The Infamous Miss Ilsa by Laine Ferndale

Author:Laine Ferndale
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Crimson Romance
Published: 2017-10-10T04:00:00+00:00

Chapter 10

The days seemed to drag until Sunday night finally arrived. There had been no new illness in the hotel since Wednesday, and the stricken guests had all recovered. From what Theo could tell, Morse seemed to have kept the entire business remarkably hushed up.

In the daytime, the basement-level spa of the St. Alice Hotel was a bustle of patients and white-smocked attendants. Unlike Wilson’s, where patients bathed communally, hot springs water was piped into partitioned rows of large tubs so that patients could soak in privacy. The tubs were decorated with elaborate tile mosaics and spouts shaped like little cherubs, making it look as if the tubs being filled with the spit of chubby winged babies: not the most relaxing notion, but Theo supposed the spa guests found it a classy touch. Nothing was purely utilitarian here. Even the lowliest supply closet was flanked by white plaster columns.

In the half dark, however, the basement looked abandoned. The only noise came from the fountain in the centre of the room. Spring water burbled out of a jug held aloft by a bronze woman dressed in Grecian robes. Below her, four bronze fish squirted water out of their mouths and down into the marble basin. In the light from the stairwell that led up to the hotel lobby, the fountain cast a feminine shadow along the tiled floor. Theo kept turning, expecting to see Ilsa. He’d propped open the back door with a rock. The St. Alice didn’t have a night watchman, so he didn’t anticipate any trouble.

To distract himself, he flicked on the lamp behind the marble attendants’ station and laid his equipment out on the long counter: pipettes, slides, mounting supplies, a Bausch & Lomb microscope that he cosseted like a beloved child. He picked up a glass slide mounted with a slice of leaf and clipped it onto the stage. Viewed through the eyepiece, the ordinary leaf transformed into an elaborate latticework of cell walls. Theo twiddled the knobs, calibrating the lenses’ delicate focus. He loved this process. It was like getting a private look into a world that only God had been able to know.

Theo looked away and rubbed his eyes under his spectacles. He’d lit only one lamp, which wasn’t an ideal light source, but it would have to do. He couldn’t trust that Dr. Greyson wouldn’t go snooping in his study, and it wouldn’t do to bring Ilsa back to his rooms. No, this would have to suffice.

“What are you looking at?” came a quiet feminine voice, startling him out of his reverie.

He spun around. Ilsa stood just inside the propped door, carrying a cloth satchel bulging with something he suspected was glass, since it clinked softly as she walked towards him.

“A leaf. Just killing time until you got here.”

Ilsa walked slowly around the room, sizing up the competition. She ran her hands over two wooden cherubs that stood guard over a chromed towel rack. “I’ll give them one thing, they certainly have us beat when it comes to baby angels.

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