Madeleine hadn’t appreciated just how hot a hot tub would be. Plus, by the time she had shed her dressing gown onto a peg on the wall and made her way across the icy lumps on the decking, she was freezing, making the difference in temperature even more extreme.
‘Holy Mother of God,’ she squeaked as she lowered herself into the water. ‘Is it supposed to be this hot?’
Tania laughed and poured her a glass of something bubbly from a bottle chilling in a pile of snow. Madeleine couldn’t help but notice the tiny bikini Tania wore. The kind of garment which shouldn’t even claim that description. It was no more than a few scraps of material joined by what looked, to Madeleine, like dental floss. It instantly made her feel frumpy in her carefully shaped, but ultimately flesh-covering blue swimsuit.
Sweat prickled on her top lip. How was it possible to be so hot after having been so cold? She wondered if this came close to what a Roman caldarium would have been like. Although she assumed those existed without the jets of bubbly water which currently pummelled her shoulders and thighs, or the underwater lights set to a rotating disco of changing colours.
This was– truly– how the other half lived, she thought, as she sipped her Prosecco.
And then it began to snow.
Madeleine felt like a volcano, with her head in the feather-light falling snow and her feet in molten magma. She settled back into the jets of water and closed her eyes. ‘This is fantastic,’ she said.
Nobody moved, or said anything, for a while. Not even when someone hammered on the main door.
‘Tom will get it,’ Tania said, without even opening her eyes.
The hot tub worked through its cycles of lights and jets, systematically pummelling most of Madeleine’s tight muscles. She shifted herself a few times, beginning to understand why Rose had been so keen for her to try this, then took the opportunity to study her from beneath lazy, half-open eyelids. Rose had released her hair from its complex braids so the natural spring was back in her midnight curls. With a soft gathering of snowflakes on the uppermost strands, and the steam from the tub softening the vibrancy of the red of her costume against the richness of the curves and colour of her skin, Madeleine wasn’t sure that she’d ever seen Rose look more amazing. Which was saying something.
In this company, Madeleine definitely felt like the odd one out. Rose was a knock-out. Obviously. Eyes capable of melting the flintiest heart at a hundred paces, and a smile that made the recipient feel like she was the only person in the world– one look at Rose and Madeleine challenged anyone not to be captivated. And Tania was one of those women to whom fate had dealt the finest cheekbones and a body seventy-five per cent of straight men would like to get their hands on. No, make that eighty per cent. As for Clara? She was tiny in stature, and fiercely pretty with infinity-pool eyes shaded by a feathering of pale hair. Elfin. There was no other word for it. Even amidst the grief she was enduring, she still drew the eye.
Madeleine snorted a quiet laugh into her glass at the thought of how she could describe herself. Mid-brown, mid-length straight hair. Bog-standard brown eyes which were, in her opinion, undersized and placed too close to the bridge of a nose nobody would put on their Christmas list. Pale skin with a tendency towards insipidity. Chunky frame. Nothing, absolutely nothing, special about her in comparison to these other women.
The sneaking feeling of self-doubt was back. How had she managed to have Rose fall for her? Was what they had real, or was it nothing more than a massive stroke of luck? A dream she’d wake from at any moment?
She sighed and closed her eyes again.
After a while, she wiped the sweat from her forehead and finished her Prosecco. Time to mix things up. She glanced at Tania, then said, ‘There is one thing I’ve been wondering about.’ She studied the dimensions of the tub again, the hub of the jets rising into the centre of the pool, their legs slotted either side.
‘Oh, yes?’
‘If you have sex in a hot tub, who goes where?’ she asked. ‘I mean, there are only a limited number of options, aren’t there? Position-wise?’
Tania rose up from the water like Halle Berry coming out of the sea, minus the big boobs. ‘Do you want me to show you?’ she said, advancing towards her. Then she laughed. ‘You crack me up, Madeleine. But I’m getting out, I’m done. You girls stay in as long as you want.’
By the time Tania headed up to the living area, dinner was almost ready. Tom was topping tiny crostini with teaspoons full of salsa, while Clara leaned against the kitchen counter and chatted to him. There was no sign of Rose or Madeleine, but they were sharing a bathroom, so she supposed it would take them longer. Ridiculous, really, the whole moving rooms in order to accommodate the Donkey. But that was the kind of over-the-top adoration her little brother always seemed to muster from people, even complete strangers. Especially complete strangers.
‘Oh, Tania?’ Tom gestured towards a bottle on the edge of the kitchen work surface nearest the dining room table. ‘Someone dropped that off for you earlier.’
‘Who was it?’
‘He didn’t say. Tall, dark-haired guy; sounded English. Late twenties, maybe early thirties? There’s a note with it.’
Tania felt her stomach lurch at the description. She ran a hand through her hair, still damp from the shower, and picked up the bottle. Tall and narrow, with a red wax seal and a twig of a dried flower floating within the pale golden liquid, Tania knew exactly what it was. Génépi. A liqueur flavoured with the alpine flower from which it took its name. She frowned. An envelope was taped to it, her name scrawled on it.
Nobody was paying any attention– Clara was in the kitchen, focused on helping Tom with the canapés. Her friend had more life in her face than Tania had seen for such a long time. Colour and animation and even a flicker of happiness in her bright blue eyes. The decision to spend the day– the plan to spend the rest of the week– cultivating Clara’s sense of well-being was definitely the right one.
Turning the envelope over, she pulled at the flap. It wouldn’t hurt to take a look. The note was short and to the point.
I can take a hint. Probably just as well we didn’t get a dog. But you can’t blame a guy for trying. Gull.
Chapter 18
Tania wondered how long Gull had waited at the pizzeria before he’d given up on her. Also, why had he bothered to come all the way up to the lodge, just to leave her the bottle? After making the effort to come all the way up here, why hadn’t he asked to see her?
The tone of the note held the answer to her questions, though, didn’t it? She wondered if he’d bought the génépi before or after her no-show at the pizza place. She’d put money on before. And then, when she didn’t show, he must have decided to deliver it anyway.
She slipped the piece of paper back into the flap of the envelope and set it gently alongside the bottle on the table. Squeezing her eyes shut, she ran a hand across her forehead, her brows furrowing as she did so.
