‘Where?’
Amy scanned the area towards which Hugh’s cane extended. He was right – Tad was extracting himself from one of the deck chairs. Then he held out a hand and pulled Billie to her feet. There was no sign of Malcolm. The two figures threaded their way through the rows of chairs, chatting as they walked. Billie laughed at something Tad said, an action that had Amy feeling a ridiculous stab of jealousy. Then Billie slapped at the back of her neck, her smile fading into annoyance.
‘Hard to pick him out amongst all the other Italians up here, don’t you think?’
Amy frowned, glancing at Hugh. ‘But Tad’s Scottish.’
Hugh grinned. ‘There’s more to that boy than meets the eye, if you fancy finding out,’ Hugh said, raising his cane as Tad and Billie drew closer. ‘Ahoy there!’
Tad startled to see the pair of them, but Billie – as usual – seemed unfazed and wandered across.
‘Bloody bugs up here,’ she said by way of a greeting. ‘We can’t take it any longer. Malc’s using the facilities and then we’re heading back down. Have you been here long?’ She eyed Amy. ‘I thought you said you weren’t bothered about coming up, Amelia.’
‘I didn’t say that.’
‘Ah well, never mind. You’re here now. We’ll see you back at base, yes?’ Billie turned to Tad, bestowing one of her brilliant smiles in his direction. ‘Come on then, mybrawman. We’d better head for the cable car.’
Hugh shuffled on the path, suddenly teetering and leaning heavily on his cane as though he’d lost his balance. Amy reached to stop him from falling and Tad shot forwards to do the same from Hugh’s other side.
‘Gosh, don’t know what happened then,’ Hugh said, regaining his balance. He turned his gaze to Tad. ‘I thought I’d be all right up here, but now I’m not so sure. Must be the altitude or something. I don’t suppose there’s any chance you might want to stay a bit longer, is there, lad? I don’t want to rely on Amy to prop me up, and this pathway is rather slippery.’ He scuffed at the path to add weight to his words.
Malcolm exited the restaurant and headed across. ‘You made it after all,’ he said to Amy.
‘Thanks to Hugh,’ she said.
‘Yes, good to see you, Malcolm, but I’m afraid I’m going to steal Tad from your group. I was saying to Billie – it’s much rougher up here than I remember, so I could do with a strong arm to lean on.’
‘Couldn’t we all,’ Billie said, twinkling at Tad.
‘Sounds sensible to me,’ Malcolm said, turning to Billie. ‘Shall we leave them to it?’
Her twinkle faded, and Billie allowed herself to be guided away by Malcolm.
Once the two of them were lost from sight, Hugh straightened, looped his cane over his forearm as he’d done before, and headed for the restaurant. Tad scrabbled to keep up, glancing at Amy with a look of confusion on his face.
Amy grinned, her smile gaining traction as Hugh said, ‘I may have over-egged my situation a bit, Tad. Thought you looked as though you needed rescuing. I’ve already told Amy I intend to sit here quietly and read, so you two are free to explore.’ He pointed up the track with his otherwise redundant cane. ‘It’s very scenic up there. If I were you, I’d go that way.’
12
With Hugh settled at a shaded table, his disingenuous cane hooked over the back of his wooden chair and his thriller novel in front of him – not one of their fellow guest, Ron’s books, he pointed out with a shrug as he found his page – he dismissed them as though they were children.
‘Go. Have fun. Come back when you’re ready. They do a decent lunch up here, so there’s no rush.’
Walking away from Hugh, heading along the path as he’d suggested, Tad glanced at Amy.
‘I think we’ve been given our orders, haven’t we?’
‘I’m so sorry,’ Amy said. ‘If you want to go home, please don’t feel you need to stay on my account. Hugh is such a character.’
‘He is. But I’m more than happy to stay a while longer, do a bit of exploring – Billie didn’t stray far from the champagne bar. That is, if you don’t mind my being here?’
Amy didn’t reply. Perhaps she would have preferred it if he’d left with Billie.
‘Would you rather be alone?’ he said, biting the bullet.
‘Not at all. I’d be happy for you tostickit out a little longer up here.’ She grinned, then squashed it as though she didn’t want him to have noticed her joke. He almost told her he enjoyed her puns, had done that very first evening before everything seemed to have become overly complicated between them, but she plunged on, explaining, ‘Although I’m not sure Hugh hasn’t got the wrong end of his own stick. And I don’t mean his cane. I mean a proverbial stick. Because it seems now as though he intended for us to run into you all along. But how could he have known you’d still be up here? I thought he wanted to visit the mountain, and yet all he wants to do is sit and read his book. Why even bother to come all the way up here for that?’
Tad arched his eyebrows. ‘It is the most sensational view – I mean, if you want a backdrop to enjoy while reading, you couldn’t pick much better than this, could you?’ He swept his hand around at the view.
