He Strikes at the Hotel

Chapter Fourteen

I woke up this morning feeling as if I'd been hit with a frying pan, multiple times. As nice at it was having company last night, I think we overdid it with the wine a tad. Although, it did help us figure out an amazing plan, which put both mine and Zachery's minds to rest. We ended the night on a happy note, being content with how we were to move forward. The threat of whatever was going on within the hotel was no longer something for us to fear, we knew that we had to find out as much information as possible so that we could tackle it head on. We were confident with this. About as confident as I am now that I won't last much longer at work before I have to either projectile vomit, or give in to the constant spinning of my head and lay down wherever is convenient.

Luckily, it was just about time for mine and Nerissa's tea break. I steadied myself and began walking down to the chambermaid quarters, hoping that Nerissa wouldn't be in a chatty mood this morning. As I walked past the dining room, I passed a few guests who were chatting amongst themselves, along with Zachery, surrounded by his guards. "How does he look like that, when I feel like this?" I cursed to myself under my breath. He looked as annoyingly radiant as always, with no hint at him feeling delicate at all from the alcohol and late night last night. Witchcraft. It has to be.

I passed him and his guards casually, noticing the group of women hovering around him, practically drooling. Zachery and I both made brief eye contact involuntarily, before Zachery casually turning back to the others, and then me, panicking and darting my eyes around to anywhere and everywhere else. My heart is still thumping against the walls of my chest from the wine overload, and it made me much more flustered than I would be usually. Not great when you are trying to execute a search and destroy mission. Or when you are trying not to look intimidated by the beautiful women in beautiful gowns who were surrounding Zachery like leeches, whilst I stumbled along in my uniform, only half awake, and with only partially brushed hair. Was I jealous? No... There's nothing to be jealous of in the first place.

I was delighted to see that Nerissa was already in our little kitchen, with a pot of tea at the ready and some toast. She must of known this was needed, just like she always does. "You look tired Audrey-Rose, what did you get up to last night?" She asked, with a glimmer of hope in her eyes. I couldn't tell her what I was really doing. It wouldn't exactly sound proper if I came out and said 'oh yes, I spent the majority of the night with the Duke, ande polished off a couple bottles of very expensive wine in my room, how was your night?' Firstly, she would take it completely wrong, and secondly, it does sound very inappropriate unless the whole situation was explained, which was not really an option either. "I wasn't able to sleep last night. I was up pacing about until the early hours, which made it painful this morning to wake up." I decided to say to her, which would not cause any questioning. Once, I had a spell of insomnia, for only a week or so, but Nerissa has never forgotten, and assumes that is the reason for any of my sluggish mornings. I never argue, as it does work in my favour more often than not, such as in situations like these.

"Never mind dear, hopefully this will help. We haven't got many rooms to do today either, then you can go back to your room and rest." Nerissa tried to comfort me with her words. Surprisingly, it worked. The thought of finishing work and going back to lay down in the warmth and comfort of my room, gave me the motivation I needed to get through today without having a meltdown. "Thank you, Nerissa. You do always manage to make things much better." I meant it, and she knew I was being sincere, as I looked at her and gave her my warmest smile, which I had to swallow down some bile for.

I sat there with my tea and toast, thankful for the fact that Nerissa was considerate of my state, therefore she didn't try to make conversation with me, other than the odd remark to make me aware she was still there. My head had stopped spinning so ferociously now, which was a good thing really, but it allowed my mind to wander to other thoughts instead, such as last night. Zachery seemed to concerned about what was going on, as if he was directly connected to it. Obviously, he did find blood in his suite, but I could sense his genuine fear of what was happening.

After I tried to calm his nerves, and he had gotten the wine out for us, we spoke for hours about what was going on, and how we could approach it. We also wandered off topic, and spoke about ourselves also. I found out that he loves animals, drawing and his favourite meal is bangers and mash. In return, he found out that I too, love animals, that books are my obsession, and I made a deal with him that he could have all the bangers, if I could have all the mash. We laughed a lot, and it brightened up the atmosphere around us, and it made me see him in a whole new light, even if my vision was a bit fuzzy by this point.

He told me how he has noticed things recently going on wherever he was, whether he was staying in a hotel, at home, or with family. He said that people went missing, but nobody noticed or said anything about it. One day, he spoke to his guards about it, saying that he has noticed disappearances and wondered why no one has spoken about them, and his guards shrugged it off, and told him he needn't worry himself over it. However, the people who went missing were always those who he remembered himself, as he either spoke to them recently, had dinner with them, or simply had neighbouring rooms wh them in a hotel. Either way, he always seemed to be in close proximity to those who went missing, and he seemed to be the only one who noticed. He began to worry, and kept his thoughts to himself. However, when coming here, he felt that something was wrong, which is why he asked for my opinion. And when I told him about the laundry room, and we found that trap door, he felt confident that something bad was going to happen, and I had been caught up in it involuntarily. Then, when the blood was found in his room, he knew it had to be someone close to him who was responsible for what was happening. But he had no idea who. Or why.

So, being a few glasses of wine in, and me being my good old curious self who loves to get herself into bad siations, I offered myself to be used as bait. He initially refused, for my safety, and the fact the thought I would blow my cover too easily. But after some persuading, and offerings of mashed potato, he agreed. And now I am thinking it wasn't the best of idea after all.

Nerissa broke me away from my thoughts by letting out a gasp, and then an excited squeal. "What is it?" I asked, holding my head in agony at her loud pitch. Her face lit up as she held up today's newspaper to me, pointing to an article in it. "They are holding a Royal Autumn Ball, here, at the hotel! Apparently it is a tradition for the Duke and his close family, and as he is staying here, they have decided to hold the ball, here!" She emphasised the word 'here' so much that it sounded less like a word, and more like high pitched wail.

Ah yes... The famous ball... "Oh really? That's exciting." I mused, trying to force some kind of excitement to enter my voice. I had completely forgotten about that part of the plan...