by Anne Fraser
‘What happened then?’ Caroline asked. Julie could see that the teenager was identifying with her story.
‘Up in my room, I began to get bored. It’s kind of exhausting, thinking of yourself all of the time.’ She smiled ruefully. ‘My parents made me see I needed to focus my energy somewhere. So I threw myself into my school work. Skiing and travelling around the world hadn’t left much time for studying. Although I had always managed to pass my exams, I had never excelled. And my time in hospital made me very interested in medicine.’ She finished her drink. Caroline was still hanging onto every word. ‘I thought to myself that if skiing was over, I needed another career, and maybe medicine was the one. I studied like mad and…well, I guess the rest is history.’
‘I haven’t been doing very well at school lately,’ Caroline admitted. ‘I just can’t get myself to care. And I can’t get myself to want to see my friends. Sometimes I feel so jealous of them. They still have their parents.’
‘It’s only natural to feel the way you do. You’ve suffered a terrible, shocking loss, and it will take time for life to seem better again.’
‘I don’t think it ever will.’ Caroline’s voice broke. ‘I think I’m going to feel like this for the rest of my life.’ Her eyes shimmered and Julie’s heart went out to her. She reached over and took her hand. ‘It will get better, I promise you. You’ll always miss your parents, but in time you’ll be able to think of them without experiencing the dreadful pain you’re feeling now.’
‘What happened to your mother and father?’ Caroline asked.
‘My folks were older than most by the time they had me,’ Julie said thoughtfully. ‘Mum said they had resigned themselves to not having children—then I came along.’
‘They must have been thrilled,’ Caroline said.
‘They were. But, you know, in a weird way I think they had got used to just being the two of them—and I was away so much as a child because of the skiing.’ She hesitated. ‘To be honest, I never felt truly part of the family. They were so wrapped up in each other. At times I felt like an outsider.’
Caroline looked sympathetic. ‘I always knew my parents adored me,’ she said. ‘Even knowing they loved each other terribly.’ Her voice cracked.
‘Oh, I knew mine loved me,’ Julie said. ‘But I think they loved each other more. Then, just over a year ago, my mother was diagnosed with breast cancer. It had already spread to her liver and she died a few months later.’ This time it was Julie’s voice that cracked. ‘After she died, Dad was so lost. Nothing I could do or say seemed to make a difference. Then two months after Mum, he died too. Then I was truly on my own.’
‘I’m sorry,’ Caroline said simply. She bit her lip and a tear slid down her cheek. ‘When Uncle Pierre said he was coming to Scotland, at first I was glad. At least I wouldn’t be on my own. But now that he’s here, sometimes I think he hates me.’
‘Oh, no, Caroline, I’m sure you’re mistaken. You’re his niece. His brother’s child.’
‘Sometimes,’ Caroline went on, as if Julie hadn’t spoken, ‘it’s as if he can’t bear the sight of me. Almost as if he’s angry with me and wishes he was as far away from me as possible—back in France. I don’t know why he just doesn’t go and leave me. Anyway, it’s me that should be angry with him. If he had come to Scotland instead of making them go to France, they’d still be alive.’
Julie reached for Caroline’s hand and grasped it firmly. ‘He doesn’t hate you,’ she said. ‘Maybe he too is suffering…’ She broke off as Caroline’s eyes fixed on something over her shoulder. Once again it was as if the shutters had come down. Her mouth regained its sullen downturn and her eyes became flat. Julie swivelled round in her chair to find Pierre standing over them.
‘I saw you coming in here as I was going up in the lift.’ He sat down beside them, stretching his long legs in front of him, apparently oblivious to the tension in the air. ‘The wind is getting up a bit at the top—I’m not sure how much longer we’ll be able to ski.’ He leaned back in his chair, looking relaxed.
‘Why don’t you two go on?’ Caroline said. ‘I think I’d like to rest.’
‘We could all go up together—you could show your uncle how much progress you’ve made this morning.’ Julie suggested. She slid a look at Pierre, urging him with her eyes to join her in her encouraging Caroline.
