Chapter 11
11
Andreas mourned the old Sophie the following morning as he nudged his rucksack impatiently with his toe. He’d piled up the equipment ready to take out to the car, checked and re-checked his emergency kit and now could only stand restlessly by the door with his hands on his hips. When they’d been together, she’d scrambled out of bed as soon as he had in the morning, stumbling after him even though she’d looked like a zombie until about nine.
That last part hadn’t changed. She’d made a beeline for the kettle first thing, with puffy raccoon eyes and a cardigan pulled over her patterned pyjamas, but half an hour after her sacred tea, she still wasn’t ready to go.
That she hadn’t gone hiking or climbing at all over the past eight years gave him an uncomfortable twinge between his ribs. Had he put her under pressure back then? He couldn’t rule it out. He’d struggled, wanting to spend time with her whilst also feeding his rock-based obsessions.
But she’d enjoyed herself on those trips. He remembered the light in her eyes, the growing confidence in her fingers as he taught her to tie knots, the sounds of wonder she made when she looked out at the view. He was tempted by the thought that she might enjoy it again.
‘Sophie?’ he hollered from the front door when he didn’t see her in the kitchen.
She poked her head around the door of her bedroom. ‘There’s no need to shout. I’m nearly ready to go.’
‘We have to hurry to catch the next ferry. There’s a chance of rain late this afternoon and I want to reach two summits before it hits. We need to get moving.’
‘When were you planning to tell me this?’
He drew himself up. ‘I didn’t?’
She shook her head. ‘I can’t read your mind. I can barely read your expressions.’
‘Ah… Sorry.’
She disappeared again before emerging with a day pack and a pair of pristine hiking boots. ‘Don’t worry,’ she anticipated his words. ‘I broke them in walking the dog. I did have a good teacher and I haven’t forgotten everything.’
Every sentence from her seemed to land on him like a flaming arrow.
The lake was looking fickle as they took the traghetto vehicle ferry across. He peered out of the windscreen at the slanted limestone cliffs, draped in cloud. The heaviness in the air hinted at instability. He would never depart for a high-altitude trek with a client in this weather.
‘So, what’s the plan?’
‘The peaks on the western side are lower altitude, but the ascent is steep and the views are good. If the weather holds – and you can keep up a decent pace – we can tick off Monte Castello di Gaino and Cima Comer.’
She retrieved her tablet from her bag and scribbled something with the stylus, flicking through multiple windows and zooming in on a map that she marked meticulously.
‘Is that thing an extension of your body?’
She barely spared him a glance. ‘My brain, actually.’ She lifted the tablet to snap a photo of their approach to Toscolano Maderno, a riviera oasis of warm colours and clay roofs with a line of stone pines along the promenade and cypress trees rising into the jagged hills above.
‘To keep your memories?’ he asked mildly.
This time, she turned her gaze on him. ‘Something like that.’ Then she lifted the device again – between them this time – and snapped another picture. ‘To remember you by, when you’re up on Mount Everest later this year,’ she said with a smile.
Andreas tugged off his cap and belatedly smoothed his hair and rubbed at his three-day beard. ‘Our goal isn’t Everest,’ he said with tolerant smile. ‘It’s Manaslu. And you don’t need a picture. You won’t forget me.’ He winked at her.
The ferry docked before she could formulate a response beyond an eye-roll and he started the car, revving the engine as he navigated off the ferry and then turned north on the Gardesana, the main road around the lake.
She waited until the engine had quietened to a mumble. ‘As much as I might like to.’ Forget him. She meant forget him.
‘As much as I’d love to have the last word, this time, I’m happy it goes to you, Miss Kir— erm…’
‘Miss Kirke,’ she said with a sigh. ‘I changed my name back.’
‘But you did take his? How long were you married?’
‘Only three years.’
‘Only?’
‘I suppose in comparison to how long you and I were together, Andreas, it’s a long time,’ she said with an indulgent sigh. ‘What’s the longest you’ve ever been with someone?’
‘Ten months,’ he answered matter-of-factly and waited to see how long it would take for her to work it out.
‘Wha— You’re not serious.’
‘Why wouldn’t I be?’ He kept his gaze on the road. ‘I thought you knew that.’
‘Your longest relationship was… with me?’ she clarified.
He answered with a shrug. ‘Relationships aren’t my thing. I didn’t get married to someone else since I last saw you.’
‘Obviously not,’ she said, her tone peevish, although he didn’t understand why. She was the one who’d stayed away when he’d returned from Pakistan and he had a gemstone to prove it – a reminder of his moment of weakness – hidden in the back of a drawer at home. ‘What about Kira?’ she asked.
