Feeling her mood deflating, she took one last look at the windows and gave them a quick salute. Good old Marc Chagall. He’d been eighty when he’d designed the windows – surely that meant there was time for her to find something more meaningful in her life?
‘Can I collect my case, please? And thank you so much for the leaflet, it was really useful.’
Mina nodded at the receptionist, who’d been so helpful earlier.
‘Ah, good. I’m pleased. Does your case have a name on it?’
‘It has aHarry Potterluggage tag on it.’ She grinned, remembering carefully inscribing the very succinct address.Amelie’s. Reckingen, Valais, Switzerland.
The woman smiled back and disappeared into the small office just off the reception area before returning with the case. Mina grasped the handle and headed out along the street and across the road to the railway station, feeling a quick kick of anticipation. On to the next leg of her holiday. Proper snow and mountains.
As soon as she entered the station her eyes scanned the kiosks looking for one particular name and there it was.Brezelkönig. Unfortunately her impulsive diversion into the chocolate shop had messed up her judicious allocation of time, and she only had ten minutes to find the platform and board her train. She faltered for a second – but Amelie’s last email had included an instruction: Mina ‘must try akurbiskernenfrom Brezelkönig in the station. They are the best.’
As she hesitated she caught the rich yeasty smell wafting across the concourse. With sudden decisiveness she altered her course and dashed up to the window of the kiosk. There was a fine selection of dark golden brown pretzels with their glossy, shiny skin, and also a bit of a queue – but she was here now, and she’d need more than chocolate to eat on the train. As she stood in line, her mouth began to water and her eyes homed in on thekurbiskernen: a pumpkin seed-covered prezel. Finally when she reached the front of the queue, not trusting her schoolgirl German, she pointed to the pretzel and held up two fingers; it was a long journey after all. The girl serving immediately answered in English which made Mina smile with chagrin. She should have at least tried. Handing over her cash, she said, ‘Danke schön,’ and immediately felt a bit better for making some effort.
Grasping her paper bag, she searched the departure boards and spotted the train going to Brig, which was where she had to change to get the train that travelled up through to Goms.
Platform 32. To her horror she realised that was in the lower level of the station, and she had precisely six minutes to find it. Picking up speed, she began to weave her way through the crowd and immediately found herself caught up in a cluster of schoolchildren. It was like dodging a meteor shower as they veered in front of her from all directions. After a near-miss with a small boy, she extricated herself and dived towards the escalator going down to the lower floor.
Half dragging and half lifting her suitcase, she tried to hurry down, receiving irritated glares as she pushed past the other serene passengers who seemed in no rush at all.
Running along, she counted down the platforms, twenty, twenty-three, thirty and phew, thirty-two. To her horror the platform was empty and the doors were closing. Hauling in a dry breath, she belted down the platform heading for the nearest open door which was just being closed.
‘Hey,’ she called. ‘Can you hold the door?’
There was a whistle and she put in an extra burst of speed, drawing level with the door. A man leaned out and grabbed her case, threw it in, and then hauled her in through the door with so much momentum that they both went tumbling to the floor, the door slamming behind them.
Before Mina had a chance to disentangle herself from the sprawl of his and her limbs, the train began moving.
‘Phew, that was a close one.’ She beamed in delighted triumph at her saviour who was wincing. ‘Thank you so much.’
‘Mmph, I don’t suppose you could get your elbow out of my solar plexus.’
‘Oh, yes, sorry. Of course, although I’m not sure where the solar plexus is.’
‘I think you’ll find it’s currently at the end of your very pointy elbow.’
She shifted immediately and he sat up, pushing back an unruly mop of sunshine-highlighted curls from his face, revealing dancing blue eyes and a lopsided wide mouth, already curving into a ready smile. The slightly too-long wayward hair looked as if it had seen an extended season in the sun somewhere, and the overall impression of sunshine and happiness made it impossible not to smile back.
‘Oh, I’m sorry. Are you OK?’ She reached out with her hands to touch him and then stopped halfway, realising it was probably totally inappropriate on less than thirty seconds’ acquaintance, but there was just something about him that made her feel at ease, as if he were in the habit of conducting conversations on the floor of a train all the time and it was completely normal.
He shot her another dazzling grin that made her feel a little fizzy inside. Probably just the adrenaline buzz after nearly missing the train.
‘I’m fine. Although you do have exceptionally pointy elbows.’
She examined her elbow. ‘Do you think they’re pointier than most people’s?’
With a tilt of his head, he studied her arm as he rubbed his chest. ‘Yes, and I’m prepared to give you a testimonial if you ever need one. But it was a pretty damn brilliant rescue, you have to admit.’ This time the grin on his face was decidedly cocky, but still full of good humour.
‘I do. A perfect knight with metaphorical shining armour. Although if you had been wearing armour the elbow wouldn’t have been a problem. Thank you again.’
‘So do I get one of these?’ He held up one of her chocolate bars, which must have spilled from her bag. The sunshine streaming in through the window glistened on the golden hairs on his arms. Mina knew that finding arms attractive might be considered strange, but it was her thing, and those forearms were lovely enough that it was tempting to reach out and stroke them. That would be weird, wouldn’t it?
‘Hmm,’ she sucked in a considering breath and looked at him, deliberately studying his face, realising that her pulse had just tripped ever so slightly. ‘I’m not sure it’s worth a whole bar.’
Although she wouldn’t mind sharing it with him; he had a very nice face. Good strong jaw with sand grains of bristle glinting on his chin and definite laughter lines etched in tanned skin fanning out from his dark-fringed eyes, which were deep set and very blue. If they ever had babies together, they’d be gorgeous – and just as quickly she slammed that thought down.
‘A rescue like that. Come on.’ Now he was twinkly-eyed, encouraging her in the game.
