A Winter Affair

by Minna Howard

  The door opened and Vera came in. Seeing the consternation on their faces, she said, ‘Something wrong?’

  ‘Eloise let Bert out and he snatched the dinner and we can’t eat it now and we’re about to sit down to the table,’ Lawrence said in despair.

  Vera looked from one to the other and then saw the joint. ‘What did he eat?’

  Was he not able to keep this to himself? Eloise was annoyed, though she knew how close he and Vera were and she knew Vera would not say anything to anyone.

  ‘I was going to put it back in the oven for a while. There’s time, they still have to eat their first course.’

  ‘They’ll never know unless you tell them.’ Vera came over and inspected the meat. Eloise pointed out the bit she’d cut off, relieved to have Vera on her side.

  Vera faced Lawrence. ‘Some people have no dinner; this is a feast. It won’t kill them. Don’t stress so much and don’t say anything.’ She smiled at Eloise, raising her spirits, ‘You can’t throw out a lovely piece of lamb just because that little dog took a tiny bite of it.’

  Before he could answer, someone else came down the passage; it was Ken. He saw the joint by the stove.

  ‘So that’s what smells so good, can’t wait to eat it.’ He smiled at Eloise, and turning to Lawrence, said, ‘I’ve come to see what’s happened to the white wine you were fetching, I’ll take it back if you’re busy here.’

  ‘No, just coming.’ Lawrence went over to the fridge and took out a bottle and, with one last furious look at Eloise; he went back with Ken, who hadn’t seemed to notice the smears of marinade on the kitchen floor.

  ‘It will be all right,’ Vera said. ‘What you don’t know can’t kill you, don’t they say that? Let’s hope it’s true.’

  Twenty-One

  There was much praise about the lamb later from Ken and some of the others, especially Gaby. Lawrence said nothing as he helped to bring the empty dishes back to the kitchen and carry in the pudding. Eloise didn’t look at Lawrence in case she giggled, so much fuss over such a small thing. She’d taken off the one bit Bert had chewed and the heat from the oven would have cauterized any germs left behind.

  Vera with a wink at her said to him, ‘You see all is well.’

  ‘Unless they die in the night,’ he answered darkly.

  ‘Then they will die of something else, if their time is up,’ Vera said. ‘You worry too much, Lawrence. These are lucky people, do not worry about them.’

  Theo turned up, clumping down the passage in his boots and still in his coat, saying he was going to take Bert out. Eloise dithered about telling him now about the evening’s fiasco, or waiting until they were away from any eavesdroppers, or even until these guests had left Jacaranda. But Vera decided it.

  ‘Poor Eloise has had a shock, Bert tried to eat the dinner,’ she started.

  ‘What, what dinner? I gave him his before I went out,’ Theo protested, frowning at her, so she had to tell him the story.

  ‘I just went to see him, I didn’t think he’d rush out like that, bolt up the stairs, and I dropped the joint and Bert took off with it…’

  ‘So they had no dinner? Dad must be livid.’ Theo was shocked.

  ‘No, they ate it, it didn’t show and we didn’t say anything, but your father is furious, well I suppose rightly, but…’

  ‘Oh, wow, disaster,’ Theo said, grinning now.

  ‘You mustn’t say anything,’ Eloise said, still anxious about Lawrence’s reaction about it later. He was obviously not amused and she worried that he might tell Aurelia who’d somehow freak him into using her, no doubt germless, delights.

  ‘No worries, Bert’s clean, cleaner than most of them, I’d have thought,’ Theo said, leaving to go down to him. ‘Don’t worry, I’ll cope with Dad, and will keep quiet.’ He giggled as he left and they heard him running down the stairs, calling to Bert that he was back.

  Later Theo brought Bert to Eloise ‘to apologize’, though Bert was not the slightest bit contrite, in fact he seemed delighted with her and enthusiastically licked her fingers as if she had presented him with the joint herself So at least one of them went to bed happy, Eloise thought as she put out the light.

  No one died or was ill in the night but Lawrence was decidedly frosty towards her the next morning, appearing in the kitchen while she was having her breakfast.

  ‘What if I hadn’t come in and seen it all?’ he said, as if inferring that there must have been other disasters she had covered up.

