Chapter Fifty-Eight
Showered, refreshed and in her own clothes, Emme walked around the apartment and wondered how the hell she was going to last there until April. The mood was tense at the best of times; and if Emme wasn’t in Lexy’s good books, it was going to be unbearable.
She got herself a coffee and reflected on her night.
The drama of the party had fizzled away the moment Tristan had let her in, but she was worried about Cat, and decided to call her.
She didn’t answer, so Emme walked into town to get shampoo and conditioner supplies and something for lunch, then she thought she might call in on Cat to check she was OK.
Outside, the village was bustling. She could feel Kristalldorf was building up to peak season, with the streets getting more crowded with skiers and tourists every day.
On the high street Emme saw Tristan outside a bakery, chatting to a bunch of ski instructors, snow falling into his newly washed hair.
She couldn’t see his face from her angle, to see how he was, and she didn’t want to go over and say hi.
He had been so cold and standoffish when she left.
Was there a darker edge to the fuckboy than she could have imagined?
Should she heed Lexy’s warning? She glanced at him deep in conversation, holding court with the group, and remembered what Cat had said about Tristan hanging out with the ski instructors.
It was weird that a billionaire wine buyer mingled with the workers.
But then she was a worker too. Maybe he liked to slum it.
Emme continued. She couldn’t bear the thought of him being dismissive again.
Tiago was stocking sanitary towels when Emme bumped into him in the supermarket.
‘Thank you so much for last night,’ she said. ‘I put your clothes in the wash …’
Tiago blushed.
‘Hey, don’t worry. You OK?’
‘Yeah, I’m OK, have you spoken to Cat?’ She was concerned for her friend after what had happened.
Tiago shook his head.
‘I texted her but she’s not answered.’ He looked a little helpless.
‘I called her but no answer either,’ Emme frowned. ‘Oh dear. Do you think she’s OK?’
Tiago stopped stacking and leaned on his pile of crates.
‘It was pretty brutal, the way Anastasia was in the kitchen.’
‘I know. What a cow,’ Emme concurred.
‘Apparently she’s skipped town,’ Tiago said with a shrug.
‘How do you know that?’
‘Everyone knows everyone’s business in Kristalldorf,’ he winked.
Emme certainly hoped not.
‘I was going to call in on her after here,’ Emme said.
‘She’ll be OK,’ Tiago said. ‘She’s a bad bitch, our Catalina.’
There was always something comforting in Tiago’s tone, Emme thought as she squeezed his arm and headed to the checkout.
‘I’ll let you know when I speak to her,’ Emme called back.
As Emme waited in line at the checkout, she picked up two Lindt chocolate reindeer for Harry and Bella from a display at the till.
‘You shouldn’t have,’ said a voice in her ear. She looked round and smiled cautiously at Tristan.
‘How’s the face?’ she asked. ‘Looks like it’s gone down a bit.’ Despite her reservations Emme couldn’t help but feel an urge to reach out to touch him but she managed to hold back. She shouldn’t trust him, she shouldn’t let him in.
‘Look, I, erm …’ Tristan looked around guardedly. ‘Look, I’m sorry about this morning.’
He put his own supplies on the conveyor belt behind Emme’s. Focaccia, cheese, salami and olives. ‘I shouldn’t have sent you packing like that …’
Emme narrowed her eyes. She shook her head gently. It wasn’t OK, so she didn’t want to say it was.
‘Really, last night threw me – literally,’ he quipped. ‘And then this morning, about my dad …’
‘It’s sensitive, I get that,’ Emme conceded.
Tristan cleared his throat.
‘Are you working?’ he asked.
‘They’ve all gone to Zurich to see the Christmas lights.’
‘Nice,’ he said.
Her heart raced. She had never fancied anyone so fiercely.
‘Want to go for a hike … ?’ he asked, with flirtatious intrigue.
Emme looked herself up and down. She was wearing jeans and a leopard-print sweatshirt, her new lilac ski coat and trainers.
‘I don’t have my hiking boots on.’
‘You’re fine,’ he said, sliding a glance down her body.
Emme paid and packed her goods, then Tristan did the same, placing his shopping in Emme’s paper bag and scooping it up under his arm.
Presumptuous.
He slung his other arm around Emme’s shoulder and she looked at him, puzzled.
Floored by his public declaration, and somewhat self-conscious in case Tiago might see them.
Anyone could see them. Tristan Du Kok with his arm around an English nanny.
Tristan Du Kok with the waitress from the party where he had been punched in the face for fucking two sisters.
