The Crystal Code Read Online Free PDF Page A

inscrutable.
    For the first time that day, Felicity couldn’t get a word in. ‘You must catch me up on all your news,’ Mrs Rutherford said as she conducted them into the hotel lobby. ‘I’ve been here a few days already, getting things ready and I’ve taken the liberty of preparing a little snack for your arrival. I’ll leave Mr Fry to attend to the adults.’ She looked both ways and dropped her voice to a conspiratorial whisper. ‘The better grub is through this way.’ She led them to a private dining room at the far end of the lobby and threw open the doors. Gerald, Sam, Ruby and Felicity crowded the entryway and peered inside.
    â€˜Oh, Mrs Rutherford…’ Sam said.
    Set out before them, on a huge round table in the centre of the room, was a feast of truly epic proportions. Platters were piled with steaming pies and sausage rolls. A roast turkey with a mountain of stuffing lay carved and succulent and waiting. Bowls of mashed potatoes and mint peas and honeyed carrots and fresh salad were crammed next to plates of lamb, duck and beef. A carved ham, decorated with sprigs of holly, sat at one end of the table. A cooked goose, glazed in brandy butter, sat at the other. Gravy boats brimmed to the gunwales with juice-laden yumminess, steam curling up in siren fingers beckoned their easily tempted taste buds.
    A crackling log fire filled a stone fireplace in one corner, and a colossal spruce, bedecked with tinsel and twinkling lights, filled another. Across from the mantle stood a dessert trolley, covered with pudding bowls of trifle, cake, mince pies, ice cream, custard and other sugary delights.
    It was as if they’d stumbled into Santa’s dining hall.
    Sam pulled up a seat at the table. A waiter stepped forward to lay a linen napkin across his lap and start to load up his plate.
    â€˜I must say the Americans are very fond of their food,’ Mrs Rutherford said, filling glasses with home-made lemonade. ‘Even by my standards. Still, this should fuel you up after such a long flight.’
    Sam bit into a turkey leg and glanced across to Felicity’s plate. She was alternating slices of tomato and slices of goat’s cheese across a bed of lettuce and baby spinach leaves. ‘You not having any food, then?’ Sam said through a mouthful.
    Felicity stabbed a carrot julienne with her fork and took a nibble. ‘Nothing in excess, Sam,’ Felicity said. She sipped an iced tea, no sugar. ‘Gluttony is just filling a void in your life with food. I avoid voids.’
    Sam pondered this and took another mouthful of turkey. ‘What’s the opposite of void?’ he asked Gerald.
    Ruby took a look at Felicity’s plate and then at her own. She put back two sausage rolls and added some salad. ‘So what’s been happening, Mrs Rutherford?’ she asked. ‘Anything interesting going on?’
    The housekeeper was busy topping up Sam’s glass when the pitcher slipped and spilled over the tablecloth. Sam leapt clear as lemonade cascaded onto his chair.
    â€˜Oh, will you look at that,’ Mrs Rutherford said. ‘What a muddle I’ve made.’
    Gerald had never seen his housekeeper drop so much as a pea during a dinner service. He looked at her closely as the waiter helped mop up the mess. ‘Are you okay, Mrs Rutherford?’ he said.
    Mrs Rutherford brushed aside a wisp of hair that had fallen across her face. She looked up at the young billionaire and her veneer of unflappable calm dropped away. She slumped into a spare seat at the table and let out an enormous sob.
    â€˜What is it, Mrs Rutherford?’ Ruby asked. ‘Is everything all right?’
    â€˜No, Miss Ruby,’ the housekeeper said. ‘Everything is most decidedly not all right.’
    â€˜Is it all the preparations for Christmas?’ Ruby asked. ‘It must be a lot to organise for all those guests.’
    â€˜Should Mr Fry be helping