‘No,’ he answered with fierce reassurance. ‘Not here. Saint-Chambéry, it is very nice.’
‘You could say that about anywhere. Just because a place seems nice, doesn’t mean bad things don’t happen.’ There was definite panic in her tone now. She was already drawing her phone out of her pocket. ‘God! Is thereanysignalanywherearound here? I need to phone her! I need to find her!’
‘There is no need to panic,’ Jacques told her.
‘Is there not? Because, so far, since I’ve been here, I’ve been in an RTA, walked in freezing conditions and now my sister is missing! I’d say I should have started panicking the minute I got off the plane!’
‘Orla?’
The girl’s voice sent a shot of relief down Jacques’s spine. There she was, a steaming cup of something in her hands.
‘Oh, Erin! Thank God! I thought you’d been taken by… wolves or… something worse.’
‘Do not hug me!’ the girl responded, drawing the drink towards her body as if to prevent contact.
‘OK,’ Jacques said, clapping his gloved hands together. ‘You are reunited.Youhave a hot drink. I am out of here before Gerard turns into an ice sculpture.’ He turned away from them. He was going to find where the hell Milo had got to.
‘Wait!’ the woman called. ‘Which way is… Delphine?’
He turned around. ‘Over there. The store.’ He pointed and then took off again. He couldn’t wait for this night to be over.
10
‘Please, take another cookie before I put them on the stall!’
They were inside a grocery shop that seemed to double as a café at one end. Everything in here was made from wood, from the beamed ceiling, the shelves stocking household essentials and gift items – small pots of honey, soaps, deer milk – and the café tables and chairs. It was quintessentially Alpine.
‘Can I have another two?’
‘One, Erin,’ Orla said as her sister reached out to the stack of beautiful and frankly delicious-smelling biscuits Delphine was holding on a wooden tray. They had found Delphine, no thanks to Jacques’s vague finger-pointing, and Orla had quickly introduced them. The woman was in her late sixties, petite, short dark hair highlighted with just a little grey and big glasses on her face that kept slipping down her nose. She was also a bustler. She didn’t seem to be able to keep still, energy flowing from her. It wasn’t a bad thing, but it was a little frenetic given they’d just arrived.
‘But I’m hungry!’ Erin complained, a little colour back in her cheeks now.
And shehadthrown up the Starbucks…
‘I know,’ Orla answered. ‘But I thought we’d have a nice meal at one of the restaurants.’
‘Oh!’ Delphine exclaimed, glasses slipping down her nose on cue. ‘There are only two restaurants in Saint-Chambéry and they are both closed tonight. Because of the fête.’
Of course they were. Orla forced a smile and imagined Frances around her indoor firepit sipping a Baileys and scrolling through TikTok…
Erin took two cookies and shoved one into her mouth in one go. ‘These are so banging.’
‘Could you help?’ Delphine asked Orla. ‘Bring some of the boxes out?’
‘I’ll take one,’ Erin said, shoving in the second cookie and putting her hands around a box.
Orla frowned. That coffee her sister had had seemed to have not only restored her warmth of temperature but also of temperament. Perhapssheneeded to have one…
‘Could you open the door?’ Delphine asked. ‘I can only get through it with this tray if I turn to the side.’
‘I’ll get it,’ Erin said, forging ahead with the box and bumping her back against the wood and glass frontage to open it. As her sister disappeared outside, Orla sensed Delphine holding back.
‘I do not wish to appear rude,’ Delphine began. ‘But we were only expecting there to be one of you.’
‘I know,’ Orla said quickly. ‘I apologise for that. I don’t usually travel on work assignments with my sister, but there was a last-minute… family emergency and, well, this assignment itself was somewhat of a last-minute thing too so…’ She left the sentence open ended as she picked up a box as well.
‘So…’ Delphine said, as if she wanted Orla to add more.
