Dreaming of Christmas Read online

  Daniela disappeared along the corridor to Billy’s suite, and a few seconds later, the Labrador came charging down to see them all. After greeting his master, he headed straight for Zoë. This time she was wearing trousers over her tights, so she let him stand up on his hind legs as she caught hold of his paws and gave them a little shake.

  ‘And good evening to you too, sir. You missed a lovely meal.’

  ‘Arnie, get down! I’ve told you about that. No jumping up, all right?’

  Even Zoë could hear the lack of authority in Billy’s tone. The dog looked totally unapologetic as he returned grudgingly to all fours and then did a tour of the room, getting petted from all sides. Finally satisfied that he had said hello to everybody, he came back over and parked himself right on top of Zoë’s feet as usual – mercifully without attempting to tear her shoes apart this time. Wisely, Zoë caught hold of the arm of the sofa and gently lowered herself to a less vulnerable position.

  ‘Beer, wine, champagne, Glühwein?’

  Billy was still acting as the perfect host. The litre of beer she had drunk at the restaurant was more than enough alcohol for Zoë, so she settled for another hot milk and further ridicule from Lorna. She was feeling pleasantly sleepy by now, and it wasn’t long before she and Juliet headed off to their rooms, with Billy’s parting words ringing in their ears.

  ‘Meet in the lobby at eight thirty. All right?’

  Back in her room, Zoë wasted no time in getting ready for bed. Her thighs weren’t aching too badly, but she felt exhausted after all the physical activity, the fresh air and two pints of beer. She was just buttoning up her pyjamas when there was a soft tap on the door. She padded across, opened it a few inches and peered out.

  Standing there was Grant.

  ‘What do you want, Grant?’ She kept her voice low so as not to disturb the others, but also to keep a lid on her emotions.

  She heard him clear his throat before speaking.

  ‘I was wondering if you and I could have a talk, Zo.’

  He sounded uncharacteristically insecure, but she wasn’t buying it.

  ‘What, now? With me in my pyjamas?’

  ‘Um, not necessarily. Any time really.’

  ‘Have we got anything to talk about, Grant? I don’t think so. You did all the talking a year ago.’

  She was pleased to hear her voice sounding firm, although inside she was in tumult. Finally, the moment she had been dreading had arrived – just the two of them together.

  ‘I think I owe you an apology, Zo.’

  ‘You think you owe me an apology?’ Zoë felt the anger she had been trying so hard to suppress come bubbling up.

  ‘I mean, I know I do. You see, Zo… I’ve been very, very stupid.’

  ‘Well you got that right, at least. Now, I’m going to sleep, Grant. Just go away, will you?’ And without giving him the chance to say anything else, she closed the door quietly, but firmly, in his face.

  Chapter 8

  When Zoë woke up next morning, she wasn’t feeling as fresh as she might have done. In spite of her tiredness, it had taken her a considerable while to get to sleep the previous night, and the reason for that was all too obvious – Grant.

  She checked her phone and saw that it was almost seven o’clock on Thursday 20th December, just five days away from Christmas. She lay there, snuggled under the duvet, thinking back over everything that had occupied her mind last night and throughout the preceding twelve months. It was hard to believe that less than a year ago she had still been happily in love with Grant and blissfully unaware of the bombshell he was about to deliver. It was an uncomfortable sort of anniversary to consider.

  What had so exercised her brain overnight had been the realisation that he appeared to have matured over the past year and maybe still had feelings for her – or so it seemed. Had this been what he had wanted to talk about last night? Had he come to Austria in a bid to win her back, in spite of having broken her heart so callously?

  And if he had come with that intention, how did she feel about it? Yes, he still looked good, he appeared more caring and considerate, and he showed signs of behaving like a grown-up at long last. But was this just an illusion, an act? And, whether it was or not, could she really even begin to consider forgiving him and letting him have the chance to make amends, to kick-start their relationship? Surely, if he had even the slightest idea of how truly awful these last twelve months had been for her, he couldn’t possibly believe she would be prepared to welcome him back into her life. And was she just plain crackers to even begin to consider that possibility, after the way he had behaved?

