‘That’s hardly a victory to write home about.’ He winced again.
They weren’t far from the top of the Près du Ciel village, only a few hundred metres from Snow Pine Lodge, which nestled amongst the trees demarcating the highest end of the resort. She knew she should suggest they take the Rhodos run and ski back to her place, and then he could arrange a taxi back to wherever he was staying. It was the logical and sensible thing to do. She wasn’t sure why she hesitated to suggest it, except that Lysander might be at the lodge. Gull might recognise him. He might put two and two together and realise she was part of the Harrington family, and then talk would turn, as it invariably did, to her father and his career.
Tania wondered why it felt as if that would matter. Twenty-four hours ago, she’d decided she felt nothing more than irritation about this man, that she wanted nothing to do with him. So, why would it matter if Lysander were there? Why would it matter if Gull pieced together who she was?
She handed Gull his poles. The fact was that she was enjoying the company of someone who had no idea of her identity, past the fact that her name was Tania. Someone who didn’t have a preconceived idea of what she would be like. Someone with whom she could be whoever she wanted to be, even if it was just for a while.
And she realised she didn’t want to bring the rest of the world into whatever was happening between them. This was a little piece of life that was happening to her. It had nothing to do with who she was, or who her father was, or the fact that she was Donkey’s sister, and Tania wanted to keep it that way.
It wasn’t as if this thing was going to go anywhere, anyway. It was simply a bit of fun, a chance to flirt with a stranger for a week– if she decided she wanted to. He’d already made it clear what his primary interest in her was, even if he had claimed to be drunk at the time. And he hadn’t backed down from that assertion. He’d apologised for his lack of subtlety, but he hadn’t apologised for the feelings behind the inappropriateness of his words. She liked that. He seemed refreshingly straightforward.
After a couple more turns down the run, it became clear Gull’s knee was causing him more pain than he was willing to admit. When he stopped at the side of the piste, bending his weight over his poles to relieve the pressure on his knee, she came up alongside him.
‘My place isn’t far from here,’ she said. Practicalities were outweighing her sensibilities. There was only one real choice to be made. ‘Why don’t we get you there and then reassess how your knee feels?’
He nodded. ‘Have you got a hot tub?’ he said, his gritted teeth breaking into a smile.
‘Will you stop with the hot tub thing.’
‘Sorry. Bad joke. My forte, I’m afraid,’ he said, his brows knitting together again.
‘Anyway, you’ll probably be better off with ice on your knee, not heat.’
‘Spoil-sport.’ He straightened, allowing her to lead the way.
Tania’s father had bought Snow Pine Lodge when the First Galaxy movies began breaking box-office records. With its stunning views and accessibility directly onto the piste, the lodge hadn’t been cheap. But with the money Anthony Harrington was earning for his lead role in the films, cheap hadn’t been a requirement. Secluded had been on the list. As well as spacious. Family-orientated, too, had been high up the list at the time of its purchase. Tania, aged about seven, and Lysander no more than six when they embarked on their first trip to the Alps.
The family dynamics were, to say the least, strained– and with hindsight also rather weird– with Tania and her mother accompanying her father, his second wife Brigitte and golden boy Lysander. Tania still remembered his name for her and her mother. His ‘extended family’. As if she wasn’t actually his child but had been included in some sort of a benevolent umbrella ‘catch-all’ arrangement.
She remembered a time when she wondered if being a boy would have made a difference, if it was the fact she was born a girl that had driven her father away. After all, Lysander could do no wrong. And, it seemed, Tania didn’t manage to get a whole lot right. Even her art– the one thing she loved– had so little impact on her father that he had never been to her studio, let alone allowed examples of her work to grace any of his homes. And yet, being Anthony Harrington’s daughter was a label she’d never managed to shake off, like flypaper. The more she tried to get away, the more she seemed to become stuck.
And all the while, Lysander– the boy with golden hair and, it seemed, a golden halo to match– remained determined to score points off her. Tania had never fully understood why. After all, Lysander was the one with the fame, the existence littered with celebrities and parties. He was the one gracing every red carpet he could get his size nines onto. Living the dream– or so he kept telling her. While all she had to show for herself was a stack of canvases in her studio, a couple of moderately successful exhibitions and a determination not to use her name to promote her work.
She skied gently, marginally in the lead to show Gull the way, keeping her pace right down. He’d lost the confident fluidity to his style, his turns blocky and laboured when the bad knee had to take more weight.
When they reached the tree-line, she signalled to him that they would be peeling off to the right, then kept an eye out for the wooden post, set at a discreet distance behind the piste markers, which indicated the little cut-through track which would take them to Snow Pine Lodge.
Chapter 11
Tania punched the door code, pushing the lodge door until it caught open.
‘Where shall I leave my skis?’ Gull asked. He glanced around outside, looking for the ski locker.
‘Bring them inside, it’s easier than faffing around out there.’
Following her inside the building, he leaned his skis alongside hers, in a corner. ‘Won’t the lodge people moan about all the water?’ A little puddle was already forming at the base of Tania’s skis, where the ice had begun to melt.
‘This is an emergency,’ she said, then grinned at him. ‘You’re injured.’ She wasn’t about to tell him that it was her family’s property, and she could put her skis wherever she liked. After all, it made sense to keep the skis outside, there was a perfectly good locker to put them in, but Gull’s face had been so pale by the time they’d reached the lodge that Tania wanted to get him off his knee as quickly as possible.
‘It’s two flights up to the living area, will you be all right with that?’ It dawned on her she hadn’t considered the stairs.
Perching on a bench, he eased his feet from his boots. ‘It’s fine. I’ll get some ice on it and give our chalet manager a call. I’m sure I won’t be in your way for long.’
Tania considered running upstairs, to check whether anyone else was in the lodge– primarily Lysander– then decided it was too late to worry about that. Instead, she shoved her own boots out of the way, discarded her jacket and helmet and waited for him to stand.
‘Lead the way,’ he said, leaving his helmet and gloves on the bench.
He’d lost some of his bluster, Tania thought, wondering just how badly he’d twisted his knee. Once they’d scaled the stairs, she headed for the freezer to find ice. ‘Take a seat.’ She waved her hand in the general direction of the living area, but he didn’t. Instead, he hobbled to the picture window.
