A Winter Affair (34 page)

She wished now she were skiing high on some mountain surrounded by the savage beauty of nature, the snow under her feet and the feeling of liberation as she skied down with the wind in her hair and her worries blown away in the magic of it all.

Bert barked at the door, wanting to go out, and she decided to drop everything and go with him. It would only be a walk, but it would be a long one, and she needed to be outside to calm her troubled mind.

She opened the door to let him go while she put on her coat and boots and they set out. It was very cold but the sky was dazzling blue and they took the path that led to the main mountains. Either side of the path were fir trees, their branches heavy with snow. There was a stillness about the place, every so often broken by the soft fall of snow toppling from an overladen branch. Bert ran here and there, picked up a fir cone in his mouth and nudged her legs until she threw it, and he ran, barking excitedly, to bring it back to her to do again and again until she protested that she was bored of the game.

They went on up the path until they reached the top of one of the nursery slopes, the last bit of the run from the top. The skiers coming down turned on to it to ski to the bottom and home.

Ahead she saw someone coming straight towards the path they were standing on. She stood aside so the person could pass them, but Bert began to bark and run round in circles.

‘Bert,' she called, going to him and bending down to calm him, ‘what a fuss; other people are allowed to use this path as well as us.'

Bert broke free and ran yelping in excitement, narrowly missing being run down by the skier, who stopped and, laughing, bent down to pat him, and she realized it was Lawrence, his face covered with goggles and a scarf.

With Bert under one arm trying to lick his face, he came slowly down to where she stood.

‘Eloise, out for a walk?' He put Bert down and lifted his goggles and pushed away his scarf.

‘Yes,' she said, ‘I've hardly done any walks since I've been here and I love this place.'

‘Me too,' he said, studying her face as if he had not looked at her properly before. He said, ‘Have you come to a decision about staying on. I'm sorry, I must know today, the chef Paddy recommended has been offered something else and needs to know at once.'

She was leaving, was she not? She'd stay until the next chef arrived as planned and then go home, and leave Jacaranda… and Lawrence for Aurelia. And yet she could not bear to leave. Standing here beside him in the snow, at the base of the mountain surrounded by pine trees, the fresh scent of them sharp on the air, she wanted to stay, where else in the world would she feel so alive, so much a part of nature?

Lawrence bent down and took off his skis. ‘It's easier to walk down from here,' he said. ‘So have you made up your mind?' His voice was harsh now; he did not look at her.

‘Yes.' She felt a stab of pain at his tone; she was still sore after Harvey's departure, and there was Aurelia waiting to grab Lawrence, had grabbed him already for all she knew. ‘I‘m going home. Of course I'll stay until the next chef arrives.'

‘I see.' He looked away, his mouth set firm. ‘If that's your decision. Theo will miss you, all your baking, and Bert.' He gestured towards the little dog who was playing catch the fir cone with himself.

‘And will you?' The words she didn't mean to say hung in the silence. How foolish she was, she was about to make a joke only she couldn't think of one. He turned to face her.

‘What do you think, Eloise?' he said quietly.

What could she say? Whatever it was it would sound wrong. ‘I doubt you will,' she said, ‘you won't have to worry that I'll mess up with some terrible cooking fiasco, or let Bert mangle the dinner, you'll have a real chef and it will be a relief and…'

‘No,' he said and before she knew it she was in his arms, his lips fierce upon hers. She kissed him back, their passion rising, all she wanted was to stay here with him forever.

He lifted his head and gazed at her his eyes warm with love. ‘You cannot go,' he said, stroking back her hair, ‘I will not let you.'

‘But… I…' It felt so right being here in his arms, but if he wanted to go into business with Aurelia it couldn't work and she'd not be hurt again. ‘I know that you want to – have to, upgrade Jacaranda to move with the times, and Aurelia will be a good partner, and you need a professional chef for that, I understand.'

‘What?' he frowned. ‘What's all this about Aurelia?'

‘She came to the chalet when you'd left. Said she'd come to measure up, as she put it that you and her were going into business together… I quite understand.'

‘But that's not true,' he protested. ‘It's true I thought about it when I worried that I'd lose Jacaranda, but you saved that disaster.' He kissed her again and she felt herself melting, yielding to him, she must trust him, stop being afraid of being hurt as Harvey had hurt her.

‘But Aurelia seems very determined,' she said, holding him back a moment, ‘and she does have a good business of her own which could tie in well with yours.' She yearned to stay with him and yet she could not cope with Aurelia's scorn.

‘She's a determined person and that's one of the reasons I'd never go in with her, I was tempted, it's true, when I thought I'd be landed with huge legal bills if Debra sued, but even then I had begun to realize it just wouldn't work, she and I in business together.' He kissed her again and she felt herself relax, she'd let her pain over the break-up of her marriage stifle her growing feelings for Lawrence. She loved him, plain and simple, and she would go with it wherever it led.

‘I love you,' she said, kissing him again.' I love you, Lawrence.'

His face was radiant. ‘I think I've loved you since that night Bert stole the lamb,' he laughed, ‘but I hid it from myself and from you, thinking you were still in love with your ex-husband, and maybe he'd come here to try and make up.'

‘No, it was a dreadful coincidence that he was here and now that is a chapter ended.'

‘Come on, let's go back to Jacaranda. I want to make love to you.'

They walked back together along the path, Lawrence carrying his skies on one shoulder, his free arm round her, and Bert running beside them. Eloise felt complete, her lost and lonely feelings gone. She thought of how nervous Desmond's insistence that she could cook at Jacaranda made her and how she'd taken the challenge. He was a wily old bird, had he known all along how it would end? She laughed, joy filling her. ‘Your father started this,' she said. ‘Do you think he meant us to fall in love?'

‘We'll have to ask him when he comes,' he said, smiling.

‘I'm longing to see him, but…' She frowned as the thought hit her. ‘Perhaps if you want to keep with this top agency, it may be best that you do employ a top chef.'

‘I don't want to,' he protested. ‘You're like Maddy, have the same gift of making a place seem like a home and that's what Jacaranda is to be in the future, a home from home.' He kissed her again. ‘Kiss the cook, your apron says, and that's something I've been longing to do ever since you came.'

 

 

 

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My sincere thanks to my agent Judith Murdoch and my editors Caroline Ridding and Sarah Ritherdon at Aria.

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Book Title:

Alice finds herself suddenly widowed in her early forties, leaving her with an empty house and a lonely heart. Laura and Evie, her twenty-something daughters announce their separate and unexpected news, which ploughs Alice straight out of grieving and into the prospect planning a wedding and becoming a reluctant – yet glamorous – granny.

Frank, an old family friend returns to give his godchild Laura away at the wedding. A whole host of secrets unfold that rock the family's foundations and set Alice free to begin a new, exciting chapter of her life.

‘No … Evie, you're pregnant?' Alice sank down on the sofa, staring in dismay at her younger daughter. This was a bad joke, it couldn't be happening, not just now. ‘You… you never said you were seeing anyone,' she said weakly, imagining some careless young man barely out of uni the same age as Evie with little hope of giving the child a decent start in life.

‘But you're going to be a granny, Mum,' Evie said as if awarding her a prize.