‘This is Harry, and this is Bella. Our munchkins. Darlings, give Emmeline a big Kristalldorf welcome.’
Lexy pushed her children with a palm on each back as they shuffled nervously forward and Emme got down to her haunches.
‘It’s so wonderful to meet you two in real life,’ she said, looking each of them in the eye. ‘Aren’t you both gorgeous?’
Despite her childcare qualification, and that brief stint in the States, Emme hadn’t had much experience in the past ten years, apart from her five-year-old nephew and niece, Zack and Zara, who she loved enormously. But what she lacked in experience she tried to make up for in planning. In the Zoom call earlier in the week Emme had gleaned all manner of clues about the children. Bella had aPaddington 2film poster on her bedroom wall when Lexy gave a brief video tour. So now she opened her bag and pulled out two cuddly bears.
‘These are for you,’ she said. ‘I got them from actual Paddington station.’
Bella gasped as she took hers, clutched it and beamed. Harry looked a little disappointed.
‘What do you say to Emmeline, Harry? Bella?’
Lexy waited for her children to say something charming and grateful, but it was taking longer than any of the adults found comfortable.
‘You can call me Emme actually, no one calls me Emmeline,’ she whispered mischievously to them, pretending to let them in on her secret.
‘Thank you,’ Bella mumbled shyly.
‘Paddington’s lame,’ Harry said, so quietly, it appeared no one else seemed to notice, but Emme did a double-take.
‘That’s quite some suitcase!’ Bill Harrington said, deftly changing the subject. Perhaps he had heard too.
‘Grab a yumbo out the front and go ahead,’ instructed Lexy.
Bill nodded.
‘I’ll follow on foot with Emmeline– Emme– and the kids.’
‘Ooh, what’s a yumbo?’ Emme asked, perhaps overplaying her excitement.
‘Oh, they’re little electric cars that zip around town. Kristalldorf is carless, don’t you know?’
‘It keeps the air clean,’ Harry said, flatly.
Bill looked like he had quite fancied the walk after sitting on two trains for hours from Zurich to Bloch, and then to Kristalldorf. But he clearly knew better than to argue with his wife right now.
‘Can we get the yumbo with Papa?’ Bella asked her mother, through lispy lips.
‘No,’ her mother said firmly. And that was the end of that.
The first fulsome snowflakes of winter were falling on the town, now shrouded by an inky navy sky.
‘Perfect timing!’ Lexy Harrington said, as if she had just pulled a giant lever and switched them on herself.
As Lexy, Emme and the kids walked from the train station, Kristalldorf unveiled itself like a hidden gem. The glow from the street lamps gave the town a timeless warmth as the peaks at the head of the valley turned from white to silver in the moonlight. The most iconic of them all– the Silberschnee– was obscured by cloud as Lexy, Harry and Bella led the way past wooden-fronted shops selling expensive watches, skiwear, tourist trinkets and chocolate. Most of them were closing, although the restaurants that peppered the centre of town were open, with staff setting tables and furnishing chairs with sheepskin blankets. In the distance, a centuries-old church chimed 6pm.
Tucked behind the shopping street was a warren of wooden huts and chalets, their sloping roofs bearing the weight of the first rising snow. Window boxes were tightly packed with geraniums, gamely fighting the chill to reveal their distorted colours to the twilight. Nestled between these were antique wooden storage barns, that looked as if sheep might be asleep inside as they had for centuries. Emme wondered how these structures endured, neighbouring such smart glass-and-wood shops and boutique hotels.
Past the church, they crossed one of several footbridges that linked the two sides of the town over the wide and flowing river, its roar drowning out Lexy’s wittering. Emme could almost smell how pristine the water was, as she tucked her hands in her pockets. Passers-by heading towards the centre all nodded and smiled at Lexy and the children in their featherdown coats, snow bootsand bobble hats. Emme felt woefully underdressed and cold in her decade-old hiking boots and the ski jacket she had borrowed from Lucille. She already knew it wouldn’t cut the mustard.
Emme had winced at the fluoro orange and turquoise monstrosity and wondered how her sister had ever worn such a thing. Now she felt self-conscious walking alongside the very polished Lexy, bucking the local trend for featherdown in a Victoriana wool coat.
As they walked, Lexy pointed out the children’s favourite bakery, the closed ski train station that took villagers to the slopes in three minutes, the riverbank path to the school and the direction of the town’s best pizza restaurant.
‘Obviously Kristalldorf looksmuchmore spectacular in the daylight…’ she said, almost defensively.
‘I think it looks beautiful now,’ Emme replied, trying to soothe Lexy’s nerves, as well as her own.
