Lloyd nodded, 'I guess. Still, I am sorry. It's not the kind of stuff you want to listen to six days before your wedding, though, is it?'

Tash checked her watch. 'It's technically only five days to my wedding.'

'The countdown begins.' He smiled and tried to look bright and sober; he felt he owed this nice woman that much.

Tash grinned back. 'Should we walk back to the hotel? It's only five minutes, but we can get a horse and sleigh if you don't think you can't'

'No, I'll manage. The walk will do me good,' smiled Lloyd.

Tash looked at him properly for the first time. As she'd only just met him and it had been such a busy day, she hadn't really had a chance to take him in. Rich hadn't been particularly forthcoming in his description of Lloyd. He'd simply revealed that he was initially focused and recently divorced. It didn't give her much to go on. Tash had got the impression that Lloyd was so much more ordinary than all of Rich's other mates. That sounded rude. She didn't mean to be rude.

She'd expected someone so typically run-of-the-mill that he had become a caricature in her head. Lloyd was a man who had been jealous of his wife's success and the time she spent on their baby, and therefore had an affair with a younger, blonder, less demanding woman, to secure a bit of attention. In the flesh, however, Lloyd was much more complicated than the caricature that Tash had allowed to settle in her mind. He was bleeding, just as he'd said. His face was tense with regret and pain. His eyes were wary, almost hunted. This man was clearly confused and at a complete loss as to how he ended up exactly where he was. Tash didn't know enough about his marital experience to know if he was a complete t.o.s.s.e.r or not. All she knew was that this man needed friends. Tash found herself wishing Rich had been a better friend to Lloyd. Which surprised her she always thought of Rich as an excellent buddy.

They walked to the hotel in silence, then Tash walked Lloyd to his room as she feared that he'd have a relapse and wouldn't be able to put his key in the lock.

'Thanks for the escort,' said Lloyd when they reached the door to his room.

'No problem.' Tash turned to leave, then stopped. She turned back to him, the tired, drunken man struggling with the mechanics of a basic door lock. 'Look, I don't know how to say this without sounding corny, but, if you need someone to talk to, if you need a friend, then I'm happy to be it.'

'Thank you,' smiled Lloyd, 'I'll bear it in mind.'

Rich got back to their room only minutes after Tash. She had taken her boots off and was in the bathroom removing her make-up. Rich crept up behind her and put his hands on her shoulders. He started to nibble her ear.

'It's been a long day.'

'Hasn't it,' she agreed.

'I'm sorry about Lloyd. What a w.a.n.ker. He really spoilt a very good evening,' said Rich, as he broke away from Tash and sat on the bed to pull his sneakers off. He was feeling more than peeved. He hated people who couldn't hold their drink. He didn't need this. Jayne being here, crashing the party was bad enough. He didn't want to listen to Lloyd's self-indulgent, drunken rants. Didn't Lloyd know this was supposed to be a celebration? It was this miserable self-pity that had made Rich steer away from him over the past year. People falling in love didn't usually like to look at the carnage of a divorce.

'Don't worry. He apologized, too,' said Tash.

Rich wasn't listening. He really had to talk to Tash about Jayne. He'd meant to earlier this evening, but then they'd gotten cheeky instead, and afterwards it just hadn't seemed like the right moment. He could have said something tonight, he supposed. It wasn't as though Jayne's name didn't come up in conversation the opposite was true. Tash had almost continually sung her praises. She'd gone on and on about how sweet Jayne was, how attractive and what fun. Clearly Tash had made Jayne her new best friend, but that had somehow made it harder for him to say anything, not easier.

Clearly now wasn't the moment. Not now that Lloyd had dampened the festivities. Rich wondered if it would be best to keep quiet altogether. If the matter ever came to light, he could always say that he had not considered it significant enough to mention.

'Actually, I feel a bit sorry for him. He seems lonely,' said Tash, interrupting Rich's thoughts.

