Hello!’ she called out, panic-stricken. ‘Can anyone hear me?’
Silence answered her call.
‘Hello! Hello!’ she repeated at the top of her lungs. ‘Is anyone out here?’
She stood motionless in the snow with her arms crossed over her chest as she tried to slap some life into her frozen limbs. There was not a sound to be heard other than the wailing of the wind and the deceptively silky whisper of deadly snowflakes.
And then…
Was she dreaming?
‘Hello!’ she cried out wildly, feeling certain she’d heard a faint sound in the distance. ‘Hello?’ she called again.
She tried to locate the source of the sound, but it seemed to come from everywhere and nowhere at once. ‘I’m over here!’ she bellowed tensely.
‘Stay where you are! Don’t move. I’m coming to get you.’
‘Luc?’ Relief engulfed her.
‘I said, stay where you are.’
His voice was harsh, imperative, quashing her relief, and turning it to exasperation that of course it had to be Luc who found her.
‘Stacey? You have to keep shouting so I can find you.’
The wind tossed his voice around so it was impossible to tell which direction he was calling from. ‘Hello! Hello!’ she called out in desperation. ‘I’m over here.’
‘Don’t move. I can hear you. Keep shouting…’
But his voice sounded fainter as he was walking away from her. ‘I’m over here,’ she yelled, frantic with fear that he might walk straight past her. ‘Please…’ Her voice broke with sheer terror that, having been found, she might be abandoned again. And then, quite suddenly, they were standing face to face. Regardless of anything that had gone before, she catapulted herself into his arms. ‘Thank God you found me!’
‘Dios! Thank God I did. What on earth are you doing up here?’
‘Researching.’
‘Couldn’t that have waited until tomorrow?’
‘I like to be prepared.’
‘But you’ve only just arrived,’ Luc pointed out. ‘My people gave me your schedule,’ he explained.
‘The team is resting,’ she confirmed, ‘but I want to be informed, ready to brief them in the morning.’
Luc frowned down at her. ‘There’s dedication to duty, and then there’s obsession,’ he observed. ‘Didn’t it occur to you that you should be resting too?’
‘Pot, kettle, black?’ she suggested. ‘Do you hang around when an important deal is on the table? No. I didn’t think so. And I wouldn’t be here at all if I hadn’t checked first that the gondolas would be running in spite of the weather.’
‘In fairness, no one could have predicted this,’ Luc agreed, driving forward. ‘The gondola station has only just closed.’
‘Closed?’ Stacey exclaimed. ‘How do I get down the mountain?’
‘You won’t—not tonight, at least.’
‘A hotel, then,’ she said hopefully, looking about.
‘All the hotels are full of people who are stranded,’ Luc explained.
‘So where are you taking me?’
‘Does it matter?’ Grabbing hold of her arm, he urged her along. ‘Come on, we’ll freeze if we stay here.’
Against her better judgement where Luc was concerned, she felt safe for the first time since coming up the mountain. And optimistic for some reason. She felt way too much of everything, Stacey concluded as she admitted, ‘This is not how I expected us to meet.’
‘I’m sure not,’ Luc agreed, forced to shout as he drove them both on against the battering snow. ‘You’re lucky I was checking the progress of evacuating skiers, and making sure the slopes were clear, or we wouldn’t be here.’
‘Where exactly are we?’ she asked. ‘How do you even know where we’re going?’ Having stared about, she couldn’t be sure of anything but an unrelieved vista of white.
‘I just know where I am,’ Luc said with confidence. ‘In-built GPS, I guess.’
She wouldn’t put anything past him. ‘I’m sorry to have caused you so much trouble.’
‘Not your fault,’ he said brusquely. ‘It’s been called the freak storm of the century. No one saw this coming.’
Reassured that he didn’t think her completely reckless in venturing up the mountain, she asked another question. ‘Do you have a phone signal at your chalet? I need to reassure the team I’m okay.’
‘I have a landline,’ Luc confirmed, ‘though mobile lines are dead. You can ring the hotel and leave a message.’
‘Sure?’
‘Of course.’
‘That’s very kind of you.’
This was too polite, she mused as Luc steered her away to the left; a bit like the calm before the storm.
‘My chalet’s over here.’
‘So close,’ she exclaimed with surprise.
‘As close as the black ski run where I found you.’ Luc’s voice held irony and humour in matching amounts. ‘You might have had a shock if you’d gone that way.’
‘Terrifying,’ she agreed. ‘Particularly as I can’t ski.’
‘Nor can I without skis,’ Luc pointed out dryly.
In all probability, Luc had saved her life. ‘I can never thank you enough for finding me.’
‘We’ll find a way.’
Her heart almost leapt out of her chest. Her brain said it was a throwaway remark, but it was still Luc speaking. She hoped he’d say more. He didn’t. Locking an arm around her waist, he steered her until finally he half carried her up a slope that had probably been steps to his chalet before the snows came.
‘Thank you,’ she said as he steadied her on the ground as the impressive entrance door swung open.
‘You’ll have plenty of chances to thank me,’ he observed with some irony. ‘You won’t be going anywhere tonight. Neither of us will. You’ll have to stay in the chalet with me.’
Left with that alarming thought, she smiled as obliging staff gathered on the doorstep to greet them. Without exception, they were relieved to see Lucas return safely. He introduced