  It was with a heavy heart that she finally roused herself and went through to take a shower. Her visit to the bathroom did nothing to answer the conundrum, but it did, at least, wake her up to the fact that she had a full day’s skiing ahead of her. A glance out of the window showed her that the predicted snow had yet to arrive and the morning sun was shining as brightly as the previous day. Her spirits began to lift once more.

  As she came out of her room, she saw Juliet emerge from her own room, just a bit further along the corridor.

  ‘Morning, Jules. Sleep well?’

  ‘Like a top. What about you? You all right? You’re looking a bit down in the mouth.’

  As they walked down to the dining room, past the reception desk where Erika was already on duty, Zoë gave Juliet a brief summary of the exchange she had had with Grant. Juliet looked appalled.

  ‘So do you think he’s trying to get you to take him back, after everything that’s happened?’ Her tone was incredulous.

  ‘I really don’t know, but I think it might be what he’s hoping.’

  ‘You’d never do that, though, would you?’ Juliet stopped outside the dining room door and caught Zoë by the arm. ‘Would you?’

  ‘No, of course not. Or at least, I don’t think so… Oh Jules, I don’t know. I feel like such a fool. How can I even begin to consider getting back together with somebody who treated me that way – even if he has changed?’

  ‘You think he’s changed?’

  ‘I don’t know…’ Zoë knew she was sounding completely clueless. ‘He’s been looking and acting a good bit more grown-up, but mind you, this is the man who was having an affair with another woman right under my nose and I didn’t notice anything. Besides, for all I know, he may still be with this other woman. Billy said he didn’t mention her, but that proves nothing. He’s good at hiding things.’

  Juliet nodded her head in agreement. ‘Just keep remembering that, Zo. If you want my opinion, I wouldn’t trust him an inch. As far as I’m concerned, it’s all an act designed to get you back into his bed, if not his life.’

  Zoë nodded ruefully. Juliet was making a lot of sense.

  Inside the dining room, they noticed Fergus and Grant sitting together by the window. Studiously ignoring Grant, Zoë waved to Fergus before helping herself to fruit salad and yoghurt. Today she decided she needed a strong coffee to go with her bread and honey, and she even allowed herself to be persuaded by the waitress to have a ham omelette as extra fortification before braving the sub-zero temperatures outside.

  She and Juliet chose to sit at the furthest table from Grant. Zoë saw surprise and even hurt on Fergus’s face as they did so, and resolved to explain to him later that she had just been trying to maintain decent boundaries between herself and her ex – not him.

  They had only been sitting there for a few minutes when the door opened and Lorna appeared, dressed in outdoor clothes. She ordered a large black coffee and came over to join the two of them.

  ‘Morning, girls. You off skiing again?’

  ‘That’s right. And you, Lorn, are you going out?’ Zoë could hear the incredulity in her own voice.

  Lorna grinned and nodded. ‘Don’t look so shocked. I do venture out from time to time, you know. Today I’m going down to Salzburg on the train with Imogen, and maybe Mandy. After you two lightweights had gone off to bed last night, Billy suggested goi
ng to a concert there this evening, so we girls thought we’d make a day of it.’

  ‘That sounds exciting. What sort of concert?’

  ‘Classical, and in a gorgeous place called the Mirabell Palace. Guess whose music, bearing in mind where we are?’

  It wasn’t too hard to guess. Salzburg had been the birthplace of one of the greatest composers of all time.

  ‘Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart by any chance? How wonderful.’

  Zoë wasn’t really a classical music buff, but the idea of a Christmas concert in a magnificent Austrian palace had distinct appeal. The day was looking up.