'He brought it on himself,' muttered Rich. He didn't have any sympathy to share. Rich had quickly stripped himself naked and hopped into bed.

'Yeah, well, everyone makes mistakes,' said Tash, as she started to pull off her multiple layers of clothes. 'Not that I'm condoning his behaviour. Be clear, I love you too much to be able to forgive you if you were ever unfaithful. I'd chop your b.o.l.l.o.c.ks off. Surely that is threat enough to keep you on the straight and narrow.' Tash was now naked, and she climbed into bed next to Rich. 'And if I ever had a dalliance, I give you full permission to break the heels off all my shoes.' She smiled with the confidence of a woman about to marry the man she loves; she couldn't really imagine the situation they were joking about. More seriously, she added, 'It's not infectious, you know.'

'What isn't?'

'Divorce, unhappiness. You can't catch it from him.'

'I hope not,' he mumbled, as he stretched to turn out the bedside light.

Sunday.

23. Slippery Slope.

The conditions were perfect for skiing and boarding. The cobalt-blue sky was split with white-hot sun rays. The spectacular mountains were covered with deep, fresh snow. The forecasts had proved spot on; there had been a huge dump of snow last night. There were long, wide ski runs overflowing with fresh powder, and risky, narrow tracks winding between fir trees that were weighed down with white blankets. Tash was feeling excited; Kate was feeling nervous; Jayne was feeling confident; Mia and the boys were feeling compet.i.tive.

'Are you going to throw some tricks?'

'What are the parks like here?'

'There are hips, quarters, tables, gaps, spines. You name it.'

'Guaranteed thrills.'

'Maybe we should hire one of those crews that video you in action, then we can have serious debriefs at the end of the day. It's the only real way to improve technique.'

'You haven't got wrist protectors on.'

'I never fall, mate.'

'I'll do a couple of black runs just to get the lay of the land, and then I think I'll get over to Switzerland for some hot chocolate.'

And so on. You could almost taste the testosterone.

Snow sports require a lot of preparation. Dressing in the morning was like preparing for battle. The boarder girls wore knee, wrist and b.u.m protection, even though they bemoaned the fact that the question 'Does my b.u.m look big in this?' had never been so redundant. Thermals, salapex or trousers, jackets, snoods, gloves, boots and goggles were essential wear. It took an age to get everyone dressed and out on the slopes, only to find that they'd forgotten the piste map, then water bottles, and then the walkie-talkies, so Lloyd, Rich and Jason took it in turns to run back to the hotel to retrieve the forgotten items. Despite a very early breakfast, it was past eleven o'clock before they reached the top of the slopes.

'At least we didn't have to queue for a shuttle every morning like we did in Chamonix,' said Mia.

'Was that where we had to reserve the cable car?' asked Jason.

'Yes, dull b.l.o.o.d.y wait. But it was worth it. Wonderful snow, the best. It was as though we were the only people on the mountain.' Mia smiled at the memory.

'It felt as though we were the only people on the planet,' laughed Jason.

'It felt as though we were ruling the f.u.c.king planet,' added Lloyd.

Lloyd was trying to be particularly lively and pleasant. He'd dashed about at breakfast, refilling everyone's coffee cup, securing extra croissants. He'd helped to tighten everyone's boots and adjust goggles. He was trying to compensate for his drunken outburst last night. No one referred to his ranting, and he was grateful. He wasn't absolutely sure exactly what he'd said last night, but he rather feared he'd been a bit of a bore. b.l.o.o.d.y Sophie, she'd put the idea in his head that the gang had been neglectful of him, and then he'd gone and spewed her idea all over their party. It wasn't good form. He felt embarra.s.sed, and was grateful for the gang's tactful silence on the matter. He wished Tash wouldn't keep giving him those obvious looks of concern. She was a lovely girl, he wouldn't want you to get him wrong, but what's said on tour stays on tour. He was drunk; he didn't mean that stuff. Well, he did. A little bit. He meant some of it. Last night he'd meant all of it. But that was the drink talking. Wasn't it?

