Alice-Miranda in the Alps (9 page)

Giselle von Zwicky made her way through the hotel lobby, turning off the lights as she went. The bar had closed an hour ago and she had sent the chef home just after nine. There was no point having staff in the kitchen to cook for an empty dining room. She could hear the happy shouts of holiday-makers, and looked out the window. Snow had been falling steadily since midday and tomorrow was forecast to be fine. It would be a beautiful day on the mountain. She wondered if she should abandon her post – at
least if she was skiing she could forget about their troubles, even if it was just for a little while.

Giselle walked to the huge double front doors with their ornate iron lacework set against carved mahogany panels and turned the lock. The handful of guests who were staying had keys to the side door.

She wondered if Florian had called. He had left the day before with a spring in his step – something she hadn't seen for a long time. He had kissed her softly and told her that everything would be all right, to trust him. Of course she did. They had been married for more than forty years and never once had he let her down. But this – this was inexplicable. In all the years they had run the hotel, never had there been so few guests. None of it made sense. They hadn't let things slide, the place was as beautiful as it ever was – better, really, with their ongoing program of refurbishments. Even good friends seemed to have abandoned them. She had thought they might see Hugh and Cecelia this season but there had been no booking and no word. Though she could have telephoned Cecelia, the truth was she couldn't bear another rejection.

As she crossed the foyer, Giselle noticed a beam of light shining along the bottom of the office door.
She pushed it open and gasped. ‘Valerie, my dear, you scared me half to death.'

A young woman looked up from one of the desks. ‘My apologies, Baroness. I was just catching up on some work,' she said.

The cuckoo clock above the fireplace sprang to life, the little bird popping in and out of its house eleven times.

Giselle patted her chest and took a deep breath to steady her racing heart. ‘You should go home. It is far too late and I am afraid I cannot pay you any overtime at the moment.'

‘You mustn't worry about that, Baroness,' Valerie said. ‘I'm happy to do what I can to help. I've been looking into some cheap advertising options.'

‘You are very kind. Do you think it might be those silly reviews? Florian has told me there are several which are unflattering to say the least.'

Valerie shrugged. ‘I don't know. Perhaps. But we will get to the bottom of the problem. I know how much this place means to both of you.'

‘Yes. It means everything. We are fortunate to have good people around us.' The Baroness smiled. ‘Now, go home before I feel even more guilty for making you work around the clock.'

‘Just ten more minutes,' Valerie promised.

Giselle nodded. ‘If you must, but we will do something to make it up to you.' Her eyes felt heavy and she knew that if she didn't head up to bed soon it would be that much harder to get up in the morning. ‘Goodnight, dear.'

‘Goodnight.' Valerie smiled at the old woman until the door was firmly closed. Then she turned back to the computer and wiggled the mouse, bringing the screen to life. She had been in the middle of composing an email when the Baroness walked in and she wanted to finish it quickly. She began to type.

Valerie wondered if that was getting a bit too cheeky. Fanger's wasn't their sister hotel yet, though
it would be soon. She had always dreamed of running her own place, and now, at thirty-two years of age, her dream was about to come true. She reread the email and deleted the last line before clicking ‘Send'. The cursor raced around the screen as she covered her tracks, just as she had done every night for the past year.

Delphine Doerflinger pushed herself up straight in the chair and stretched her back. She was about to call for some tea when the phone on her desk rang. She picked up the receiver before the second ring sounded.

‘Is it done?' she asked. There was a short pause before the woman's face lit up like a bonfire. ‘What do you mean he hasn't delivered the papers? What's keeping him?' There was another short silence. ‘You
told me he would sign them overnight and now
this
?' she hissed. ‘Find him!'

She slammed down the phone and leaned her elbows on the desk, massaging her temples. Her mind was swimming and she had a horrible feeling this was not going to end well.

There was a knock on the door.

‘Enter!' she boomed.

The door opened and a man poked his head in.

Delphine eyed him warily. ‘I hope you have good news for me.'

‘Not exactly, Frau Doerflinger,' the man replied, dropping his gaze. He scooted into the room, closing the door behind him.

‘Your partner tells me that the papers have not yet been returned. What are you doing here?'

The man's bald head glistened with perspiration. ‘It seems the Baron … left for Zermatt this morning.'

‘What?' Delphine screeched. ‘He cannot leave!'

‘Frau Doerflinger, please, try to calm yourself.' The man couldn't help noticing the throbbing vein that had popped out of her neck.

‘You have no idea what this deal means to me.' Her breathing became laboured and she seemed to be swallowing air.

