‘Celine wants to meet him too. She’s been calling me nonstop. Telling me she’s dying of loneliness.’

‘Olivia, I’m sorr—’

‘You’ve nothing to apologise for. I’d distract her myself, but I have a meeting with our lawyer.’ She lowered her voice. ‘We’re hoping to find a loophole in Celine’s agreement with Edgar.’ She also read Eliza a message she’d received from Maxie, saying that she was still having a blissful honeymoon, but confirming she’d be with them in Edinburgh by the end of the week. Three days away.

‘My list of questions is getting longer every day,’ Eliza said. ‘I can’t wait.’

‘Nor can we,’ Olivia said.

*

Sullivan was thrilled when Eliza invited him to come upstairs to help her sort Celine’s paperwork.

‘If I get bored, can I use the empty boxes to build myself a fort?’ He sounded like a proper eleven-year-old for once.

‘Of course you can,’ she said.

Sullivan stepped into Celine’s suite and held out his hand. ‘I’ve heard so much about you, Mrs Montgomery. I hear you’re writing your life story. How fascinating.’

‘I’m not a Montgomery,’ Celine said. She turned to Eliza. ‘You’re right. He’s a weirdo.’

‘I never said you were a weirdo,’ Eliza told Sullivan.

‘I don’t mind if you did,’ he said.

‘Get to work, both of you,’ Celine said, turning back to the TV. ‘And don’t read anything, kid. Some of the things I’ve done would make your hair curl.’

Sullivan tugged at his straight dark hair. ‘I’d quite like curly hair, as it happens,’ he said.

He was quick to learn, carefully taking out photos, theatre programmes and letters, placing them on the right piles. As he sorted, he chatted to Eliza.

‘Have you seen much of Edinburgh yet, Eliza?’ he asked as they started on a new box.

‘Stop talking and keep working,’ Celine called from the adjoining room.

‘Not yet,’ Eliza said. ‘I’ve been busy in here.’

‘Perhaps I could show you around one day. I know where all the sights are. We’d have to get security clearance from my father again but if I return unharmed today, I can’t imagine any objection.’

‘That would be great, Sullivan, thank you.’

‘I’m coming too,’ Celine shouted from the other room.

Chapter Seventeen

CHAPTER SEVENTEEN

In her office one floor down, Olivia was finding it hard to concentrate on work. As well as guest relations and online review responses, she looked after the design and printing of the hotel’s menus and promotional material. She was supposed to be proofreading table settings and place cards for a forthcoming wedding. She knew she wasn’t doing it properly.

She put them to one side and massaged her temples instead. She was feeling unnerved. Not only by the sudden lack of hectoring phone calls from Celine. Eliza was working miracles with her.