Chasing Ghosts by Madalyn Morgan (best fantasy books to read .txt) 📕

you be all right out here on your own?’ Thomas asked, steering the Citroen off the road and pulling into a narrow parking area in front of the hotel.

Claire tutted. ‘Of course, I will. And, Thomas?’ she called out of the window as he ran from the car. ‘Be careful.’ Thomas nodded and entered the Le Petit Château Hotel by a side door.

Claire wound up the window and blew into her hands. It was a bitterly cold evening. She hoped there would be a fire in her room - if there was a room available. It looked like a pretty small hotel from the outside. Not long after going into the side door, Claire saw Thomas coming out of the main entrance at the front of the hotel. As he neared the car he made an O with his forefinger and thumb.

‘They’ve got a room then?’ she said, when he jumped into the car.

‘They have. And there hasn’t been anyone hanging around that my old Resistance chum didn’t know.’

‘Then what are we waiting for? It’s bloody freezing in here.’ Thomas twisted round, leant his arm on the back of his seat, but didn’t speak. ‘For goodness sake, what is it?’

‘When I asked my friend if any strangers had been in, he accidentally left the hotel’s register open in front of me when he went into the office to answer the telephone.’

‘And? Thomas, if you don’t tell me what the hell you’re going on about, I swear I’ll--’

‘Alain is staying here!’

Claire gasped.

‘I read his name; Alain Le Blanc, the undercover name your husband used when you and he were in the Resistance, is booked into this hotel.’

CHAPTER TWENTY-SIX

‘How can I stay in the same hotel as my-- estranged husband? I’m trying to find out if he’s having an affair, for God’s sake!’ It took Claire a few minutes to recover from the bombshell Thomas had dropped. When she did, she said, ‘Did the manager say anything about Alain?’ Thomas lifted his shoulders then tilted his head to the left and right. ‘You are the most frustrating, the most annoying man! The manager either said something about Alain or he didn’t. Which is it?’

‘He said Alain has a rich friend who he assumes lives nearby because he has visited Alain at the hotel several times.’

‘Man or woman?’

‘What? Oh, a man...’

Claire sighed with relief. ‘And?’

‘And… the man has a daughter.’

Claire’s heart almost stopped beating. ‘Did he tell you the name of the man and his daughter? Did he mention the name Cheval?’

Thomas shook his head. ‘I wasn’t able to ask him. A couple of guests came into reception to pick up the keys to their room.’

‘Did he say whether she had been to the hotel?’

‘Again, I didn’t have time to ask. But I’m sure my friend would have said if he’d seen her. He has an eye for the ladies.’

Claire took a deep calming breath and shut her eyes. ‘Right!’ she said, opening them and exhaling. ‘Plan B! We go to another hotel.’

‘Not possible. I telephoned the two remaining hotels on the list and they are both full.’

‘Then we’ll have to go with Plan C.’

‘What is Plan C?’

‘The same as plan A,’ Claire said, taking her powder compact and lipstick from her handbag. She frowned at her reflection in the compact’s small mirror, before powdering her nose and applying a thick layer of red lipstick. She picked up a small round box of rouge, opened it, then dropped it back into her bag. ‘Pale and mysterious, I think, like one of those Parisian models.’ She poked her hair behind her ears, then reached across the back seat and opened her suitcase. She took out a felt hat. After giving it a shake, she held it with one hand and ran the thumb and forefinger of her other hand around its brim. She put it on, looked in the mirror again and tugged the right side of the hat until the brim was off-centre and angled over her right eye. Then, dropping the compact and lipstick back into her handbag, she gracefully stepped out of the car.

Standing as tall as she could, Claire pulled up the collar of her coat and tightened the belt, before putting on a pair of fashionable spectacles. ‘Well?’ she said to Thomas when he joined her on the pavement with her suitcase, ‘How do I look?’

‘If I thought you wouldn’t slap me I’d whistle,’ he said.

‘I haven’t overdone the lipstick, have I?’

‘No, but I’m not sure about the glasses and the brim of the hat pulled down over your eye.’

Claire pushed gently on the front of the hat until it slipped back on her head an inch. ‘Better?’ Thomas nodded. ‘Good God but it’s cold out here. Come on, let’s get inside.’ She stopped. ‘The receptionist will want to see my identity papers, so don’t call me Claire. My name is Therese Belland.’

Le Petit Château Hotel was smaller inside than it looked from the outside - and it was a lot less impersonal. The manager, now on reception duty, and pretending not to know Thomas asked how many rooms. Claire said one, and signed the hotel register as Madame Therese Belland.

An elderly porter shuffled stiffly out of a doorway behind the reception desk, bent down, and picked up Claire’s case. ‘I shall take the suitcase to Madame’s room,’ Thomas said, taking the case from the porter. The old man raised his eyebrows and Claire, looking suitably embarrassed, made for the cage-elevator.

While the elevator juddered and rattled on heavy chains to the second floor, she held her breath. Once inside her room, she and Thomas collapsed into each other’s arms in fits of laughter. ‘I wish you didn’t have to go,’ Claire said, when she had recovered.

‘Me too.’ Thomas looked into her