‘We do not know for sure that the deal is dead,' the man said. He hurriedly poured a glass of water and passed it to her.

Frau Doerflinger gulped it down. ‘Dead,' she muttered over and over. ‘It's not just the deal that is dead.'

There was another knock at the door. The man's partner entered the room holding an envelope.

‘Ah, good, you have it,' the taller man said, breathing a sigh of relief.

His partner grimaced and shook his head.

Delphine stood up and raced towards him. She snatched the envelope from his hand and tore it open. Instead of a signed contract, she pulled out a handwritten note. As her eyes scanned the page, she collapsed into a nearby armchair.

‘What does it say, Frau?' the taller man asked tentatively.

‘He says he would rather go bankrupt than borrow money from two shysters such as yourselves,' she said, her eyes wild.

‘But he wasn't borrowing the money from us,' the short man said. ‘He was borrowing it from you.'

‘He didn't know that, did he?' Frau Doerflinger scrunched the page into a ball and threw it at him.

Both men shook their heads. ‘N-no, of course not,' the taller man stammered. ‘He thought we were a reputable loan company.'

‘Something must have tipped him off,' the woman said. ‘Get out, the pair of you. Consider yourselves terminated, just as I will be.'

‘But, Frau, he is desperate,' the shorter man pleaded. ‘He will have to sell sooner or later.'

‘You will stay away from the Baron. I should have known that if I wanted this job done properly I would have to do it myself. Get out! NOW!' she howled.

The men scurried from the room. The shorter of the two bumped into the coffee table on the way and let out a yowl of pain.

Delphine slumped into the chair and looked at the crumpled note. ‘Idiots,' she whispered.

‘I don't ever want to leave this place,' Millie said as her family and friends sat on a long table outside a restaurant perched high above the village and the lake. The children had spent the morning with Gunter while their parents, Mrs Shillingsworth and Mrs Oliver had enjoyed some time together on the slopes – all except Hugh. Cecelia had made apologies for her husband's absence, citing some urgent business.

When Alice-Miranda and her father had returned to the hotel the previous night, Cecelia had been
shocked to learn of the Baron's predicament. Hugh had immediately scanned the contract and sent it to his lawyers to review. There was no mistake: the financiers were poised to seize the Grand Hotel Von Zwicky as soon as Florian signed the papers and there would have been nothing he could do to stop them. The Baron had been stunned at the news. In his desperation to raise the funds to keep his hotel running, he'd allowed himself to be enticed by crooks. After some research, they'd found the loan company didn't even exist and it was impossible to trace who was behind it.

Despite the Baron's protests, Hugh and Cecelia arranged to lend him the funds to carry the hotel through the next few months. Hugh had also insisted on going with Florian to Zermatt to try to get to the bottom of things. There was just so much that didn't add up. Why they had no guests was the biggest mystery of all.

Hamish stared out across the glistening ski field. ‘I agree, Millie. This place is breathtaking.'

‘How are the legs, Shilly?' Cecelia asked. The woman had surprised them all by taking the lead on several runs.

Mrs Shillingsworth rubbed the tops of her thighs. ‘Well, I'm bound to be sore, but it's nothing that a
soak in that gorgeous pool won't fix,' she replied with a smile.

‘What about you, Mrs Oliver?' Alice-Miranda asked. ‘Did you have fun out there?'

‘Goodness, dear, I can hardly believe I remembered how to ski. I'll leave you all to it this afternoon and go and spend some time with Cyril,' Dolly Oliver replied. ‘I don't want him to think we've abandoned him.'

‘We made him a card,' Alice-Miranda said. ‘It's on the coffee table in our suite. Lucas drew the Cresta Run and Jacinta added Cyril flying up into the air. It's a really good drawing.'

‘We wrote a funny poem too,' Millie added.

Dolly chuckled. ‘I'm sure he'll appreciate being reminded of the reason he's spending the next week in bed.'

‘Have you decided what we'll do about getting home, ma'am?' Shilly asked.

‘No, and we might have a slight change of plans if everyone's agreeable,' Cecelia replied. She shot Alice-Miranda a knowing look.

Hamish took a sip of his drink. ‘What do you have in mind, Cee?'

‘Well, Hugh saw our dear friend Baron von Zwicky last night and it seems the hotel in Zermatt has some rooms available after all. So, we were thinking of catching the Glacier Express and heading over there for another week until Cyril is ready to fly again,' Cecelia explained. ‘Sloane, Sep, I've called your parents and they're happy for you to stay on with us.'

