Free The Lonely Skier by Hammond Innes Page A

sun.
    â€˜I think your boss wants you,’ I said to Valdini.
    He glared at me. But he made no retort and followed Aldo and the cognac out on to the belvedere. When Aldo returned, he went behind the bar and produced a cable envelope. ‘For you,
signore
,’ he said, handing it across to me.
    â€˜When did this come?’ I asked him in Italian.
    â€˜This morning,
signore
. Just before you left. Emilio brought it up when he came to fetch you this morning.’
    â€˜Then why the hell didn’t you give it to me?’ I asked angrily. ‘Can’t you see it’s a cable and therefore important?’ He smiled sheepishly and spread his hands in the inevitable gesture that he used to explain all his shortcomings.
    I ripped open the envelope. It was from Engles and read:
Presume attending auction. Cable fullest report Mancini unbuy. Engles
.
    I folded the cable and put it in my pocket. He wanted a cabled report if Mancini was not the buyer. Had he expected there to be an unknown buyer at the auction? What difference could it make to him who bought Col da Varda? However, he wanted the information by cable and that meant going down to Cortina again. I decided to give myself a try-out on skis. I hadn’t done any ski-ing since I had gone up to Tolmina from Rome, and that had been two years ago. I was just going to get my ski things when I remembered a question that I wanted to put to Aldo. It had been in my mind ever since Valdini had begun to bid at the auction.
    â€˜You remember you did not want to let us have rooms here?’ I said to him in Italian. ‘That was because Signor Valdini had instructed you to turn visitors away, wasn’t it?’
    He looked helplessly towards the belvedere. He was afraid to answer. But it was clear that I was right. ‘
Non importante
,’ I said. It looked as though Valdini and the Contessa had planned to close the place down as soon as the purchase had been completed. Why?
    I went up to my room and got my things. I typed out my reply to Engles’ cable. It read:
Auction sensation. Sold unknown purchaser operating Venice lawyer. Valdini for Carla outbid Mancini two million. Unknown outbid Valdini four million. Blair
.
    When I got downstairs again the Contessa was alone in the bar. As I made for the door, she suddenly called out, ‘Mr Blair!’
    I turned. She was leaning against the bar. Her eyes were inviting and her wide mouth was made attractive by a little smile that lifted the corners of it. ‘Come and have a drink with me,’ she suggested. ‘I do not like drinking by myself. Besides, I wish to talk to you. I would like to know more about my photograph.’
    I felt ill-at-ease. She was hard and hard women frighten me. Besides, how was I to explain how that photograph came into my possession? ‘I’m sorry,’ I said, ‘but I have to go down to Cortina.’ My voice sounded cold and unfriendly.
    The corners of her mouth drooped in mock disappointment and there was a hint of laughter in her dark eyes. She knocked back her drink and came towards me. Her ski boots made hardly a sound on the bare boards. She could have danced in them. ‘You shall not escape me so easily,’ she said, and with a ripple of laughter, she tucked her slim brown hand under my arm. ‘I too must go back to Cortina. You will not refuse to escort me?’ She did not wait for an answer, but exclaimed, ‘Oh—why are you English so stiff? You do not laugh. You are not gay. You are afraid of women. You are so reserved and so damned dignified.’ She laughed. ‘But you are nice. You have—how shall I say?—an air. And it is nice, your air. Now, you will escort me to Cortina—yes?’ She had her head cocked on one side and there was an impish gleam in her eyes that was quite disturbing. ‘Please do not look so serious, Mr Blair. I will not seduce you on the way down.’ She sighed.