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to “the customer is always right”?’ Sloane quipped.
    Delphine recoiled. ‘You are not my customers. You are spoiled brats whose parents pay for everything. When you make your own money and stay in my hotel, then I will consider you my customers.’
    Sloane gulped and Millie blanched. Frau Doerflinger clearly wasn’t to be messed with.
    â€˜Where have you been?’ the woman demanded.
    The children exchanged glances. Lucas stepped forward, keen to diffuse the situation before they ended up on the street for the night. ‘We’re terribly sorry if we are somewhere we shouldn’t be. We just rode the lift down and back up again.’
    â€˜And we saw –’ Sloane began before Millie swiftly elbowed her in the ribs. ‘Ow! What did you do that for?’
    Millie made a face at her, willing the girl to keep quiet.
    Frau Doerflinger narrowed her eyes at them. ‘What did you see?’ she demanded.
    â€˜Nothing,’ Sloane squeaked, shaking her head vigorously.
    â€˜Honestly, Frau Doerflinger, there was no sign or we wouldn’t have come this way. If you could show us how to get back upstairs, we’d be most appreciative.’ Lucas flashed her his winning grin.
    Delphine’s lips twitched and she sucked in a deep breath through her nostrils. ‘For a start, you can get out of that lift,’ she snapped.
    The children obediently spilled into the hallway. Frau Doerflinger waited for the doors to close before leading them up a staircase at the end of the passage. She flung open a door into a lobby that none of the children recognised.
    â€˜Where are we?’ Jacinta asked.
    Delphine Doerflinger closed the door and pointed at the word ‘Private’ printed on it in large black letters. ‘There was no sign, was there?’
    â€˜There wasn’t one downstairs,’ Jacinta retorted, unrepentant.
    The woman huffed and walked off along another timber-panelled corridor.
    â€˜Where’s the door?’ Sloane muttered as they reached the end of it. She was beginning to think Frau Doerflinger was actually leading them to some sort of dungeon.
    Delphine waved a white card over an invisible sensor and the panel pivoted.
    â€˜Whoa,’ Sep marvelled, impressed. He wondered if all hotels had secret passageways like this. It probably helped the staff move around without being noticed.
    The children found themselves in the hallway near the concierge desk. Alice-Miranda’s parents reached the bottom of the staircase just as the children appeared.
    â€˜Goodness, where did you lot come from?’ Hugh said, blinking in surprise. ‘I could have sworn you weren’t there a second ago.’
    â€˜We got lost and Frau Doerflinger kindly helped us find our way back upstairs,’ Alice-Miranda explained.
    Delphine Doerflinger’s face melted into a smile as she approached Hugh and Cecelia. ‘The poor littlemites had got themselves so confused,’ she said with a laugh.
    Sloane glanced at Jacinta, who shrugged. The woman was clearly unhinged.
    â€˜Thank you, Frau Doerflinger. I hope they didn’t cause you any trouble,’ Hugh said. He did his best to give the children the hairy eyeball but he wasn’t very good at it.
    â€˜There you are, my darling,’ Otto Fanger sang out, waddling into the room. ‘I’ve been looking for you all over the place.’
    â€˜I’m afraid the children are to blame,’ Cecelia apologised.
    â€˜Please, Madame Highton-Smith, Delphine would not have minded one little bit. She loves children. Don’t you, my petal?’
    â€˜Newsflash,’ Millie whispered. ‘No, she doesn’t.’
    Delphine nodded. ‘Children are so … intriguing.’
    â€˜Come, come, everyone, let us get some drinks and canapés. I am starving. It has been a long time since afternoon tea.’ Otto patted his stomach and led the way to an area that had