Chapter 11
Carrying a ski in each hand, Jake reluctantly followed Marcus outside. It was very cold and wintry, the fresh flurry of snow covering the rooftop and grounds of the old house. Jake made fresh footprints in the snow as he trudged to the car. He had seen the recent snowfall on the way there in the car yesterday. Fortunately, the roads into the Cairngorms had been passable, but the heavy snowfall on the mountains suggested the weather was just about as good as it got for skiing. But Jake felt very tired; the emotional rollercoaster of the last couple of days concerning Eleanor and the pregnancy had finally caught up with him. The long drive to Scotland had also taken its toll. He felt as though he could go back inside and crawl into bed for a week.
‘Come on, Jake – get it together, will you?’ Marcus said impatiently as the ski slid out of Jake’s hand for the second time before he could get it secured onto the roof of the car. ‘Here, I’ll do it.’ Marcus shoved him out of the way and gave him an exasperated look. ‘You just – just stand over there.’
Jake stepped out of the way and left him to it. He loaded some of their equipment into the boot instead and then sat in the car and waited. Marcus opened the driver’s door and got in. He didn’t start the car. They both sat in silence. Jake waited for the inevitable question.
‘Look,’ Marcus turned to him, ‘if you really don’t want to do this …’
Jake rubbed his eyes. He was sorely tempted to call it off, but he had upset Eleanor already and he wasn’t about to spoil Christmas for Marcus on top of everything else, so despite the fatigue, he forced a smile. ‘Just start the car, Marcus. I’m tired, that’s all. I’m sure the mountain air will perk me up.’ He hoped so. ‘But if you don’t get me there soon,’ he warned, ‘I am liable to fall asleep.’ He yawned. He wasn’t fooling.
As Marcus drove through Aviemore and took the turn-off at the small roundabout just outside town, Jake was looking forward to the drive through the Caledonian pine forest and catching glimpses of the picturesque scenery surrounding Loch Morlich and the Cairngorms rising up in the distance. The drive was always one of the highlights of the trip.
However, the closer they got to the cold white peaks, the more inviting the thought of his bed became. He glanced at Marcus, who was smiling from ear to ear, obviously looking forward to arriving. Jake was not. He rubbed his eyes again and frowned as they passed the Cairngorm Reindeer Centre. A few hundred yards up the road was the ski resort. They had arrived far too quickly for Jake’s liking, and his mood didn’t improve when he saw the queue for the funicular railway; the unexpectedly good snowfall seemed to have brought out the whole community.
Marcus swung the car into the car park.
‘Why aren’t these people at home, unwrapping their presents or stuffing themselves like turkeys?’ Marcus complained.
‘What - like normal people?’ Jake sighed.
‘Exactly,’ said Marcus, completely missing the point.
Marcus hated waiting for anything, but Jake’s spirits were bizarrely raised by the sight of the queue – it was maddeningly long, which meant there was still a strong possibility Marcus would change his mind.
Marcus looked at his watch. ‘We’ll give it ten, maybe fifteen minutes, and then we’re out of here.’
Jake smiled, ‘I’ll second that.’
Twelve minutes later, they were squeezing into the Cairngorm Mountain Railway carriage that ascended the northern slopes of the ski resort. Jake was no longer smiling.
Jake shuffled in behind Marcus, both moving further to the back of the funicular as the queue behind them shortened and the numbers in the carriage swelled.
Jake stared out of the window at the people on the platform in their brightly coloured ski suits. The door to the carriage closed on the disappointed crowd. He wished he was one of them. He wished he was heading back so he could talk to Eleanor and put things right. Then he snapped to attention; he thought he’d seen some familiar ski wear.
He pushed passed Marcus.
‘Where are you going?’
Jake ignored him. ‘Excuse me. Excuse me.’ Jake fought his way through the people crammed in the carriage to the door, ignoring complaints from the other passengers, who recognised that he was one of the first on and mistakenly believed he now wanted to get to the front to be the first off.
He reached the door just as the train lurched forward to begin the ascent.
Then he saw her.
‘Ellie!’ Jake banged on the window, trying to get her attention. Her ski wear was unmistakable; the purple ski suit, the familiar hat and glasses, the wisps of dark hair escaping the scarf wrapped around her face.
Jake banged on the window again. She saw him. Jake waved. She waved back. What the hell was she doing there? This was one surprise he could do without.
‘We’ll wait up top,’ Jake shouted and signalled to her upwards.
Jake watched her until she was out of sight. Then he turned towards Marcus, his face like thunder.
‘Excuse me, coming through,’ he announced before pitching himself into the throng of bodies. ‘Excuse me, yes, I’m coming back,’ he said to some, who were purposely making it difficult for him to get through. He reached Marcus, who said, ‘I saw her.’ His face was positively beaming.
Jake grabbed him by the shoulders in fury. ‘What the hell did you say to her?’
A child started to cry. He looked around and noticed that despite the cramped conditions, the other passengers were giving him a wide berth. They were also looking anywhere else but in his direction. His behaviour was frightening people.
Jake dropped his hands from Marcus and turned his back on the spectators to look out of the train window.
‘What is the big deal?’ Marcus whispered in his ear.
Jake planted his hands on the metal rail in front of him as a necessary precaution against the instinctive urge to hit Marcus. ‘I just want to know what you said that made her come,’ said Jake through gritted teeth.
‘Oh, you mean at the dinner table.’ Marcus paused. ‘It was nothing – really.’
Jake turned to look at him. ‘If it was nothing, how come she’s here?’
‘OK, I probably said something I shouldn’t have. To be honest, I thought it would have put her off. It seems to have had the opposite effect.’ Marcus shrugged and smiled weakly.
Jake gripped the rail tightly, his knuckles turning white with the strain. ‘What did you tell her?’
‘That I was thinking of skiing off-piste, and she wouldn’t know what she was missing.’
‘What the hell, Marcus? We never going skiing off-piste.’
‘Well, there’s a first time for everything. Besides, just because she’s here, doesn’t mean she’ll do it. You know my sister – she won’t take risks, especially skiing.’
Jake sighed heavily. It wasn’t Marcus who needed a good going over, Jake realised. It was himself for being a complete idiot and not listening to his wife. She had been right; they should have spent Christmas in London. He had been wrong not to put Eleanor first.
Perhaps the time had come to ditch this family tradition of spending Christmas in Scotland. It was, after all, for his own benefit. He didn’t need to do this any longer. He wasn’t a kid anymore. It was time to move on.
‘Come on, come on.’ Jake silently willed the cable car to make faster progress to the top. He had a plan, and it was simple; he and Eleanor were taking the funicular back down, returning to The Lake House, collecting their bags, and driving straight back to London. They might just make it before Christmas Day was over.
It was insane – yes. But Jake’s mind was made up. It was to be his Christmas present to his wife, his proof that he loved her. Nothing and no one – Jake glanced at Marcus – was going to stop it from happening.