“Can I speak with the general manager?” Clara asked.

It was, she thought, a reasonable request, and one final opportunity for the situation to correct itself before it became something else.

A competent general manager, summoned to the desk, would sort out the booking in moments and the whole ugly episode could simply end.

But Patrick’s face hardened at the request, as though it were an impertinence.

“The general manager is occupied,” he said.

“I am not going to disturb him just because you can’t find your booking.” And in that sentence, Patrick sealed it.