Five Ladies Go Skiing: A feel-good novel of friendship and love. Karen Aldous

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СКАЧАТЬ normal, joining in the conversation, but I wanted nothing more than to hear her open up and talk about everything she’d gone through this year. We all did. Saying she’s fine told us nothing. Even her daughter, Rachel, who I rang with my concerns, said I shouldn’t worry; her mum would talk about it when she was ready. Anthony thought along those lines too. Don’t press her, Cathy, he told me. But Ginny was like a sister, and it broke my heart that she wouldn’t confide in me.

      I dug my finger into my little pot again and fished out a crispy chickpea. Then another. ‘Do you want some, Ang?’ I asked.

      ‘No, I’ve got my beans and an apple here, thank you.’

      I had always confided in Ginny. She was always there for me through the early years when Anthony and I were trying for a family. She probably knew my menstrual cycle better than me at times, despite her busy life with her children. Every month she would turn up with a book or a bottle of wine, or if Mike was at the Rotary Club or pub, she’d insist I go to her instead so that she could put Ross and Rachel – then babies – to bed before we settled down for a chat. We’d sit with our legs curled under us, at either end of her settee. Sometimes Lou, Angie or Kim would join us.

      My mobile rang, and I knew it could only be one person.

      ‘Hello, darling.’ As expected, it was Anthony.

      ‘I checked and saw that you had landed. Why didn’t you ring?’

      I sighed. ‘Because we haven’t arrived yet.’

      ‘I did ask you to call,’ Anthony slurred down the phone. It wasn’t even lunchtime.

      ‘Darling, you said, and I’ll paraphrase, ring me when you get there. We are about twenty minutes, half an hour away yet. It’s stunning, lots of mountains and snow. Look, I’ll send you a text when we get to the ski resort. Is that OK?’

      ‘OK. Is it snowing?’

      ‘No. No snow and the roads are fine. I’ll text you. Bye, darling.’

      ‘I love you.’

      ‘Love you too, darling; bye.’

      I fumbled to switch it off.

      So, where was I?

      Kim and Will had still been in England and they too had been trying, like Anthony and me. It was Kim who suggested I try the new test-tube method, now what we refer to as IVF, as they were considering it. The whole idea horrified me of course. Being a Catholic I could never have conceived that way. It wasn’t at all natural, or moral. Anthony respected my faith despite his willingness to provide the cash for the ground-breaking treatment. He was also willing to adopt, seeking out lots of pamphlets about it, but I was convinced I would fall pregnant eventually.

      Ginny supported my decisions no matter what, even when Kim argued – a few years after Avril and Mai were born – that her twins had provided her far more joy than any faith could have brought her. Ginny was comforting, despite the joy she had for Kim and Will. ‘We all have to do what’s right for us, follow our own heart,’ she had said. And, I couldn’t be bitter with Kim. Her twins were little angels and Anthony and I loved to shower them with kisses and gifts when we saw them, just as we had with Ginny’s, Lou’s and Angie’s children when they were small. Kim so deserved them after having such a difficult family life as a child herself. I was really looking forward to seeing Kim again – much more than I was looking forward to the skiing. Sport had never been my forte.

      My phone rang again.

      ‘Is that Anthony again?’ Angie asked.

      I puffed and picked the damn thing up and switched it off.

      ‘He’s probably sat on it again or slid it in his pocket and hit the button. I’ll text him when we get there.’ I groaned.

       Ginny

      I jumped suddenly as a head of caramel blonde hair flashed in front of my face.

      ‘Aren’t they stunning?’ Lou said, leaning across to my side of the car and peering up.

      ‘They look beautiful from here,’ I agreed, following her gaze to the halos of light gleaming from the mountaintops against the cobalt sky; but my gut remained apprehensive.

      Lou laid a relaxed hand on my wrist. ‘I’m sure it’ll be great. We’ll make sure it is. Maybe our grans are watching over us, making sure we damn well enjoy ourselves. I can’t wait to get on that snow.’

      Lou was fearless to the point of recklessness and I loved that about her. She was the person you’d want around if a bullet or missile was heading your way. She would try to catch it. Throw herself on top of you, at worst. Unlike me, ever cautious and full of self-doubt. Lou would take to skiing like a bird took to the sky.

      I heard the indicator clicking. My heart rate soared as Angie, whose wonderful idea this was, the only skier among us, took the slip road and crossed the motorway towards towering rocks. The road narrowed and inclined steeply. Angie struggled for a low gear to make a sharp turn. Already, we must have been a hundred feet up. My breathing became short as the car climbed, and Angie’s expression was one of deep concentration. I closed my eyes. One mistake and we could drop off the edge. Cathy, in the front passenger seat, squealed as we rounded another hairpin and as I opened my eyes, her anxiety glared into mine.

      ‘I feel sick,’ she said, shielding her eyes.

      ‘It’s always daunting, the last bit, but it’s not far now,’ Angie tried to assure us while brushing a thicket of black curls from her face with her right hand.

      Lou slapped and squeezed my knee, making me lurch forward. ‘Yep, this time tomorrow we’ll be up there at the top of one of those peaks and ploughing downhill.’

      I forced a smile. I didn’t want to harass Angie any more than necessary, but I was also beginning to experience nauseous waves and my head was all over the place. Like my life. The thought invaded my head. No. Stop it! I speedily corrected my brain. Only positive thoughts allowed. That was the promise, the condition, and exactly why the girls had made such an effort; why they had abandoned their husbands and families for the remainder of Christmas and the New Year. They wanted to ensure I escaped my grief, my job redundancy – that had been a big shock so soon after Mike’s death too – and that I would be facing my future alone.

      I lifted the corners of my mouth. ‘We’re going to have a blast,’ I said. ‘We’ll soon lose our fear, especially once we have some alcohol inside us.’

      Angie turned her head round to look at us. ‘That’s probably my worst fear. Please don’t overdo it. It won’t be so bad on the nursery slopes, but you’ll have to limit your alcohol when we go on the runs. I don’t want any of you stuffed in a bag and lifted off the mountain, nor ski-doodled off.’

      I had no idea what ski-doodled was but … ‘We won’t,’ I squealed, leaning forward in panic and silently urging her to watch the road. The car swung ninety degrees again and somehow my abdomen clambered to catch up. I made the mistake of looking down outside the window. There was barely twenty inches between me and sudden death. We must have been at, I guessed, about two thousand feet up with a sheer drop. I quickly looked up, focusing ahead, attempting to blot out the possible grave scenarios filling СКАЧАТЬ