  * * *

  Zoë and Juliet met Billy and Daniela in the lobby at eight thirty as arranged. Outside, it was fractionally warmer than the previous day, but still cold enough to have Zoë burrowing her nose into her scarf and tugging her hat down until the two almost touched and she was squinting out through a narrow slit. There were a few more people around today, as Christmas approached, but even so, they barely had to queue more than two minutes for the lift. As they travelled up, doing their best to stay warm, the four of them chatted and Billy told them more about the concert that evening.

  ‘Tonight they’re doing a series of Mozart violin sonatas. Even if you aren’t that keen on classical music, I guarantee you’ll love the setting – a historic old palace, with marble floors and more gold leaf on the walls than paint. It’s not a long show. It starts early – at five o’clock – and we should be out before six thirty. That way little Bella can come too and she won’t be too tired. I thought we could leave here at, say, three, and I’ll get the driver to give us a quick tour of the city before the concert. Of course that means that skiing today’ll be a bit shorter than you might have liked, but I promise you’ll still get a load of exercise. I’ve got a table booked in a restaurant just across from the palace for a quick dinner afterwards. Sound good?’

  Zoë and Juliet nodded enthusiastically.

  ‘I’m beginning to see how your company has grown so fast. You are so organised, Billy.’ Juliet’s voice was full of admiration.

  ‘Don’t you believe it, Jules.’

  Zoë could see his eyes smiling, even if the rest of his face was buried beneath layers of insulation. It really was very, very cold. Even with her thickest tights under her thermal trousers, her bottom was frozen, let alone any exposed skin.

  ‘I’ve just got some very organised people working for me. Besides, when it comes to organisation, the girl beside you has always been the one.’ He nudged Daniela and explained, ‘Back at number 23, it was always Zoë who used to buy the milk, pay the bills, bully us into coughing up our share. If it hadn’t been for her and her constant chivvying, the washing-up would never have got done and we would probably have been suffocated by all the dust. I remember it well.’

  ‘He’s right, Zo. Without you, they’d probably have cut our electricity supply off.’ Juliet’s voice was muffled, but just audible.

  ‘Without that electric fire in the lounge, we’d have died of cold. I can’t believe we lived in a house without any heating.’ Billy was smiling again. ‘Do you remember the ice formations on the inside of the bathroom window?’

  ‘On the inside?’ Daniela sounded horrified. ‘I come from the south of Italy, but even down there we had central heating.’ She shuddered. ‘I can’t believe it. You English are crazy.’

  ‘Not totally crazy. Number 23 was spartan all right, but it did have one big advantage.’ Zoë gave her a wink. ‘It was cheap, and we were all broke.’ She looked across at Billy. ‘It must seem so strange to you now.’ She had been about to say, ‘now that you’re so rich’, but it felt almost improper, so she cut the sentence short.

  ‘It does, but we all survived. Thinking back on it, it certainly was pretty primitive.’

  They reminisced for a while about the mouse holes in the skirting boards, the oven that produced black smoke every time they used it, and their landlord who appeared to spend his entire life stoned out of his head. Yes, Zoë thought to herself, it had been primitive all right.

  ‘Still, we had some good times at number 23, didn’t we?’ She felt quite nostalgic, frozen bum or no frozen bum. ‘Just think, that was ten years ago. So much has happened since then. Billy’s become the biggest thing since sliced bread, Jules has been saving people’s lives, Mandy’s brought life into the world, Imogen’s bagged herself a banker and started her own business, and Lorna’s on course to reach her century.’ She didn’t need to specify a hundred of what.

  ‘And you’re taking the world of journalism by storm.’ Juliet pulled her scarf down a fraction as the chairlift came out of the trees into the early-morning sunlight, and her voice became a bit clearer. ‘How is the job? Not getting you down too much?’

  ‘Like I said, it’ll do as a stopgap, although I’d be lying if I said I enjoyed rubbing shoulders with some of the people I have to interview.’ Thoughts of Ron the photographer came to mind. ‘Come to think of it, some of the people I work with are pretty dodgy too. When I get back after Christmas, I’m going to sit down and look for something more appealing.’

