Page 36 of A Billionaire for Christmas

‘We have to ski over to it. It’s at the bottom of the small field.

’ Toby led her through to the back of the kitchen area where glazed, Georgian-style double doors opened onto the boot room which was freezing cold.

Racks of boots, skis, helmets, gloves, padded coats, hats and poles were all lined up neatly.

It was more like a showroom. Molly glanced around the uber-modern and stylish room, dominated by stone walls and a floor-to-ceiling glass window with a breathtaking Alpine view.

The highly polished wooden floors and wooden box-shelves oozed elegance.

She noticed several first aid kits, walkie-talkies, large battery-powered torches, a box labelled flares and even a stretcher.

She spotted her oversized, hi-viz, ski resort padded coat with STAFF emblazoned on the back, and the ugly hat that matched it hanging alone on a line of pegs.

She slid with some effort into the standard-issue bright-orange staff salopettes and fastened up some equally unattractive purple moon boots.

She went over to the large, cushioned bench.

Toby proceeded to fit Molly with the regulation staff safety gear.

The coat, the hat and the salopettes were all horrendously lumpy and unflattering.

It was snowing quite heavily as they stepped onto the snow outside. ‘We’ll have to be very careful,’ Toby said, taking her gloved hand.

Molly was not confident on skis. In fact, the moment he let go of her, she began sliding backwards away from him. She flapped her arms about, poles in the air.

‘Dig your poles in,’ Toby yelled. ‘No! Molly, keep your arms down.’

‘I’m try- iiiiiinnnngggg !’

‘Don’t ski backwards. We’re going this way.’ Toby pointed away from the house, but it was too late. Molly had gathered momentum and was sliding downhill backwards. She passed the large living room patio doors where Levi happened to look up. They made brief eye contact as she whizzed by, screaming.

The sheer embarrassment. What an impression to make. Skiing backwards wasn’t even on the bloody bucket list.

Molly eventually came to a stop and dug her poles in the ground, just as Toby swooshed to a stop in front of her. He was laughing hard. ‘I’ve never seen anyone ski quite like that before. Oh man, that’s the funniest thing I’ve ever seen.’ He lifted his goggles. ‘You okay?’

Molly chuckled despite herself. ‘Yeah. That was quite exhilarating, actually.’

They inched back up the hill. This time Levi was standing at the window. He gave Molly a sarcastic look and took his hand out of his pocket to sweep it in the air.

‘Why is he making a tick sign at you?’

‘Erm, no idea,’ said Molly, facing away. Levi was suspicious of her every move.

Toby held on to her as they slowly zig-zagged their way over to the generator.

The generator was piled high with snow and required a lot of unearthing.

Once they removed most of the snow, Toby lifted off the front panel to reveal lots of tubes and wires.

‘See what I mean? Who would have the first clue?’

Molly patted him on the shoulder. ‘It’s a propane-fuelled engine, same as mine.

Here, look.’ She pointed out the control panel.

‘This is basically your standard battery-operated control for the engine. I’ll just switch it off while we assess what’s going on.

’ Molly got to work pressing buttons and poking around, checking fuel, the overcrank, oil and coolant levels.

‘Well, at least we have oil,’ she said, wiping down the oil dipstick with a cloth and replacing it.

‘So it’s not that. And we have plenty of fuel. I’ll try turning it back on.’

Nothing happened.

‘Hmm.’ She wiped her sleeve across her forehead to remove the snow. ‘We’ve got three coils, three cylinders and no spark.’

Toby looked on, giving her a helpless shrug as though she was speaking Arabic.

‘I suspect it may be the kill circuit. Sometimes if the unit has been tampered with or overloaded, it can kick in.’

‘I have no clue what you mean.’

‘I mean, there are thousands of lights in the main house. It’s over-the-top ridiculous.

Look at them. As soon as the generator kicked in it probably shorted immediately.

’ Molly fiddled about at the back of the engine, muttering to herself.

‘Found it. Now, all I need is some starter fluid.’ She spotted a spray can and some cloths lying on the inside of the generator box.

‘Great, there it is.’ She took off the cover of the air filter and sprayed some of the liquid into the carburettor.

Within minutes, Molly had the generator running. They looked back towards the house to see the lights flickering.

Come on , willed Molly. She patted the generator. ‘It might be a bit temperamental to start with. That’s a lot of luxury lodge and a lot of unnecessary electrical demands.’

Except the massage chair. And the sauna. And the hot tub.

The lights flickered, went out again and then in a glorious blaze of colour, the whole house lit up like the Eiffel Tower. She could make out the family gathering at the window, waving in celebration.

Toby threw his arms around Molly, lifting her off the snowy ground. ‘That was awesome. I owe you big time. Especially after yesterday.’

‘Call it even for finding my cases,’ Molly managed to say. Toby was squeezing the life out of her.

‘I hardly think that makes up for the wine incident.’

Molly was confused. ‘What do you mean?’

Toby put her down. ‘I owe you for taking the fall for me last night.’

