Chapter Sixty-Eight
It was the last day of term before the Christmas break, and Emme was on her way to collect Harry and Bella from school.
The school day was ending a little later today, due to class Christmas parties, so Emme braced herself for the children to come out high on sugar and games.
As Emme walked across the square past the Grand Hotel Sommar, its Havana Grey horse and cart waiting outside in the snow, her phone rang.
It was Tristan on FaceTime from a lush, sunny estate. Rolling green hills framed him in the background; his handsome, healed, face was sunkissed in shot.
‘Hey,’ Emme said, showing him where she was.
‘Hey, I sorted my flight! I’ll be back late Monday.’
Monday. Bliss.
There would be no school run on Monday, and Bill would be home for Christmas.
Surely Lexy wouldn’t need Emme for much, although she had certainly found excuses to keep her busy.
A flash went through Emme’s mind that perhaps she should keep it quiet that Tristan was returning, then she could get away with saying she was off Christmas shopping.
Can’t wait.
‘Shall I come to Zurich to meet you?’ she asked excitedly. The thought of riding in a helicopter back from Zurich to Kristalldorf next to Tristan gave Emme a thrill.
Tristan’s broad, sexy smile filled the camera and she took it as a yes.
She still couldn’t really believe that Tristan Du Kok was into her, a temporary nanny from the UK, when he could have anyone in town.
But his smile looked genuine. His electric touch was more than genuine, no matter how much caution Cat heeded.
Emme weaved through the school gates.
‘I’ve got to go, the kids are coming out of school. I’ll call you back later?’ she said.
‘Sure thing, speak in a bit,’ Tristan said, as he kissed the camera and Emme hung up.
‘Emme!’ Harry shouted. ‘I won the Christmas talent show for my taekwondo!’
‘Well done, dude. That’s great!’
‘Emme! I got a chocolate reindeer!’ Bella said, thrusting it in her face. ‘For winning musical chairs!’
‘Never in doubt!’ Emme cheered.
Emme’s contentment at how far she’d come turned to mild irritation when she remembered the chocolate reindeer she had bought the kids – and left up at Vitreum. It was fine, they didn’t need any more right now.
‘Stupid game!’ Arjun said as he sidled up to Bella, a contemptuous and haughty smile on his princely face.
Cassie arrived.
‘You didn’t win?’ she asked Arjun cheerily. ‘Oh dear.’
The sarcasm in her voice was palpable.
‘End of term, kids!’ Emme beamed. ‘Who’s getting a visit from Santa next week?’
‘Santa is a work of fiction,’ Arjun harrumphed, as he opened out his arms and waited for Cassie to put his coat on for him. She half threw the hood onto his head.
‘And I am out of here!’ Cassie said under her breath to Emme.
‘Of course, when do you fly?’
‘Tomorrow morning. Cannot wait!’
Emme relieved Harry and Bella of their bags and end-of-term artwork, politely appraising each piece as if it were actually good.
‘When do you fly?’ Cassie asked, thinking perhaps she had forgotten, but it hadn’t come up in their conversations.
‘Oh, I don’t. I’m here all Christmas …’
Cassie looked almost horrified for her.
‘It’s fine!’ Emme batted it away. With Tristan coming back, it really was.
Back at the apartment Emme was preparing an early dinner for Harry and Bella while they played in their bedrooms, shattered from the end-of-term parties. As she warmed a large flammkuchen in the oven, she sent Tristan a quick text from her phone on the island.
Just cooking. Will call you in a bit. Cannot WAIT to be in your arms again. See you Monday! X
She put Spotify on. Al Green. ‘Tired of Being Alone’.
Songs they had made love to the night of the Kivvi Christingle.
Emme was buzzing. Now she knew Tristan would be back on Monday, she considered Christmas and how it might look.
As per Lexy’s ‘rules’ she had Christmas Eve and Christmas Day off, and she was free to hang out with Tristan, lounging around Vitreum, cooking, sleeping and coming together.
She knew the Harringtons wanted her back for Boxing Day and the social whirl of their New Year.
Lexy had mentioned Walter Steinherr’s famous Kristall Ball on New Year’s Eve and how wonderful it would be – especially so this year, after it didn’t take place last December.
