His smile turned thoughtful. ‘I usually just come for the weekend but this time I’m… I’m staying longer.’ The slight pause made her think, again, like on the train, that there was something more to his words.
‘Ah, Mina. You’ve met Luke, that’s lovely.’ Amelie greeted them at the bottom of the stairs, where she was carrying a tray of wine glasses into the lovely lounge area. There were a few other people there including the two men that had arrived with Luke.
‘Hi guys. This is Mina.’ He introduced her to the two men. ‘Bernhardt and Kristian. They’re here for the weekend.’
‘How do you know each other?’ she asked.
‘Meeting here,’ said Kristian, peering at her over his glasses with the solemnity of a shortsighted owl, which was at odds with his dapper appearance in a black rollneck jumper and black trousers, and highly polished black shoes. ‘I’m from Lausanne. I work for the European Court of Justice.’ The way that he lifted his chin ever so slightly made Mina think that she was supposed to be impressed with this.
‘That sounds very interesting. You must do important work.’ From the corner of her eye, she caught Bernhardt and Luke exchange quick glances.
Kristian eye’s lit up with the holy glint of the fanatic. ‘It is. We are at the heart of the legislative process. I am in a department where we draft policy for all the countries in the European Union.’ Mina quickly realised her error as he droned on for another five minutes. At the end of it she still had no idea what he did apart from ‘it was very important work’, which he’d emphasised in every other sentence. Maybe it was the language difference. Luckily Amelie came by.
‘Enough, Kristian. What have I told you about talking to young women? Mina, come meet Frank and Claudia.’ Despite his blush, Kristian looked pathetically grateful for Amelie’s words.
‘Sorry, I did it again. It’s nerves when I meet—’ he gave Mina an apologetic smile ‘—an attractive woman. My mind goes blank and I just talk. Was I very boring?’
‘No, no.’ She laughed at his clumsy but charming apology. No one should ever complain at being described as an attractive woman. ‘I’m afraid I’m a bit tired. I’ve been travelling all day.’ She gave him a gentle smile.
‘Amelie has been trying to instruct me. I don’t think I’m very good at talking to people. I expect most people think I’m quite dull.’
‘Nonsense,’ said Mina, whose heart cracked just a little at his defeated expression as she allowed herself to be herded across the room – Amelie would have made an excellent sheepdog – towards a middle-aged coupled who were standing looking out of the window. She’d never had a problem speaking to anyone in her life and couldn’t imagine what it was like to find it difficult. Wherever she went she made new friends and found it easy, like chatting to Uta and Luke on the train earlier today. She resolved she would try and help Kristian while she was here. It wasn’t as if she had any hard-and-fast plans. Now she was here, she was wondering what she was going todofor the whole two weeks on her own. It had sounded such a good idea when she was in England – going off on holiday for two weeks – but two weeks was a long time.
‘Frank, Claudia. Let me introduce you to my goddaughter, Mina, who’s here from England. You mentioned you were thinking about taking a trip to the Lake District.’
The couple were there from Basel for a week’s hiking. They were keen walkers and after a few minutes chatting, Mina had to concede with a bright laugh, ‘You know more about the Lake District than I do.’ Despite that they fell into easy conversation and Mina enjoyed Claudia’s dry sense of humour, but all the while she was conscious of Luke somewhere behind her. She was grateful she had her back to the rest of the room, the temptation to keep peeking at him would have been too much. It was weird how aware she was of him.
‘You’re going to have a lovely couple of weeks, although,’ Claudia’s cheeks dimpled, ‘Amelie will keep you busy. She doesn’t like to see anyone by themselves. Which is why we love to come here. It’s very sociable, which is nice when you’ve had a day out with nature. Tomorrow we are skiing to Oberwald, it’s about eleven kilometres.’
‘And then we will take the train back,’ said Frank with feeling. ‘Do you ski?’
‘I’ve done downhill,’ she said, omitting to mention that it was only on an indoor ski slope, ‘but I’ve never tried cross-country skiing. It looks a lot easier.’
Claudia snorted into her wine.
‘Or maybe not?’ Mina’s eyes twinkled. ‘That’s what Luke said. Have I got it wrong?’
‘I prefer it,’ said Claudia, ‘the boots are much more comfortable. But it’s like running. You need to be fit.’
Mina liked to consider herself quite fit. She’d run a 10K in the autumn with little training, but admittedly that had been a spur of the moment thing. A friend had signed up and invited Mina to join her and before she knew it, it was October and she hadn’t got around to doing any training apart from the odd 5K on the treadmill at the gym.
‘It’s less frenetic than downhill skiing,’ said Frank. ‘The slopes are always so crowded and you take your life in your hands with all the youngsters whizzing about like small, deadly missiles.’
‘What he means is, it’s a bit safer for us oldies,’ said Claudia.
‘You’re not old,’ exclaimed Mina, although they were probably the same age as Miriam and Derek, who seemed to have been middle-aged since they were in their teens.
‘Well, we’re planning to retire very soon,’ said Frank, putting his arm around Claudia’s shoulder. ‘Which is why we come here so often. Our plan is to set up a cross-country ski-guide business and offer guided trips throughout Goms in the winter, and walking tours in the summer.’
‘I can’t wait,’ said Claudia, her eyes shining and touching Frank’s hand on her shoulder. ‘We’ve been thinking and planning it for the last two years, and in a few months we’ll be here. We’re buying a place in the next village down the valley, Gluringen, which is just darling. The house, I mean.’
‘Our daughter is going to do all the digital marketing for us,’ explained Frank. ‘And Amelie is going to let us use the chalet as a base.’
Claudia chipped in, ‘So we can meet clients here, or bring them for coffee and cake at the end of the day as part of the package.’
The two of them were almost vibrating with enthusiasm and passion. Mina was swept up in their excitement and felt a touch of envy. How amazing must it be to know exactly what you wanted to do, and how you were going to do it? To be so sure. They definitely weren’t ‘lost in the forest’ or ‘halfway across a bridge’.
‘It sounds as if you’ve got it all worked out.’