‘Really?' Sloane said in surprise.

‘Your mother is fine with it too, Jacinta,' Cecelia added. ‘She was hoping to be home from New York to meet us when we got back but a wonderful opportunity has come up for her to spend a week behind the scenes with Christian Fontaine in Paris, so she's flying directly there. She was worried you'd be upset.'

Jacinta shook her head. ‘That's a great scoop. Mummy's not that keen on the cold, anyway, and she's so much happier now that she's working.'

Millie grinned at the girl.

‘What are you looking at me like that for?' Jacinta asked.

‘Sometimes I wonder what happened to you. It's like you suddenly grew up and now you're the most understanding daughter in the world,' Millie said.

Jacinta shrugged. ‘I'm really proud of Mummy. She's changed completely and I know she'd rather be
with me, but sometimes you have to make sacrifices if you're going to succeed in life.'

The adults laughed.

‘It's going to be so much fun in Zermatt,' Alice-Miranda said dreamily. ‘I can't wait for you all to see it. I think it's even prettier than St Moritz.'

‘Isn't that near where Caprice skis with her family?' Sloane asked.

Alice-Miranda nodded. ‘I think she said her family has a lodge in Cervinia, which is just over the border in Italy.'

‘Thankfully, she's staying home these holidays,' Millie said. ‘She wouldn't stop bragging about taping some episodes for the next season of
Sweet Things
.'

Sloane rolled her eyes. ‘What doesn't that girl brag about?'

‘So, what does everyone think about a few more days away?' Cecelia asked. ‘I hope getting back a bit later than we planned isn't a problem for anyone.'

‘It's fine by us,' Pippa said cheerfully. ‘We were thinking of having a weekend in the caravan but I'm just starting to feel my ski legs and I'd love to stay longer.'

Hamish nodded. ‘Absolutely. I haven't had this much fun in years.'

‘Well,' Dolly began, ‘Shilly and I were just saying yesterday that we'd have loved to have time to visit Zurich and perhaps even get to Geneva too.'

‘The Large Hadron Collider isn't far from Geneva,' Alice-Miranda piped up. ‘I remember in the laboratory one day you told me how much you'd like to see that, Mrs Oliver.'

Dolly nodded eagerly. ‘I wouldn't want to bore Shilly to death with it, but perhaps I could take a side trip there on my own.'

Cecelia clapped her hands together. ‘Oh, yes, you must. What a wonderful idea.'

‘We'll miss you, of course,' Alice-Miranda chimed in.

‘Dear girl, you'll be so busy you won't give us two oldies a second thought,' Shilly teased.

‘That's not true and you know it.' Alice-Miranda slipped off her chair and wrapped her arms around the woman.

‘I'm glad you're not too big for hugs yet,' Shilly said and pecked Alice-Miranda's cheek.

‘Never,' Alice-Miranda replied, giving Shilly another squeeze.

‘Will Hugh be joining us this afternoon?' Hamish asked. He had enjoyed their skiing yesterday and was
keen to tackle a few of the more challenging runs with him.

‘Actually, Hugh's already gone over to Zermatt this morning,' Cecelia replied. ‘We'll meet him again on Monday.'

‘Oh,' Hamish said, ‘I'm sorry he had to go.'

‘Yes, it's a pity Daddy won't get to see the racing,' Alice-Miranda said.

‘I'll take loads of photographs.' Millie whipped her camera out of her jacket pocket as proof.

‘All right then, who wants to hit a couple of red runs with me?' Hamish asked.

‘Me! Me! Me!' the children shouted over the top of one another.

‘Can we find some black trails too?' Lucas asked.

Sloane grimaced. ‘I don't know if I'm ready for that yet.'

‘How about we manage a couple of reds and then see how everyone feels?' Hamish suggested.

‘It's all right,' Alice-Miranda said to Sloane. ‘If you don't want to go on the black runs, I'll come back down here with you. But after Gunter took us on that mogul course this morning, I'm pretty sure you wouldn't have any trouble handling it at all.'

‘Yeah, you were amazing,' Jacinta agreed. ‘And you beat your brother, remember.'

The boy wrinkled his nose. ‘Don't remind me.'

‘Okay, I'll give it a try,' Sloane said, perking up considerably. ‘But if I die, I'm never speaking to any of you ever again.'

Everyone laughed.

‘Well, der!' Millie said.

‘You know what I mean!' Sloane jammed her helmet on her head and snapped her goggles on over the top as she and her friends charged off to get their skis.