Emme opened the fridge and took out a cucumber to cut into batons.
Lexy was on the other side of the fridge door as she closed it.
Emme gasped, jumping so badly she had to smother the urge to attack her employer.
‘Sorry, Lexy, I didn’t hear you come in!’
Lexy gave a smile that looked more forced than ever.
‘I wasn’t expecting you home so soon,’ Emme said, trying to smooth everything over.
Lexy motioned to the noise of the kitchen disco around them.
‘Evidently not …’
Emme chopped the cucumber into batons as Lexy put her Aspinal of London folio case and Mulberry handbag down.
‘The kids are just chilling in their rooms while I get dinner. They had great fun at their class parties … Both of them won a prize.’
Lexy didn’t say much, she looked pissed off and affronted as she opened her mail.
Emme turned the music right down, then realised she may as well turn it off.
‘That’s better,’ Lexy said icily. ‘No devices during meal or snack time …’
Rule five, Emme thought. Although technically, they weren’t eating yet, but Emme bit her tongue as she peered through the oven to check the flammkuchen.
‘Ooh, while we’re talking rules,’ Emme said casually. ‘I just wanted to ensure you’re not expecting me to stay overnight on Christmas Eve and Christmas Day. As per rule three.’
Emme turned around to gauge Lexy’s reaction.
Lexy wrinkled her nose.
‘Hmmm, now that doesn’t sound like you’re asking permission to me …’ she said.
‘But I have those days off.’
Lexy put her post down on the island next to Emme’s phone just as her screen flashed up.
A message from Tristan Du Kok.
Me neither. Can’t wait to make you come again honey x
Emme clocked Lexy reading it and saw what looked very much like a searing rage rise up her face.
It seemed a bit of an extreme reaction.
‘Is everything OK, Lexy?’
Lexy picked up Emme’s phone and held it up accusingly, thrusting it towards Emme’s nose as if she’d caught her out.
She wanted her phone back but Lexy was holding it like a hand grenade.
‘After what that man did to Jenny?!’ Her furrowed face was furious.
The timer buzzed and Emme switched the oven off and turned around to face her boss.
‘What’s that?’ Emme scowled, tired now of Lexy’s madness.
‘Don’t you wonder why she left town?’
‘All the time,’ Emme replied with a nervous laugh.
‘Your boyfriend Tristan got my nanny pregnant! Left her in the lurch. He even tried to rough her up when she told him she was keeping the baby.’
‘What?’
‘Did he get rough with you?’ Lexy asked with an arched eyebrow. ‘He’s a very violent man.’
Emme thought about their tender lovemaking. His hands were commanding and skilled, his grip firm and manly, but he was never rough or violent. She was utterly confused.
No!
He said he’d never spoken to Jenny. Had Tristan lied to Emme as easily as she’d seen him lie to Vivian?
Emme shook her head. She wanted to cry but pride and anger stopped her. She turned around and looked at the flammkuchen bubbling in the oven, close to overcooked. She hastily removed the tart and took a deep breath.
Why was Lexy being so nasty? Emme turned back. Lexy was still standing there, hand on her hips as if Emme had done something wrong and she were her mother, waiting for an explanation. Except Marian would never look at her with such contempt.
Emme was doing everything she could not to cry.
Tristan? Jenny? Pregnant?
Emme stood tall. She was so exhausted by Lexy’s psychodramas, her increasing demands, her stupid fucking rules. That she bit back without thinking.
‘I assumed Jenny was having an affair with Bill, from the tension in this place.’ She raised her chin.
‘Bill?!’
Lexy curled up her nose. She was still clutching Emme’s phone in her left hand, her knuckles white.
‘Yes. Poor guy needs to let loose somehow. I assumed – if he wasn’t already getting his rocks off in Zurich in the week, that maybe Jenny obliged him at weekends.’
Emme stood defiant.
‘How dare you!’ Lexy scolded, as she slapped Emme, square on the cheek, the force of her right palm turning her head. Emme gasped.
She held her face, looking utterly confused. The mother of the house, her employer and caregiver, was the one being violent.
‘Fuck you …’ Emme said, as she snatched her phone out of Lexy’s hand, looked around the kitchen, grabbed her bag and coat, and left.