Heat rose to his cheeks and he briefly considered denying there was anything between him and Kira, but Sophie had obviously picked up on something. His skin felt tight as he answered, ‘We’re friends. Every time we sleep together, we remember we’re better as friends and it’s been a while anyway. She would kill you if you suggested it’s a relationship. She’s worse than me.’
She sighed, but a fatalistic smile touched her lips. ‘And this is the future of I Do.’
‘It’s the future for Great Heart Adventure Weddings ,’ he added gruffly. ‘Leading a tipsy wedding party on a hike with a long stop at the top for empty promises that no one can keep.’
‘You have to admit the name of Willard’s company is perfect.’
‘It’s supposed to be a heart with chambers and blood vessels sticking out of it, the thing that keeps you alive, not a cute symbol for emotions.’
‘You might be surprised at the real emotion in a wedding ceremony,’ she said carefully. ‘There’s adrenaline there too.’
‘Waiting to see if your partner will actually show up?’
‘I’ve organised fifty weddings and only one of them hasn’t gone ahead, and not because of cold feet. People usually solve their problems long before they get to this stage – or they never get to this stage,’ she added with a pointed glance at him.
He raised his eyebrows in acknowledgement. ‘You’re the expert. I suppose that’s an advantage of getting married after a via ferrata. If they unclip, they could fall. They’re literally attaching their lives to the same cable.’ His voice trailed off. When he glanced at her, she was scribbling on her tablet again and she wasn’t looking at him, but her small smile made him uneasy.
‘That’s very romantic, Andreas,’ she finally said with a grin.
He sighed as he pulled the Panda off the Gardesana and up along the winding road to the tiny town where they would start their ascent. Sophie appeared to be concentrating on her tablet and Andreas found himself wanting to point out the view, nudge her into appreciating the sheer enormity of water and rock, but they weren’t here for that.
She wasn’t the eager novice she’d been when he first met her. She was a wedding planner struggling with her own cynicism – although she’d never admit that – who was so capable, it was a turn-on. He did want to get to know this new Sophie, and also dig out the pieces of the old Sophie that were hiding dormant inside somewhere.
One summit at a time…
* * *
Andreas kept up a murderous pace – at least she would murder him if they didn’t stop for a rest soon. His ‘easy hike’ had Sophie’s hair hanging limp in her face from sweat and now her thighs were screaming from the steep altitude gain and stony conditions. She had to keep her wits about her or she’d turn her ankle – or worse, she thought every time she caught a glimpse of the steep drop.
At least Lily and Roman would love this. Despite the fact that they’d only walked an hour from the quaint hamlet where they’d parked near a pizzeria that was now calling her name, the landscape was scrubby and wild. They were navigating a craggy ridge that loomed over the towns dotted along the lake far below.
‘Doing okay?’ he called back from where he was waiting for her, his foot propped casually on a limestone outcropping. ‘We’d obviously take it more slowly with your wedding group.’
‘I’m fine,’ she lied, just seconds before her foot slipped and she clawed at the rock face to stabilise herself. Andreas made no attempt to help her. She remembered that from when they were together. She’d pictured him coming close to show her the handholds when they climbed, but he’d just yelled at her like a drill sergeant and then expected her to get the hang of it.
‘This last part is the hardest.’ He gestured to the path, which swerved steeply across the rock. He hefted himself up the first few steps, using his hands.
‘Let me take a picture for the file,’ Sophie called out, retrieving her phone from her pocket. He straightened and peered down at her as she snapped the shot. He looked so at ease with nothing but air at his back, his posture perfectly balanced with the angle of the rock. He wasn’t smiling, but there was an energy to him that was compelling, even in a photo.
With a flash of embarrassment, she remembered looking up a spread in a mountaineering magazine when they were first getting together. Despite the stunning photographs of dizzying drops and dramatic landscapes, she’d only seen bright-eyed Andreas, calmly fitting into the world around him. She wasn’t sure she was prepared to have a whole folder of photos of him on her own hard drive, including the one she’d snapped in the car, capturing every rough detail of his face and his slightly sheepish expression.
She shook herself, needing to stay in the present, not only to take her next steps safely, but to ensure she didn’t fall under his spell again. That he still had this effect on her, even though she was older, wiser and more assertive, was concerning.
Scrambling over the rocks after him, gripping the steel cable that was bolted in at the most dangerous parts, she glanced down once and immediately regretted it, forcing her gaze back to the safety of the stone. This might have been ‘just’ a hike, but she suspected it could be adventurous enough for most clients.
