“You didn’t mention that anyone was picking me up at the airport,” Thomas interrupted grimly. “Neither did Etienne. He said you had a plane waiting at the airport and had booked a room at the Dorchester. That’s it. There was no mention of anyone waiting for me at the airport, so I just hopped in a taxi.”
“Well, when you saw Inez—”
“Bastien, I met the woman once for about three minutes in your office almost six months ago,” Thomas pointed out dryly and then acknowledged, “I did see her waving and rushing toward me at the airport, but didn’t recognize her. I thought she was there for someone else. How was I to know otherwise when no one told me she would be meeting me,” he ended, emphasizing every word.
“All right, I get the point. You didn’t know,” Bastien said.
“Right,” Thomas sighed.
“Okay.” A moment of silence passed and then a sigh slid from the phone and Bastien said, “I should have contacted you myself and told you she would meet you rather than counting on Etienne. You’ll have to apologize to her for me.”
“Are you sure you told Etienne?” Thomas asked.
“What?” Bastien asked, his voice short. “Of course I did.”
“Of course you did, because you wouldn’t ever make a mistake. Those are for lesser immortals like Etienne and I.”
“Thomas,” Bastien said wearily.
“Yes?” he asked sweetly.
“Never mind. Look, she’s there to help you. Let her. She knows London and she’s a damned efficient woman. One of our best employees. She gets things done, that’s why I decided to have her help you.”
“You mean that’s why you decided to have her baby-sit me, don’t you?” Thomas asked dryly.
There was a brief silence on the other end of the line, then Bastien took a breath, but before he could speak, Thomas said, “Don’t worry about it. I know you think I’m useless. Me, Etienne, and anyone under four hundred years old. So don’t worry about it. I’ll apologize to her and let her help me.”
He pushed the end button on the phone before Bastien could respond and tossed it irritably on the marble counter as he headed for the door. He’d grasped the doorknob when a thought made him hesitate. Releasing the doorknob, Thomas turned back to briefly pace the room.
He didn’t want another berating by Bastien’s underling. While it was cute and he’d found it fascinating to watch the fire dance in her eyes as she’d spat words rapid-fire at him, it would have been more entertaining had he understood some of it. Besides, he didn’t know London and this woman obviously did and while he’d like to be able to find his aunt all by himself and be the hero of the moment, the main concern was finding Aunt Marguerite. Common sense said he would probably get farther faster with help, and Inez was the only help on offer. But she was, no doubt, in a really rotten mood right now and he couldn’t blame her. Bastien might owe her an apology, but Thomas felt he owed her something too. He might not have known she was coming to collect him, but the woman went out of her way to do so and was ignored and left behind for her trouble.
After pacing the room twice, Thomas reached for the hotel phone on the bathroom’s marble counter. He punched the button for room service and quickly placed an order, then hung up and moved to the tub. His cell phone rang as he pushed the button to drop the tub’s stopper into place, but—knowing it would be Bastien with more orders and instructions—he ignored it and grabbed the bottle of bubble bath off the counter. Thomas dumped a generous amount of the liquid in and turned on the taps, then sat down on the side of the tub to wait for it to fill.
Inez dropped wearily to sit on one of the love seats situated on either side of the fireplace and scowled at the knapsack on the table in front of her. The man couldn’t even bother with proper luggage. He was staying in a five-star hotel and checked in with a knapsack. It was the only article of luggage in the room and the only thing he’d been carrying when she’d seen him at the airport.
She glared at the offending article and then realized what she was doing and shook her head, her eyes closing in dismay. She was losing it. Inez never lost her temper, yet here she was not just glaring at luggage, but she’d greeted her boss’s cousin by berating him like a harridan and cursing him in two different languages. Her boss’s cousin!
Dear God, she hadn’t just lost her mind but probably her job too once Bastien heard about this. Thomas Argeneau was probably on the phone in the other room right now complaining to him.