‘I’d like that,’ he said simply.
‘We could go up to the top,’ Julie suggested. ‘There are gentle red runs with only one steepish bit that would take us all the way down to the car park. It’ll take us about an hour. It’s where I take my kids.’
Pierre looked at her curiously. ‘Kids? You have children?’ he said, looking shocked.
Julie laughed and then explained about Richard. ‘When he was going through a period of remission, he persuaded me to take him to the dry slope just outside Edinburgh and give him and a group of his friends some skiing lessons. Ever since then I take them away occasionally for skiing on real snow—when there is some, that is.’
‘That’s who you were with the night of the fire?’ Caroline asked.
‘Yes.’ Julie smiled. ‘They insisted I go with them. They said they had to do what I said most of the time, so I should do as they ask at least some of the time. It was Richard’s birthday, so I could hardly refuse although nightclubs aren’t really my scene.’
Pierre was looking at her intently. There was something in his expression that made her feel warm inside.
‘You should come and meet them some time, Caroline,’ she added.
‘Why don’t you, Caroline?’ Pierre said. ‘It might help.’
Caroline stood, fastening her ski jacket. ‘I don’t think I need to hang out with a bunch of kids,’ she said dismissively. ‘Come on, if we are going up, let’s go.’
Pierre and Julie exchanged glances. She could tell from his puzzled, almost hurt look that he didn’t know what he had said wrong. She wiggled an eyebrow at him, warning him not to say any more.
The descent from the top of the hill took, as Julie had estimated, just over an hour. She skied backwards down the difficult parts of the slope, guiding Caroline while praising her efforts. Pierre, watching Julie ski, copied her. Grinning wickedly, Julie suspected he was challenging her to a backwards race, and laughed.
‘Let’s wait until we get Caroline safely down, then I’ll take you up to the Five Finger Gully. We can race from there. See if you are as good a skier as you say.’
‘You may be a good skier, a great skier, in fact, but you are still only a girl,’ he threw back at her.
So he was throwing down the gauntlet, Julie thought. Well, they would see. There was no way he was going to beat her in a race. She felt the familiar surge of adrenaline she always got when she was about to challenge herself. She was looking forward to wiping that smug grin off his face. Pierre spun round on his skis and headed off to the side. He found a series of bumps of snow, moguls, and schussed over them. Taking her eyes off Caroline, she watched him for a few moments, marvelling at the way a man of his size could look so elegant on skis. When she turned back to Caroline, the girl seemed to have found her rhythm and was heading in a straightish line down the slope. Just as Julie caught up with her, Caroline wobbled and, shrieking, collided with Julie, spilling them both in a tumbled heap. By the time Julie had untangled her skis from Caroline’s they were both in a fit of giggles.
‘Hey, I fell,’ Caroline gasped. ‘And I’m okay! And you fell too!’
‘I fall often enough,’ Julie admitted. ‘It’s all part of skiing.’ She looked up as a shadow fell across them. Pierre was looking down at them. He too was smiling.
‘Are you both okay?’ he asked. ‘And I thought you were an expert!’ Julie and Caroline looked at each other, then almost in unison they each picked up a handful of snow. Taking aim, they threw their snowballs at Pierre. Both scored direct hits—Caroline to his shoulder, Julie to his forehead. Within seconds they had a full-scale snowball fight as Pierre retaliated.<
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After taking a few hits, Julie held up her hands in surrender. ‘Enough,’ she gasped. ‘It feels as if I’ve half the mountain down my back.’
‘You admit defeat?’ Pierre asked with a glint in his eye.
Julie nodded. ‘Et tu, petite?’ he asked his niece. At her nod of confirmation, he held out his hands to the two women. ‘Let me help you up.’ Once again there was no need for words between Caroline and Julie. They let Pierre pull them halfway up then, when he was most off balance they fell back, pulling him onto the snow. Within seconds Caroline had pinned him down while Julie heaped snow down his jacket. This time it was Pierre who begged them to stop.
