74 
Surprise Intruder

When Ramsay Halifax walked into the dining room of l’Atelier des Prés early the following morning with Adriane Grünsfeld on one arm and Hartwell Barclay walking along on the other side, his thoughts inexplicably turned briefly to the colorfully attired young Frenchwoman he had noticed about the hotel, and wondered why she wasn’t seated at her customary table in the corner. Perhaps she had finally checked out.

The reason for her absence, however, was of quite another nature. She was, in fact, at that very moment carrying out a scheme she had been going over in her mind since yesterday for gaining entry into the room he and his mistress had left only minutes before.

“Excuse me, miss,” said Amanda to the maid in her practiced French. “I am Miss Sadie’s stage assistant. She is on her way to the theater and left behind one of the most important parts of her costume—the hat in which she sings the finale of the last act. She needs it desperately, but she was already late and asked me to bring it. She told me to hurry back and find Fayette.”

“I am Fayette,” said the maid.

“Good. Miss Sadie said you would be so kind as to let me into the room. It is 369.”

“Yes, I know Miss Sadie’s room.”

“Will you let me in, please—I am in a hurry to get to the theater myself.”

Amanda now pulled out a twenty-franc note.

“Miss Sadie asked me to give you this for your trouble,” she said.

Persuaded perhaps by the fact that she had seen Amanda several times the day before in this same corridor apparently just leaving room 369—an occurrence which Amanda had carefully orchestrated to coincide with both Ramsay’s and Adriane’s absence from the room, and no doubt likewise induced by the sudden appearance of the bill—the maid called Fayette took the bill from Amanda’s hand, turned, and led the way toward the room in question. In another thirty seconds Amanda was safely inside with the door locked behind her.

Now she had to work fast.

Meanwhile, downstairs in the breakfast room, the trio was making plans to depart the French city, Barclay for his rendezvous with the Prussian, Ramsay for his hoped rendezvous with Amanda in London, and the actress Sadie Greenfield for an appointment with her afternoon’s audience at the theater.

“When will I see you again, Ramsay darling?” she asked.

“Mere days, my dear,” he answered jovially, “mere days. After my return I shall be all yours.”

Hartwell Barclay had had enough of such talk. He rose.

“Don’t be too confident of that,” he said. “We may yet have other work to do after this little episode is over.”