Lloyd shook his head. It was impossible to think straight with a hangover. He needed to get skiing. That would clear the cobwebs. He wondered just how cross Greta really was. He had no idea. And Sophie? G.o.d, he couldn't even think about Sophie. He'd made such an a.r.s.e of himself. What had he been thinking of asking Sophie to come here? A recipe for disaster. Not what he wanted. Not really.

Lloyd, Kate and Ted had decided to stick to skiing. Jason was a great skier, but he wanted to learn to board and Mia realized that this was largely to impress Jayne. So she, who was also a long-term skier, said that she wanted to learn to board, too largely to keep up with Jason. Jayne, Rich and Tash didn't even consider skiing, preferring instead the adventure and challenge of boarding.

At the top of the run, Mia watched with envy as Jayne effortlessly stepped on to her board, fastened her bindings in one swift movement and set off down the slope.

'She's a natural,' laughed Lloyd. The entire group kept their eyes on the slight girl as she gracefully carved her way through the fresh snow.

'No, she's a master,' marvelled Rich. 'Look at her technique. It's spot on.'

'She's always been a great sportswoman,' commented Ted.

'I'm going to catch her up,' said Tash. Pulling her goggles down over her eyes, she set off down the slope. All eyes were on her now. While she was a devoted and competent boarder, it was obvious to everyone that Tash's enthusiasm and speed supplemented a lack of technique and control. Rich was surprised; he'd always considered Tash an extremely good boarder. She was gutsy and tireless. But he had to admit she looked clumsy in comparison to Jayne. He shook his head. It was a harmless comparison, one he'd made subconsciously, but he didn't like it.

Ted, Kate and Lloyd set off down the slope, too. They skied past, through and next to one another with a quiet, steady confidence that was a result of their learning and skiing together for years. Mia watched them go, a little bit of her wishing that she hadn't taken up Rich's offer to teach her to board. She hated learning anything new. Learning something, by definition, meant that you weren't very good at it.

'OK, you guys,' said Rich, as he turned to Jason and Mia, and gave them a loose grin. 'It's pretty simple, really. It's all a matter of confidence and balance. I'm expecting great things from both of you.'

'Be careful, Rich: Mia's in a mood. The guy in the hire shop called her goofy. She nearly took a swipe at him,' blurted Jason.

'Well, how was I supposed to know that he meant I lead with my right foot rather than orthodontically challenged? I'm a rookie, you know.' Mia threw in the hip expression for novice, in an attempt to cover her mistake. How she loathed being anything less than impressively informed on all subjects. 'Look, let's stop ga.s.sing and get down to it. The sooner I get the hang of this the better. There's some major off-piste to shred.'

'Yeah, like, radical,' sn.i.g.g.e.red Jason, who always knew when Mia was faking. 'What happened? Did you swallow a boarder-slang dictionary, Mia?'

Mia glared at Jason and continued, 'I understand now. The plastic hoops on my boots face left on the board. If I were regular they'd face the other way, but what difference does it make anyway?'

'You're right, Mia. It's all irrelevant. You are probably going to come down on your b.u.t.t no matter what,' laughed Jason. Rich laughed, too, but Mia just scowled and vowed that she'd make Jason eat his words.

All she ate was snow. It was impossible.

Mia couldn't stand. She was fittish and firmish, with strongish stomach muscles, but she couldn't even stand up on her board. The only blessing was that she didn't get high enough to fall down; she simply slipped and slid, her feet constantly moving away from her despite being attached by a complicated series of muscles, ligaments and bones. Her calves stung with lactic acid build-up. She should have trained more. Jason was at least upright. He was practising something called his 'heel edges'. G.o.d, she felt such a fool. This was hardly going to help her seduction of Scaley. He'd think she was a loser.

