Chapter 20
CHRISSIE
‘We should’ve heard something by now.’ Her dad paced at the window to the lounge.
Chrissie had taken her mum’s place to be with her dad so Astrid could take solace in the kitchen, and she’d done all she could to make him sit down and take it easy, but it was impossible. ‘I’m sure we will hear something soon, Dad.’
Sarah indicated she’d stay so Chrissie could go back to her mum.
They were a tag team, trying to keep everyone positive, and it felt good to be like that with her daughter.
Sarah was more mature than Chrissie had ever realised, and whatever she decided about her and Rhys’s future, Chrissie felt sure it would be for the best.
In the kitchen, Chrissie found her mum at the stove, making soup.
‘We all need to eat.’ Astrid finished chopping a couple of onions before moving on to slicing the leeks.
Chrissie silently picked up another knife and chopping board and worked alongside. She diced the carrots and peeled the potatoes.
‘The potatoes should be in cubes.’ Astrid chopped one piece to demonstrate the size.
Astrid loved the kitchen, always had. And whenever she’d been overly worried about her husband being away and serving his country, she’d turned her attentions to cooking.
Over the years, the girls had embraced the comfort, not only from the food but for the peace and joy it brought their mum when they knew her thoughts were elsewhere.
Her mum measured out milk and prepared the stock while Chrissie grated cheese and found the little jar of nutmeg which Chrissie remembered always went into this special soup.
‘Meg will need something warming when she gets back,’ her mum said as if Meg had nipped out in fine weather and would return at any second.
Chrissie wasn’t going to say otherwise. It was getting dark now. The weather hadn’t let up and they’d heard absolutely nothing.
Chrissie remembered losing her purse in the snow out the back of the chalet once. It had tumbled from her pocket and no matter how thoroughly they searched the garden, they couldn’t find it, not until the day the snow melted and it appeared as if from nowhere. It had been so hidden.
What must it be like looking for someone in a blizzard? Next to impossible, probably.
She wished she hadn’t gone to Jonathan’s to get Sarah. If she hadn’t, perhaps Meg would still be there, tucked up in the warm.
She’d do anything right now to have Meg come back so they could talk. She’d been protecting her own heart for so long that she hadn’t wanted to let Meg back in in case it was the wrong thing to do.
When the soup was ready it took a lot of persuasion to get Grumps to sit down and eat.
Nobody said a word at the table. Conversation felt wrong.
They all needed to keep their strength up with the soup and the accompanying bread, but it was clear nobody really wanted to enjoy the food when they were so worried. The silence was deafening.
Until the phone rang, the shrill sound piercing the peace.
Her heart was in her mouth when Grumps took the call.
And she felt a tidal wave of relief when he told them, ‘They’ve found her.’
* * *
Chrissie sat in the chair Jonathan had brought up to Meg’s bedroom in his chalet, and watched Meg sleeping.
Jonathan had found Meg just before the emergency services did, although they were close behind and saw to it that she was taken straight to the hospital to be checked, to get her warm again, and to monitor her.
Jonathan had made his phone call to the family on his way to the hospital once the roads were clear enough.
Even though they had already been told that Meg was going to be okay, it had still been a tense wait for Jonathan’s next update, but it had come a couple of hours later. Meg was recovering well. She would be monitored a while longer before she was discharged to go home with him.
Their parents had already been over to see Meg and she’d spoken to them a bit, but was exhausted they said. Now, while Jonathan and Sarah worked hard to clear the paths outside both chalets, Chrissie was waiting for her sister to wake up so she could talk to her.
She looked so peaceful. The only movement was the covers moving rhythmically up and down with Meg’s breathing. Perhaps she’d have to leave her, talk later, let her sleep off the ordeal.
Chrissie went over to the window to move her body after being huddled in the chair for so long. The blizzard had eased off as if it had never been there at all, and outside was peaceful and beautiful once again.
She wasn’t sure how long she stood there, but eventually she heard a shuffling noise behind her and turned to see Meg, bleary-eyed, trying to sit up in bed.
‘Here, let me.’ Chrissie went over and reached for the pillows to plump them behind Meg to make it easier for her.