  She felt she’d apologized enough and she kept out of his way for the rest of the morning, carrying on as if nothing had happened.

  When she told Saskia about it later she shrieked with laughter.

  ‘Pity he caught you in flagrante, as it were. Ask Quinn about some of the restaurants he’s been to, quite famous ones too; you’d never eat out again if you knew what goes on in some of them. Now relax and get ready to enjoy Christmas.’ She hugged her.

  ‘I will.’ She smiled, trying not to think of the Christmases she’d spent before, always with her family: her parents and then her own children. Even now she was past the hype, there always seemed to be a touch of magic to it, lingering from childhood.

  Despite the wintry surroundings, it was not so blatantly Christmassy out here as it was back home. Lights were laced through trees or glowing from windows, but Eloise hadn’t – yet anyway – seen any huge lit-up Santas complete with sleighs and reindeer rampaging over the roofs of any chalets.

  The ski runs would be open as usual on Christmas Day and so it was decided by everyone at Jacaranda to have the main meal in the evening.

  Eloise made some dark chocolate mint fudge for Lawrence and Theo, cooking it that afternoon when she returned from seeing Saskia and everyone was out. She made a pomander orange for Saskia and Vera and a few more to put in a bowl in the hall, sitting in her room in the evenings carefully cutting designs on oranges with a fine peeler and filling the pattern with cloves. She ran a coloured ribbon through the centre of them with a loop for hanging and wrapped them in paper with ground spices until Christmas Day.

  The following evening was Christmas Eve and Theo came into the kitchen to tell her the plans. It had been arranged that they’d all go down to the village to sing carols in the square and have supper at one of the restaurants there, later there was midnight Mass for anyone who wanted to go. Lawrence or Theo and possibly her would ferry people up and down.

  ‘I think I’ll stay here,’ she said, not wanting to face a grumpy Lawrence across a dinner table – he’d said no more about the joint, though she’d done her best to keep out of his way. But worse would be seeing Harvey and Aurelia.

  ‘You can’t, you’ll be the only one not there. Vera comes as well, everyone is there, you can’t miss it.’ Theo’s young face creased with disappointment. ‘It’s not really religious,’ he added as if that was the reason she wasn’t coming.

  ‘It’s not that. I…’

  ‘And you won’t have to cook; we’re eating out, all of us. It’s part of it, we always do, it’s a Christmas tradition.’ He went on, ‘You have to come… Dad wants you to.’

  She wondered if that was true, but how could she explain to Theo her fear and pain at seeing Harvey and Aurelia, or whatever woman he was with. But there would be crowds of people, so she might not see him. Was she really going to hide here alone while everyone else was having a good time, just in case she saw him again? She must not let him dominate her life. Saskia had told her the same thing.

  ‘I… I will come.’

  She was rewarded by Theo’s grin. ‘It’s great, all of us together,’ he said. ‘And tomorrow the weather looks good and I’m skiing with Gaby and Jerry and possibly some friends, so maybe you’d like to come too? We thought we’d dress up in Christmas gear – I’ve got a reindeer hat with antlers,’ he laughed and she smiled at his joy. She was not going to spoil his pleasure by not joining in with everyone else.

  *

  She didn’t remember everyone congregating
in the square singing carols when she was here that Christmas as a child. There was something magical about the crowd of people of many nationalities all singing together in the darkness with, here and there, a flicker of candlelight. Whether Christmas was seen as religious or just a holiday, everyone seemed to be affected by it.

  She stood away from Lawrence; he had not ignored her and yet had not said anything to her either, though she caught him watching her sometimes with a pensive look on his face, making her wonder what he was thinking. She stayed with Vera, Theo and Bert, who snuffed around hoping to find something delicious to eat. The air was crisp and cold, but they were warmly dressed and were soon enveloped with the ambience and the singing of familiar carols. When the songs were over, Lawrence rounded everyone up and they went on to a restaurant near the church in the old village for supper. Theo dropped off Bert with a friend on the way, saying he’d freeze to death if he left him in the car.

