Page 12 of The Chalet Girl

‘Happy birthday, baby,’ she beamed, as if she had arranged the whole shebang.

‘Goodness! All of my children here!’ Walter exclaimed. His children looked at each other nervously. ‘Almostall of my children,’ he corrected himself.

‘Does anyone know where Caspian is?’ Anastasia asked.

‘I had a message from him, from Portugal, a few weeks ago,’ Lysander said, but neither sister asked much more. Vivian was internally horrified that Caspian hadn’t been in touch with their father on his seventieth birthday.

‘Liezel, get the forks with the shells at the end,’ Kiki ordered quietly. ‘They’re much nicer.’

Much tackier more like,Anastasia thought. She wished Kiki weren’t there. This was a rare moment three out of four of the siblings were in the same room with their father and she wanted to broach the issue of Seven Summits. She didn’t want Kiki to be party to these family discussions, she didn’t want outsiders there, and although Dimitri was an outsider too, as legal counsel to the Steinherr business, he would need to be in on the conversations.

The maid returned with a new set of cake forks.

‘These ones, ma’am?’ she quietly asked.

‘No!’ Kiki scoffed. ‘Do I have to do everything myself?’ Kiki marched out to the kitchens, the maid chasing her hurriedly.

Anastasia saw her opportunity.

‘Papa, look, while we’re all here… I’ve been thinking.’

Lysander turned around, negroni in hand, interest piqued.

Vivian sipped her coffee from a Louis XIV chair.

‘Seven Summits,’ she stated. ‘What’s your plan for them, because I have some amazing ideas–’

‘No business tonight, Anni!’ Walter held up a hand. Vivian looked at her sister, bewildered. What did she want to do with Seven Summits? She hadn’t shown much interest in the Anna Maria since their father gifted it to them, so why go for Seven Summits? At least ask about managing the Silberblick, given she seemed to spend more time having secret meetings in room 204 of that hotel than she did at the Anna Maria. Anastasia obviously felt more than comfortable in the Silberblick.

‘Let me enjoy my birthday, dammit,’ Walter said with a half chuckle, but it had enough bite to shut his daughter down.

Anastasia swirled the ice cubes in her Pernod, looked into the fireplace, and wanted to scream.

Chapter Nine

‘I’ll get water,’ Emme said, opening a few cupboards and finding a glass jug.

‘Tap is fine,’ Lexy advised, although Emme had assumed that and was already at the pristine sink, where there wasn’t a watermark in sight. ‘Purest water in the world.’ Again Lexy said it as if it were something she had engineered. ‘Darlings!’ Lexy called, which felt for show more than anything. ‘Dinner’s getting cold!’

Emme brought the jug to the table. Looking at it, all set with charger plates, plates, napkins and glassware, as ifHarpersorArchitectural Digestwere coming to shoot, you would think it was a place for conviviality and hearty cuisine. But something jarred with Emme. Lexy Harrington looked too much like an actress to be genuine. This home looked too much like a show home for it to be warm. The spicy scents of dinner came from a cardboard box. She glanced at the fridge– there were no rudimentary pictures on it like at her sister’s house: hand prints of the twins, notes, meal planners and magnets from faraway places. There were no accidental crayon marks on the meringue cream walls, beautifully framed by taupe and tobacco-coloured toiles and curtains. Perhaps Lexy didn’t like clutter.

What did feel warm, though, was the heating underneath the polished parquet floor, which invited barefoot exploration, only not when the family were home. Emme felt on edge so far in Lexy’s company, and hoped her nerves would settle.

‘Let’s eat before it gets cold, then I’ll give you a tour of the wider building, and give you the rules,’ Lexy said, as she removed the lids from the takeaway boxes.

‘The rules,’ Emme repeated, careful to sound keen.

‘There’s a spa in the basement… it has a plunge pool, sauna, steam– a few workout machines…’ she said, wittering as she plunged serving spoons into pad thai, nasi goreng, jasmine rice and Asian greens. ‘Although there won’t be much time for spa-ing– that’s rule seven!’

‘Of course not,’ Emme said amiably, wondering how many rules there were.

‘Kids!’ Lexy shouted, a little more snappily. ‘Bill!’

‘Sorry, I was in the bureau,’ he said, as he walked down the ample hallway, scooping up Bella as she came out of her room. Bill had taken his tie off and his contact lenses out, and put on a pair of glasses– he looked hotter with a child under his arm, Emme thought. Less uptight.

Lexy ignored them and carried on talking.

‘I work part-time now and with Bill in Zurich, I need you on hand every day, which is rule one I suppose!’