The Oslo Affair (Shadows of War, #2) by CW Browning (read after .txt) 📗

and Evelyn sighed loudly, turning to her companion expectantly. Anna pushed her glasses up on her nose.

“He said but you are going to the fifth floor. This is only the fourth,” she said in English.

“Stop it, I say! I will not ride another floor with this...this...nincompoop!”

Anna obligingly translated, only the faintest tremor in her voice.

The attendant swallowed and obediently pushed the lever, bringing the lift to a stop at the fourth floor. He opened the gate, expecting to see the companion disembark. Instead, Evelyn strode out and turned to glare at the companion with a dramatic flourish.

“I will take the stairs rather than look at your face!” she announced, tossing her head. “You will go on and wait for me.” Then, just as the attendant was sliding the gate closed again, her eyes met Anna’s. “Godspeed, my friend,” she said, keeping the berating tone in her voice.

The faintest smile crossed Anna’s lips and she nodded, pushing her glasses up on her nose.

“And you,” she murmured.

The lift started up again and Evelyn turned away with an exaggerated huff, her eyes darting around the wide hallway. She was just in time to see a blond head retreat behind the corner at the far end of the corridor. From that spot, the man could see not only the lift, but the door to her and Anna’s room.

After glancing at the other end of the corridor and seeing nothing, she took a deep breath and started down the hallway, muttering to herself in Spanish. Just in case the man watching their room happened to know Spanish, she kept her complaints in the same vein as the reprimanding she’d been engaged in for the past ten minutes.

“Stupid, incompetent girl! She doesn’t have much to do, but she still manages to get it all wrong. And she looks like a depressed cow half the time. No wonder I’m going out of my mind. It’s like having Job for a secretary. Worse! At least he was Catholic!”

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