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Adrienne scowled at Gina. ‘My husband of thirty-three years has just walked out, how do you expect me to look?’ She held her cheeks, her palm spreading across her face, trying to contain her sobs. ‘I’m not like you, Gina. He’s my life. I care about him and I’m hurt. I don’t care if he sees me like this.’
‘Oh sorry, Mum. That’s just me. I’ll shut up. I’m sorry, I’m still just so shocked, and I’m sure, like you, confused. I don’t know how I’d react in all honesty.’
‘I’m going back to bed,’ Adrienne said, lifting herself from the chair and shuffling off, hunched, to her bedroom.
Cursing herself for upsetting her mother, Gina apologised again. ‘I’m so furious at him for hurting you like this.’
‘I’m tired. Maybe I’ll feel better after some sleep.’
‘You haven’t got any tablets or anything in there, have you? I mean, I don’t want to leave you alone…not in your state of mind,’ Gina said with panic in her voice.
‘No. But I wish I…never mind. I need to sleep.’
As her mother closed the door, Gina paced. For the first time in her life she felt helpless. With her own relationship struggling too, she failed to reach any answers. It seemed men still ruled. Did what they wanted.
What could she do? Respect her mother’s feelings and help her cope, she supposed. Looking through the fully stocked cupboards it seemed she didn’t need to go shopping. She tried her father’s mobile again, leaving him a message to call her urgently. She then left her mother a note and slipped out. She needed to walk.
She took the path along the lake towards the centre and continued until she reached Château de Chillon towards the end of the lake. A kiosk was open outside and, feeling a thirst, she bought a small bottle of water and an ice cream with some change in her pocket and headed back down the path.
A smaller path led her down to the shore where rocks formed a tiny bay just feet from the vast castle wall. She perched on the rocks and looked out across the lake. It wasn’t as bright as her last visit had been. Clouds and mist harboured the distant view but added drama. The mountains peaked dark grey above a bruised sky like shark fins protruding from the murkiest ocean. It was dismal but the sun was trying its best to sneak through. She peered back at the castle, its turrets towering above. It was beautiful in a haunting medieval way. She couldn’t remember ever visiting it before but noted a tour for when she had time.
She tried her father’s phone again and every few minutes thereafter but he continued to ignore her. She couldn’t bring herself to call her brother. God no, he would be horrified to discover his parents’ marriage had disintegrated having just tied the knot. Instead she rang Rebecca in the office who confessed it was busy but said she would manage there and sent her condolences. Lydia, she relayed, had agreed to do a few hours where she could. It was fortunate she could assist during school hours. At least something was sorted out, if only for the short-term.
She climbed some steps and began to meander back along the lake path.
***
Ollie Martin had begun the day early. He and Thomas, his foreman and good friend, had run through the schedules for the villas. With the first villa completing its second fix, Ollie inspected the sanitary ware and kitchen cupboards waiting to be fitted. The wall and floor tilers could now begin and the painters could return to complete the walls and woodwork. The landscaping surrounding the villa could also start.
He returned to his office and checked his laptop. He still hadn’t received a reply to his email. He wondered if Gina had seen it. Maybe she was busy. He’d give her a few more weeks but the option on the land in London had only two months left so, although he considered London a safe haven for his next investment and the property portals provided a huge amount of information, he would appreciate her input. It would also be an opportunity for her too. Not to mention an excuse for him to make contact.
Thomas wandered in removing his jacket and hard hat.
‘How would you feel about working in London, Tom?’ he asked conscious that it would be difficult with his family in Switzerland.
Thomas grimaced. ‘It wouldn’t be ideal but I have bills to pay.’
‘I’m spreading my wings a bit. London’s still a good investment,’ he told him as he watched Tom unroll a huge site drawing.
‘Well, you have to go where the opportunities are like me. I would prefer to stay with you.’
‘Yeah, we work well together so think about it.’
‘I’ll speak to Anna,’ Thomas said, nodding his head and spreading the drawing across his desk. ‘It’s all about schools nowadays.’
‘Oh, I completely understand. Yes, a bit different from when we started out and we could stagger round bars. Have a chat with Anna about it. Let me know,’ Ollie said, thinking how lucky Tom was. He certainly had a beautiful wife and super kids. He wouldn’t want to uproot them but wanted Thomas to stay with him.