After half an hour of trial and error, Mia mastered standing up and balancing on the heel edge of her board. She grabbed on to Rich as though he were a life raft, and in many ways he was. He patiently encouraged, directed and cajoled in exactly the correct proportions to elicit the best performance he could from Mia. She inched down the mountain stop-start, stop-start just as Rich had instructed her to, so that she gained control of the board. As soon as her confidence increased, she waved at Jason, who was a few metres in front of her. He grinned, and shouted something, but she didn't hear what it was as she fell backwards.

s.h.i.t, that hurt.

Mia, as a competent skier, had forgotten just how painful falling was. The shock pains screeched up through her b.u.m, her coccyx and back. She felt the agony tingle, far away from the impact, in her earlobes and her toes. As she'd fallen she'd bit her tongue, quite badly it appeared as she could taste blood. Mia squeezed her eyes shut so the tears couldn't eke out.

'Are you OK?' yelled Jason, his teasing submerged by genuine concern. Suddenly he was at her side, rubbing her back. She waved him away with a dismissive flick of the hand, forced her very best wide grin, flashed it, and burst out laughing.

'G.o.d, am I a klutz?' she laughed.

The boys joined in with her laughter, relieved.

Mia knew that her strongest card, her deepest tie, with Jason was being one of the boys. One of the boys would not cry when they'd fallen on the slopes, however much their back hurt.

'Quite a spectacular fall, wouldn't you agree? But, then, I've never been one for half measures,' she grinned.

'That's my girl,' smiled Jason, and then turned his attention back to practising balancing on his toe edge.

Mia smiled to herself. Jason's comment was progress. Like her boarding, it needed lots of work, but it was progress.

24. Ladies at Lunch.

The girls had agreed to meet at 2 p.m. for a pizza. At the time of agreeing, Mia had thought that she probably wouldn't bother turning up. She'd imagined that by then she'd be boarding down the slopes, with Action Man and Scaley, and would not want to break off to eat. However she had been clock-watching for an hour and a half, and was very grateful for the excuse to leave the boys to their lesson. Every bone was battered and every muscle was screaming in protest. It was actually quite hard to fall forwards gravity nearly always dragged rookie boarders on to their b.u.ms, but Mia somehow managed both. She even fell from the chairlift, one foot tethered to her board, like a ball and chain, the other flaying wildly. She was sore.

'How did you find the snow this morning?' asked Tash.

'Good,' said Kate.

'Excellent,' said Jayne.

'Hard,' said Mia.

This just about wrapped up the ski stories. Unlike the guys, the girls did not feel compelled to relive every second on the slopes, exaggerating every trick, making every near-miss that bit more heroic or scary.

It had been Jayne's idea for the girls to meet for lunch; she'd said it was a sort of hen-party lunch. Mia had thought that the idea was ridiculous. Why couldn't they just meet up for pizza funghi and leave it at that? Jayne was more obsessed by this wedding than Barbie Babe was. Last night she'd turned every drink into a toast to the bride and groom, every conversation somehow found its way back to the subject of the nuptials. This morning Mia had commented that the breakfast was good and Jayne had replied, 'Can you imagine how fantastic the wedding break-fast will be?' Mia suspected that Jayne was trying to worm her way into Tash and Rich's affections because she had burst in on the party. Frankly, it made tedious conversation. Mia did not need reminders of just how loved up the whole planet was, particularly as she was a notable exception.

They found a cute pizzeria and chose to sit outside on the street, which was covered with a wooden layer of red-cedar shingle tiles which had not been seen for a while as they had become enveloped by the snow. The girls removed gloves and scarves, slackened boots and unzipped jackets. They turned their faces to the sun, which splattered light on to their sungla.s.ses, the polished table and the drinking gla.s.ses. Sun-kissed and exhausted, the girls idly watched children being pulled along in sleighs and skiers skiing right up to shop and restaurant doorways. Hungrily they read the menu.

