by Amy Field
She could feel Jacob’s watchful eye on her, even though most of the time she was right behind him, and she felt safe in a way she hadn’t in ages. Jacob had a way not only of making you feel like you were safe with him, but that somehow you were better, stronger, and more confident than you had realized ever before. It made her want to be around him, and as they rose up the mountain and her body acclimated to the altitude, she realized that a part of her wanted to stay hiking right beside him forever.
Despite the comfort she felt in his presence and the few things she knew about him from what he’d said to the group and what she’d learned through his sister, Katie hadn’t actually talked to Jacob, that much, at least about Jacob.
“How many of these backpacking treks do you manage in a year?”
He glanced back and smiled at her. “As many as I’m able. Usually between 35-40, depending upon the length of the trek and ability of the hikers.”
“And you love it?”
“With all my heart.” He nodded and licked his lips.
“Have you ever thought of doing something else?”
He laughed again, a nervous barking sound, not like the free and easy chuckle she had heard before. He saw her response and covered his mouth in embarrassment. “I’m sorry,” he said. “Yes, I’ve thought very hard about doing other things. In fact, I trained for a very long time to do them, but trying to do anything else was precisely what drew me back here.”
“How so?”
“Well, as you know, Dina and I grew up not too far from Mont Blanc, and our parents still have a small mountain lodge and motel they run. Well, times have changed. Not so many people are after an ‘authentic’ experience when they come to the Alps; instead they want some light hiking, followed by the couple’s massage and the mud bath at the spa. So my parents wanted me to have other opportunities.”
“I understand,” Katie said, following along. “My dad has been successful with a chain of gas stations—petrol stations I guess you’d call them—but he was born and raised on a farm, and he always wanted to make sure we’d have opportunities he never had.”
“Ya, exactly. So it was decided I would volunteer for the Swiss Guard.”
Katie wasn’t sure she heard that right. “What? With the pope?”
Jacob nodded. “Ya, ya I know. And yes, I did wear the funny outfits.”
This sent Katie into paroxysms of laughter. “You were one of those funny-looking guys who stand next to the pope?” The image was comical enough that she couldn’t stop laughing. Those a little further behind started to give them looks.
Jacob chuckled easily but then said more quietly, “Catherine, please, you’re disturbing the other hikers. And I share this in confidence, no?”
“Okay, okay, but how did this happen?”
“Well, in Switzerland military service is compulsory for boys. You can wait to be called up and so assigned randomly, which usually means doing grunt work somewhere and not learning very much, or you can volunteer for the Swiss Guard and get an education, so I did.”
“What kind of an education?” She was genuinely intrigued. She had no idea those soldiers, who all looked ornamental, had any real function.
Jacob shook his head. “Is a common misconception, and one which the guard does not really want people to learn is false. In truth, we are some of the best-trained security forces in the world. I became in expert in krav maga, a sharpshooter, and a security systems specialist.”
“How long were you there?”
“Seven years. Till my marriage.”
Her face fell. He smiled sadly.
“The guards have to be unmarried, and our unit was run kind of like a mini-monastery. While I was over there I fell in love. Her name was Mona, and she ran the coffee cart I would stop by on my way into work each day. She was beautiful and fun and had an easy laugh. She was putting her way through school by working the coffee?”
Katie nodded her head. She could see the tears glistening in his eyes and knew what must be coming.
“We had decided to marry, but because I would lose my appointment we wanted to wait until she was finished with school.”
Katie nodded. He did not continue. “I’m sorry to ask this, Jacob, but this is the first you’ve mentioned her—Mona, I mean. Does she live with your parents? Or back in the lodge on…”
“No, no,” he said, wiping his eyes unashamedly. “That last year she got sick. It was cancer of the bone. I was able to donate marrow for a transplant, but it was too much. She did not survive.”
“So you never married?”
“We did,” he said. “On her deathbed. Even though I knew it meant I would lose my place in the guards. I loved her so much, it seemed the right thing to do.”
Without even noticing it Katie was crying now too. This was the most romantic thing she had ever heard. She didn’t know guys like this really existed.
“I’m so sorry, Jacob.”
He turned back to look at her. “Why?”
“Well, for all you’ve been through, all you’ve lost?”
He smiled through his tears. Katie had never seen a man so big and so strong so unashamed to be crying in public. “Thank you, Catherine, but I am not sorry. I am not sorry for one bit of it. I know that God gave Mona to me to love, and me to her, and I know that I could not ever have met her had I not joined the Guard, so I’m not sorry about that either. They were good years. And it was her death that brought me back here and helped me to start my own business acting as a guide, which put me back into the mountains where I belong. I am not sorry, except, perhaps, for ways I could have done it better. No, when I look back at my life so far, I am only grateful: very, very grateful.”
They walked in silence for a while as Katie tried to take all of this in. She could not imagine having been through what this man was through and been so comfortable with it all, not bitter, let alone grateful. Then she looked back at her own life, a veritable cakewalk by comparison, and though of how it was bitterness and frustration and envy that brought her here. She started to cry again, more softly this time, the tears stinging her cheeks and tasting salty in her mouth as it mingled with the sweat that poured down her face.
