Page 92 of The Chalet Girl

Emme quickly turned on the wall light, a button that worked on a timer, and saw Lexy’s incandescent faceilluminated. She looked Emme up and down, seemingly repulsed by the sight of her in a man’s clothes. Tristan’s, she probably assumed.

Emme stayed quiet, she felt as though Lexy was rage baiting her; that she was trying to get a reaction, and she didn’t want to give her one.

‘I saw you at the party. I saw him putting food in your mouth like you’re another plaything.’

Emme blushed.

Lexy sounded demented.

Emme wanted to get out of there but Lexy was blocking her in.

‘He’s dangerous!’ Lexy snapped.

‘Dangerous?’

Emme walked towards Lexy, hoping her boss would move out of the way and let her get upstairs so she could have a shower and go to bed.

‘And I don’t just mean with women,’ Lexy almost spat. ‘Google Tristan Joubert’s father, google Charles Joubert, and you might wonder what guilty secrets that boy holds.’

Emme finally broke.

‘Why are you bringing that up?’

The women stood staring at each other as the timed light went out, and the room fell into darkness again.

Lexy didn’t answer.

Emme felt claustrophobic, she had to get out of there, so she walked right up to Lexy, standing in the doorway and hoped she would let her pass.

The shard of moonlight now caught part of Lexy’s face, and Emme could see a flash in her eye that looked so angry,as if she were considering her next move, that Emme felt somewhat scared.

Lexy broke the impasse and moved to one side, to enable Emme to go upstairs, but Emme turned right, out of the laundry room and out of the front door– she had to find Cat or Tiago. No, she had to see Tristan. She wanted to look him in the eye. She wanted to touch his face. He was wounded and right now he had no one. Wherever she went, she had to get the hell out and as far away as she could from Chalet Stern and Lexy Harrington’s fury.

Chapter Fifty-One

It was tradition, after the annual Christingle, for the Kivvi family to retire to the cinema room of Chalet Edelweiss and watch a Christmas movie while Cat cleaned up the kitchen, and the staff cleared up the empty glasses, the half-eaten canapés and the napkin detritus, scattered all around the home. But not today. Lumi had sent Aapo, Stella and Mika ahead to choose the film, while Viktor’s assistant, Benjamin, paced around Viktor’s study flapping.

‘How dare they!’ Benjamin snarled.

Lumi looked at him. He was definitely exceeding his brief. Viktor looked out of the window, hands in his pockets; his crinkled forehead in waves.

‘Peasants don’t know how to behave so they resort to punching!’

‘And you resort to name calling Benjamin?’ Lumi said with a sage look of disapproval.

Benjamin seemed to have even more disdain for the locals than Viktor had. His strong views on immigration were conveniently forgotten when it suited his job to live nomadically across borders. Benjamin was the sort of nationalist to go on torch-lit marches with far-right friends on his weekends off in Helsinki; yet enjoy the trappings of Viktor’s homes in Kristalldorf, New York and St Bart’s.

He smoothed his quiff upwards.

‘All I’m saying is these people have done nothing but make life difficult for you and your husband,’ Benjamin said, curtly.

Lumi wanted to laugh at the irony.

‘Thesepeopleoffered Viktor what he wanted on a plate today,’ Lumi said, with a waning smile. ‘The chance to own the entire building, which was his dream!’ Her Oscar de la Renta gown felt heavy now, and she wanted to change into a house suit and get out of this stuffy office.

‘Hmm, that is true…’ Viktor said, looking out at the town with a self-satisfied smile. This entire development would be his, as it should be.

‘Great!’ Benjamin hissed, as his phone lit up. ‘That’s the press– now I’m having to do damage limitation…’