Hotel du Barry by Lesley Truffle Read Free Book Online Page A

assumed you knew that the maids’ kitchen is my office.’
    â€˜Oh. I was real scared. I thought I’d made a right royal stuff-up and he’d get real angry. Maybe even give me the sack.’
    â€˜Now, take a deep breath, Lizzie, and listen. Tell Mr du Barry that I’m still in my office, if he’d care to pop down and see me. All right?’
    â€˜Yes, Mrs Brown.’
    â€˜And you needn’t worry. Just tell him you had trouble finding me. You won’t get into any trouble.’
    â€˜Good. I thought you was in the shite already and I was about to join ya.’
    Bertha ran her hand across the scrubbed pine tabletop. ‘I’ll let you in on a secret. I’m the same age as Mr du Barry and my mother – who was a pâtissière – worked for his father, at Hotel du Barry Brighton. Mother told me that this table used to be in the staff kitchen at Brighton. She reckoned Maurie du Barry wasn’t a snob, and when Danny was a wee tot he’d have his tea on this very table every afternoon with the staff. And if his nanny told him he wasn’t allowed to have any more delicious chocolate biscuits, he’d close his eyes.’
    â€˜How come?’
    â€˜Because Daniel thought that nobody would be able to see him filching another biscuit off the plate.’
    â€˜Ah.’
    â€˜Lizzie, my point is – he’s your boss and you are right to be respectful, but he’s human like the rest of us. He’s just a man. A good man.’
    â€˜I get ya, Mrs Brown. I’ll give him the message.’
    Lizzie clattered back up the stairs.
    While she waited, Bertha polished two kitchen tumblers and put out a piece of Cheshire cheese and some biscuits. She also placed a flagon of cooking sherry on the table. Bertha then reached into a drawer and retrieved a box of complexion powder. Using the back of a silver carving knife as a mirror, she carefully powdered her nose.
    By the time Daniel arrived, she was seated at the end of the table with her knitting. Knit one, purl one, knit one, purl one.
    Daniel reached for the flagon and grinned. ‘This feels like old times. I guess you already know why I’m here?’
    â€˜I have my suspicions, but I’d rather you told me.’
    He passed her a full glass. ‘It’s about Edwina.’
    â€˜I see.’
    â€˜We lost another nanny this afternoon. She’d packed her suitcase and was gone by the time I got back from Dublin.’
    â€˜I know.’
    â€˜Christ, news travels fast. It must be our rats’ nest of spies at work again.’
    Bertha put down her knitting. ‘Danny, be realistic. You live in a hotel. Gossip helps foster the human interest that motivates your cooks, maids, valets and lobby boys to get out of bed before dawn and put their best foot forward.’
    He took a big slug of sherry. ‘You’re right. As usual. Listen, I need your help. I don’t know what to do. In three years I’ve been through nineteen nannies. There was nothing wrong with our first nanny, Betty. She was bloody marvellous and I wanted her to stay on but Eddie sacked her the minute I left town on business. Bertha, I’m at my fucking wits’ end.’
    â€˜Does Edwina sack them all or do some leave of their own volition?’
    â€˜Most leave because she’s so damn moody and she fires the rest. Eddie does her dirty work when I’m away on business at our other hotels.’
    He fingered the blade of the cheese knife until Bertha removed it from his hand.
    â€˜It’s probably got something to do with the type of nanny you keep employing.’
    â€˜Meaning?’
    â€˜You have a marked preference for smart, attractive, well-educated girls from good homes.’
    Daniel picked up the cheese knife again. ‘Spell it out for me, Bertha. I can take it. I knew right from the start that you didn’t approve of my marriage.’
    As Bertha weighed her words, they