Page 24 of So This is Christmas

JENNIE

Jennie finished up the third interview in a row for a new room attendant.

She desperately needed a few more recruits to join the team for the festive season, not because she’d overlooked the need until now, but because of so many illnesses lately which left them undeniably short-staffed.

These recruits would be employed on a temporary basis for the next five weeks to get the hotel over the hump and then they’d reassess after that.

She emerged into reception delighted because all three interviewees were perfect and – subject to references – they would all be offered work in the next couple of days.

A gentleman hovered by the big Christmas tree, a map in his hands and a perplexed expression on his face, so Jennie went over to help him.

He was looking for a restaurant which was nearby but had a concealed entrance.

She took him out onto the front steps and pointed him in the right direction.

She was about to hurry back inside out of the cold when she spotted a familiar face framed with a red woollen hat and scarf.

Their visitor, Sophie.

Walter had seemed so upbeat yesterday in Sophie’s company, which made this all so much harder because Jennie didn’t trust her at all.

She wanted to, but she couldn’t. Not after Ruby and others who had taken advantage of the Wynters’ warmth.

A few years after Ruby showed her true colours, Walter and Greta had tried to support a young man called Richard, a twenty-five-year-old with a gambling problem.

Richard had tried to talk Walter into giving him a deposit for an apartment, appealing to his very generous nature, assuring him that he would get the money back in due course.

But Walter wasn’t silly. He suspected it was for gambling and answered firmly that he wouldn’t be able to lend Richard any money.

Richard turned nasty. Greta had called the police who got there quickly and thankfully the Wynters had never heard from the guy again, but he still haunted Jennie much like Ruby did.

She couldn’t understand how people could take advantage when someone went out of their way to help.

Her mind dipped again to those dark places, thinking that Sophie might be here in Vienna to take advantage.

She might steal things from Walter’s apartment, she might take his credit card and wheedle his pin number out of him.

Seeing Walter’s cheat sheet with his banking information on it had sent her into a panic.

She’d messaged Nick, who was certain she was overreacting, but he’d said he would be sure to talk to his dad.

He’d suggested he get his dad to have a practice with his online banking when he was there at the apartment, and that way Nick would be able to see whether any transactions were out of the ordinary.

She waved over to Sophie now because maybe it would be better to keep the woman onside rather than alienate her. What was it they said – keep your friends close but your enemies closer?

Sophie clocked her straight away and crossed over the road and up the front steps of the hotel.

‘Are you lost?’ Jennie asked.

‘Yes, and I’m out of charge.’ She held up her phone. ‘I thought I’d juiced up the power bank but I must have forgotten to switch on the plug overnight.’

‘I hate it when that happens.’ Jennie shivered even though she’d wrapped her arms tightly around her body. ‘Come inside in the warm, we have plenty of paper maps so I’ll give you one of those.’

‘Are you sure?’ Sophie’s voice followed Jennie leading the way. ‘I don’t want to be too much trouble.’

‘No trouble at all.’ Walter wouldn’t thank her for being stand-offish, and Nick was going to keep an eye on things too, so she was just going to have to go with the flow where Sophie was concerned.

From behind the reception desk, Jennie pulled out a paper copy of the city map and museums. ‘There are charging points in the brasserie if you want to go in, get yourself a coffee and hang around for a bit while your phone gets some power. Then you’ll have both types of map.’

Sophie looked taken aback at her suggestion, as well she might be given Jennie hadn’t exactly been welcoming or particularly friendly up until now.

‘Actually, that would be really nice, give my legs a break. I feel like I’ve been walking forever.’

‘Exploring will do that to you.’ She led the way to the brasserie.

‘Give your phone a nice charge in here. The last thing you want is to be around the city, unable to look things up or presumably take photographs. You’ll want to show your family, after all.

’ And at least if she was here or out exploring, she wasn’t at the apartment seeing what she might be able to get her hands on.

When Sophie was settled at one of the tables and had connected her phone to the USB port, Jennie folded the oversized map so that the centre of Vienna was the most visible.

She took the pen from the breast pocket of her suit jacket and circled the hotel lightly enough that it wouldn’t interfere with the rest of Sophie’s map-reading.