They hiked on for another two hours, but in was an easy, comfortable silence. She could remember as a little girl coming down for breakfast and seeing her parents, her dad reading the sports section of the paper, her mother the entertainment portion, and them being perfectly content just be in each other’s presence. She wanted that too, and with a man as good as Jacob.
The overlook on which they rested was breathtakingly beautiful, and the air was crisp and refreshing. Even still, Katie was beginning to feel the strain in her legs. No amount of speed skating, which was all about speed and aerodynamics, could have prepared her for multiple days of backpacking. She could do it, but it wasn’t easy.
As she munched on the panini that Jacob had grilled up just a few minutes earlier, she considered the guide with new perspective. He was an amazing physical specimen, she could see that this morning with his shirt off. He wasn’t sculpted like so many of the men she competed alongside, but his muscles were full and large and strong. She remembered a distinction her father had made once, after she’d been gushing over some boys she saw at the pool. He “man strength” and “gym strength”. Man strength was for men like him, like her father and like Jacob; it was born of hard physical labor and years of work and industry. Gym strength was a pale imitation, the sort of things that people who didn’t use their bodies for work anymore did to “stay in shape”. If you’d asked her even a month ago she would have told you she preferred gym strength, but here Jacob was proving her wrong yet again.
She thought about how strong Jacob must be to handle all his every week, almost every day of the year. And that his vacations were spent doing this, but hardcore. He spent his life helping people ascend to heights they’d never imagined, and all the while helped tired backpackers carry their equipment. To him, this was easy and natural. S
uddenly she understood: Jacob must feel on the mountainside the way she feels on the ice—like it was made just for her. The thought pleased her, but also pained her. Could she grow to love the mountains as much as she already loved the ice? And, if in some dream world he would even come and visit her, could Jacob grow to love the ice, the glamour of parties and the glory of competition? It was impossible to know, and so she put the thought far from her mind.
After they cleaned up the lunch debris they started up the trail again. She glommed on to Jacob right away, but after a quick glance towards the back of the party, to where Laurence was still keeping a keen eye on Lance, he whispered into Katie’s ear.
“Catherine,” he said. “I love our conversations, and I want to get to know you better. But I am, how you say, on the clock? I need to make sure I’m giving attention to the other hikers, and especially to this older couple from the England. They’re having a bit of trouble with the altitude and I think I have some breathing exercises that can help them.”
Katie was shocked. Jacob was asking her to hang back a little bit with some of the other hikers so that he could work with this older couple. She tried not to act hurt, but it stung. She really liked Jacob and thought he liked her too. She knew that he wasn’t making excuses, that he really did need to spend time with all of the members of the party, and she could catch glimpses of their conversation as they went, which really did have to do with hiking, climbing, and altitude sickness, but she couldn’t help but be a little put out. The woman closest to her tried to engage her in a conversation about gardening, but when it became clear that Katie had little to add to the conversation, they fell into a steady, though not altogether comfortable silence.
Around three in the afternoon the sky turned dark. Jacob passed word down the line that they were going to take cover underneath a nearby outcropping. They huddled together for more than an hour, and even though both a woman from Germany and a couple from Cleveland were invading what she normally would have considered her personal space, Katie was grateful for their closeness. It not only kept the cold and rain at bay, but kept Lance at a distance, who kept eyeing her, no longer with a lecherous leer, but now with a vacant stare. It was unnerving.
When they hit the trail again it was harder going, and some of their footholds had gotten washed out or were too muddy to navigate. After nearly an hour Jacob instructed them to turn back. There was an alternative switchback a couple of miles back; it took them out of their way and they would have to camp out overnight, but ultimately it would be safer than the trail they were on at present. There was some grumbling from the group as they were only a few miles from the town where they were supposed to rest for the night, but Katie was grateful. She trusted Jacob, and if he said it was dangerous than it must have been for a good reason.
The rain made the trails slow going, and the group hadn’t yet grown accustomed to going downhill together, so there were a number of scuffs, slides, and wipeouts. Eventually, however, Jacob found his switchback, doubled the crew over, and they made their way around and started up the far side of the mountain. They pushed hard, far harder than the day before. By the time they broke to make camp it was almost dark, and everyone, including Jacob, was tired, hungry, and irritable.
Katie had not made eye contact with Lance since the incident that morning, but she could feel his eyes on her at every turn. She’d had a problem with a stalker a few years back. That one had been a girl, a young skater who was fangirling on her, but who started following her, sending her random texts. One night she came home to find the girl in her apartment; the thought still sent shivers down her spine. She had no desire whatever to repeat that episode, especially with a man who was older, smarter, and had virtually unlimited resources.
After she and Dina had pitched their tent Dina had gone over to help Jacob with a dining fly and dinner. Katie had gone off by herself a ways, first to pee, and then to look over the edge from their new vantage point. She could still see the general area of the camp, but they were a good hundred yards away—just enough privacy to really think.
Unfortunately, Lance apparently had the same idea. Given the speed with which he got to her she knew he must’ve been watching since she went to the bathroom, which made her shiver in disgust. He made no pretense this time. He walked right up to her, pressed one hand up against her throat and the other to her right breast.