‘Chrissie?’ Meg croaked, ‘What time is it?’ The room was dark except for the soft lighting from the standard lamp in the far corner. Jonathan had moved that up here too so that whoever checked on Meg could see her without the main light disturbing her.
Chrissie handed her the glass of water from beside the bed. ‘It’s almost midnight.’
Meg gulped some of the water and Chrissie reached out to pop it back on the bedside table for her when she’d had enough.
‘I can’t believe I caused all this fuss.’ Meg closed her eyes again.
‘We were all worried,’ said Chrissie.
Meg opened her eyes. ‘All of you?’
Chrissie nodded. ‘Yes. I mean, we couldn’t even enjoy our dinner.’ Her attempt at a joke worked and Meg smiled.
‘What was it? Not fondue, if you tell me I missed out on that I’ll be gutted. I could eat that every day of the week.’
‘It was the Alpine soup.’
‘The one with potato and leek?’
‘Apparently you like it. Mum was cooking while she was worrying.’
‘Some things never change.’ She smiled gently. ‘I could eat a big bowl of that soup right now, with a huge chunk of bread and loads of butter.’
Chrissie leapt up and grabbed her coat from the chair.
‘Where are you going?’
‘To get you some soup.’
‘I had a sandwich at the hospital – not a very nice one, but I’ve eaten. And it’s almost midnight. Don’t be silly.’
But Chrissie was going to do this. ‘I won’t be long.’
With no more argument she passed Jonathan downstairs.
He obviously wasn’t ready to go to sleep yet.
He was worried, and she knew that this wasn’t just a generous or kind neighbour.
This was a man who had feelings for the woman upstairs.
And the thought made her smile. She’d never met Grant but from the little her parents had said, given they didn’t talk about Meg much, he wasn’t exactly who they’d envisaged their daughter ending up with.
Everyone was in bed when she nipped inside her parents’ chalet and she quietly got what she needed.
Back at Jonathan’s she warmed the soup and lightly toasted the bread before spreading it thickly with butter.
Meg hadn’t fallen asleep and she looked more alert than before when Chrissie went back up to her bedroom. She settled the food in front of her on the bed tray table, and as Meg started on the soup she went to the window again. ‘I’m glad the blizzard stopped when it did.’
‘Me too.’
‘Dad was really worried about avalanche.’
‘So was I. In fact, I was terrified. I thought I heard a rumble when I was out there.’
‘Crazy how quickly conditions change.’ To look at it out there now, or at least what you could see from the lights coming from the downstairs of Jonathan’s chalet, you’d never know it could be so dangerous and cruel.
The snow on the ground out back was smooth, untouched, and conjured up the happier memories of winter, the ones she’d pushed to the back of her mind thinking they’d bring pain rather than comfort.
Meg looked over at her. ‘Aren’t you going to tell me off for being irresponsible and causing no end of trouble?’ The soup made a trickling sound as it fell from the base of her spoon back into the bowl before she put it into her mouth.
She went over to the bed and sat down. ‘No, I’m not.
Because that would make me a total bitch.
’ As suspected, her comment made Meg not only smile but relax a bit, given the drop of her shoulders.
‘I didn’t sit here and wait for you to wake up, or fetch you food, just so I could have the pleasure of having a go at you. ’
Meg finished her mouthful of toast. ‘It really was a mistake… My phone wasn’t charged, I didn’t think about the weather… I just wanted to walk and get some headspace.’
‘You always did that when you needed to think.’
‘Hard habit to break.’
Chrissie admitted, ‘I didn’t help matters when I showed up here, assuming you’d left, and then told you that I hadn’t ever wanted to see you again.
I wish I hadn’t said that. If I hadn’t, perhaps you wouldn’t have gone outside without thinking about the consequences, maybe you would’ve turned back earlier if you weren’t so consumed with the way I’ve treated you. ’
‘Probably.’
Now it was Chrissie’s turn to smile. ‘Finish your soup.’
As Meg ate she said, ‘I knew you didn’t ever want to see me again.’
‘That was the case for a long time.’
‘And now?’
Meg had finished and Chrissie set the tray down away from the bed. She pulled the chair closer to the bed.
‘You hurt me, Meg.’ The room was cosy and comforting, ready for the words she should’ve probably said to her sister a long time ago.