What Happens in the Alps... (11 page)

Almost nobody.

She heard tapping and glanced up. Standing outside, nose pressed up against the triple glazing, was Alex. He waved and she waved back. He mimed getting changed and swimming and she smiled and beckoned him in. As he disappeared from view, she felt that same sense of excitement she had felt the previous night. She did her best to concentrate on doing a few lengths of the pool to occupy her while she waited for him to appear. As it was, she wasn't aware of his arrival until she heard a splash and water sprayed across the pool. A neat white circle showed where he had dived in. Seconds later he surfaced in front of her and shook the hair out of his eyes.

‘Sorry if I splashed you. There's a sign there saying NO DIVING, but as it's just us, I thought, what the hell!'

‘Hi, Alex.' She gave him a grin. ‘Nice of you to drop in.' Although all she could see of him was his head and shoulders, along with occasional glimpses of a hairy chest, the knowledge that he was less than a metre away from her and nearly naked was very stimulating. She shook her head, partly to rid herself of the drops of water, but mainly to try to establish some order in there. Once again, Alex had her mind in a spin. If he noticed her confusion, he didn't show it.

‘Coming out in the open?' Alex didn't give her time to reply before turning and guiding her to the far corner of the pool where a narrow channel led towards the windows. A series of rubber flaps formed a thermal barrier between them and the outside. Annie pushed through them and came out into a totally different world. The warm water billowed clouds of steam into the sky as it came into contact with the near freezing air and it was almost like being in the middle of a Turkish bath, except that the skin of her face tingled in the cold air. Floodlights, both underwater and outside, illuminated the scene. It was amazing. This, more than anything else, served to settle her spinning thoughts. She followed Alex across to the far side of the pool where underwater steps formed a perfect bench seat where they could wallow, with just their heads out of the water. She settled down beside him, leaning her head back against the pool surround, and relaxed.

‘It's pretty special, isn't it?' She looked up at the sound of his voice and followed his eyes. All around them, the ground was covered by a thick layer of virgin snow. A rustic stone wall, topped with a foot of snow, encircled the pool area and, beyond that, Annie knew that the piste began. Alex turned towards her. ‘You know who would love to be here with us now?'

Annie shook her head. Just the two of them felt fine to her. Alex grinned. ‘Leo. He's absolutely crazy about water. He'd love it. But the problem with Labs is hair. Apart from any health and safety considerations, we've been told in no uncertain terms that dog hair can block the very expensive filtration plant in no time at all. So, poor old Leo's left at home.'

‘And home is?'

‘Home for me is here. I've got rooms in the hotel. I've got the easiest commute of anybody. Leo lives with my dad in a chalet on the other side of the hotel. You'll see it when we finish here. He's expecting a visit from us.' He pulled himself up onto the next step up and Annie found herself looking straight at his muscular and hairy chest. It was a fascinating, if disconcerting, view. She hastily pulled herself up onto the same level, feeling the cold air on her own chest as she did so. At least now she was level with his shoulders once more.

‘If you can come swimming here every day, you'll be very fit.' She managed to bring herself to meet his eye. ‘Although you look very fit as it is.' Luckily the combination of the warm water, the steam, and the freezing air meant that her cheeks were already burning, so any embarrassment wouldn't show. Or so she hoped.

‘I was just thinking the same about you, Annie.'

He stretched out his arm and encircled her, pulling her gently towards him, his eyes firmly fixed on hers, his lips reaching for hers. She came very close to kissing him but, at the last minute, something stopped her. She pulled back and gave the slightest shake of the head. Immediately, he released her.

‘I'm sorry, Annie.'

‘No, I'm sorry, Alex, It's not that I don't like you; I like you a lot. It's just that the last couple of years haven't been easy.'

‘Had a hard time?' His voice was kind. ‘Want to talk about it?'

To her surprise, Annie found that she did. She settled back in the water, her shoulder just touching his from time to time, and told him about Steve's accident and the bitter sense of loss she had been feeling ever since. She told him about the decision she had made that summer to get away from her old job, her old life, her old flat. She managed to tell him all this without even once stumbling over her words or breaking down and, by the end, she felt better for having told him. As she finished, she felt him move. His arm reached out and encircled her shoulder again, pulling her towards him in a hug. She didn't resist.

