Secrets of a Chalet Girl by Lorraine Wilson Page A

His father’s heart attack and convalescence had put pressure on Tom, leaving him to run the business.
    She’d sympathised until he’d increasingly taken his frustrations out on her. The first time he’d crossed the line he’d lost his temper and shoved her against a wall during a row. He’d convinced her afterwards it was an accident. She’d believed him because she wanted to.
    She’d been stupid.
    For months she’d been thinking about leaving but every time she came close he seemed to sense it and did something so lovely and caring she began to seriously doubt her own judgement. It’d seemed selfish to leave him when he was under so much pressure.
    And his family, well she hadn’t wanted to leave them either. She’d known cancelling the wedding would break his mother’s heart at a time when she was worried sick about her husband. Leaving felt cruel and selfish.
    But then Tom had punched her and her world had tilted on its axis.

CHAPTER FOUR
    “Hi there, dirty stop-out!” Tash was slipping into her ski boots outside Chalet Repos, her skis propped up against a wall. “Didn’t expect to see you back so soon. Why aren’t you still holed up with the stud from last night?”
    Flora shrugged, kicking at a bit of ice at the side of the path.
    “Like that is it? Fancy joining us?” Tash asked, bending over to snap the boots into place. “We’re all doing the run over to Italy, to Courmayeur for lunch.” It sounded like the perfect distraction. “Sounds like a plan. Just give me a chance to get changed.”
    Fresh air and sunshine had to help, surely?
    “You’ve got at least ten minutes I reckon. The others are on a go-slow after last night. There are some sore heads in there. And baby Lexie woke everyone up at five am too. Still, it’s such a great forecast and the fresh air should blow the cobwebs and bad tempers away.”
    Flora raced to the dorm room, getting changed as quickly as she could in the small space considering Amelia and Sophie were also getting dressed. She did her best to deflect their questions about Zac. The email from Cathy was burning a hole in her pocket but there was no time to act on it. Truth be told she was scared to open it. As long as she didn’t read it she could hope it might be good news, an olive branch email.
    Finally, while they were standing in the snow, waiting for the telecabine, she decided she had to open the email. She took her phone out of the pocket of her ski jacket and opened the email. Almost immediately she wished she hadn’t.
    She stared at the screen, frozen to the spot even though the queue had moved on, barely noticing the mutterings of the people behind her.
    “Hey, earth to Flora. What’s up?” Tash pulled on her elbow, propelling her forward on her skis. Flora was taken by surprise and almost fell over backwards into a snowdrift, only just managing to right herself in time.
    “I’ve changed my mind. I just want to sit back in one of the deckchairs at the canteen and get some sun. I don’t feel up to a big day out and I’ve got some emails to do.”
    She clutched her phone tightly, waving it as though to make her point and feeling a tad unhinged. How could she even start to process this latest assault?
    “Are you sure?” Tash seemed distracted, looking ahead at the rest of the gang. She clearly wanted to go, not act as a nursemaid to Flora. It would be selfish to ask her to stay.
    “Go on. I’ll be fine.” Flora forced a smile and waved Tash off.
    Liar.
    She snapped out of her skis and put them into a rack, her hands shaking. Then she joined the other sunbathers and skiers taking a break, sinking down onto a bright red canteen deckchair. She shaded the screen of her phone from the sunshine so she could re-read the email. There was no ‘dear’ or even a ‘Hi’ at the start of the email. Just the plain stark facts with lashings of screaming subtext.
    ‘Dad died of a heart attack yesterday morning. The doctors said that stress was a major