He squeezed her back. Anastasia stayed seated, almost bemused by the entrance.
‘Kiki,’ Lysander nodded.
‘Hi, honey,’ she said, blowing her stepson a kiss.
Lysander was tall, with salt and pepper hair and grey-blue eyes, and he spoke with an American accent, after two decades in the United States as a top-brass lawyer, living in a very gorgeous pied à terre overlooking CentralPark. At weekends he retreated to an oceanfront house on Fire Island with his wife and son. He was rarely ever in Switzerland any more.
‘Is Blake coming?’ Orfeas asked keenly.
‘No, Meg and Blakey couldn’t make it, buddy– Blake has school and Meg issnowed.’
I bet,thought Anastasia. Her sister-in-law was always overwhelmed by the latest gala event or fundraiser she was planning. She seemed to live for charity. Whether it was for botanical research, music therapy, Haiti or Gaza, she was often at The Pierre or The Plaza, hosting or speaking at a dinner or a black-tie ball. Fundraising was a full-time job for that Real Housewife of New York City.
‘What a surprise!’ Walter seemed to visibly relax for the first time that evening. What a timely visit. He really could use his son’s counsel right now.
‘Well I wouldn’t miss Pop’s seventieth, not for the world,’ he said.
Lysander turned to his baby sister.
‘What’s this I hear about you having a new fancy man, sis? Are you finally over the Joubert boy?’ he teased her.
Vivian smiled sweetly to conceal her annoyance and sat back down. She wasn’t being coy. In fact, tonight she had been hoping to reveal him as her new boyfriend. After years of cat and mouse, lingering and longing, she felt that perhaps they might be able to make it official with his appearance at dinner.
Anastasia finally stood up to kiss her brother on each cheek.
A reverent butler entered the dining room, already carrying a spare chair, followed by maids carrying china. Theyset a place between Vivian and her father, and Lysander sat down seamlessly as the chair was put in place.
‘This is such a wonderful surprise,you’llcome with me to the Borromeo wedding tomorrow!’ Walter declared, as if it was his best idea ever. ‘You don’t mind, do you my love?’ He said it with barely a glance in Kiki’s direction, and didn’t notice her looking affronted. Anastasia and Vivian both bristled internally. They knew about the Italian society wedding of the year, and were rather surprised not to have been invited. Vivian was less bothered than Anastasia: she had a busy weekend with all the people in town for the mountain marathon and most of the hotels were at full occupancy. Anastasia would have quite liked to have gone. It would have given her a reason to escape the dreadful drudgery of a weekend with Dimitri and their children.
Anastasia and Vivian both knew Walter was invited alongside a plus one, for Kiki. Now their father was giving up Kiki’s spot for their brother.
‘Sounds like a hoot,’ Lysander said, with a broad smile.
Chapter Six
‘Welcome back to Chalet Edelweiss, Catalina.’
Cat was unpacking in the smallest bedroom, a cosy single room in the loft that had a skylight view of the Silberschnee’s peak. Lumi Kivvi was leaning on the frame of Cat’s bedroom door. She didn’t often mix with the help, but she did look after them, and she had been devastated for Cat when her beloved grandmother had passed away suddenly, insisting she fly straight home for the funeral and paying for her ticket.
‘How was it?’ she asked, her blue eyes jumping out from the soft edges of an elegant silver-blonde bob.
Cat smiled wanly. Despite the hideousness of having to say goodbye toAbuela, shehadcaught up with cousins, seen friends she studied with at culinary arts school in Buenos Aires, and sought inspiration in the new restaurants of Palermo, San Telmo and Recoleta, getting fine dining ideas she could serve to the Kivvis (Lumi would appreciate them, even if Viktor and Mika didn’t). The trip had also been a circuit breaker for Cat. A chance to draw a line under a toxic affair that had gripped her for most of the past year. Cat had been thinking of her ex-lover as she idly folded her underwear away.
‘It was OK, thank you,’ Cat was grateful, both for the concern and for the interruption.
‘How’s your mother coping?’
Lumi was a thoughtful boss and a thoughtful mother. She had been a nurse when she met Viktor in Helsinki twenty-five years ago, and had had three children with him: Aapo was twenty-four and an Olympic fencer who lived and trained in Paris. Mika was nineteen, and could mostly be found bumming around the chalet getting stoned. And young Stella, at fourteen, was still boarding at a very exclusive private school on the banks of Lake Geneva.
Three children, all born five years apart. Lumi had given the past quarter of a century to her family, getting back into the difficult baby years each time just as she thought she was coming out of them. It was only in the past few years that she had spent more time on philanthropy, putting the interest on her husband’s billions to good use while he continued to take over the planet, one elevator and escalator at a time.
‘My mother is coping well, thank you, ma’am. She was glad to have me home.’
‘Well, it’s good to see you looking so well. Take your time easing back into things here, although we did miss your summer rolls– oh those rolls!’ Lumi rolled her eyes heavenwards. Cat was excellent at fusing any cuisine. Argentinian steak sliced into Vietnamese summer rolls and flavoured with mint and holy basil. Hearty pork knuckle and cider stews from central Europe given a North African twist with apricots and cinnamon. French stews and fish soups served with homemade American-style corn breads. Cat dreamed of food, when she wasn’t dreaming about her lover. Fortunately, she’d returned to a kitchen that the maid had fully stocked.
‘Is it just you and Mika for dinner tonight, ma’am?’
‘Yes, Viktor’s in Helsinki but he’s flying in late tonight for the Borromeo wedding tomorrow.’
