Fire and Ice Read Free Page A

wear for this
meeting. I’m thinking conservative but practical.”
    “Your trousers will all be too
long for me,” Kate grumbled warningly, taking a reluctant step towards Emily’s
open wardrobe.
    Emily started whistling a hopeful
“Wouldn’t It Be Loverly” but was silenced by a warning glare from Kate.
     “Oh Em, what have I let you talk
me into?”
    “Only the winter of your life,
Katie,” her friend promised with certainty “ I have saved you from feeling
sorry for yourself in some dingy bedsit in gloomy old London by hauling you
back into the sun and the real world. You’ll thank me for this.”
    “When you visit me in prison,”
muttered Kate, while “Look Down” from les Miserables played uninvited in her
mind. Suddenly she wasn’t looking forward to this winter after all.
     
     
     
     
     
     
     

 
    Chapter Two
     
    Early dusk was painting the snow a
soft blue when Emily left Kate in front of a juniper-lined driveway. There was
no gate, only a recent set of tire tracks in the fresh powder. Kate followed
the tracks to where the hedge ended and she caught her first view of Chalet
Gentiane.
    A snowy lawn ran up to a sprawling
chalet of wood, stone and glass. The design was a perfect blend of old and new,
the traditional chalet shape lightened by huge glass, old wood set off against
a slate walkway that had just recently been shovelled. The welcoming smell of a
wood fire drifted up through the chimney.
    Kate stood in front of the
imposing chalet humming “I Have Confidence” to try to bolster her spirits. But
not even Julie Andrew’s bravado could keep her courage from faltering.
    She stopped to rearrange the
borrowed dress slacks which sat more snugly on her hips than on Emily’s and
crumpled over her boots. Then, taking a deep breath, she climbed three steps
onto a large patio that ran around the chalet and approached the front door.  She
rang the doorbell and was trying to gather her poise and rehearse what she was
going to say when the front door was flung open.
    For a moment nobody moved.
    A jolt of electricity shot through
her body and seemed to crackle in the air.
    All of Kate’s composure
disintegrated in front of the most handsome man she had seen in years. Faded
jeans and a black fleece sweater failed to hide a strong, athletic build and
his square-jawed face was tanned despite the winter. Thick black hair stood up
in slightly dishevelled spikes over dark, soulful eyes. They were eyes with an
enticing depth a person could drown in.
    The man seemed as taken aback as
she was. His heavy eyebrows shot up as if startled and his large eyes seemed to
grow even larger for a moment before his face became impassive again,
unreadable.
    Kate hadn’t been prepared for
this. Mentally she cursed Emily for not having warned her that she would be
facing someone whose looks turned her knees to butter. Even in normal
circumstances she would have found herself self-conscious in front of this man;
trying to pretend to be some discrete and experienced woman she had never met would
be almost impossible.
    There was an awkward moment of
silence as she groped for something to say. Her mind seemed to have gone blank
and she could feel her cheeks burning crimson.
    Finally the man took a step back. “Madame
Clark, I presume,” he said with a hint of irony, when it became apparent that she
was not going to be the first to speak. “Welcome. Please come inside.” His
voice was deep with just a trace of a French accent.
    “Excuse me, I wasn’t
expecting… ” she blurted out unthinkingly, when she managed to find her
voice, and then stopped herself in time.
    Instead she pinched her lips
tightly together as she stepped inside and allowed him to take her borrowed green
duffel coat and woollen beret.  She was supposed to be discrete and
professional, she reminded herself, trying to pull herself together. She was
sure he could see her heart hammering in her chest.
    The mesmerising eyes smiled wryly.
“You