Sitting back in his chair, staring at the screen, he had to admit it was always drink which made him brave. He had made a fool of himself being so drunk at the rehearsal and calling out to Gina. He’d probably completely blown his chances. He just wished he had a natural confidence with women. He was so inept, particularly with women he really liked. Why did it always go so wrong when he found someone that really stirred him? He could only conclude it all stemmed back to being rejected and, publicly humiliated, by Phoebe Barton-King in his first year at university. He’d been surprised when she’d agreed to go out with him. It had taken several drinks and a crass chat-up line to ask her. She’d been the girl all the guys buzzed around like bees around a honeypot, but she’d left a bitter taste after just four weeks. Just as his confidence was growing, she’d taken great pleasure in telling all his friends in the bar that he was the biggest and most boring dork she’d ever met. Adding that he was still tied to his mother’s apron strings. It was the worst moment of his life and for weeks afterwards he’d seriously contemplated suicide. Luckily, it was his mother who had got him through it.
Thomas called for a third time. ‘You’re miles away. Do you want coffee?’
Ollie stared up at his colleague. ‘Oh, er, yes. Sorry. Yeah, just thinking.’
‘Pretty deeply by all accounts,’ Thomas laughed.
‘Thinking how lucky you are. Having Anna and the children. It’s worked really well. Didn’t you meet her in that club we went to when we did my father’s site in Vevey?’
‘Yes. That was embarrassing. I’d met some other girl there the week before.’
‘Ha, that’s right. I remember she came up to you when you were chatting to Anna.’
They both laughed. Ollie had been finding his feet again around that time. Two other guys at the site, he and Tom had regularly enjoyed their nights out.
Thomas placed a mug of coffee on his desk. ‘Yes, my friend, you were quite the player then. What happened? Since Ella, you’ve not really been on many dates.’
Ollie thought he’d got over his fear. Picking up girls in clubs was easy. He was drunk, they were drunk and drooling. He didn’t care for them. Any really beautiful woman however, he steered away from. The Phoebe Barton-King incident had grossly knocked him sideways. He refused to approach a beautiful girl again. Labelled them all as cruel and up their own backsides. The irony was, the less sensitive he behaved towards the girls he did approach, the greater his success. He became the bad boy they all wanted.
‘I don’t know, it all became meaningless. Ella was sweet but…nowhere close to what I’m looking for, and what you have.’
‘God, I got lucky with Anna.’
‘You found the right person and you went for it. Clearly she is special.’
Special, that was what Gina was. And they’d exploded with chemistry. The attraction was strikingly strong, that’s for sure. He’d been brave enough with a drink inside him or perhaps just brash. Inevitably, he would struggle and he would have to risk humiliation. Surely he should be mature enough to deal with that. He rubbed his forehead. It was just his bad luck she was in a relationship. Long-term too.
His mind drifted as he closed He pictured her amazing dark chestnut hair, which happened to be his favourite colour on women. Thick and long with a soft natural wave flowing down her back. And the delicate bone structure shaping large green-blue eyes which smiled on their own, a pretty, slender nose with just slightly-flared nostrils which gave her a sort of wildness, sexiness even. Her aura bleeding a blend of confidence and independence, a quality that really turned him on.
‘Right,’ he said, shutting down his laptop. ‘I’m off.’
‘Can you sign off this before you go?’ Thomas brought him a sheet. ‘And I’ll see you tomorrow.’
‘See you in the morning.’ He gave Thomas a swift wave and headed back to the centre of Montreux. He could, he decided, do with a quick beer.
He wandered along the lake path. He passed a statue on the edge of the lake: a door in just a frame leading directly in to the lake. He smiled. It never failed to amuse him. The lake path was strewn each year with a variety of art in several forms. He was curious as to the artist’s inspiration for the piece as he approached it. He’d intended to find out one day before it disappeared. Then, just as he peered away back to the path, thinking about stopping and reading the plaque beside it, a female figure grabbed his attention. It was Gina. She was strolling before him, deep in thought. He swallowed hard as his breathing raced.
‘Gina. I…I Would you believe it? Not five minutes ago I was just wondering why I hadn’t heard from you. How are you?’ He hovered throwing his trembling hands into his pockets. ‘Did you get my email?’
Chapter 6 (#ulink_666f2178-1c5b-5680-9cd8-a77a972acab4)
Gina’s heart leaped as a man appeared in front of her. It took her a few seconds to register the speaker. She’d been thinking about her father. He couldn’t even pick up his phone and talk to her. She stared at Ollie.
‘Sorry, were you saying something?’ she asked him. Her heart pounding faster.
