Chapter Forty-Seven #3
Emme and Tiago headed out with the next slate platters, Emme only just remembering that Lexy Harrington was waiting for her champagne.
Fuck her, she thought.
Lumi exited an upstairs bathroom, where she’d been to reapply her make-up, when she saw Walter waiting for her on a landing, leaning against a balustrade.
‘Walter!’ she gasped, then put on her hostess smile. ‘Can I get you a drink?’
‘I can’t wait any longer, I have to be with you.’
Lumi looked up and down the landing, and then over the balustrade at the party beyond the empty entrance below.
‘I’m with my family,’ she said, nervously. ‘Stella’s room is just along there …’ she motioned down the hall as he clasped her hand. ‘We have to keep things between us.’
‘I know but –’
‘Is Kiki not coming?’
Walter looked taken aback and realised it was the first time anyone had mentioned Kiki in the two hours since he’d arrived at the party. Perhaps their marriage – perhaps this Eden Roque business – could be swept under the carpet.
‘No, no …’ he said, looking a little weary. ‘It’s over, my marriage is over. When will you walk away from yours?’
‘Ah, there you are!’ Viktor said, looking up, and slightly irritated. What was Walter Steinherr doing upstairs in his home anyway? ‘I’m about to say a few words.’
Lumi blushed.
‘Of course, let’s go.’ She and Walter hurried along the landing and down the large floating staircase. Viktor waited at the bottom, eyeing them beadily, then turned on his heel as soon as Lumi reached him.
Walter grabbed Viktor by the arm, stopping him, which made him bristle. Viktor looked at Walter’s hand until he removed it.
‘Viktor, before you make your speech, there’s something I want to tell you.’
Lumi’s eyes widened in panic. She shook her head ever so slightly.
‘I want you to know first …’
Lumi’s heart raced. Viktor paused.
‘I’m putting Snowbell, Aster and Orchid on the market.’
Viktor took a step back in surprise.
‘What?’
It made no business sense at all. He eyed Walter suspiciously. Was that why he’d come this year? To gloat that he was selling them to someone else?
‘And you can have first refusal.’
Viktor scratched his head. He couldn’t believe it. This building had been his passion project and Steinherr had made it difficult for him at every turn. He’d convinced Stognev to double-cross him at the deeds stage, causing years of drama and discord between the three richest men in town.
‘Really?’ Viktor asked, not daring to believe it. And what was the catch? Would Walter ask for an eye-watering and insulting price?
‘Market value – we’ll get Umansky to come up with a fair price.’
Lumi’s smile was full of a different kind of relief.
‘Why now?’ Viktor asked, candidly.
Walter looked to Lumi briefly, then back to her husband.
‘An iron is eaten away by rust … so the envious are consumed by their own passion.’
Lumi looked at the floor. Walter’s covert plea might just break her into a million little pieces.
Viktor narrowed his eyes in puzzlement. He didn’t know if Walter was talking about himself or Viktor, but he was happy with the news, nonetheless.
‘What can I say?’ Viktor exclaimed, finally extending a hand.
Walter took it, and the two men broke their deadlock.
‘A happy Christingle indeed!’ Viktor said, shaking Walter’s hand effusively before turning it into an amicable slap on the chest.
‘Let’s go, speech!’
Lumi and Walter walked two steps behind Viktor, knowing that with this gesture came a watershed moment. Nothing would be the same again.
When Anastasia burst into the kitchen, her legs almost buckled, she was so half cut.
Cat was filling blood-orange macarons with starbursts of basil-infused cream when she looked up in alarm at the noise.
‘Here we are again!’ Anastasia slurred, admiring the décor as if she was remembering it from a dream.
‘Calma!’ Cat snapped, levelling Anastasia with a look. Gerard and Lydia were filling glasses, and Gerard looked up, knowing what danger this might entail.
‘Mrs Diamandis!’ he fawned. ‘Can I get you an elderflower fizz? Perhaps some water?’
Anastasia steadied herself with her palms on the island and took a few deep breaths.
‘No.’
‘What are you doing here?’ Cat asked, as politely as she could.
Lydia watched while she unsheathed balls of decorative ice and put them in two balloon glasses.
Samuel and Karius Sommar had specifically asked for gin and tonics.
Emme came in with another silver platter of empty glasses and placed it on the island, looking from Anastasia, whose head was hung between her shoulders, to Cat, piping bag in hand and furious.
‘Are you OK?’ Emme mouthed.
Cat nodded.
‘Yes, desserts now, please,’ she said, indicating a silver tray of chocolate mousse in delicate shot glasses, with a homemade pistachio truffle atop each one.
