Rebecca Hagan Lee Read Online Free PDF Page B

bag,” the hotel manager told him. “And a hatbox.” He glanced at James quizzically. “I assumed she had had the bulk of her baggage sent ahead.”
    “Then why did she need a key to my room?”
    “She said she’d left a few personal items in your care that she wished to retrieve when she returned from her shopping trip and since she was reluctant to awaken you so early in the morning in order to borrow your key, she asked the clerk on duty for the spare.”
    “And he gave it to her?” James’s voice rose.
    “Please, Mr. Craig, lower your voice,” Palmer pleaded. “We have guests.”
    “
I’m
a guest,” James reminded the hotel manager, lowering his voice as he forced his words through his tightly clenched teeth. “And you gave someone else a key to my room without my permission.”
    “She said she was traveling with you. She said she was your
cousin
, and we had no way of knowing that the young woman wasn’t to be given a key to your room. Or that you would foolishly misplace yours,” Mr. Palmer added haughtily.
    James raised an eyebrow at Mr. Palmer’s tone of voice,then told him, “I didn’t misplace my key. Foolishly or otherwise.”
    “Then what, may I ask, happened to it?” Palmer asked.
    James almost told the hotel manager exactly what had happened to his key, but he regained control of his temper in time to stop himself before he could answer that the young woman in question had taken his key from the pocket of his robe while he was sleeping and left hers in exchange. Whatever else Elizabeth was, James would bet his last penny on the fact that she was a lady. A frightened, perhaps even desperate, lady, but a lady nonetheless, and some deep protective instinct inside him refused to allow him to ruin her reputation by relaying the previous night’s events. Besides, James had explained more about his situation than he had ever intended. As far as he was concerned, the subject of how his room key came up missing was closed.
    He looked the hotel manager right in the eye. “I have no idea. But as I do have business to attend to this morning and my cousin is nowhere to be found, I suggest you call a locksmith.”
    Mr. Palmer shook his head, then glanced over at James. “This is all highly irregular.”
    “It will be even more irregular when I kick the door out of its frame.”
    “You can’t do that,” Palmer gasped.
    “I can and I will.”
    “But, sir … Mr. Craig …”
    James glanced at the regulator clock hanging on the wall behind the front desk to let Palmer know he felt he’d already dallied too long. “You have ten minutes to find a locksmith,” he said. “Starting now.”

    JAMES SCANNED THE horizon as he waited in the San Francisco Ferry Building at the foot of Market Street for the approaching ferry that would transport him across SanFrancisco Bay to the Southern Pacific pier at Oakland, where the Central Pacific Railroad had its terminal. He’d wandered through shopping districts and neighborhoods all over the city looking for Elizabeth. She was somewhere in the teeming metropolis, traveling the streets alone and unprotected. And even though he knew he shouldn’t waste any more time worrying about her, James found himself doing just that. She had seemed so fragile and vulnerable. He snorted in disgust. Her looks were deceptive. Elizabeth had seemed fragile and vulnerable, but she’d proven herself more than capable of outwitting him and spoiling his plans for the day.
    He had stayed in the city as long as he dared, barely making it to the Ferry Building in time to catch the last ferry to Oakland. He’d even briefly toyed with the idea of staying over in San Francisco another couple of days to locate Elizabeth, but James knew he couldn’t disappoint his loved ones by staying in the city any longer. He had promised them he’d be home tomorrow, and James intended to keep that promise.
    James watched as the ferry pulled alongside the pier, and the crew extended the walkways.