‘How can you not be?’ Mina wrinkled her nose. ‘I know, it’s just my thing.’
Despite the others teasing her, Mina’s favourite fact of the day was that the staff who turned the wheels in the vast storeroom talked to the cheese Apparently it was tradition for people, rather than robots, as in other factories, to turn the cheese because, as a living thing, it needed that human touch.
‘That has tickled me,’ said Mina. ‘I will never think of Gruyère in the same way again. Do you think people offload their problems? “My wife’s left me. My daughter’s pregnant.” Do you think the flavour is a little bit influenced by what they’ve heard?’
Luke slung a casual arm around her shoulder. ‘I have no idea, but it’s one of the best stories I’ve heard in a long time, and I love that it appeals so much to you. You really are a bit of a nerd about food.’
Pleased that he got it, she leaned into him, allowing herself the treat of being close to him. ‘Hell, yes. Derek says I’m the trainspotting equivalent. I don’t think I’mthatdull, do you?’ She winked at him.
‘No,’ said Luke, giving her a quick squeeze. ‘Definitely not that dull at all. Although I happen to like trains a lot.’ In that moment, as their eyes met in complete understanding, she really regretted the presence of the others.
Once the tour was done, they piled back into the bus, each of them sporting a bag of cheese – although Luke had been a lot more restrained. ‘I’ll share yours,’ he joked to Mina, this time making sure he bagged the seat next to her. Bernhardt narrowed his eyes and quickly sat down next to Uta, leaving Kristian on his own, although he’d buttonholed a young Australian couple and was chatting away to them. Mina watched out of the corner of her eye, hoping that some of Amelie’s training might have rubbed off. As both were smiling, she decided he was talking cheese rather than the principles of European patent law.
The sudden competitiveness of Bernhardt worried her as much as it amused Uta, who’d murmured, ‘I think he likes you,’ when they stepped off the bus into the village of Gruyères.
‘Mm,’ said Mina not wanting to dwell upon it. Luckily the group was stopped in their tracks by the first glimpse of the village proper.
It was, decided Mina, quite possibly the most picturesque place she had ever seen. There was even a walled castle perched on the side of the mountain overlooking the village. The main cobbled street was lined with white-painted medieval buildings protected bywide overhanging tiled roofs. Each of them was immaculate; some with neat shutters flanking the windows and others with precision-planted window boxes filled with spring daffodils and crocuses, their heads dancing in the light breeze. A couple of the houses had well-trained and -trimmed broad-leaved ivy climbing the walls, the spring green contrasting against the whitewashed walls.
Almost everyone had their cameras out, Mina included. Miriam would love this, she liked everything to be neat and tidy.
The wide cobbled street was quiet and spotlessly clean, and led up to a tiny, beautifully maintained church, with a tiled triangular peaked roof. The whole place exuded old-world charm and just invited people to come and meander through the streets, to explore and admire at their own gentle pace. It was completely enchanting, decided Mina, wondering which of the many traditional-looking restaurants with their rustic doors and windows they would chose for lunch. There was quite a choice, all offering authentic fondues.
‘There’s a place I’d quite like to visit,’ said Bernhardt turning to Mina. ‘I think you’ll like it.’ He checked the map on his phone. ‘It’s the Giger Bar. I’ve heard it’s like nothing you’ll ever see anywhere else.’
‘OK,’ said Mina always interested in something new and different. ‘What’s special about it?’
‘Wait and see.’ Bernhardt looked as if he were harbouring a particularly juicy secret, although halfway up a mountain in the shadow of a fairytale castle that looked as if it might have inspired Disney’s Cinderella’s castle, she couldn’t imagine what it could possibly be.
They followed the little blue dot on his phone and eventually came to the Giger Museum, and turned into the bar adjacent. It took a moment for Mina’s eyes to adjust from the brilliant sunshine outside to the dim interior, and then in a decidedly girly, horror film moment, she grabbed Luke’s arm.
‘Oh my god,’ she hissed quietly, as Bernhardt strutted in as proud as a peacock in full display.
Luke stared round, wide-eyed, and reached for her hand, giving it a quick squeeze under the cover of the gloom.
As they grew accustomed to the light they both stared around them in amazement, Mina’s gaze was drawn to the vaulted roof that looked as if it were supported by alien spines, with intricate rows of odd-shaped bones. At the bar, vast otherworldly chairs looked as if they’d been beamed straight from a gothicStar Trekset. The effect was both macabre and fascinating at the same time.
Bernhardt was extolling the virtues of the designer, Giger, who’d created what Mina considered the monstrous interior.
‘Not what I was expecting at all,’ she said, trying to take in the odd-shaped furniture and not-quite-human features of a set of skulls decorating a booth. Instinctively she edged closer to Luke. ‘It’s like the insides of a fossilised dinosaur,’ she whispered with a quick shudder.
Over by the bar, Bernhardt was holding court with Kristian and Uta listening intently. ‘Giger is an artist, but he’s probably most famous for his work on the filmAlienand lots of famous album covers. He has quite a cult following.’
‘I’m afraid I’m not joining.’ Mina spoke in an undertone. Maybe it was a European thing but she really didn’t like it in here. ‘Can you imagine what his dreams must have been like?’ She shuddered, quite creeped out by the place.
‘You OK?’
‘No, I really don’t like it in here.’
‘Hey Bernhardt, we’re just going back outside. Mina’s feeling a bit warm.’ Without waiting for a response, Luke guided her out of the bar, back into the light spring sunshine.
As soon as they got outside he put his arm around her and gave her a hug, and without thinking she leaned into him and he enfolded her to his chest, looking down at her with a warm smile in his eyes.
Her heart did that funny miss-a beat thing and she swallowed. Don’t look at his lips, she told herself, but she wanted him to kiss her more than anything else at that moment.
‘Better?’ he asked, looking down at her.
‘Much, thank you.’ She hugged him back, loathe to relinquish her hold on him. ‘I’m not normally that squeamish, but that wasn’t for me.’