Ollie repeated himself.
‘Hi, yes. I’ve been busy. I had meant to reply. Bit of a family crisis right now. You’ll have to excuse me.’ She continued walking.
‘Can I help, Gina?’ he asked, realising he’d seen her father in a bar with a younger woman a few times and quickly figured this could be the crisis.
Gina gave him a tense smile. ‘I don’t think so. But thank you.’
‘You could try me. I’m finished for the day. I’m a good listener,’ he said as they both halted by the opened door to the lake.
Gina squinted at him pensively for a moment. A flutter shooting through her heart swelled blood through every vein. He looked adorable, her epitome of a man. But he was a persistent shit. His way or the highway. Not really the type of person you could call on when you needed a shoulder to lean on. She glanced at the open door to the lake. Should she share her private troubles with this man, this arrogant loudmouth? Oh, if only his eyes didn’t grab her like this.
‘It’s very kind of you to offer but I…’
‘In case you’re wondering, I promise, you can trust me,’ he said tilting his head and churning more flurries through her skin. ‘Come on, we’ll have a coffee. You can have my company if nothing else.’
Gina took in a deep breath. What makes him think I would actually want his company? she asked herself. Was he sincere or just immature? She peered at the open door on the lake again, a strange concept inviting people to step into the lake – to drown themselves maybe? As if echoing her thinking, Ollie stepped towards the structure and ran his fingers down the frame.
‘I wonder?’ he said. ‘Is it an open door to opportunity, new beginnings? As one door closes another opens and all that?’
‘Mmm, curious,’ she answered running her finger down her nose. ‘An invite, a way in or, for some, a way out; an exit.’ She turned and face him. ‘What would you want it to be?’
Patting it once more he leant his shoulder against the frame and holding his other palm out lifted his eyes up to hers.
‘Definitely an invitation, possibly a new beginning,’ he said.
Gina’s heart quivered. Those words slipped from his lips so seductively. His dark eyes, so powerfully entrancing. It was hard not to be drawn in. How natural she imagined it would be to dissolve into those strong arms. Her mind drifted.
Out of nowhere, a sharp icy sensation sliced through her and she sensed they weren’t alone; something or someone was beside her again. Her nose and lip twitched at the putrid odour suddenly apparent. This lake must be haunted, she surmised. She shuddered and raised both hands to rub her arms. Her eyes shifted from his to the richly coloured flowerbed in front of the lake.
‘Do you know? I can’t really think.’ She took a deep breath. What was the harm? ‘Let’s have coffee,’ she conceded feeling confused as a rush of blood returned to her arms. Clasping her wrist, she frowned at the peculiar sensations within her. ‘I only have a short time though. I need to get back soon,’ she said finding his gaze again. Her mind unable to comprehend what the sensations meant? Had it been worse so close to the door? Was that significant? Was she meant to exit? Take a way out through the door and into the lake?
Ollie led her along the promenade and sat down at a table outside The Metropole, a café restaurant close to the steamboat terminal. He ordered a coffee and a beer.
He broke the silence. ‘So, I’m still curious about your interpretation of the metaphorical door?’
‘I suppose, being an optimist and an opportunist, for me, it would have to be an invite, or an open door to something new,’ she said, watching his mouth uncurl into a smile.
‘I’m glad you said that. Reading your face down at the lake, for a minute, I was worried it suggested something else.’
She sipped her mug of coffee. ‘Why should it?’ she said, intrigued. ‘You don’t know me.’
‘Well, no, but for us, there are plenty of inviting opportunities. We have much to offer one another.’ His eyes sparkled.
Gina felt a faint rush of blood in her cheeks. Well, at least he wasn’t being as flippant or glib like he’d been previously. One side of her mouth rose as her mind churned. How was she supposed to interpret his suggestion? Did he mean property or relationship? Why did he emphasise the word ‘inviting’? Or was he just being his cocky, and now, smutty self? Or, was she propagating some kind of wish-fulfilment within herself? She rubbed her ear, he was well aware she was in a relationship with Max and she had told him she was having a crisis right now, so it was unlikely he would be making a pass, so she decided to play safe with property.
‘Of course, you did say in your email, to come along and see the villas for yourself.’
‘Yes. Come along when you have time. Here’s my card.’
Chapter 7 (#ulink_9950a01e-0f91-5ed3-b9f9-d1f98cb0da1a)
Creeping in to the apartment Gina could just hear a clock ticking in the kitchen. She tiptoed down the hall and peeked her head slowly around the bedroom door. She waited a while and watched her mother’s chest take slow, shallow breaths, then gently closed the door.
