Annie clicked her tongue again. ‘Yes he is. I told them it’s no place for a boy, especially one as rambunctious as that one, but after he fell into the lake the day before yesterday, the younger Mrs Klein won’t let him out of her sight.’
‘He fell in the lake?’ Kitty repeated, alarmed. ‘Was he alone?’ A seven-year-old boy shouldn’t be left alone near an ice-cold lake. The thought of him being anywhere near it made her shiver. It may have been a year since she’d been in charge of any children, but even Kitty knew you kept an extra-strong eye on them wherever there was water.
‘Yes he was, and he would have frozen to death, too, if his uncle hadn’t found him. Luckily for us he was sent home with nothing more than a flea in his ear, but I shudder to think what could have happened.’
The two women exchanged glances, and Kitty sensed that Annie could be an ally.
‘Thank goodness for his uncle,’ Kitty whispered, trying to ignore the panic fluttering in her stomach at the thought of Jonas diving into the lake. ‘Is he staying here too?’
‘Not a chance, not while Everett is here. He won’t have anything to do with…’ Annie’s voice trailed off as the front door slammed, and voices echoed in the hallway. A boy’s high-pitched yell, and a woman’s soft drawl, followed by two low-pitched masculine voices.
The new arrivals walked into the kitchen, still talking rapidly. Everett Klein came first, followed by an old man who could only be his father, both of them sharing a similarly shaped nose. A young boy followed him, his blond hair lightly covered in snow. He stared at Kitty, but held himself back as if he was shy. She smiled at him, trying to make herself seem as friendly as possible.
‘Oh, Kitty, you’re here.’ Mia Klein swept into the room, brushing the snow off her shoulders. ‘I was expecting you hours ago.’
‘I had an accident —’
‘Oh, I’m sorry to hear that.’ She blinked a few times, as though snowflakes had stuck to her eyelashes. ‘Jonas, this is Kitty, she’s here to look after you.’ Was that relief Kitty heard in her voice?
Jonas’s eyes widened. Kitty stood and walked over to him, squatting down to make herself his height. ‘Hi, Jonas, how are you doing?’
‘OK.’ He gave her the briefest of smiles.
‘I’m here for the next few weeks. We’re going to have a lot of fun,’ Kitty told him, feeling sorry for the poor kid. He looked so perplexed. Hadn’t Mia even told him she was coming? ‘Are you excited for Christmas?’
Jonas nodded without speaking.
She gave him the biggest smile. ‘Me too. I’ve got lots of exciting things planned for us. I think we can make this the best Christmas ever.’
He looked a little happier at that, the wary expression leaving his face.
‘As long as you can stop him from jumping in the lake again, we’re all good.’ Everett’s deep voice filled the kitchen.
Jonas’s eyes widened, as if he’d been caught with his hand in the cookie jar. ‘It was an accident. I didn’t mean to.’
Mia stepped forward, running her red-talon
ed fingers through her son’s hair. ‘Of course you didn’t, darling, but you shouldn’t have gone near the the lake without us.’ Glancing up at Kitty, Mia gave her an appraising look. ‘That’s why Kitty’s here. She’ll keep an eye on you when we can’t.’
Everett half coughed, half laughed. Kitty glanced up at him. He was staring at her with an appraising gaze, as though he was trying to work her out. Though it was on the tip of her tongue to ask him where he’d been when his son almost drowned, she bit the thought down. She wanted to impress the man, not enrage him.
‘Can we still go to the Harville Christmas parade?’ Jonas asked, his face lighting up. ‘Oma usually takes me but she can’t walk at all. Mom says she’s gonna be laid up all Christmas.’
This time Kitty didn’t bother looking at Mia for confirmation. Instead she cupped Jonas’s frozen pink cheeks, her palms luxuriating in their chubbiness. He was a good-looking child – the perfect combination of his parents’ genes, and his clothes were expensive and well made. Yet she couldn’t help but feel sorry for this boy who had everything he could want except his parents’ attention.
‘Of course we can. I wouldn’t miss it for the world.’
5
We came into the world like brother and brother
– The Comedy of Errors
There was a trick to running in the snow. It took a different kind of person to see an hour out in the frozen landscape as a challenge, rather than a warning to go back indoors and warm up. Adam pulled his trail-running shoes – waterproof to keep out the cold – over his thick woollen socks, and zipped his windproof jacket over the thermal layers he’d put on earlier. The storm had died down sometime in the night, the clouds disappearing as though they were just wisps of smoke. Now the sky was a brilliant blue, the sun reflecting on the freshly fallen snow, making the layer of white sparkle like diamonds.
He started slowly, following his usual trail through the forest that lay between his cabin and the big house, feeling the snow give softly beneath his feet with each stride. As a child he’d learned that snow took on different characteristics depending on the flakes and the weather that immediately followed. Powder was good, ice was bad.
His route was the same every day. Partly because he knew where the snow was at its easiest, and partly because he had the survivor’s instinct that familiarity could mean rescue in an emergency – it was always those who went off-piste who ended up never being found. After he left the canopy of the evergreen trees he emerged into the clearing between the forest and the big house – what passed for a grassy lawn in the summer, once the snow had melted away. He carried on past the house, following the road for about half a mile, then looped back on himself, running along the perimeter of his parents’ estate before passing the house once again.