Page 44 of The Chalet Girl

She didn’t need to finish her question.

‘Cedric!’ the children chimed, as they ran up to a man in a blue ski coat and salopettes. He wore a woolly hat over curls and had a matted beard. Something about him seemed familiar.

‘Hey kids! Good summer?’

It was November, hardly the end of summer. But this town seemed to operate in two seasons: “summer” and “the season”– which ran from November until Kristalldorf Sessions, the music festival that took over the town in early April. That’s how long Emme had committed to stay for now. Who knew beyond that? The Harringtons spent much of the summer travelling: Bill couldn’t take all of July and August off unlike Lexy, so he would join his family for the odd week in Majorca, Capri or Rhodes. During Emme’s call with the agency, they said the previous nanny had stayed with the family over summers so that Lexy had help on holidays, and that was an option to consider if it all worked out well. However it worked out, Dominique Henry had agreed to give Emme a sabbatical until the end of April, and by then she would know what to do.

‘We went to Australia!’ Harry said.

Emme looked at them, surprised. She didn’t know that.

‘Oh wow, you are lucky.’

‘I held a koala!’ lisped Bella.

Cedric seemed pale and a little distracted.

‘It did a poo on her arm!’ giggled Harry.

‘Everything alright?’ Emme said, cocking her head to get a good look at Cedric.

‘Oui, yes,’ the instructor nodded earnestly. His leathery cheeks making him look older than his years.

‘I’m “the new Jenny”,’ Emme joked, but Cedric didn’t seem to find it funny. Maybe it wasn’t. ‘Emme,’ she held out her hand but he glanced away.

This guy needed to go to charm school, rather than teach ski school, Emme thought, but the kids seemed enchanted.

‘Skis?’ Cedric asked, as enthusiastically as he could muster.

‘They’re in the locker,’ Emme said, ‘I’ll just grab them.’

The children put on their ski gloves and Harry idly kicked his sister’s schoolbag down a step.

‘Hey!’ Bella objected. She was very protective of herEncantobackpack.

As Emme returned she noticed Cedric looking towards her, but he still wouldn’t meet her eye as he took the skis from her.

‘Are you coming up on the train?’ he asked.

‘I have to get my own skis sorted first, but I’ll meet you, if you tell me where?’

Cedric explained where to meet, but looked like he could barely remember the way himself. Did Lexy really let this guy go off with her children? Shouldshe?

‘OK, Zita Café at 3.15pm,’ Emme confirmed.

She picked up the schoolbags from the floor to put them in the locker. ‘Kids, have a wonderful time, I’ll see you up the mountain at the end of your lesson.’

Harry and Bella trudged off with Cedric, to the thudding sound of ski boots and poles clonking along the spongy floor of the tunnel to the mountain train, along with all the other excited children.

Chapter Thirty

Cat leaned against the marble island of the kitchen in her chef trousers and a grey V-neck T-shirt making notes. Notes about flavours. Notes about the canapés in front of her. Notes about drinks and concoctions. Notes to distract her from the very person who had suddenly appeared in the doorway like a mirage. Seeing Anastasia Steinherr, a lithe silhouette, her legs coltish, as she leaned against the frame in tight trousers, boots and a fur coat, was so alien, Cat did wonder if she was going mad. Instead she gasped.

‘What are you doing here? Lumi isn’t home and Viktor is in Tokyo.’

‘I came to see you.’

‘How did you get in?’