Chapter Twenty-Nine
Harry and Bella had come out of school buoyant, excited for the first lesson of the season.
It seemed half the class were heading to the ski train on the other side of the river.
Emme had worked out there were two ways to get up to the slopes.
One was the fast and slick ski train from the centre of town, on the Harringtons’ side of the river which cut through the mountain in minutes.
She didn’t know it was owned by the same man whose hotel she stole a bikini from this morning, but that was by the by.
The other way to get to the slopes was from the gondola station at the end of the valley path towards the Silberschnee, by the Anna Maria hotel.
There, cable cars glided quietly and graciously, luxurious pods with heated seats, rising up the mountain with the best view of the valley.
Ski school’s meeting point was at the main ski train station in town, where the masses would clunk through a short tunnel in ski boots and pile into train cars, damp with melted snow, and that’s where Emme, Harry and Bella were due to meet Cedric.
Emme and the kids arrived along with the post-school crowds and located the Harrington locker with a little help from Bella, before Emme helped the children into their salopettes, boots and helmets. She crouched down and zipped their ski passes safely into their trouser pockets.
‘OK, can you see where –’
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 her Encanto backpack.
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? Should she?
‘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.