“Had time to reconsider, Catherine?” Somehow he made her name sound like a taunt, which only made her want to use it more.
“Reconsider what? Whether to call the police now or wait till we get back to base camp? I’m sure they’d be happy to make the trip up the mountain if it meant catching a winner like you.”
“A winner? That’s rich, considering your performance in the last Olympics.”
Katie tried to keep her face calm, but inside she was raging. He’d figured out who she was. Now, no matter what happened, her cover was blown for the whole trip. She wondered if this was what he’d try to extort her with for sex.
“Congratulations, Counselor,” she tried to use his title with the same level of disdain he’d afforded her name. “Looks like you’re a super-sleuth. Now will you let me go? I’m pretty sure assault is illegal, even here in Switzerland.”
This seemed to amuse him. He let go of her throat and dropped the hand on her breast to her waist, then reached up with his other hand to do the same. He took a step inward and kissed her, hard.
“And what crime, would that be, Sweetheart?”
She bent her head and spat contemptuously to the ground, as though she’d just had a swallow of something especially vile.
“A crime against all decent kissers everywhere.”
He pressed himself up against her. For the first time she grew really scared. He could rape her and she wasn’t sure that they others would hear. Her heart started to pound.
“Listen, Katie. You are beautiful, even if you’re trying to hide it by dressing down in Europe and slumming it like some cheap tourist. And you’ve got resources and you’ve got fame, and if my bookie back in Berkeley has it right, you’ve got a real shot at the gold next winter. It would be a real shame to lose all that, just because you weren’t willing to play ball right now.”
He moved in again, and she felt his serpentine tongue probe first her mouth, and then retract to tickle her jawline and up her ear. She let out a yelp, but she knew enough that it could just as easily have been a cry of ecstasy as a call for help.
“Besides,” he said, pressing his hips closer. “We’ll make such a good team.”
He kissed her again, and then his hands were all over her. He was working feverishly, trying to unbutton her blouse and feel her up all at the same time. The words came out of his mouth with equal force. He could tell she was looking over at the camp, wondering if help would come.
“Forget the Boy Scout,” he whispered devilishly. “Not only am I better company, but I get paid for what I do. I make more in a week than he makes in a year.”
And suddenly he was gone. It happened so fast that Katie didn’t even see the blow coming. It came from the side and landed squarely on Lance’s right ear. Instinctively she moved to cover herself, though she still had on the t-shirt she’d been wearing underneath her button down, and he’d only managed to get the belt and top of her jeans undone.
Lance was on the ground swearing, blood pouring out of the ear that had been struck.
“You ruptured my eardrum you country--!”
“Shut up.”
And he did. The words seemed actually to sting Lance more than the blow.
There was a pause, during which Lance lifted himself from the ground and approached the larger man.
“What did you just say to me?”
Jacob stood his ground. “I told you to shut your filthy mouth.”
Lance nodded and smiled slightly, tuning to his right. Then, all of a sudden, he came up with a left hook and caught Jacob squarely in the jaw. He staggered slightly but stayed on his feet
, then spat blood and smiled back at his opponent.
“Feel better, Lance?”
“Not half as good as I’ll feel after I’ve had your ass in court.”
“For what? Defending a victim of attempted rape?”
The whole of the camp had come over now to see what was happening.
“Rape? What rape? This girl has been flirting with me since she arrived. In fact, you’re the one that sat us together right at the beginning.
Anger flashed in Jacob’s eyes, but he would not take the bait.
Katie spoke. “I have not been coming on to you. In fact I, and half the women here, have spent our whole vacation, away from home and creeps like you, trying to figure out how to avoid you.”
Lance looked as if he hadn’t heard a word.
Jacob relaxed his fists and took two steps closer to Lance.
“I told you at the beginning,” he turned to the crowd which had gathered. “I told you all,” then back to Lance. “That your safety was my highest priority. You, Sir,” he poked Lance in the chest now. “Have violated that safety. You have made this trip and this place uncomfortable: for Miss Cory, for Me, and for everyone else on this hike.” He turned back to the group. “Am I right?”
A chorus of assent came from the crowd. Lance paled visibly.
“And who here would be willing to testify against this scum in court?”
Again, the crowd answered, and Lance seemed to visibly pale.
“I’m a powerful man,” he protested. “You, you, you,” he tried feebly to poke Jacob in the chest. It did not work. “You’re just a guide.”
“That’s true. I am ‘just a guide’. Unfortunately for you, I am no longer your guide, and you now have to find your own way back down the mountain.”
“What?” He looked around, incredulous.
“You’ve physically attacked me and a member of my hiking party. You’ve sexually harassed this woman,” he motioned towards Katie, who was still up against the tree, “and my own sister. And you’ve been drinking since we started, which is a danger to everyone on the trek. You pose just as real a threat as a bear or wild boar. So I’m cutting you off. You keep at least a hundred yards away from us for the rest of the trek, or I’ll be forced to fight you off like a wild animal. Do I make myself clear?”