'I think I'll order some garlic bread and a pizza. I'm always starving after skiing,' said Kate. 'I can never bear getting back on to skis again with a full stomach, so I might as well have a gla.s.s of wine.'

'Good idea. I'll have vodka,' said Mia.

'I thought you were detoxing,' said Kate.

b.u.g.g.e.r, thought Mia, she had said that yesterday, hadn't she? And she hadn't known whether to be pleased or aggrieved that no one questioned her about this move. It was useful that she hadn't been cross-examined as to exactly which detox diet let you eat what you like (in enormous quant.i.ties) but not drink any alcohol, yet it was insulting that the gang clearly thought she needed to detox. Were they saying she was fat?

'One won't hurt,' she insisted.

'Oh, go on, then, I'll have a gla.s.s of red,' added Tash.

'Not for me, even though this is a hen party, I'm determined to get back on the slopes this afternoon,' smiled Jayne.

Kate automatically placed her hand on her stomach as though Jayne's self-control was a direct criticism of her lack of it. Kate's salapex was feeling a bit tight across the stomach and thighs, even though she only bought it last season. She wanted to believe that it was her bulky underwear, but she knew that was not the case. She thought she might have a snoop around the shops that afternoon and perhaps buy a new, slightly more generous one. She knew she was eating too much at the moment, but she couldn't seem to stop herself. It was impossible to think of salads in the winter. Never mind, well-tailored clothes hid a mult.i.tude of sins.

'Isn't this place darling? Sort of a cross between White Christmas and It's a Wonderful Life,' gushed Jayne, who, Kate noted, was failing to show any of the symptoms of being the desperate, ditched soul she'd convinced Ted she was. Kate sighed. To her, snow more often than not meant lost gloves and runny noses. At least by leaving the children at home she didn't have to worry about them catching colds or chilblains. Not that she'd know a chilblain if she saw one, it was just something her mum used to worry about on her behalf, and now Kate worried about them on behalf of her own children.

Kate thought about the conversation she'd had with the children on the mobile that morning. Fleur had sent a picture text, one of them all eating breakfast. Kate had just about been able to make out the box of Sugar Puffs on the table. There was no sign of the homemade muesli she'd left behind, but then she'd had three pastries for her breakfast and that probably wasn't a good idea either. Kate let her gaze drift towards the kids' ski school which dominated the centre of the resort. Even acknowledging the chilblain factor, she wished her children were here with her. They'd be no trouble. They would be in ski school all morning, and she would have entertained them all afternoon. To be honest, she'd have much preferred to spend her time with them than on the slopes. She sighed, accepting it wasn't to be, and tried to avoid staring at the carousel that merrily twirled around next to the ski school.

Mia followed Kate's gaze and thought weren't they just too cute? Those children with their chubby, determined faces and awkward, uncoordinated moves. Adorable. One day she would bring her child to ski school.

'Look at that mother,' said Mia, pointing to a vexed-looking mum who was yelling at her son for throwing down his sticks in a temper tantrum. 'What is she teaching him by yelling at him? She's just making him cry louder. She's unfit.'

'It's not always easy to keep calm,' pointed out Kate.

Mia was incensed. She wanted to pick up the sticks and beat the bad-tempered mother with them, although she conceded that wouldn't be the best example to set the small boy either. Mia swore to herself that she'd never be unnecessarily harsh with her child. She'd be unwearied, serene and wise, 24/7. Although not a pushover.

'Doesn't she know how lucky she is, just to be a mum? Couldn't she be just a little more empathetic, a little more patient?'

'Probably not,' said Kate. She was aware that the fantasy of the perfect mother was one only childless women could harbour. 'Are you feeling broody?'

'I certainly am not. Can't bear the idea. Horrible noisy things, children. Ruin your figure. It's not like I have anyone to have a baby with, is it? Never have the chance to go to the loo on my own again. No, thank you,' snapped Mia.