‘Okay. You win,’ he said. As Caroline got to her feet, he pulled Julie towards him. Losing her balance, she fell onto his chest. For a moment it felt to Julie as if the earth had stopped spinning on its axis. She looked into Pierre’s silver eyes. She was so close she could see her reflection in them. Even through the combined softness of their ski gear she was aware of the hard muscles of his body along her length. She felt a shiver of desire so strong it almost took her breath away. Flustered by her feelings and conscious of Caroline in the background, Julie extricated herself. Her heart was thumping in her chest and she could feel the heat in her cheeks.
‘We’d better get going,’ she said abruptly. ‘If we are going to have a last run after we leave Caroline.’ Caroline was replacing her skis. She looks happy, Julie thought. For once she looks how a girl of her age having fun should look like.
‘Yeah, I need some food,’ Caroline groaned. ‘I’m not used to all this exercise.’
After Pierre and Julie deposited Caroline back at the foot of the mountain, they caught the ski lift back up for the final run of the day. The clouds were darkening, and Julie suspected there was another fall of snow on the way. Going up on the chair lift, she was very conscious of Pierre next to her. She couldn’t remember when she had last had so much fun. She touched her cheek. She had even forgotten about her scar.
‘Thank you,’ Pierre said, breaking into her thoughts.
‘What for?’
‘For letting us take up your precious spare time. You are, I see, a woman who is generous with herself. I haven’t seen Caroline looking so happy since…’ He tailed off.
‘She just needs time,’ Julie said. ‘She’s a strong-willed girl. I’m sure she’ll come through it.’
‘All the same, if it wasn’t for your efforts, I suspect she’d still be holed up in that room of hers, trying to avoid me at every opportunity.’
‘She needs time to get to know you. You’ll just have to be patient with her.’
Pierre looked grim. ‘I hope it will be as simple as you say, but…’
Julie looked at him expectantly, waiting for him to go on.
‘I think she blames me for the loss of her parents,’ he said eventually. From the way he spoke the words, Julie could tell he wasn’t a man who was used to talking about emotions.
‘Why would she do that? Surely it had nothing to do with you?’
The chair lift was approaching the top of the mountain. Pierre lifted the safety bar in preparation for their arrival.
‘That’s where you’re wrong,’ he said. ‘In a way she is right. I am responsible.’ But before Julie could ask him what he meant, it was time for them to ski off the lift.
CHAPTER FIVE
JULIE and Pierre raced down the black run. He wasn’t a bad skier at all, she had to admit. Still, she knew she could ski faster if she needed to. She’d let him think he was giving a run for her money—then she’d show him.
They sped on down the slope, hitting a series of moguls. Julie bent her knees, absorbing the bumps and hardly slowing down. At the last moment Pierre shot past her, using a bigger bump on the slope to lift him into the air. To her dismay, it was enough to put him in the lead for the first time. He looked back at her, grinning widely in triumph. Let him enjoy his moment, Julie thought. Little did he know it wasn’t going to last. She waited until the perfect opportunity presented itself. A few moments later they came to the narrowest bit of the run. To the side, the snow was banked and Julie used the rise to pass Pierre before he knew what was happening. This time it was her who flashed him a grin of triumph. She crouched low, feeling the familiar surge of excitement as she allowed herself to go with the speed. Looking round, she saw that she was leaving Pierre behind. ‘Hah!’ she muttered under her breath. ‘That’ll teach you to underestimate a woman.’
She had removed her skis and was standing, watching, when Pierre skidded to a stop beside her.
‘Show-off,’ he said, but he was laughing. ‘I knew that you could ski, but I have never seen anything like it. Have you no fear, woman?’
‘Just enough to keep me safe,’ she said. ‘Anyway you’re not too bad yourself. The only man I’ve met who can give me a run for my money.’
She took a sharp intake of breath. That hadn’t come out exactly the way she had meant it to.
‘I can’t imagine there are many men who could give you “a run for your money”, as you say,’ he said with a wicked glint in his eye, ‘but I would like to try some time.’
Julie felt her heart thump. There was something in the way he was looking at her that made her breath catch in her throat. But as soon as the thought entered her mind she dismissed it. It was more likely that he saw her as one of the boys. Or a friend for his niece. His words couldn’t mean anything else, could they?