‘That's tough, Annie, very tough. For what it's worth, I'm sure you're doing the right thing in making a complete change. If there's anything I can do to help, just say the word.'

Annie was still formulating a reply when an explosion shocked them both. Annie stifled a scream as a plume of water shot into the air and a wave of spray swamped them. She looked up, close to panic, and then relaxed as she saw the cause of the disturbance and heard Alex's voice.

‘Leo, you little bugger. Who let you in?' The Labrador emerged from underwater and came swimming up to them, nose low in the water and tail trailing behind, for all the world like a hairy submarine or a bedraggled black crocodile. Annie found herself giggling like a schoolgirl. As the dog reached the steps, he leapt up and out of the water. As he reached dry land, he stopped and Alex just had time to shout, ‘Look out,' before the dog shook himself violently. Any last hopes Annie might have had of keeping her hair dry disappeared under a torrent of Labrador-scented water. Even so, she couldn't stop laughing.

‘Oh, Leo, for God's sake…' Alex followed Leo out of the pool and Annie's eyes followed Alex's taut body. By this time the dog was rolling luxuriously in the snow, making wild dog grunting noises as he did so. From behind him, another figure loomed up through the steam. It was Massimo and he looked apologetic.

‘Sorry, Alessandro. Leo was wandering round the lobby looking for you and when I opened the door to come and see how Annie was getting on in the pool, he pushed past me.' While Alex stepped gingerly into the snow to grab the steaming dog by his collar, Massimo squatted down and gave Annie a smile. ‘So, what do you think of our new pool?'

‘It's amazing.' Annie had managed to stop laughing by this time, but she was still feeling very cheerful; remarkably and unusually cheerful. ‘You'll have to get a restraining order to keep me out.'

‘Annie,' Massimo was grinning, ‘The presence of a beautiful woman in the pool can only be good for the hotel, so I'll see that you get free access any time.'

Annie rather liked the sound of the word
beautiful
, and was thankful once more for the fact that her cheeks were already red. Pulling herself up onto her knees, she looked across at Alex and the dog. Leo was wagging his tail furiously as Alex turned back towards Annie, his hand firmly gripping Leo's collar. ‘I'm afraid I'd better go and deal with this bad boy. You can find your way back inside, can't you, Annie? I'll be waiting for you in the reception hall when you're ready.'

Annie nodded and watched as both men and the bouncy dog made their way back through the frosted snow towards the gate to the hotel. Sorry to see Alex go, she followed them with her eyes until they disappeared from sight; then, turning, she slid back into the water and swam slowly back inside. This time, her hair already soaked, she dived under the curtain and emerged into the warm interior feeling pleasantly lazy. After a few lengths of the pool to become acclimatised to the indoor temperature once more, she climbed back up the ladder and returned to the changing room where she was delighted to find hot showers and hairdryers.

As promised, Alex was waiting for her by the front desk. Men from the telephone company were hard at work, plumbing in the new phone system, and Alex was watching attentively. When he saw Annie, he came over and gave her a grin. ‘So, Miss Brewer, we're doing a survey of guest satisfaction with regard to the swimming pool. On a scale of one to five, with five being very satisfied and one being very dissatisfied, where would you rate us, please?'

‘Definitely a five for the pool and a six for the company, and I'm not just talking about the Labrador.'

‘Excellent. Now, if you would like to follow me, my father's waiting to meet you and to thank you for your kindness to Leo. I'll show you the way to his house.' They walked out into the darkness, but Annie soon saw that the path they were following was edged with a host of little lights, like golf balls, that lit up as they approached. She caught hold of his arm, telling herself it was just for support on the icy surface. They walked in silence for some way until the shape of a high stone wall loomed up ahead.

‘My father lives here.' Two powerful security lights flicked on and Alex glanced across at her. ‘He doesn't get out much these days. In fact, to be honest, he's been getting increasingly reclusive over the past couple of years since my mum died.' He gave her a smile. ‘He can be a bit intimidating at first, but you'll be fine. Anyway, Leo went off home some time ago so he'll be waiting to give you a warm welcome.'