Gerard filled a long glass with ice and water from the filter tap and placed it next to Anastasia, who looked like she was trying to regain her balance.
‘Here you are, ma’am,’ he said, reverently.
‘I said NO!’ Anastasia bellowed, swiping the glass off the edge of the smooth marble surface, along with the silver tray of empty glasses Emme had just laid there.
There was an almighty crash, which made everyone in the kitchen jump.
Everyone except Cat, who continued to pipe with an unsteady, shaky hand.
‘Hold off one second,’ Lumi whispered in Viktor’s ear, as she went into the kitchen to see what all the noise was about.
‘Ah, Anastasia, is everything alright?’ she asked, calm and fragrant, while Gerard got to work with the dustpan and brush.
Lumi had noticed Anastasia, prowling around the party like a pinball bouncing from bumper to bumper, and she meant to mention it to Walter and ask if everything was alright, but she had been so preoccupied by his declaration, by the fact his marriage was over, by his decision to sell Snowbell, Aster and Orchid, that she hadn’t had the chance to tell him.
‘My husband’s about to do a speech,’ Lumi said, putting her palm on Anastasia’s back. Anastasia’s hands, weighed down by diamonds, seemed to grip onto the air above the kitchen surface.
She looked up with a slow and furious furrow, but Lumi Kivvi had a serene authority about her. Something about Lumi’s voice reminded her of calm during turbulence, somewhere in the depths of her childhood. It wasn’t comforting enough.
‘Would you like a coffee?’ Lumi asked, as if it was going to happen anyway. ‘Gerard, get Mrs Diamandis a coffee and I will ask Teresa to see to this,’ she said, nodding at the floor.
‘Very well, ma’am,’ Gerard nodded, clearing a few sharp shards away first.
‘Macarons,’ Cat said, handing Tiago a plate of her beautiful creations. ‘Make sure you find Miss Stella first …’ Cat added. Lumi met her eye with a grateful smile.
Gerard busied himself with the coffee, Lydia left with a tray of drinks and Tiago and Emme picked up the first dessert platters.
‘I understand you and Catalina are friends,’ Lumi said warmly, trying to distract Anastasia from whatever the hell meltdown she was having.
‘Teresa said you called by to see her.’ Anastasia looked up at Cat, slowly and deliberately, on the other side of the kitchen island, piping more ganache into macarons.
‘Who’s Catalina?’ Anastasia said blankly, while the chef tried not to cry onto her patisserie.
Emme returned to the main throng and began another clockwise rotation with a tray of chocolate mousses in glasses, while Tiago went anticlockwise with the first rows of macarons.
As she worked the room, Emme heard snippets of conversations.
Bill Harrington was discussing hedge funds with a bored-looking Oscar Goodall.
Mads Christensen was telling Frida Alm about the song he had written for the Danish Eurovision entry next year.
Boutique hotelier Dirk Detzer was asking Dimitri Diamandis which Greek island was best to start with, as he had never been.
And Lexy was fawning over Priya Kapoor’s earrings and showing her the almost-as-ostentatious pink ruby on her right hand.
All these conversations stopped when Viktor chinked a fork against a crystal glass and called for attention around the piano.
Where’s Tristan? Emme thought, as she quietly continued to circulate.
‘Ladies and gentlemen, may I have your attention please?’ Viktor said, his small fuzz of tobacco-coloured hair in a whirl above his thinning pate.
The pianist paused ‘Für Elise’, and children started to reappear from the games room.
Stella Kivvi shooed a few children out of her bedroom and down the stairs to the throng growing around the large open living space.
Emme weaved quietly, silently offering desserts in delicate shot glasses. ‘Where’s Lumi?!’ Viktor almost barked.
‘Here!’ she said cheerily, coming out of the kitchen, one arm around the waist of a swaying Anastasia Steinherr, who she deposited next to Dimitri, while Gerard deftly followed with a strong black coffee.
Vivian shot Lysander a concerned look across the room.
Lumi looked back behind her and beckoned Cat to come out of the kitchen and show her face, as was tradition during the speeches.
Lumi always reminded Viktor to thank the staff.
Cat put her tea towel on her shoulder and feigned a smile, despite feeling wretched on the inside.
Guests gave a little cheer as Lumi joined her husband at the piano and promised not to break into song.
‘I’ll leave that to the experts,’ she nodded across the room, towards Frida Alm.
Viktor didn’t laugh at his wife’s joke, but paused to get his words together, looking at his impeccably shiny shoes for a moment.
‘Good people of Kristalldorf, thank you for coming to our annual Christingle, and may I say they get more wonderful every year.’
Aapo had rounded up Mika and Stella and they stood close to their parents, while guests gave a grateful clap and cheer.