Chaos At Christmas – Episode 34
Chaos At Christmas by Ewan Smith
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- 1. Chaos At Christmas – Episode 34
Out by the wishing well, she had let slip her feelings for him. She hadn’t been able to stop herself. “I love you, Geraint,” she had murmured in his ear as his arms held her tight. He had kissed her forehead, her eyelids, her lips. “I love you too, sweet Ferelith. I can’t think of anything I want more than to spend the rest of my life with you.”
That was what she should be thinking about. She should be cuddled under her duvet with her spare pillow in her arms pretending it was Geraint instead of listening to an increasingly tense discussion between Franklyn and her father about the missing GroupChat phones.
“We can’t talk about this here,” she said, breaking into the argument. “There are too many people around. Why don’t the three of you go to your office, Dad. I’ll organise some coffee.”
Lionel nodded. “Good idea.”
“Bring a bottle of brandy too,” Lyle added with a smile. Unlike Franklyn and Lionel, he didn’t seem troubled in the slightest by what was going on. “We might need it.”
Poppy behind the bar was wearing a party hat from a cracker on her head and had a Christmas badge with flashing lights in the shape of a star pinned over her heart. “Are you all set for Christmas, Ferelith?” she asked as she organised the coffees.
Ferelith looked at her ruefully. “I thought I was but now I’m not so sure.”
“Shall I help you carry this?”
“That’s alright, I’ll manage with a tray.” Then she had a thought. “And maybe you could put a few of those Christmas dainties on a plate as well.” They would cheer her dad and Franklyn up if anything would.
“No problem.”
When Ferelith got to her father’s office, she found the argument still going strong. “We’re talking about an act of theft here in the hotel. I can’t pretend it hasn’t happened. I’m not prepared to do that.” There was a determination in her father’s voice which Ferelith hadn’t heard before. He had gone along with so many of Lyle and Franklyn’s demands up until then. That was the Manor’s way. What the guests wanted, the guests got. However, risking damage to the reputation of the hotel was a step too far.
Franklyn had a phone clamped to his ear but he was arguing with Lionel at the same time. “And we’re not prepared to risk derailing the launch of the GroupChat phones. The future of the company depends on their success. We expect to sell tens of millions of pounds worth of product in the first month alone. News of these thefts would be a disaster.”
“But I’m just talking about informing the police about the theft, not publishing it all over the newspaper front pages.”
Franklyn just snorted. “Once you tell even a few people then the news always gets out. When I discovered that the phones had disappeared, I told Lyle. Then he told you. And now you’ve told your daughter.” Franklyn looked at Ferelith darkly. “Though that hardly seemed necessary. At the moment, we’re the only people who know about the disappearance of the phones.”
Us and the person or people who took them,
Ferelith said quietly.
Franklyn’s eyes flashed in irritation. “Obviously. But we need the situation to stay that way. The fewer people who know about what has happened, the better.”
“But we can’t keep the news just to ourselves,” Ferelith said. “Every guest in the hotel was given a GroupChat phone. And they were told that their phones could be collected again as soon as the software update was completed.”
Franklyn waved a hand at her in irritation. “That’s no problem. We’ll just tell them that there has been another technical hitch. The important question is – what should we do next?”
Ferelith had put the tray down on the Lionel’s desk. “Would anyone like a coffee? Perhaps that will help us focus our minds.” And also reduce the tension in the room, she thought to herself.
“I’d love a coffee,” Lyle murmured. It had occurred to Ferelith that he was saying very little. It wasn’t like him to let others do the talking. His eyes flashed with their usual humour. “And perhaps one of those Christmas stars. I remember them from when I first arrived at the Manor. They’re so delicious.” Ferelith couldn’t help but smile. Lyle turning up on a sleigh with the reindeer seemed to have happened a lifetime ago.
“How was the disappearance of the phones discovered?” she asked as she offered round the dainties.
Franklyn gazed at her sourly for a moment as if trying to decide whether her question deserved his attention. “I went to check them before I retired to my room for the night. I wanted to make sure that there hadn’t been any problems with the update.”
“That’s one of the reasons that I gave out the phones,” Lyle said, taking a sip from his coffee. “There are always technological glitches with new products. We already knew about the charging problem. But I wanted the phones to be used by ordinary people for a week or so to see if anything else turned up.”
“And has there been?”
Lyle shook his head. “Not as far as I know. I’m pleased with how the test has worked out. The GroupChat phones have been put to good use.”
Ferelith laughed.
Particularly by some of the younger guests.
Lyle sat forward, suddenly eager. “And that was to be expected. It’s always young people who take to new technologies first. They’re adaptable, curious, willing to try things out. They’re the ones who find imaginative ways to put the technologies to use.”
“Whereas older people aren’t so keen?” Ferelith suggested.
Lyle shrugged. “Older people are naturally more conservative. They’re willing to use new technologies but only ones with a proven track record and a sound, practical purpose.” He sat back in his seat again with a laugh. “I wouldn’t be surprised if it was the same thousands of years ago when boats were first invented.
The young people jumped into them and sailed off over the horizon to discover what was out there. Meanwhile, the old folk filled them with cabbages and carrots to sell at the market just up the river.”
Ferelith found herself wondering what she would have done. She suspected that it would have depended on whether Geraint was living in the next village or somewhere over the horizon.
“Anyway, I went into the cloakroom where the charger had been set up,” Franklyn interrupted, clearly irritated with the turn that the conversation had taken. “But it and all the phones were gone. At first, I assumed that Lyle had moved them for some reason. But he knew nothing about it. Someone had stolen them.”
“When do you think that the phones were taken?”
Franklyn shrugged. “It must have been at some point during the party.”
Ferelith frowned. “How would that have been possible? There were guests wandering around all over the place. And the reception staff were on duty.”
“That’s what I don’t understand.”
“One person could have managed it,” Lyle murmured, “an adult anyway. Even with all the phones attached, the charger isn’t particularly heavy.”
“But it would have been very unwieldy to carry. Erik wouldn’t have missed something like that being lugged through the reception area.”
Franklyn’s eyes narrowed. “You would have thought so, wouldn’t you? And yet apparently he saw nothing. It’s very strange.”
There was a moment of silence. A tinge of anger flushed Lionel’s cheeks. “I hope you’re not suggesting that the disappearance of these phones had something to do with the staff of this hotel…”
“But it would make sense, wouldn’t it?” Franklyn retorted. “There’s no reason for any of the guests to have stolen the GroupChat phones; they all had their own phones already. The members of your staff, on the other hand…”
Are completely trustworthy!
Lionel snapped back angrily. Ferelith gazed at him in surprise. Her father was normally the calmest of people; he never lost his temper. “This hotel has a reputation second to none and that reputation is built on the work of the staff. I can assure you that none of them would ever dream of taking the property of a guest.”