Again, she tapped her father’s avatar on her phone, letting it ring. He didn’t answer. She blew out a deflated sigh. She texted him again. This time her message was less polite. Reaching for the kettle, she realised it was still quite warm. Her mother had, it seemed, been up and gone back to bed.
She pulled out her phone and the business card Ollie had handed her. Might as well, she thought, keying in his number.
Five minutes later, as she reached the foyer on the ground floor, she was pleased Ollie was standing outside the main door.
‘I’ve probably got an hour or two at most,’ she said, gazing at his untamed hair caught by the breeze. ‘How far are we going?’ she asked as they crossed the road and he led her through wrought-iron gates and down the side of his parents’ large lakeside villa.
‘I can take the car if you’d prefer. It takes about fifteen, twenty minutes to walk along the lake.’
Gina wrapped her hair behind her ear. ‘No, walking will be fine, I love to walk,’ she said and her eyes danced at the site of the house and gardens from the front. ‘Wow, this is impressive. How beautiful.’
‘This is my parents’ place.’
‘It’s vast. And what a magnificent style, traditional.’ She stopped briefly to take it all in.
Although it was just across from her parents, Gina had paid little attention to what was behind the well-tended foliage and walled garden. It was a villa of almost mansion proportions, she observed, with at least four floors if you included the attic rooms and possibly five with the cellar. Its pitched roof was elaborated by a majestic gable leading the eye down the centre of the property. Each window had been decorated with its own small Juliet balcony in black delicate ironwork and shuttered in a pale sage-green, adding to the symmetry of the enormous building.
‘Yes, I grew up here,’ he said, pointing to the other side of the road next to her parents’ block. ‘My own apartment is over there but I have lots of fond memories from my childhood. Did you grow up in Switzerland?’
‘No. Nowhere as beautiful as this.’ She shook her head. ‘Hammersmith is where I grew up. We moved to a house in Fulham when I was about five. Then my parents came out to Switzerland while I was at uni. My brother was in his last year at school. We used to visit my grandparents though. They lived in the centre of Clarens,’ she told him as they strode past a covered swimming pool and towards another wrought-iron gate that led out to the lake path.
‘I’m surprised we haven’t met before now.’
‘Perhaps we have.’
‘Mmm, possible. I did go to school in England. St Edwards in Oxford,’ he said.
‘Oh, Teddie’s.’ Gina gave a nod. ‘I know a few guys from there. Richard Branson’s daughter was the very first female head prefect or something.’
Ollie unlocked the gate. ‘Yes, girls are quite a recent phenomenon for St Edwards.’
‘Such a shame to be locked up in Oxford when you’ve had all this around you,’ Gina said, stepping out on to the path and into immediate warmth. ‘This quayside is such a suntrap.’
‘I liked Oxford, it’s a beautiful city. And it has the Thames.’
‘To be honest, as I recall, I’ve only ever been there once.’
They strolled in the direction of Territet, another small community the other side of the lake, east of Montreux.
Gina couldn’t forget her problems but she could blot them out just for an hour. Even Ollie seemed quite personable right now. She told him how she had started her business and about the London property market. She had to admit, his London site sounded nearly as exciting as the Swiss one and could possibly be months away from completion rather than the years she had imagined.
She spotted the boards of the building site as they turned a bend in the path towards the Château de Chillon. She gasped at the view. It was quieter in this part of the lake but equally, if not more, stunning. Certainly the château added romance. She also noted the vines beside the site, heavy with their last dark berried canopy, lined southerly along the relatively small terrace.
He unlocked the entrance. A makeshift lock securing the boards as there were still evidence of walling and iron railings which Gina thought seemed to also belong to the vineyard.
‘So, welcome to Château View Villas,’ Ollie announced as she stepped over the boarding threshold and onto piles of uneven dirt and debris.
‘Lucky, I came prepared,’ she said, pointing to her flat mules. Then glancing up at the front first villa, angled as the first of a crescent, a loud breath escaped her. ‘Wow! That’s stunning.’
‘Thanks. Let me show you,’ he said, taking her hand and leading her across the treacherous terrain. ‘This one and villa six are reserved. They all have lake views because of the way the crescent is laid out and the ground is terraced.’ His voice rang with excitement. ‘I can’t tell you how amazed I am with this layout. The architect did a great job at getting them all in.’
