Page 4 of Arctic Panda's Secret Mate
The note by the fire invited them to light it and gave directions to a stack of firewood on the porch. There were careful instructions for the flue and a reminder to use the spark screen.
The kitchen was very modern, with tiled walls and chrome appliances, and it was littered with more decrees, sharing details about the oven controls and the icemaker, adjusting the temperature in the freezer (don’t!), and how long to expect water to run before it got hot. There were three thoroughly-tabbed recipe binders that Chef fell uponwith delight. “Vegetarian! Celiac! It’s divided up by ingredients and has tables for the number of guests!”
He began singing at once, opening the refrigerators and cross-referencing the recipe books with the carefully labeled provisions.
A dining room lay just beyond the kitchen, and it was log construction like the primary building, but looked much, much older and rougher. Raw timbers ran overhead. A well-stocked bar looked like it had been salvaged from a fire, and several bottles of wine were laid out. There was a menu with prices, which would undoubtedly be charged upon their departure. A note pointed out the ice maker on the counter.
Past the dining room was a short hall that ended in two locked doors. His bear sniffed with interest at one of them in particular, but all Tristan could smell was Pine-Sol.
4
HAISLEY
Haisley was second-guessing her decision to hide long before someone rattled her door handle to test the latch.
It wasn’t suspicious, she told herself, trying to slow her hammering heart. It was perfectly normal for rented houses to have private, locked rooms. Owners kept their personal belongings locked up at their rental properties all the time.
Still, should she just turn herself in? Maybe even ask for a ride into town?
Her experience with rich people had taught her they were wildly unpredictable. Either they would take pity on her and shower her with kindness, or they would fly off the handle and file a complaint because she had single-handedlyruinedtheir vacation. She might get fired.
Anyway, she still had nowhere to go.
The person went away after a very token test, making no attempt to break in and steal things. (Rich people stole the weirdest things. One old woman had taken every drawer pull in her room, as well as all the towels.)
She listened to the distant sounds of them tromping around the house, laughing and calling to each other. They certainly seemed like a cheerful bunch. She had to imagine what they were like from the voices she heard, and spent some time picturing who they might be. There was an opera singer in the bunch, with a booming bass voice. Probably a short king, because the size of voice rarely matched the singer. Haisley imagined him with a bushy mustache.
One of the voices joined him in song with a husky soprano, and Haisley pictured a middle-aged lady with graying hair and Bohemian clothing. A merry masculine laugh was probably a dashing blond rake. She also heard what sounded like goat hooves on the wooden floor. Had they brought a pet? Maybethatwas why they didn’t want any housekeeping services. Would Haisley have the willpower to stay out of their way if she heard them being destructive? She loved the house ridiculously and wasn’t sure she could allow them tohurtit.
She wondered if they readanyof her notes. She’d left them everywhere, little tips and hints. The digital controls on the induction stove needed a little explanation, and the faucet for the honeymoon suite was a little fussy. Usually, she’d orient the guests in person individually, but instead, she’d run around leaving sticky notes everywhere she could think of. It would never match the personal touch of doing it herself, but it ought to help.
She knew from Mr. Barnum’s call that they were coming from Costa Rica—and Haisley could not for the life of her imagine what would possess someone to leave a hot tropical island to come to Alaska over Christmas. She’d have been perfectly happy on a beach listening to steel drums and drinking margaritas.
One thing her room was sadly lacking was a bar. She’dhave to grab a bottle when she raided the kitchen later that night. She was hungry, but she didn’t feel like having any of the snacks she had squirreled away.
It was the emptiness of loneliness, which she hadn’t expected until she heard them having fun and realized she wouldn’t be able to join them at all. For ten days, she was going to be stuck on this side of her door doing nothing.
5
TRISTAN
Tristan’s room had even more notes.
There was a sticky note by the temperature controls suggesting comfortable settings, a note on the bed with directions to the closet if more pillows or blankets were needed, and a friendly welcome letter on the desk.
“Welcome to Mountain Crown Chalet! This is the Pine Room. The quilt was made by a local artist known fondly as Bella Rouge, and the paintings are watercolors by Terrance Olson. You can find cards of the artwork at the Heartwork Clockbeat Cafe, a thirty minute drive down the mountain.”
There was a section about turndown service that had been crossed out and Tristan raised the note to squint at it suspiciously. Was it printed to look like handwriting? No, there was irregular texture to the pen strokes that he could feel with his fingertips. Apparently, the housekeeper handwrote a greeting for each guest, and either had a stash of them prepared for this purpose, or she’d written that part out of habit and then crossed it angrily out.
The rest was directions to the laundry, instructions forthe checkout closet, the password for the wifi, and hours for meals, which were also crossed out, along with a phone number to contact the chalet manager at any hour if there was a problem.
The bottom was signed with a scripty H.
The bathroom had two sticky notes, asking him to turn the taps off entirely, and not flush anything but toilet paper down the toilet. Tristan peeled both notes off and stacked them on the desk with the welcome letter, strangely loath to throw them away.
He found another when he opened a drawer to unpack. “Cedar blocks have been added to your drawers to keep your clothing smelling fresh! Please leave them here when you leave!”
Everything was signed with the same flowery H.
