into labor, right in front of this man’s eyes, and finally threw the watermelon out of her shirt. He’s never been the same since!”

  “She sounds insane!” cried the elderly woman.

  “She is. I could go on all day, telling you stories, but I don’t want to ruin the atmosphere,” said Alan.

  I then looked up, and saw a window open. I wondered if it was actually their window that was open, because I hadn’t noticed it open before. If so, then it may well be awkward the next time we saw Veronica.

  “Right, everyone,” said Chloe, dashing into the seating area. “I have two good things to tell you. First of all, your rooms are ready, and secondly, I have booked a trip into Paris for tomorrow, if anybody wants to go!”

  There were cheers of excitement in the air. It was official, everyone there was going to Paris.

  Chapter 27

  After having finished all of the unpacking and getting settled in the room, we realized that it was coming close to night-time. We were surprised at how time had moved so fast, then remembered the time difference and all.

  Earlier, Chloe had invited us down for some complimentary cocktails, in appreciation for us choosing her hotel. It seemed to me that she was a bit desperate, but I didn’t care. I did not care about alcohol much either, as I generally had neither the time nor the interest to consume it, but I knew that this time I was defeated—we were on holiday and it would have been poor manners to refuse the invitation. I guess I had to let my hair down at some point anyway.

  We dressed nicely for the occasion, since we assumed that everyone in the hotel would be down for these complimentary drinks. It was a very small hotel in comparison to those I knew. If I had to estimate, I would guess twenty guest rooms perhaps, but I wasn’t sure. Chloe had obviously worked very hard to get here. For its size, I assumed that the hotel would not earn that much revenue when compared to the cost of maintenance, which made me interested. Perhaps Chloe had future plans.

  We arrived downstairs, and, to our surprise, hardly anyone was there. The Sandersons, Alan and Shona, who we had met earlier; plus Stephanie and Brendan the engaged couple, and that was it.

  “Hello,” said Chloe, rushing over to us like an excited terrier dog. “I hope you have enjoyed your stay here so far!”

  “We have,” my parents replied.

  “That’s fantastic news! The others should be down shortly, but please, have a cocktail.”

  “What’s in it?” I asked Chloe, taking a cocktail from the bar.

  “Well, it is made of absinthe and champagne. The name of the drink is ‘Death in the Afternoon,’ amusing, isn’t it?”

  “That’s an unusual name for a cocktail,” I said.

  “Isn’t it just?” said Chloe. I didn’t know why, but she gave me some sort of twitch when she said that—a rather psychotic look. I was beginning to think that she was planning a murder, but then I had to force myself to remember that not everyone in the world is a psychopath.

  “So,” my father said, trying to converse with Alan, “where are you from?”

  “Well, we’re living in North Dakota now, but we’re not originally from there,” said Alan. “We used to live in San Francisco—both of us.”

  “Ah,” said my father, as if he were a detective.

  A couple more guests arrived, and all was fine, but suddenly the atmosphere changed… when the Wilsons walked in. Before they arrived, there were laughs and jokes, and it was overall a relaxed, friendly atmosphere, but when the Wilsons entered the room, hardly one word was spoken. The Sanderson’s and Brendan and Stephanie looked at Veronica, as did Chloe. Somehow, Veronica reminded me of one of the murder victims in a previous case of mine—she was arrogant, and bitchy. She had many enemies. Obviously, no one in the building liked her. She clearly liked to show off, and she was just plain mean. I had not even spoken to her, but I knew exactly what she was. I was beginning to feel sorry for Christopher, even to the point of thinking that he had a justifiable reason for cheating on his wife.

  Veronica approached Chloe.

  “What the hell is this?” she said, her fingers grasping the glass.

  “Complimentary cocktails! This is called, ‘Death in the Afternoon,’” said Chloe.

  “Well, I’ve never tried this one before,” said Veronica, taking the glass and sipping it. She put it back on the tray and said, “I don’t like it. I want another cocktail.”

  Chloe turned round to her female servant.

  “Allez à la cuisine et donnez lui du vin pas cher.”

  I tried to translate that in my head, and came up with ‘go to the kitchen and get them some wine.’ Or something like that. I recognized some of the words because Chloe had said them before when we first entered the hotel.

  The female servant reappeared with some wine as requested.

  “What on Earth is this?” said Veronica.

  “It’s something you’d like,” said Chloe, trying not to be too smug.

  “This is probably the cheapest wine on the market!” she yelled.

  “Well, ‘Death in the Afternoon’ is one of the most expensive cocktails on the market, so I thought you’d like the opposite.”

  Even though she was vile, I still would not treat Veronica like that if she were my guest. Veronica just turned around and walked over to the piano, muttering, “When I g
et home, I’m going on TripAdvisor to write a bad review of this place!”

  Then something startled even me. Christopher sat down at the grand piano, with Veronica standing next to him. He pressed a few keys, and Veronica started to sing.

  “You’re the top, you’re the coliseum.

  You’re the top, you’re the Louvre Museum.

  You’re the melody from a symphony by Strauss.

  You’re a Vendel bonnet, a Shakespeare sonnet, you’re Mickey Mouse!

  You’re the Nile, you’re the Tower of Pisa,

  You’re the smile on the Mona Lisa.

  I’m a worthless cheque, a total wreck, a flop.

  But if babe I’m the bottom, you’re the top!”

  This woman was clearly the biggest show-off I had ever seen. She had attracted the attention of everyone in the room, and worst of all, she could not sing. I wondered if she was drunk, but then again, I didn’t think she was. She then thought up her own lyrics for the song:

  “You’re the top of the Eiffel Tower.

  You’re the top, you’re the finest hour!

  You’re the boat I like on the lovely River Seine.

  If you were Champs Élysées, I’d like to say I’d come again!

  You’re the top, you’re the Pont Alexandre,

  You’re the wine, with a snail-filled dinner.

  I’m the frog without a leg on which to hop.

  But if babe I’m the bottom, you’re the top!”

  Veronica then stopped singing, and bowed to the crown. Many of the other guests who were there clapped, not including those who knew who she was. The members of staff clapped, not including Chloe. Veronica loved the attention, which proved my opinions of her gained earlier on.

  Chloe then approached me and said, “If you want a fantastic view of the countryside, go outside in the back, near the swimming pool is. You can see for miles around!”