The descent and landing went smoothly. Eva watched as the pristine white ground drew closer, and the plane touched down on the cleared landing strip.
The chalet’s property was in an open, shallow bowl on the side of a mountain, peaks rising up on all sides, dusted with evergreens and covered by a heavy layer of snow, smooth and perfect, like fondant on a wedding cake.
An ironic observation since she was so desperate to avoid having a wedding cake made in her honor. Well, that wasn’t strictly true. She would be happy to get married if she was in love.
That brought to mind thoughts of Mak’s wife. It made her heart squeeze tight.
“Your luggage will have been unloaded and put in the back of the car that’s waiting for us,” Mak said, standing and making his way to the door as it lowered, and a rush of cold, thin air flooded the cabin.
“Wow,” she said, grabbing the wool coat that she’d laid across the couch she was sitting on and shrugging it on as she stood. “Chilly here. Much colder than Kyonos ever gets.”
“Have you seen much snow?”
“Not a lot. We’ve gone on skiing vacations a few times, but nothing recently. I confess, I’ve never been a huge fan of it.”
“Why’s that?”
She wrinkled her nose. “Well, it’s cold. And then when it melts it’s wet. And then you’re cold and wet, so I fail to see the appeal.”
Mak put on a wool coat, black, like everything else he owned. “I’m used to it. But then, it snows a lot in Russia.”
“Of course,” she said, stepping out of the plane and descending the stairs, trying to take in the vastness of the scenery. It was all quiet, completely still, the only sound coming from snow sliding off tree limbs in the distance. “Did you play in the snow?”
“Sometimes. I worked from an early age. Not uncommon there. My family didn’t have a lot of money so I helped where I could.”
“That must have been hard.”
“Not at all. It was better. Better to have some control over the situation, over whether or not I got to eat dinner, rather than simply being at the mercy of my circumstances.”
“Oh. I didn’t … I didn’t realize.”
“I told you, printzyessa, there are other problems to have in life beyond having someone select your spouse for you.
There was compensation. I had a lot of freedom. That didn’t always turn out well.”
He opened the back door of a black SUV and she slid inside, Mak following and closing the door, shutting out the chill. At least the chill in the air. The chill between them seemed to have come back a bit.
Mak spoke to his driver in German and they started driving along the plowed roads. At least, she hoped they were sufficiently plowed.
“Don’t worry,” Mak said, “the car is well-equipped for the weather, and Hans will drive safely. It’s his job.”
“That’s right. You don’t like cars.”
“Not much,” he said, his voice tight.
“Is it a short drive?”
“Very, but you don’t want to hike up the side of the hill in these conditions, trust me. Your boots, fashionable though they may be, couldn’t handle it.”
She looked down at her knee-high leather boots, the ones she’d purchased recently. She held her foot up so that the slender heel was clearly visible. “Maybe not.”
“No, I think you’d find yourself tobogganing down to the village on your backside.”
“Not the best image.” She held her breath as the car wound up a road that ran with the shape of the mountain, taking turns that were extreme S-curves. She put her hand on the door handle and looked over at Mak, who was sitting with his posture straight, the only betrayals of his stress in the tightness of his jaw, the clenching of his fist.
It took all of her self-control not to put her hand over his. Not to try and soothe the tension in him. She couldn’t touch him. Because, for some reason, whenever she did, it felt as though a small spark popped between them. And if she did it too often, that spark might ignite.
She sucked in a breath and looked out the window.
The view from the side of the road was fabulous, clear, pale skies over glittering snow and deep green trees. But enjoying the view required her to be able to look down over the edge of the road and that was much less fabulous.