A Winter in Wonderland by Isla Gordon

Author:Isla Gordon
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Little, Brown Book Group
Published: 2021-11-11T00:00:00+00:00

Chapter 23

Christmas was fast approaching, only a few more Advent calendar doors away, and the excitement in the air was becoming harder and harder to ignore.

Guests seemed to be arriving in their hundreds every day, and we all worked hard to make sure every one of them left smiling and with a little extra magic in their hearts than when they arrived. Yes, even me. With not long to go now until Christmas was behind us, I was clawing my way to the finish line.

Even though Josh now knew my secret, I wasn’t worried. I trusted him. And besides, despite my internal screaming at times, I was doing nothing to give away that I wasn’t equally full of Christmas spirit as the rest of ’em.

Just sometimes, I had to work a little harder to keep up the show …

‘Esteri,’ I called, jogging over the snow as best I could dressed like the Michelin man. I’d just finished for the day after doing four consecutive snowshoe tours, and was heading back to the staff chalet from the activities’ lodge, where Daan had released the next week of rotas. And something was concerning me.

‘Esteri?’ I called again, and this time she heard me and turned.

‘Oh, hello!’

Catching up with her, we walked through the pine trees to the chalet together. ‘How was your day?’ I asked.

‘Great, as always. I was with a group over in the National Park all day, so a lovely mix. You?’

‘Snowshoeing.’

‘All day?’

‘Yes, but that’s fine. It’s my favourite, actually.’ Because there wasn’t a jingle bell or Santa suit in sight. ‘Esteri?’

‘Yes, Myla?’

‘Just wondering … You like cooking, right?’

‘Yeah?’

‘Do you fancy baking some gingerbread tonight, and maybe decorating it together?’ I was being totally casual so she wouldn’t suspect a thing.

‘Do you not know how to decorate gingerbread?’ she asked, seeing right through me like some kind of detective from CSI.

‘What? No, of course, I just thought it would be fun. Roommate bonding.’

We reached the door of the chalet and Esteri held it open for me, usuring me into the boot room to de-Michelin man. ‘So it has nothing to do with the fact you’re rostered on to help with the Mrs Claus gingerbread decorating day tomorrow?’

‘No, not at all. I know how to decorate gingerbread, believe me, I am never more comfortable than when I have a piping bag in my hand— OK, fine, I’ve never done it before, please help me.’

Esteri chuckled and we took it in turns to pull each other’s boots off. ‘All right, well, even though I was hoping to have a nice relaxing evening of sauna and reading my book, I will help you.’

‘Thank you.’ I smiled gratefully.

‘But I doubt we have any icing in the chalet, so you and I will need to head back to the activities’ lodge and do some thieving.’

‘Good plan,’ I nodded, ‘under the cover of darkness.’

‘It’s dark now, in case you hadn’t noticed,’ she said, pointing at the Arctic night outside the window. ‘We’ll go back after dinner, when there won’t be as many people around.

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