There was only sky when she looked up. Hauling herself to the top using the cable, her knees scraping on the rough limestone, she emerged onto the narrow summit puffing and groaning. She didn’t have a chance to catch her breath. Every angle of the 360-degree views was awash in colour, bursting with drama.
Patches of blue sky were interspersed with swollen clouds. The weather system was visible and fluctuating wildly, moisture hanging over the lake like a bubble. Straight ahead, a tall summit cross rose towards the clouds from the highest point – a protrusion of rock that seemed to hang suspended. Behind the cross, nothing, just a sharp drop-off and then the distant water and the miniscule clay roofs of the towns far below.
Inland to her right, another summit ranged even higher, with steep, wooded ridges and an outcropping on top. Sophie stared at the peak that seemed almost close enough to touch, but she knew it would be a long and hard climb to reach it.
‘Monte Pizzocolo,’ Andreas supplied for her. ‘Probably a little difficult for your wedding party. I’ve done the alpine route up there once with a group of trainee mountaineers. Want to try it out one day?’
He must have been teasing, but she couldn’t tell from his tone. Clutching his arm, she urged him in the direction of the cross. ‘Stand there for me, just in front of the cross.’ She held her phone up to adjust the camera settings, testing several angles. ‘It’s marvellous,’ she commented absently. ‘I can picture a wedding here.’
Bride and groom would face each other with the stunning backdrop of the lake. She could see it already, even with only one person in the shot – the wrong person.
‘I didn’t know you were the photographer as well as the celebrant.’
Her gaze shifted from the image of him on screen to the real Andreas. ‘Your face is ruining the shot.’
‘I’m sorry?’ he replied belligerently, crossing his arms.
‘I’m trying to create an idea of how the ceremony would come together up here. You look like a cranky adventure guide, not an elated groom.’
‘I am not pretending to be a groom for you!’ His voice was scratchy.
‘You don’t need to pretend. Just look a little less scary, hmm?’
He bared his teeth in something that looked more like a visit to the dentist than a smile.
‘Okay, forget the smile,’ she grumbled. ‘Look somewhere else. I’m just trying to get a feel for it.’
Despite her grouchy subject, the familiar shiver up Sophie’s spine told her she was on the right track. This was a part of the job she loved: putting together a picture of the client’s hopes and dreams about their big day and finding a way to make it happen.
Lily and Roman would love this place. It would be a little tight with twenty people, but they could hold their short ceremony in front of the summit cross and it would be just as beautiful as they imagined – perhaps more beautiful.
‘Sophie, stop! Watch where you’re walking!’
Trust Andreas to snap her out of her wedding daydreams. She glanced at her feet to discover she’d strayed into a patch of uneven rocks. Another step and she might have tumbled over – and then down the side of the mountain.
‘Damn it, a whole wedding party up here sounds like a nightmare!’ He swiped off his cap and ran a hand through his hair.
‘I was just thinking it looks like a dream.’ She snapped one more picture with his mussed hair in honey-coloured waves, his expression wry as he looked into the camera. If only she had an excuse for him to take his shirt off— Sophie bit her lip to stop a smile at that thought.
A scraping sound distracted them both and Sophie glanced down to see a hand and then a bright-red helmet emerge from the cliffside near the cross. The climber whooped as she hauled herself up, two ropes attached to her harness. She called down to someone below before turning to give Andreas a polite smile.
‘Ciao, amici,’ he said, his grin wide as he chatted with the woman in Italian. Sophie caught a few words, but she was too tired to concentrate on the meaning. The woman’s climbing partner emerged and both of them shook Andreas’s hand firmly, the conversation animated with sweeping gestures at the wall of rock and the wide view.
Sophie was trying not to begrudge him those smiles that he wouldn’t give her when the woman turned and asked in Italian, ‘Did you want to get a picture of your boyfriend? I’m in your way. I could take a picture of you both if you like.’
Flustered, Sophie replied in English. ‘Oh, he’s not— Actually we’re working. I’m a wedding planner and I’m trying to see if it would be possible to hold a small ceremony up here. I was just getting a few mock-up shots using him as… um… a groom.’
She didn’t dare meet Andreas’s gaze.
‘I love that idea! Allora, let me take a photo with the two of you and you can take a photo for us.’ She gestured for Sophie to hand over her phone, but Sophie could move only sluggishly as she processed the suggestion. Andreas as a fake groom was amusing, but the two of them together? She made the mistake of meeting Andreas’s equally horrified gaze as the woman continued, ‘Then there can be a bride and groom in your photo.’