One by One - Ruth Ware Page 0,9
to Topher, “is one of your party staying elsewhere?”
He looks uncomprehendingly at me.
“I’ve only got nine guests on the list,” I explain. “You seem to be ten. It’s not a problem exactly—we can sleep up to eighteen—but there are only nine rooms, so I’m just wondering…”
I trail off.
Topher claps a hand to his forehead and turns to Eva.
“Fuck,” his voice is very low, almost mouthing the words rather than saying them. “We forgot Liz.”
“What?” she says, rather irritably, shaking her curtain of silky hair back. She’s unwinding a long linen scarf from round her neck. “I didn’t catch what you said.”
“We forgot Liz,” he says, more emphatically this time. Her jaw drops, and she looks over her shoulder at the girl by the fireplace before mouthing a silent echoed fuck at her business partner.
Topher draws us both into a corner away from the other guests and beckons to the young Jude Law look-alike. As he comes closer the likeness fades, but the impression of startling good looks only intensifies. He has olive skin; sharp, Slavic cheekbones; and the most extraordinary topaz-blue eyes I’ve ever seen.
“Inigo,” Topher hisses as the boy approaches. “Inigo, we forgot Liz.”
Inigo looks at Topher blankly for a moment and then the words sink in, and the color drains out of his cheeks.
“Oh my God.” His accent is American, Californian at a guess, though I’m not very good at placing Americans. He puts his hand over his mouth in horror. “Topher, I’m—I’m such a dick.”
“It’s not your fault,” Eva says acidly. “Topher’s the one who forgot her when he drew up the original list of names. But of all the people—”
“If you’re so damn efficient,” Topher growls between gritted teeth, “maybe you should have got Ani to do some of the legwork instead of leaving Inigo to do all the heavy lifting.”
“It’s fine—” I break in hurriedly. This isn’t going the way it was supposed to. The first day is supposed to be rest and relaxation—unwinding in the hot tub, drinking vin chaud, and appreciating Danny’s cooking. Mundane reality isn’t supposed to surface until later, when the PowerPoint presentations come out. “Honestly, we can cater for more. The only issue is how we rearrange the bedrooms. We’ve only got nine guest rooms, which means two people will have to share.”
“Let me see the list,” Topher says, frowning.
“No, let me see the list,” Eva snaps. “You’ve already screwed this up once, Topher.”
“Fine,” Topher says irritably, and Eva takes the piece of paper, running her finger down it. As she does, I notice there are what seems to be like burn holes in her sweater—it looks like she’s been doing welding in it, but something tells me it came off the peg like this, and probably with a hefty price tag.
“Liz could share with Ani,” Inigo says helpfully, but Eva shakes her head.
“No, absolutely not. Liz can’t be the one to share or it’ll be obvious what happened.”
“What about Carl?” Topher mutters. “No one gives a fuck about him. He could share with someone.”
“Who?” Eva says. “Rik’s never going to agree to share a room, is he? And as for Elliot—” She jerks her head at the awkward-looking guy standing with his back to the others.
“Yes, okay,” Topher says hastily. “I can see that’s not going to work.”
Both their gazes travel thoughtfully to Inigo, who is staring worriedly down at the list. Feeling their eyes upon him, he looks up.
“Did I miss something?”
“Yes,” Eva says briskly. “You’re sharing with Carl. Now run along and break the news to him.”
Inigo’s face falls.
“I’ll have to switch the rooms around,” I say, mentally running through the list of which rooms can fit a second bed. “Liz will have to go into Inigo’s old room, that’s the smallest, is that okay? And then Miranda can have Carl’s, and then Carl and Inigo can share Miranda’s old room; that’s one of the few that can take an extra bed.”
“Where is Miranda?” Topher says, looking around. I glance over at the stairs. Rik is now talking to the fluffy chick—definitely Ani, I have deduced—and tall, elegant Miranda has disappeared. Eva sighs.
“Damn, she’s probably already gone up to her room. Well, she won’t be impressed at being downgraded, but she’ll have to put up with it. Let’s go and find her before she unpacks.”
“I’ll come with you,” I say. “Someone will have to move the cases.”
From somewhere, I feel a headache begin behind my eyes. Suddenly, this feels like the start of a very long week.
LIZ
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