Read Without Looking Back for Free Online

only people in this whole hotel,’ Max retorted. ‘I haven’t seen any other families around. Have you?’
    â€˜No, but—’
    â€˜You know what this means, don’t you?’ Max glared at Louis, but his eyes looked frightened.
    â€˜Don’t say it—’
    â€˜Papa’s going mad again.’
    There was a silence, broken only by Millie, who during the course of this exchange had been admiring herself in the full-length mirror. Suddenly, she seemed to register what Max had said and slowly turned to face them.
    â€˜Papa’s not going mad. You’re horrible, Max. Papa never went mad!’
    â€˜Well he certainly isn’t acting very sane!’ Max began to shout. ‘He whisks us off to Amsterdam in the middle of the night, then holes us up in some dodgy hotel using a fake name, then nicks my new mobile and bans all outgoing calls from the hotel while he goes running about the streets!’
    Millie’s lower lip began to quiver. ‘You’re just angry because he went away! You just want to believe all the bad things that Maman says about him!’
    â€˜We don’t know that he’s taken your mobile—’ Louis tried to reason.
    â€˜Oh, come on!’ Max shouted, running his hands through his hair. ‘Wake up, people! My mobile has suddenly disappeared and we can’t make outgoing calls. Are you trying to tell me that’s just some kind of freakish coincidence?’
    Millie had begun to whimper now, her two middle fingers in her mouth.
    Louis shot Max an angry look. ‘Do you think this is helping?’
    Max threw himself face down onto one of the beds. ‘Fine, fine.’ He held out a conciliatory arm towards Millie. ‘I was only joking – of course Papa’s not mad. He’s just a bit weird, that’s all. Come here and I’ll tell you a story, Millie.’
    With a small smile, Millie wiped her eyes and snuggled down on the bed beside him. Louis went back to stand at the window, looking down into the street for Papa. He’d come back to get them, wouldn’t he? He wouldn’t leave them locked up here for ever?
    When Papa did come back, half an hour into Max’s story about an intergalactic war, even Max couldn’t stay mad at him for long. He was carrying two gigantic pizza boxes, a bottle of lemonade and a stack of DVDs. Max threw himself on the DVDs, Millie started opening the pizza boxes, and Papa told them he had booked them all tickets to another secret destination the following morning. While Louis set up Papa’s laptop and Millie started on the pizza, Max told Papa about his missing phone and the strange conversation with the hotel receptionist.
    â€˜Oh, I’m sorry about that,’ Papa said. ‘I took your mobile and locked it up in that little safe – there, underthe desk, with the passports and money. You never know in these hotels – things go missing all the time. I think I’ll hold onto it for safekeeping until we’re back from holiday. I don’t want you to lose it, especially as it’s such a good one; you won’t be able to use it now we’re outside France, anyway.’
    â€˜So why did the receptionist say we couldn’t make calls from the landline?’ Max asked with his mouth full. ‘And why did she say you’d given a different name?’
    â€˜She must have got us muddled up with that family on the floor below,’ Papa said easily. ‘As I was going out, I heard the dad say that he didn’t want his kids to be allowed to run up the phone bill any more.’ He caught Louis’ gaze and gave him a bright, hopeful smile.
    But Max had turned to the laptop and was discussing which film they ought to watch first. Millie was already on her second slice of pizza. Papa started pouring lemonade into their empty Coke glasses and Louis sat back against the headboard, his arms wrapped around his knees. He felt cold