‘I don’t have my hiking boots on.’
‘You’re fine,’ he said, sliding a glance down her body.
Emme paid and packed her goods, then Tristan did the same, placing his shopping in Emme’s paper bag and scooping it up under his arm.
Presumptuous.
He slung his other arm around Emme’s shoulder and she looked at him, puzzled. Floored by his public declaration, and somewhat self-conscious in case Tiago might see them. Anyone could see them. Tristan Du Kok with his arm around an English nanny. Tristan Du Kok with the waitress from the party where he had been punched in the face for fucking two sisters. Tristan Du Kok, the man who cut dodgy deals with Russian oligarchs. Tristan Du Kok, who Cat joked about killing his father on a hike through the mountains in order to inherit his billions.
The snow started to come down heavily, and as Tristan stopped outside the supermarket to put his gloves on, Emme couldn’t help remembering Lexy’s warning. She already knew Tristan Du Kok wasn’t to be trusted, but was she physically capable of keeping away from him?
‘Where are you taking me?’ Emme asked, as he clutched her hand tighter and they wound along a trail away from the centre of the village. The brown woody path, which bounced underfoot, had turned white with the weekend’s snow, and was hard to navigate in trainers. Emme lamented not going back to Chalet Stern to get her boots, and shestarted to get out of breath as they made their ascent above the town and the air got even thinner.
‘You’ll see…’ Tristan replied cryptically. His playful sparkle, which had been missing last night and this morning, was now back.
Emme inhaled the scents of pine and fir, which felt crisp and exhilarating against the woodsmoke curl from a distant chalet below, and they chatted as they hiked. After about twenty minutes they stopped to take in the spectacular view of Kristalldorf from above, although ostensibly it was so Emme could catch her breath. While they were paused, she fired off another text to Cat to see if she was OK, and noticed a missed call from Tom. Now was not the time to call him back, so she raised her phone and took a couple of pictures of the spectacular scenery.
‘It’s beautiful,’ Emme declared.
‘I never tire of it,’ Tristan said. He surveyed the view and Emme looked across at him in profile.
A deep boom sounded in the distance, bouncing across the valley like thunder.
‘What was that?’ Emme gasped, eyes wide.
The noise reverberated around the valley in a deep and foreboding rumble.
Tristan turned to her, his smile both penetrating and disarming her.
‘Dynamite,’ he said.
‘What?’
‘Emergency Rescue set off controlled explosions in the mountains. They do controlled avalanches to prevent catastrophic ones.’
It sounded eerie. A boom thundered again.
‘I don’t like it,’ Emme said, hurrying behind Tristan. He squeezed her hand then put his arm around her shoulder and pulled her in. She felt breathless.
‘We’re almost there.’
Where?
A mountain deer galloped onto the path on the edge of the ravine, sending a fallen tree branch tumbling off the edge. Tristan froze as the deer stopped and looked at them. He put his finger to his lips and smiled.
‘Wow,’ Emme whispered.
Tristan nodded as the deer scattered off into the white pine forest. They continued around a curve in the path when a glass structure revealed itself like an iceberg in the ocean as they rounded the corner.
‘Oh my goodness,’ Emme said. It was the shimmering hotel she could see from the town whenever she looked up to the east side of the valley.
‘Vitreum,’ Tristan said, as if it were both a blessing and a curse.
Chandeliers inside the lobby blasted fractals of light around the building. They looked like they might reach the valley walls too.
‘It’s incredible.’
Tristan ushered her forward, their hands linked until he let her go, and she looked up in awe as if she had arrived in a magical palace.
