Page 26 of The White Octopus Hotel
She hoped her mum might accept the vague, foolish answer as something a woman from the thirties might say. And after all, it was the truth. Looking at her mother standing there, even younger than Eve currently was herself, was twisting her brain up into knots.
Her mum still looked a little puzzled but nodded and said, “Isn’t this a glorious place?”
“Yes,” Eve replied. “Glorious.”
“Have you visited before?” her mum asked politely.
“Once,” Eve replied. “When I was very young. I’m Eve, by the way.”
Her mum smiled. “That’s my daughter’s name. I’m Jane.”
It was so utterly strange to be talking to her mum like this. She seemed incredibly—shockingly—young. No grey hairs, no lines forged with suffering.
“You must be a relation,” Jane said.
Eve felt the colour drain from her face. “Pardon?”
“To Anna Roth, I mean. You look so alike.”
Eve’s head ached.Didthey look alike? Was that why Anna had seemed familiar to her?
“Just coincidence,” Eve said firmly. She longed to tell Jane who she really was, but in the absence of being able to do so, she settled for prolonging their conversation a little more, trying to establish the flimsiest of connections between them.
“What do you make of the scavenger hunt?” Eve asked. “Do you think you’ll join in?”
“Oh. Well, I can’t really,” Jane replied, shaking her head. “I’ve got…My husband and daughter are waiting for me, and I’ve another little one on the way soon too, as you can see. So I can’t stay long.”
Her hands strayed to her stomach. Even now, baby Bella was there, right there, safe inside her mother. Eve felt the sudden mad urge to reach out and touch the bump, to say sorry to her little sister, to promise to make things right….
But then a man’s voice rang out, raised in irritation. “By all means! Why let the truth get in the way of a good yarn?”
Eve and Jane both glanced around to see Max Everly talking to Anna Roth. And that was when Eve saw the rabbit—hersister’srabbit—only it wasn’t sat at the sidelines, like usual. It was in Anna Roth’s arms, its long ears pricked up tall, its little nose snuffling and twitching in alarm.
Eve stared. How had the rabbit managed to get into the arms of a real person? That wasn’t how it normally worked. If no one else was aware of the rabbit, then didn’t they all wonder why Anna was holding her arms in that strange way?
But then Anna said, “Please lower your voice, sir. You’ll frighten my rabbit.”
And Eve saw that it wasn’t Bella’s rabbit, not quite. This one had a splodge on its left eye rather than its right, like a mirrored version. Anna bent to place the bunny on the floor, and it immediately hopped off through the crowd in search of a quiet corner.
“I’d better go find the bathroom,” Jane said, drawing Eve’s attention back. “It was nice to meet you.”
“Oh, yes. You, too.”
Jane disappeared from the room in one direction and Anna ushered Max out the other. Once again, Eve took a step after the musician, but before she could get any further, an ancient woman hobbled straight up to her, as if she’d been waiting for the opportunity. She was extremely old, in her nineties at least, yet there was something bright and capable about her. Her hair was completely white, tied up with combs, and her skin was wrinkled and spotted with age, but she approached Eve with an air of purpose, moving slowly but unaided in her dove-grey evening gown.
“Good evening, miss,” she said without preamble. “You must be the guest from Room 27. I work at the hotel, so I know you’ve come a long way to join us.”
Eve glanced down at her outfit. Perhaps she wasn’t blending in so well as she’d hoped, after all.
“I’m sure none of the guests will have any idea about where you’re from,” the woman said briskly, as if reading Eve’s mind. “It’s just some of the longer-term staff who learn to recognise the sevens.”
“Sevens?”
“Our time-travelling guests.” The woman’s voice wavered, and Eve had to lean forwards slightly to hear her over the jazz and general hubbub of laughter and conversation. “You always have rooms with sevens in them.”
“How many of us have there been?” Eve asked, glancing in the direction in which Jane had just left.
“A few. We have three time-travelling rooms, although Room Seven’s key was recently lost, I’m afraid. I see you just met our other occupant, though. If there are multiple sevens in the hotel at any one time, then they often find themselves drawn together for some reason. I’m the hotel’s resident historian.”
