“You’re calling me about that?” The young woman’s voice with its upper-class accent was full of rage. “You can tell my mother that I’ll never forgive her for a lifetime of lies. I never want to see her again. She—”
“We could tell her everything you want to say to her,” Sara said quickly and loudly. “We’re here. Come stay. Tell us all.”
“I don’t deal with liars!” She clicked off.
Sara looked at Jack and Kate. “Oh.”
“Looks like we’ve uncovered a secret.” Kate looked at Jack. “Nadine didn’t mention that her daughter hates her?”
“Must have slipped her mind.”
Sara was looking at the card. “I wonder who sent this? Who wants us to know about Nadine and her daughter?”
“A tattletale,” Jack said. “He or she is saying, ‘Don’t look too closely at me. Focus on someone else.’”
“So how do we get her here?” Sara asked. “Or do we send Jack after her?”
“If the daughter is like the mother, she won’t release him,” Kate said.
“I’ll go if I must,” Jack said.
The women ignored him.
“Send her a photo of your room and say a weekend is free,” Sara said.
“That doesn’t seem like much,” Jack said.
“Anger like hers needs an outlet,” Sara said. “It’s the cold I-don’t-care kind of anger that doesn’t respond.” Sara used her cell to snap a photo of the beautiful room, tapped in an invitation, then used WhatsApp to send the text to the number on the card.
They stared at the phone in silence but nothing happened.
Sara and Kate sighed. “It was worth a try.”
But then, Sara’s phone dinged.
Eight p.m. The Josephine room.
They clapped raised hands in triumph. “I have to find the Josephine room,” Sara said, “and make sure it doesn’t smell like disinfectant.”
“I’ll cut flowers,” Kate said.
They looked at Jack.
He was backing out of the room. “I’ll go, uh... I think I’ll...”
“You want to find Byon and sing some more,” Kate said.
“Maybe.” Jack disappeared out the door.
Kate and Sara laughed.
“Wonder what our Jack’s future wife’s wedding dress will look like?” Sara said.
“More like the other Kate than the Meghan one,” Kate said.
“I agree completely.”
They ran to do their tasks.
* * *
Just as Sara found the Josephine bedroom, her cell dinged with a text. She thought it was probably from Kate but when she saw the ID, she gasped.
“Everything all right?” the young woman who was cleaning the room asked.
“It’s all perfect.” Sara took off running to find Jack. It was no use texting him. He wouldn’t check his phone even if he was carrying it. As she ran, she texted Kate to meet her at the back of the house.
She found Jack downstairs in the large drawing room. Byon was playing the piano and staring at Jack in adoration as he sang.
Standing in the shadow of the doorway, Sara got Jack’s attention. She hated to take him away but she had to. She pointed to her watch, made a motion of driving, then zipped her mouth and jerked her head toward the back of the house.
He gave a nod of understanding and kept singing. He knew that quitting midsong would raise questions.
Sara went out the back. As she knew she would be, her dear, organized, up-for-any-adventure niece was waiting beside one of the hotel’s cars, keys in hand.
“Is he going to drag himself away or do you and I go alone?”
“Don’t know if he can tear himself away since he has an audience. Half the staff has spent the last hour dusting the balcony,” Sara said.
“Puck’s spy bridge? They’re watching the Byon-Jack show?”
“Good name, and yes. But I think—”
Jack came out the door, took the keys out of Kate’s hand and got into the right-hand-drive car. He put down the window. “Are you two going to stand there?”
Kate got into the front, Sara in the back.
“We waited for you for twenty minutes,” Kate lied. “So who are you choosing? The magnificent Byon or the very old lady Nadine?”
“I’m waiting for her daughter.” Jack looked at Sara in the mirror. “Where to?”
“The Red Bull Inn.” Sara was tapping on her phone. “It’s not in the nearest village to Oxley Manor. GPS says it’s a whopping twelve miles away, and considering the corkscrew nature of English roads, it’ll take about an hour. Turn left at the gate.”
“I’ll do it in thirty minutes,” Jack said.
“Just don’t forget that driving is on the left side of the road,” Kate said.
Jack gave her a look to cut it out.
Sara read aloud about the inn from her phone. Built in the sixteenth century as a coaching inn. Fourteen rooms, a well-respected restaurant/bar serving three meals and drinks.
Twenty minutes later, Jack reached the village and parked in front of the inn. “Who are we meeting?”
“Guess,” Sara said as she got out of the car.
Jack looked at Kate. “Poorwilla,” they said in unison.
The inn had blackened beams and red carpet everywhere. There was a check-in area near the entrance, with a man standing there.
“We’re here to see—” Sara began.
“I know,” the man said. “But then, she’s our only guest. I’ll show you up.”
The trio looked at each other as they followed him up the narrow stairs.
At the top, he stepped back. There were about ten doors standing open and half a dozen young women were going in and out of them, their hands full of papers and cell phones.
What was startling was that all the women were exceptionally pretty, and their clothes showed their well-toned bodies.
“I feel like I’ve walked into a 007 movie,” Kate said.
“Me too.” Jack’s voice was in awe.
“I love coming up here,” the manager said. “I use any excuse.”
“So where is she?” Sara asked.