  This might also be because her failure to file a story about Billy would by then have got her into her editor’s bad books, but she didn’t mention that. Instead, conscious that nobody had mentioned Grant and determined to show her resolve – whether real or imaginary – she carried on in a normal voice. Or what she hoped sounded like a normal voice.

  ‘And then there’s Grant. I’ve no idea how he’s getting on. He looks as if he’s okay, but I don’t know how things are going for him work wise.’

  Grant’s jobs had always taken second place to his leisure pursuits and, in consequence, his career had been chequered, to say the least. He had been employed by at least five different firms since university.

  ‘I think things are working out for him at last, Zoë.’ Billy’s bush telegraph was still working well. ‘He told me last night he’s finally got himself a job he loves – working for a holiday firm who specialise in water and winter sports. Right up his street.’

  ‘Good for him.’

  ‘He didn’t mention his personal life, though. Somehow I didn’t get the impression he was seeing anybody at the moment.’ Billy sounded a bit hesitant. ‘But I didn’t like to press him.’

  Zoë was surprised. She had been convinced Grant would be shacked up with somebody, even if the original woman had disappeared from the scene. Still, she told herself firmly, his life was of no interest to her any longer, though she realised she really was pleased that things were working out for him on the job front. Maybe if he managed to get his working life sorted out, his personal life would follow. It was about time.

  At the top of the chairlift, they skied off together and Billy led them across the hillside, taking a succession of shorter lifts and skiing down a number of the runs they had done yesterday. As Zoë followed him, she was very impressed. She knew she was a pretty good skier herself, but Billy was in a different league altogether. He moved with the sort of natural ease on the skis that you only really develop if you start as a young child. Every turn he made was exquisitely under control – stylish and accomplished. It was hard to believe that this was the same geeky boy who had barely been able to talk to her without blushing all those years ago.

  She would never forget one memorable evening back at number 23. She had been coming out of the freezing-cold bathroom wrapped in a big bath towel when in her usual clumsy way she had managed to trap the corner of the towel in the door. As Billy appeared down the stairs, she had started to walk towards him, leaving the towel behind. She had been mortified, blushing to the roots of her hair as she scrabbled for the towel to cover her nakedness. When she finally looked up, however, he was even redder than she was. The embarrassment she had been feeling was clearly as nothing compared to his.

  Here, on the slopes, however, he came into his own.

  After a while, they reached the bottom of the long lift that climbed all the way up to the rocky summit
of the mountain. Zoë and Juliet had debated trying it yesterday, but had decided to wait a day or two. According to their piste map, it looked like the only way back down from there was via a difficult run. Ski runs were colour-coded to show their level of difficulty, from easy green, through blue and red intermediate, to the most difficult – black. The run back down to the hotel was indicated on the piste map as black. Juliet had felt she should get in some more practice on something easier before trying it. But when she mentioned her reservations to Billy, both she and Zoë were surprised to hear his response.

  ‘Don’t worry, Jules, we aren’t coming back.’ He grinned at their expressions. ‘I mean, we’re not coming back on this side of the mountain. From the top, we can ski over into the next valley on fairly straightforward runs – nothing dangerous, I promise – and then come back by train.’

  ‘By train? What, a special mountain railway?’

  He shook his head. ‘No, the bog-standard ÖBB – Austrian Railways. There’s a tunnel that links the two valleys. Sound like a plan?’

  They all agreed and, after a brief wait in a short queue, he led them onto the lift. This was composed of four-seater gondolas – little bubbles enclosed within Perspex windows. In consequence, it was a whole lot warmer than the chairlift, which was just as well, as Billy informed them it climbed to well over two thousand metres. In the relative warmth of the gondola, they were able to strip off their hats and gloves and open their jackets.

  As they climbed steadily up the ever-steeper mountainside, now punctuated by jagged outcrops of rock, Zoë could see ski and snowboard tracks snaking down below them. She wondered whether Billy would bring her up here for their off-piste adventure in the following days. It looked exciting and it was certainly steep enough to present a real challenge.