‘It was you who opened the wrong bottles of wine?’

Toby shrugged. ‘They all look the same to me. Besides, Lucca told me to get them from the crate.’

‘Why did you let me take the blame?’ Molly couldn’t believe her ears.

‘Because you’ve quit anyway. As soon as the pass is clear, you’re leaving. It made sense. Plus, Levi obviously likes you otherwise he wouldn’t have offered to buy another crate for the wedding.’

‘But he’s furious with me,’ Molly cried.

‘Sorry, Molly. I really need to keep this job.’

‘Aren’t you rich enough to not work here?’

Toby went bright red. ‘It’s not about that. Come on. Let’s go. I need to chop more wood for the fire.’ Molly watched Toby yank off his gloves and clip his boots into his skis.

She wondered why Toby was so keen to stay with the family, in a job that he didn’t need to do, for little or no reward. Molly wondered if it had something to do with Lucca.

‘No, don’t thank me,’ Toby was saying to the family members as they gave him a hero’s welcome. ‘I was just doing my job.’

‘You’re incredible,’ gushed Freda, kissing his cheek. ‘You’ve saved Christmas. You really have.’

Toby glowed under her praise as Molly stood aside to let them take turns patting his back. She marvelled at the gall of him. Men! Rich men! Rich, pampered, egotistical men!

‘How did you do it?’ Levi asked firmly.

Like a rabbit caught in the headlights, Toby visibly gulped.

‘So we know what to do next time,’ Levi said more loudly.

‘Well, actually…’ Toby kicked snow off his boot and mumbled. ‘It was complex.’

‘Pardon?’

Levi was like a dog with a bone. Molly was in awe. She would have done exactly the same thing if it had been her restaurant staff. She was all about fairness and respect in the workplace. None of which seemed in abundance here.

Toby flicked Molly a guilty look before continuing. ‘Well, the engine crank sockets weren’t working so I sprayed the cylinder thing with the spray.’

‘Crank sockets?’

Toby went the colour of a winter berry.

‘So, what you’re saying is that it wasn’t complex then?’ Levi had gone into barrister mode. At this rate Toby would be found guilty and sent down for a substantial amount of time. Molly imagined Levi in a wig and gown. He’d make a magnificent prosecutor.

Toby instantly crumbled. ‘It was all Molly. She fixed it. I basically held the torch.’

Molly blushed, tapping snow from her boots against the step.

‘It was nothing, really. Just your basic sparkplugs and starter fluid. And it’ll need an oil change at some point, but it should keep everything running until the power comes back on.

We should turn a few thousand of these lights off though, just to take the pressure off it. ’

They all looked blankly at her.

‘You lost me at sparkplugs,’ laughed Lucca. ‘Anyway, well done both.’ He slapped Toby on the back.

‘Yes,’ said Valerie, before looking sadly over at Levi. ‘ Someone was almost airlifted out of here… Well, it doesn’t matter now. Thanks to you we can spend Christmas together.’ She leaned over to pat Toby on the shoulder, much to everyone’s surprise.

Molly felt invisible. She hoped Levi would at least smile at her. She glanced over at him, but his face was a mask.

Valerie continued clucking. ‘We might even find it in our hearts not to charge Molly for the wine yesterday.’

‘Sorry?’ Molly must have misheard.

‘Mother,’ Levi warned. His voice was low and threatening.

Valerie ignored him. ‘That’s the problem with staff these days I suppose. You don’t know who to trust. Except you, Toby, darling. You’d never “mistakenly” open an expensive bottle of wine just so you could Instagram it.’ Valerie was doing air quotes.

Molly looked at Toby. This was his chance to come clean. ‘Toby? Do you have anything to say?’

Toby deliberately looked away, taking off his hat and gloves.

Unbelievable.

Molly took a deep, calming breath. ‘As I told you all last night, it wasn’t me.

I didn’t go down to the wine cellar. Besides, I haven’t the first clue what makes a good wine because I’m not a trained sommelier.

’ She let out an enormous tut. ‘But honestly, if you don’t believe me and feel the need to take it from my wages, please do. ’

She prayed that they wouldn’t, but it came down to a question of pride. She hated them having such a low opinion of her.

Valerie gave her a sympathetic shake of her head. ‘Where would you get that kind of money? I know how little the resort staff get paid and your restaurant business is clearly in trouble otherwise you wouldn’t be here. No. We’ll just have to put it down to a genuine mistake and you owing us one.’

Owing them one?

‘Either that or you might have to sell your restaurant to us.’ She let out a tinkling laugh.

Molly dared to look at Levi. His eyes darted about as though assessing everyone in the group.

She couldn’t tell whether he was less pleased about her offering to pay for the wine, or with her fixing the generator so that he could continue to spend Christmas with his beloved family of insane megalomaniacs.

They locked eyes. He seemed to look straight through her. Molly tilted her head, wondering whether to appeal to him. He opened his mouth to speak and then closed it again as though thinking better of it. He frowned and walked away.

This family could be so exasperating.