Page 20 of The Legend of Lovers Hollow
I shake my head. “I’ll just head back down to my room and shower there. Hopefully, there are no guests around this early to witness me wandering around in your bathrobe. That is, if you don’t mind me borrowing it again. I don’t have any clothes here. In fact, I’m not even sure where my clothes are.”
“Oh, yes, I’d forgotten about that.” Ellis’s mouth twists thoughtfully. “We really should find Artie and get him to put it all back. I can’t imagine it’s doing that hundred-year-old bed any good to be upside down on its canopy, and it’s not like John the Maid can put it back.”
“I suppose.”
“What did you do to upset him?” Ellis asks. “I have to admit this is creative, even for him. Plus, he usually only moves furniture around, he doesn’t steal and hide personal belongings.”
“Well, I sincerely hope he puts it back. Otherwise, I’m going to have to rip down the drapes to make myself a loincloth, and I doubt the guests would like to see me swinging through the corridors like Tarzan.”
His lips twitch. “Oh, I don’t know. Stranger things have happened.”
“I can actually believe that.” I snort. “Anyway, you’d better go. I’ll be down if I find some clothes.”
“If you don’t, call me, and I’ll find something for you to wear. There’s plenty of stuff in the attics–”
“No.”
“Most of it is true vintage.”
“No.”
“People pay a lot of money for that.”
“I am not going commando in my ancestor’s cast-offs,” I say flatly.
He smiles again. “Just call me if there’s a problem.”
“I can’t,” I say, my tone sullen. “He took my phone too.”
“Oof, you really did upset him, didn’t you? Seriously, what happened?”
I wasn’t about to explain to Ellis that I’d told Artie we might not be able to save the hotel. Ellis was working so hard to keep this place going and bring in new business. To be honest, I shouldn’t have said anything to Artie, but I had been tired and my brain-to-mouth filter was obviously as jet-lagged as the rest of me.
Instead, I go with a partial truth rather than an outright lie. “I don’t think he’s adjusting well to the fact that I’m an adult now.”
“Aww, poor thing.”
“Poor thing?” I say incredulously. “He left me stark naked!”
“Be grateful he didn’t take the towel too,” Ellis replies. “Right. I really do have to go now. I’ll see if I can find Artie anywhere and tell him to bring you back your luggage and your phone.”
Dropping another last kiss on my lips, he heads to the door and opens it, peering first at the floor outside his room and then down the corridor.
“Oh.”
“Oh, what?” I ask.
“John the Maid has put carpet cleaner down. This stuff needs to sit on the carpet for an hour before he can come back and vacuum it up. You probably don’t want to be walking down the corridor in bare feet in case it irritates your skin. Best borrow my slippers too.”
My eyes shift over to the fluffy unicorns eyeing me, with mocking smiles and sparkly rainbow hair, that are thrown haphazardly on the floor.
“Absolutely not.”
“Morgan, do not walk down the carpet runner in bare feet. Aggie accidentally walked over that carpet cleaner the last time John the Maid used it in her room and her toes were swollen for a month. They looked like little pink cocktail sausages.”
“Thank you for that visual.” I grimace. “What’s that stuff made of? Surely he shouldn’t be using it in the hotel if it’s dangerous.”
“He doesn’t use it when there are guests around, but I’m not sure exactly what it is. He makes it up himself. He says it’s really good for getting ingrained dirt out of old, fragile carpets but not so great for human skin.”