Not knowing what else to do, she looked around for Caroline, but couldn’t see her anywhere. The snow had begun to fall in earnest and it looked as if most people were leaving. The car park only had a few vehicles left. Pierre’s niece was probably sheltering indoors, but when she looked inside the restaurant Caroline was nowhere to be seen. In the meantime, Pierre had gone to check the car. But apparently Caroline wasn’t there either.
‘Where is she?’ Pierre said. ‘We should get on our way.’
Suddenly a thought struck Julie. She remembered their conversation from earlier about wanting to show her uncle what she was made of. And she had been so delighted with the progress she had made under Julie’s tuition. It wasn’t possible that she had gone up the slopes for one last run on her own. Was it?
It seemed as if Pierre was having the same thoughts. All the humour had left his face as he marched up to the gondola they had used earlier to access the middle runs. The operator was packing up for the day, the lift having completed its final run. Julie, scurrying after him, was only just in time to hear the operator’s response. ‘Yes, a young woman in a red ski jacket went up half an hour ago. I told her that it would have to be her last run and she needed to make it quick, but she went anyway. What’s up? Has she not come back down?’
Pierre swore, a long stream of French that Julie was almost thankful she couldn’t follow. She scanned the mountain. There were still a few stragglers coming down. Julie knew that staff would be skiing the slopes ensuring that no one was left on the mountain. If Caroline had got into difficulty, they would come across her—she hoped.
‘I’m going back up to look for her,’ Pierre said. Julie could see he was desperately worried.
‘You can’t go back up. They won’t let you. Not at this time. Besides, the lifts are closed.’
Pierre swung back to face her. For a moment she almost recoiled from the look in his eyes. He looked furious.
‘I will not let anything happen to Iona’s daughter.’
Surely he meant Jacques and Iona’s daughter? Julie thought. Wouldn’t it be more usual for him to think of her as his brother’s daughter?
‘They will find her,’ Julie said. But her words fell in the wind as Pierre strode off towards the main office area. Somehow Julie suspected that he would get his way. But before he reached the office Julie spotted the red jacket and brightly coloured hat belonging to Caroline. She came to a controlled halt at the bottom of the slope, almost directly in front of Pierre. As Caroline removed her hat and goggles, Julie could see she was
smiling broadly. Thank God, Julie thought, heading in the direction of Pierre and his niece.
Even from a distance she could hear Pierre berating his niece in French. Caroline’s smile had vanished, in its place the more familiar sulky look. Pierre came to an end of his tirade just as Julie reached the pair.
‘Nice to see you,’ Julie said neutrally.
‘I don’t know why he…’ Caroline cast a disdainful look at her uncle ‘…is making such a fuss. I’m perfectly all right. I just thought I’d go up one more time by myself. Just to see if I could do it.’
‘I’ve said what I had to say, now we’d better be on our way.’ He turned on his heel and headed back towards the car.
‘Typical!’ Caroline said. ‘Nothing I do is ever right. I thought he’d be pleased that I managed on my own.’
‘He was worried about you. We both were. It’s getting dark and, as you can see, the snow is really heavy now. We really need to get on our way, before it gets worse.’ Julie looked around. Needles of snow bounced off the ground. As the sun left the sky, the temperature was dropping. Tonight, Julie knew, it would be well below freezing.
‘For God’s sake,’ Caroline said. ‘Would the pair of you stop treating me like a child!’
Julie had to smile at Caroline’s furious expression. If only she knew how young she looked right at that moment.
‘I’m sorry,’ she said. ‘You’re quite right.’ She changed the subject as they trudged towards the car. ‘Well done, by the way. Who would have thought this morning that a few hours later you’d be off on your own? Next time we’ll try the harder red runs.’
‘It was great. I loved it. Every minute. Well, almost…’ She glared at her uncle’s back. Thankfully he didn’t catch the look as he was changing out of his ski boots. ‘I am sorry that we have to leave earlier than expected, but thank you for inviting me.’