‘The 1st district is almost entirely inside the Ringstrasse,’ she said, indicating with a finger, ‘which is this road here. That makes it easier to find your way around. What were you planning to see today?’

‘I thought I’d wander and look at some of the architecture, maybe hop on a tram seeing as I’ve already done quite a lot of walking. I haven’t stopped since I left the apartment four hours ago.’

‘You’ll enjoy the trams if that’s what you decide. There’s a large network here in Vienna and you’ll be able to hop on and off as often as you like.’ And they’d keep her further away, at least temporarily.

‘That sounds wonderful. I can jump off when I see something I’m interested in, stay on if I don’t.’

‘Exactly. And they’re regular, too. Every three to eight minutes.’

‘Thank you.’ Sophie actually seemed nice, but then so had Ruby all those years ago. ‘Bea was right, you know.’

‘About?’

‘Vienna is stunning. It’s clean, it’s impressive, and the people are lovely. I wondered whether I’d be lost given I don’t know an ounce of German.’

‘I didn’t know much at all when I came here, but I’m getting better. It’s so easy to fall into using English though because so many people speak it. The kids here learn English at school from a young age.’

‘I’m glad Bea’s and Greta’s letters were in English,’ said Sophie. ‘I wouldn’t have had a hope trying to write one in German for Bea.’

‘I think they’d both got used to speaking, reading and writing English given they both lived over there for so long.

’ She sat down for a moment, almost shocked that she’d lapsed into regular conversation with this person she didn’t trust. Maybe she could find out a bit more about Sophie.

Information was power, after all. ‘You and Bea sound as though you grew really close.’

‘We did. Bea had a good nature and friendliness that I was drawn to. She was really lovely and kind. I do miss her.’

‘She sounds very much like Greta.’

‘Maybe that’s why they were best friends.’

Perhaps Sophie was right. ‘I can’t even begin to describe how much I miss Greta.’

‘May I ask what happened to her?’

‘Walter didn’t tell you?’

‘No, and I don’t want to ask him because I don’t want to upset him.’

Jennie appreciated that. She never wanted to upset him either. ‘Greta had an accident. She fell down some steps when she was out one day with Walter. She broke her hip and we really thought she’d recover, but she got an infection and we lost her.’

‘I’m so sorry. It must have been incredibly hard.’

‘It was. We’re lucky to still have Walter though, and I’m glad he’s here close by to me and Nick.’ She changed tack to brighten the conversation. ‘So neither you nor Bea guessed it was Walter writing those letters or the Christmas letter?’

Sophie shook her head. ‘We didn’t suspect at all.

Although now I think about it, we were trying to arrange a video call or a voice call for ages.

Walter sent an email to the lodge to pass on to Bea to let her know that their phone had broken, then he sent another to say the internet was playing up, then it was a broken webcam.

Now I realise they were excuses so Walter could stick with the letters and not reveal the truth about Greta, but it’s really nice that he did that for Bea. ’

‘I suggested Greta try emails once and she dismissed the notion.’

Sophie smiled. ‘Bea too. She said there was something so much more exciting about getting mail the way they’d done as young women.’

‘Were Bea’s days peaceful at the lodge? Greta always fretted about her not having anyone and being in a care home – you hear such stories about those places.’

‘There are some terrible ones out there,’ said Sophie. ‘But there are also some lovely ones.’

‘It must depend on the staff.’ Jennie felt sure she’d touched on a nerve, but Sophie rallied.

‘Very much so,’ she said. ‘But the lodge was a happy place for Bea. She was confused, more so as time went on, but other than that she had a good life there.’

‘It was quite the mix-up about the hotel.’ Jennie watched Sophie for a reaction. Had she come partly because she thought the Wynters had a lot of money? It didn’t appear so unless she was a particularly good actor.

‘She probably got the information about the hotel back to front and then because they never discussed it again in their letters Bea didn’t clarify with Greta.

’ She laughed a little. ‘She’d tell everyone at the lodge how her friend owned this establishment in Vienna.

She was happy whenever she shared the information, so I guess in a way it was a blessing she got mixed up.

Some of the people at the lodge have very little to look forward to, or to talk about. Some don’t even have any visitors.’

‘That’s incredibly sad.’ And it made her hope all the more that this woman was as genuine as she seemed. Walter didn’t deserve anything less.