“Good.” I hugged her again. “I’ve missed you.”

“I’ve missed you, too.” She giggled. “And I have so much to tell you.”

“Really? Let’s hear it. What’s going on with you?”

“You won’t believe it,” she said, moving closer to whisper in my ear. “I’m in love.”

“What?”

“Shhh!” She waved her hand at me. “Nobody knows. We’ve kept it very hush-hush. It’s crazy, but I’ve never been so happy.”

She did look happy, and I was glad for her. Trust me. Anyone who had put up with Martin all this time deserved to be happy.

“Okay, we definitely have to talk,” I said, clutching her arm. “We can go up to my room. I’ll order drinks.”

“I can’t,” she said, pouting. “I’m off to meet a client. But look, a bunch of us are doing the ghost tour later. Join us. It’ll be a hoot. We can have a drink afterward, just you and me, and catch up.”

I caught someone moving in my peripheral vision.

“Hello, Martin,” I said loudly to alert Helen. He’d literally sneaked up on us, probably to overhear our conversation. What a creep. I hoped he hadn’t heard our plans, because I refused to spend any more time with him than was absolutely necessary.

“Hello, Brooklyn,” he said, giving me a smile I didn’t trust for a second.

I supposed some women would consider him handsome. He was tall and lean and wore white linen pants with a beige linen jacket. He looked elegantly rumpled, with boyish blond good looks and an easy grin. He owned a bookstore somewhere in London, and I always figured he had some family money tucked away. He was feckless and disdainful of most of humanity. I’d seen the way he treated Helen and I didn’t like it. I didn’t like him.

The smile disappeared as he confronted Helen. “I told you I’d meet you on the conference level.”

“And I told you I’d try to make it but probably wouldn’t be able to,” Helen said defiantly.