A Winter Affair by Minna Howard Page B

Aurelia who could ski far better than most people usually skied with a private guide. They were always good-looking men, and he wondered what else she expected from them.
    Aurelia was a complicated woman, a beautiful one, but now he thought of it she reminded him of a spoilt little rich girl. She never seemed satisfied with anything or anyone, a misfortune he guessed that came from a deep insecurity. She’d come out here a year ago with Malcolm, an older man, who, rumour had it, was a rich lover helping her start up her business, providing sophisticated takeaways. These were aimed at people who didn’t do their own cooking or were giving parties or just staying in and wanting to enjoy a delicious supper they hadn’t had to cook themselves. They could pick up a meal from her shop, or if they ordered a meal in advance it would be delivered to their chalet. It was expensive but she used the best ingredients and all they needed to do was to put in the oven. There was no mess and preparing to do, but still, he thought, she charged too much, but then if people were prepared to pay for it, bully for her.
    Malcolm was not here that often, though she often spoke of him, and although she showed an interest in Lawrence and especially Jacaranda, he had steered clear of any romantic entanglements since a relationship he’d had with a French woman had drifted to a close last year.
    Lawrence skied through the dark trees with quick, tight turns. High above him glided the gondoliers. There was no one else about now as he was off-piste and he felt the joy of skiing, the silence in this part of the mountain away from the main runs and above the bustle of the village. He wished he could spend the day outside, go up higher and do one of the longer routes up to Mort Fort or down Tortin, but if he was to keep Jacaranda as his home he had to give the business his time and attention and just snatch days off when it was empty. Theo did a lot, but he needed to be around himself when they had guests, in case there was a drama: a plane ticket lost, a complaint, or an accident. There’d been quite a few of those over the years, and it wasn’t the highlight of the job, trying to deal with fractious guests, often fuelled by tiredness or alcohol.
    He’d reached the bottom of the run now; it opened out to an easier slope used by the ski school for beginners. As he traversed across the well-used snow, the ridges from previous skiers softening in the sun, he thought fondly of his father. Now some time had passed, he might feel comforted to be back where he and Maddy had been so happy. He remembered his father explaining to him after his parents’ divorce how he’d met the love of his life, though he added quickly that he had loved Agnes, his mother, but it had been a young love, full of passion and torment, and they were really so unsuited to settling down, and though they both loved him, they couldn’t stay together without one of them destroying the other.
    Not until he was older had he really understood. He adored his mother but she’d always felt distant, in a world of her own, and when Desmond met Maddy, such a warm and loving person, Lawrence found himself gravitating more towards her, which filled him with guilt, but whenever he was with his mother there were such dramas. Men were always falling in love with her and she, like a child with her toys, picked them up, played with them a little, before becoming bored and discarding them. She’d had two more children, his half-brother Nathan and half-sister Tia, with whom he got on well when he saw them. They lived in the US now, where their fathers – both different – lived. Both his mother and Maddy were dead and, he admitted with a touch of guilt, he missed Maddy far more than he did his own mother.
    Yes, he thought as he came to the path that led to the chalet, he’d encourage Desmond to come here in the summer. He hadn’t seen him since the