Free What Happens in the Alps... by T A Williams Page A

sure.’
    â€˜Anyway, I thought he was checking
you
out, Annie. And talking about your bottom and so on.’
    Annie laughed. ‘Nothing going on there, I can assure you. Besides, he’s ten years younger than me for a start.’ Secretly Annie felt rather pleased that the girls should think the young ski instructor might have a thing for an older woman like her.
    Paolina shook her head. ‘Well, Matt’s your age, but that wouldn’t stop me.’
    â€˜Or me.’ Rita’s face still bore the ‘what if’ expression from earlier on. ‘But I noticed Paul looking at you, too, Paolina.’ She hesitated for a moment. ‘Annie, can I ask you something? What about you? Are you all alone or have you got a boyfriend or a husband? You’re very pretty, you know.’
    Annie took a deep breath. ‘I used to be married, but my husband was killed in a rock climbing accident.’ She stopped to take another breath and was pleasantly surprised to have been able to speak about Steve’s death in an almost normal voice.
    â€˜Oh, how awful.’ Rita and Paolina exchanged glances. ‘When did it happen? Were you married long?’
    So Annie told them the story. And, for once, she managed to tell the whole tale without breaking down. She told them about how she and Steve had first met at an excruciating drinks party at the British Council, how they had got married in a little church near her parents’ home in South Devon, how they had lived so happily together in Turin until that awful day. But, this time, as she told the story, she found she was recounting it factually, almost emotionlessly, almost dispassionately. And, as she told it, her eyes swept out over the snowy slopes, up the valley towards the high Alps. The sun was reflecting off the ice on the rocky summits, sending sparkling rays out in an explosion of light that disappeared into the vastness of the cloudless sky. The powerful and almost terrifying beauty of the scenery reached deep inside her and a sense of unexpected serenity spread throughout her whole body. She suddenly found she was smiling across the table at the two girls. ‘I loved him dearly, you know, and he loved me, but the mountains were in his blood.’
    â€˜How awful for him, and for you.’ Rita was appalled. Annie managed to keep the smile on her face.
    â€˜It
was
awful, really awful, but what’s done is done. I can’t bring him back, however much I’d like to.’
    â€˜Oh, Annie.’ Paolina didn’t know what to say.
    â€˜It’s all right, Paolina. Life goes on. It’s taken me two years to realise it, but I know that now.’ And she meant it.
    When it was time to leave, they ran into a problem. First Paolina and then Annie went downstairs to the basement area of the restaurant in search of the toilets. They found them all right, but the queue of desperate-looking women waiting to take their turn was so long, it reached halfway back up the stairs. They looked at each other and Paolina shook her head. ‘Looks like a long wait.’ She gave Annie a little smile. ‘And I’m not sure I can last that long.’ Annie felt the same way, so she came up with a pragmatic suggestion.
    â€˜Into the woods?’
    Paolina nodded and they climbed back up to break the news to Rita. They left the terrace and went across to where they had left their skis. Once they were all clipped in again, Annie led them off down the slope. She scanned the trees on either side of the piste until she saw a likely spot. A couple of ski tracks ran into the trees along what was probably a path in summer. She slowed, glanced back at the others and pointed, then skied into the trees for ten or twenty metres until they were safely out of sight of anybody on the main piste.
    Paolina wasted no time in stepping out of her skis and disappearing behind a bush. The snow was so deep she had trouble walking in it, but such was