  Eloise, not knowing they were going there, kept her head down and used Theo as cover when they entered the restaurant, afraid that Harvey would be there as he was staying in this part of the village. Every time the door opened she furtively watched the people come in, afraid he would suddenly appear, but to her relief he did not.

  The restaurant was famous for its fondues and everyone except for Debra, who said hot cheese caused her indigestion, ordered it. Eloise sat in between Pippa and Jerry, with Gaby on his other side. Pippa and Jerry were quite silent, so Eloise struggled to keep the conversation going. Theo fared better, sitting opposite Jerry, discussing their ski plans for tomorrow. Debra sat next to Lawrence and Ken. Eloise noticed how she kept throwing impatient looks in Pippa’s direction, as if expecting her to add something intelligent to their conversation which was about finance and the world markets, a subject she noticed Lawrence joined in with, though his views were more about spreading the largesse around than keeping it for just a few people.

  ‘But it’s people like us who generate it,’ Ken said jovially.

  ‘And people like me who spend it,’ Pippa said under her breath, but Eloise heard her, and feeling sorry for her, said quietly, ‘But by spending it you give others work in shops, restaurants and things.’

  ‘You could look at it that way,’ Pippa said, ‘but this family doesn’t.’ She concentrated on dipping her cube of bread into the bubbling fondue pot.

  Eloise didn’t know any of this family. She’d spent a short time with Debra and had rather admired her for doing so well in her life, but she understood she had little patience with people who she thought ‘free-loaded’.

  ‘I was a teacher before I met Radley,’ Pippa went on quietly as if she needed to explain herself, ‘only it didn’t fit in with our life.’

  ‘I see, so is Radley in the family firm too?’ Eloise said. Radley hadn’t made much of an impression on her, he seemed to be rather intimidated by his mother, who barely hid her disapproval of his choice of wife.

  ‘Yes, he is, but he has a few of his own ideas. He’s just bought a publishing company for trade journals,’ Pippa said, before lapsing back into silence.

  Trade journals, did they include glossy holiday mags on places to stay? Eloise glanced at him sitting in silence as if he was in his own world. Was he a journalist, perhaps he was writing a review of Jacaranda?

  ‘Does he write some of the articles?’ she asked Pippa.

  ‘He’d like to, but he doesn’t really have time just now, but he might write about being here, skiing at Christmas.’

  ‘Good idea,’ Eloise said weakly, wondering if Lawrence knew. She studied Radley again, he seemed perfectly innocuous, but if his forceful mother got at him, she guessed he would write whatever she told him to.

  After supper those that wanted to went to church, Lawrence drove the others back in the minibus to Jacaranda. Travis, Radley and Ken were getting quite edgy as though feeling as if they didn’t get back to their laptops and check in on things, there might be some catastrophe.

  Eloise who’d brought the jeep went with Debra, Theo, Gaby, Vera and Jerry into the church and Pippa ran after them at the last minute.

  It started to snow as they headed to the church. Huge flakes falling silently down like soft feathers, adding to the Christmas atmosphere. The church was very crowded but they found a seat and Eloise thought of Kit and Lizzie, wondering what they were doing and wishing they were with her. She’d had a text from them earlier telling her they were now in Thailand having met up with friends. She texted back saying she’d try and telephone them tomorrow.

  She sat quietly, trying to reach out to them in her thoughts, on this first Christmas they’d spent apart. She wondered if Harvey was suffering pangs of regret about leaving their children… breaking up their family. She hoped he wasn’t here, in the church, but she didn’t look round to check. Instead she tried to concentrate on being here in this wonderful place. But her thoughts soon turned to what would happen when Christmas was over and she had to return to the house that did not yet feel like home. Her job was there when she wanted it, there were always pictures that needed to be restored, and good friends to see but, sitting here, the thought of leaving Verbier made her sad. She wished she could stay longer among the beautiful landscape, the majesty of the mountains where she felt so much at home.

  Lawrence turned up during the service and when it was over met up with the guests to take them back. But Theo, Gaby and Jerry said they wanted to go on for a drink. Eloise couldn’t help noticing that Jerry perked up, was almost amusing, joking with Theo. She was going to head back in the other jeep behind Lawrence. Vera, who had a room close by, said goodnight and slipped away.