He punched a code into the keypad on the gatepost and the massive sculpted wooden gate buzzed open. As Annie walked in, she felt a little bit nervous, wondering what sort of welcome to expect.

The welcome was noisy and boisterous. No sooner had Alex closed the gate behind them than lights came on throughout a magical garden, dotted with snow-covered shrubs and trees. A door opened ahead of them and out of it came a beam of light and Leo the dog. He made a beeline for Annie and jumped up on his back legs, extending his front paws up her thighs and onto her tummy.

‘Down, Leo. No.' Alex reached over to push him away, but Annie didn't mind.

‘He's fine, Alex. Leave him alone. Well, Leo, you're certainly frisky tonight.' With her gloved hands she stroked his head while he gave a sigh of satisfaction. From what she could see, he was dry once more, so somebody had clearly been towelling him down. There was a whistle from the door and the dog dropped down and turned back immediately. Alex accompanied her along the stone-paved path and up three steps to the porch. As they approached the house, Annie had time to admire it.

It was truly magnificent. Set on a granite base, the whole place was built of wood in the style of an old-fashioned Alpine chalet, but, clearly, it was a modern building. Huge, sculpted beams supported a wooden balcony at first-floor level that ran along the whole width of the house. And it was a very, very big house. Beneath it was a terrace, framed by huge pillars, behind which windows looked out over the garden and beyond. The roof was the traditional gentle slope so that snow would build up and act as insulation during the winter months. There was at least half a metre of snow up there now, the edges sculpted by the sun and the wind. It was an amazing place.

‘Annie, this is my father, Pierangelo Lago.' Annie barely registered that Alex had switched to Italian. She stepped across a massive doormat and took the outstretched hand.

‘
Piacere
. Annie.' She adopted the traditional Italian way of introducing herself to somebody new.

‘
Il piacere e tutto mio
.' The family resemblance was unmistakable. Signor Lago was almost as tall as his son, his shoulders slightly stooped with age, which was probably into his eighties. His hair was the same unruly mass, but light grey, rather than black. Only his eyes were different. They were a deep, chocolate brown, set beneath bushy black eyebrows that looked strangely conspicuous under the grey thatch of his hair. He stepped back and ushered them in, the Labrador leading the way. Annie found herself in a massive double-height hall from which a corridor took them into a hugely impressive open-plan living room. Hefty wooden beams crisscrossed the ceiling and a wall made of the rough local stone held a horizontal fireplace at waist height, completely encased in glass, within which flames danced and flickered. All around were luxurious furnishings and the end wall appeared to be completely made of glass. Floodlights in the garden illuminated a sloping lawn that ended in what looked like a cliff edge, and beyond it she could vaguely make out the flickering lights of Santorso in the valley a thousand metres below. Annie stopped dead and did her best to take it all in as Signor Lago spoke.

‘I'm so glad you've come. I wanted to thank you in person for your kindness towards my silly old dog.'

Annie turned towards Signor Lago and smiled. ‘There was no need. I did what any decent person would have done.' She glanced down at the dog who by this time had flopped down on a sheepskin rug and was licking his paws. ‘I'm just so pleased to see him up and about again.'

‘He's a tough old beast, is Leo.' The brown eyes sparkled at her. ‘Now, what can I offer you to drink? A drop of champagne maybe, seeing as we're celebrating Leo's recovery.' Annie nodded instinctively. Somehow champagne and this place went together.

‘Your house is quite amazing.' She didn't know what else to say. It really was.

Signor Lago accompanied her across to the windows while his son produced a bottle of champagne from a concealed fridge. With an experienced hand Alex tore off the foil and opened it with only the slightest hiss. Annie didn't need to see the label to know that it would be very good champagne. Just then there was the sound of Alex's phone. Signor Lago's eyes rolled as his son took the call. ‘These damn telephones. There's no privacy these days.'

While Alex spoke on the phone, Signor Lago went across to a light switch and extinguished the outside floodlights, leaving only a couple of table lights on inside the living room. A few seconds later, as her eyes acclimatised, Annie began to make out more than just the glow of the town far below. She made out the outline of the high Alps in the far distance and, beyond them, low on the horizon, a bright light in the evening sky. She glanced across at the old man. ‘Venus?'