Scared of what they’ll find, Sienna smiled to herself. Don’t worry, we’re not going to charge your daddy for dry cleaning those bloody bedsheets. All part of the service. A couple of minutes later, housekeeping radioed back with the all clear.
“I’ll just finalize, your deposit,” she told Mr Reinhart. Then she stopped, as if noticing something. “Just one second, I’ll be back in a minute,” she said, stepping in the back office.
The office was empty. She pulled out the letter and the present from her handbag. “Now, what do we have here?” she said to herself out loud.
Leondro had bumped into her just as she’d arrived at the driveway to the hotel. He’d been insanely grateful for her being there. Poor Leondro, so full of guile and yet so innocent at the same time. He’d handed over the letter and the present, asking if she could pass them on. He, of course, had somewhere else to be. The present was wrapped with in lovely floral paper. It was about the size of two packets of cards put together. The letter had the hotel’s full address and a stamp on it, presumably to make it look as though it had gone through the mail system. She’d been surprised initially that the letter had been addressed to Mr Reinhart.
“An engagement ring and a request for his daughter’s hand?” she’d asked, quizzically.
“Oh, you little devil, you know me too well. There’s also a just a little white lie, if you wouldn’t mind,” he’d said. She’d agreed. It was a good lie and she could always change it later if she thought of a better one.
She hadn’t had a chance to look at the letter or the present yet, though she’d been curious all morning. She tore the envelope open.
Dear Mr Reinhard,
My apologies for writing to you in this manner and my apologies for any mistakes in my English. I wish to remain anonymous, but am a member of the hotel staff. While I understand it is none of my business, I am concerned about your daughter who a believe may be developing some kind of eating disorder…
Sienna didn’t bother with the rest of the letter. She put it through the office shredded. The envelope was too thick to go through, so she crumpled it up and put it in her handbag. She could dispose of it later.
Next, it was the engagement ring. This did require more care. She gently teased the sellotape open at one end and slid the contents out, being very careful not to rip the paper.
She turned the object over in her hands: Plan B, oh, Leondro, you old romantic. She opened her own draw in the main desk and slid it inside. She didn’t need it, quite the opposite, but that stuff wasn’t cheap and you never knew when you might need to help a naïve younger cousin out. She pulled out another box from the draw. Well, wasn’t this just perfect. She kept her birth control pills very visibly at home, but the pregnancy tests hidden at work. She’d been hoping to do a test this morning, Alessandro had been over several times in the last few weeks, and she’d been at the middle of her cycle, so those wedding bells were surely chiming louder and louder, but she could do her own test later. The pack was slightly smaller than the pills had been, which meant there would be some looseness when she did it up again, but she didn’t have any more paper or time to hand so it would have to do. In the end, it looked like a typical man had wrapped it, so it was probably fine. She returned to the reception, package in hand.
“I’m sorry for the wait,” she said, discretely pushing the package behind the counter out of sight. “We’re a little short staffed. One of our guys, Leondro, was involved in a car accident last night driving back from the neighbouring village.”