  It was still snowing, thickly covering the ground, and Eloise was relieved to follow Lawrence’s taillights as he drove the others back to Jacaranda.

  ‘Happy Christmas, everyone,’ Lawrence said when they were all inside the chalet.

  The guests returned his Christmas greeting, and Debra and the men went into the living room, whilst Pippa escaped upstairs.

  ‘Happy Christmas, Lawrence,’ Eloise said, smiling yet feeling strangely sad.

  ‘Happy Christmas, Eloise.’ He smiled back and she wondered if he’d forgiven her for the lamb fiasco. ‘Would you like a drink with us?’ he added.

  ‘No thanks; I’ll go to bed now. Goodnight and thanks for dinner, it was lovely to go out.’ She smiled at him, resisting a foolish desire to kiss him – and there wasn’t even any mistletoe about to excuse it. She turned towards the stairs, and he called after her.

  ‘You can ski tomorrow if you want to; there will be powder snow and dinner’s not until the evening. Everyone seems to want to go out, even Debra wants to join them for lunch.’

  ‘Thank you, Lawrence, I’ll see what the day’s like,’ she said. Theo had asked her to join him, Gaby and Jerry, so that might be fun, better than moping around here at the chalet missing her children.

  She slept badly, tortured with images of her children so far away. She always gave them stockings, though of course she hadn’t this year. Kit said it was his favourite thing of the day and she wondered what their day would be like. At least they had each other and that was a comfort. She closed her mind to thoughts of Harvey.

  ‘Don’t think,’ she kept saying to herself, ‘just don’t think.’

  She had just dropped off when she heard Theo coming back, stumbling into his room. She didn’t bother to look at the time.

  Twenty-Two

  Christmas Day dawned bright, with a fresh blanket of snow clothing the trees and roofs and covering the ground. Lawrence and Theo dug out the cars. Bert jumped around barking and trying to catch any stray snowflakes in his mouth.

  Travis, Radley and Pippa, who were not very strong skiers, were leaving later with Lawrence to meet up with their guide to ski the lower runs. Ken said he’d go up with Debra, and Lawrence said he’d drop them at Medran when they were ready and go on and do a couple of runs himself, so if Eloise wanted to spend the morning skiing she could.

  ‘I h
ope you’re coming with us, Eloise,’ Theo overheard him, pulling on his reindeer headdress, complete with bells and a red nose.

  ‘Oh yes do, then we can gossip,’ Gaby said eagerly. ‘We’ve hardly had time to talk at all.’ She had a wreath of silver tinsel round her fluffy hood. Jerry was looking rather self-conscious in a red Santa hat. Not to be left out, Eloise put a couple of gold stars on her beanie and they all set off, with Eloise driving them down in the jeep.

  ‘We’re meeting up with some others after lunch, Bert’s staying here with Vera, a whole day’s too cold for him,’ Theo told her. ‘It’s just us, the intrepid ones, this morning.’

  Eloise smiled at his enthusiasm. She’d got her ski legs back and she’d ski with them this morning, and then see what happened at lunchtime. If Theo went off with friends, she might continue to ski with Gaby.

  The snow was new and soft and many of the skiers were dressed like Santas or reindeers. Two colourful characters had a sledge and were handing out chocolate bars, there was much laughter and nonsense, and Gaby, her eyes shining, said to Eloise that it was the best, the maddest Christmas she’d ever had.

  Theo suggested that they ski at Vallon D’Arby where the powder snow would be magical and they might not get the same conditions again while they were here.

  ‘I’ll just check it’s safe after the heavy snowfall,’ Theo said, going over to a ski guide waiting with a group of clients, who agreed it should be fine, but as always to take care.

  Jerry, who’d become much more animated away from the rest of his family, laughed when he heard this. ‘Course, it’s safe, they’d have closed the run if there was any danger, you know how cautious the Swiss are. Lead the way.’ He stamped his skies on the piste like an impatient horse.

  Eloise caught sight of a warning sign, a series of flags denoting the level of danger. She couldn’t remember how to read them, but Theo would know, she called out for the others to stop and check them, but they just waved and sped on, she pushed on, not wanting to lose them as she hadn’t skied on this particular slope for some time.