Tristan Du Kok, the man who cut dodgy deals with Russian oligarchs.
Tristan Du Kok, who Cat joked about killing his father on a hike through the mountains in order to inherit his billions.
The snow started to come down heavily, and as Tristan stopped outside the supermarket to put his gloves on, Emme couldn’t help remembering Lexy’s warning. She already knew Tristan Du Kok wasn’t to be trusted, but was she physically capable of keeping away from him?
‘Where are you taking me?’ Emme asked, as he clutched her hand tighter and they wound along a trail away from the centre of the village.
The brown woody path, which bounced underfoot, had turned white with the weekend’s snow, and was hard to navigate in trainers.
Emme lamented not going back to Chalet Stern to get her boots, and she started to get out of breath as they made their ascent above the town and the air got even thinner.
‘You’ll see …’ Tristan replied cryptically. His playful sparkle, which had been missing last night and this morning, was now back.
Emme inhaled the scents of pine and fir, which felt crisp and exhilarating against the woodsmoke curl from a distant chalet below, and they chatted as they hiked.
After about twenty minutes they stopped to take in the spectacular view of Kristalldorf from above, although ostensibly it was so Emme could catch her breath.
While they were paused, she fired off another text to Cat to see if she was OK, and noticed a missed call from Tom.
Now was not the time to call him back, so she raised her phone and took a couple of pictures of the spectacular scenery.
‘It’s beautiful,’ Emme declared.
‘I never tire of it,’ Tristan said. He surveyed the view and Emme looked across at him in profile.
A deep boom sounded in the distance, bouncing across the valley like thunder.
‘What was that?’ Emme gasped, eyes wide.
The noise reverberated around the valley in a deep and foreboding rumble.
Tristan turned to her, his smile both penetrating and disarming her.
‘Dynamite,’ he said.
‘What?’
‘Emergency Rescue set off controlled explosions in the mountains. They do controlled avalanches to prevent catastrophic ones.’
It sounded eerie. A boom thundered again.
‘I don’t like it,’ Emme said, hurrying behind Tristan. He squeezed her hand then put his arm around her shoulder and pulled her in. She felt breathless.
‘We’re almost there.’
Where?
A mountain deer galloped onto the path on the edge of the ravine, sending a fallen tree branch tumbling off the edge. Tristan froze as the deer stopped and looked at them. He put his finger to his lips and smiled.
‘Wow,’ Emme whispered.
Tristan nodded as the deer scattered off into the white pine forest. They continued around a curve in the path when a glass structure revealed itself like an iceberg in the ocean as they rounded the corner.
‘Oh my goodness,’ Emme said. It was the shimmering hotel she could see from the town whenever she looked up to the east side of the valley.
‘Vitreum,’ Tristan said, as if it were both a blessing and a curse.
Chandeliers inside the lobby blasted fractals of light around the building. They looked like they might reach the valley walls too.
‘It’s incredible.’
Tristan ushered her forward, their hands linked until he let her go, and she looked up in awe as if she had arrived in a magical palace.
She turned in a circle, looking around the lobby in astonishment.
‘Good afternoon Mr Du Kok,’ said a woman behind the desk.
‘Good afternoon Nieves, any messages?’
‘No sir,’ she said with a smile.
The lobby was bustling with people buzzing off the same excitement of being there.
Of staying at the famous Vitreum hotel. It had appeared in fashion shoots, Architectural Digest, Forbes and Vogue.
It had been used in a James Bond film. The building was iconic in hospitality and architectural circles.
Yet Emme had never heard of it until she moved here.
She’d never imagined from Kristalldorf below that the sparkling glass hotel on the hill would be quite so spectacular up close.
‘How did everyone get here?’ Emme asked in awe. She hadn’t seen a single soul on the walk up the trail, aside from the deer, a mountain hare and three marmots.
‘There’s a tunnel that goes off the square. The one next to UBS with the travelator?’
Emme had seen it.
‘And from there, an elevator brings people up.’
‘That’s quite a ride!’ Emme said.
‘Come on,’ Tristan said, still carrying their groceries, to a series of elevators that took guests up to their rooms. He bypassed three of them and went to the one that had just the letter P illuminated above the door.
He swiped his watch against the call button and the doors glided open in an instant.
‘After you,’ he said, holding out an arm.
As the doors closed on them, Emme was reminded of their moment alone in the gondola, only this ride would be over in seconds.
The lift doors opened onto an apartment at the top of the building; sweeping views of the Silberschnee were so clear and crisp it almost didn’t look real.