The Hike(14)

‘Fine.’ Tristan pulled the map out of the plastic wallet on his lanyard and opened it out again.

Ginny was watching him. Taking in his facial expressions. Tristan was a decent liar, most of the time. But as that receipt had proved, he was clumsy. And in these situations, his face gave him away.

He frowned, tracing a finger down the map, then glancing down at the supposed route into the valley from where they sat now. Then he was back on the map. And his angry-impatient face switched to a possibly-made-an-error face. She knew it well, and she smiled to herself anticipating how he was going to get himself out of this. One thing that Tristan really, really hated was being wrong – and what he hated even more was having to admit it.

‘O . . . K . . .’ he said, at last. ‘Slight change of plan, I think.’ He looked up, briefly catching Ginny’s eye, then looking back down again when he registered her smirk. ‘This descent looks pretty hardcore and I’m not sure we’re quite tooled up for it.’ He pointed at Ginny’s trainers. ‘Those things, for a start, will not make it down this way.’

‘You told me they were fine. Now you’re saying it’s my fault we can’t go down this way? How about if you hadn’t brought us the wrong way in the first place, and then maybe Cat wouldn’t have nearly died, and—’

Tristan stood, his nostrils flaring. ‘Shut up, Ginny. You didn’t want to come in the first place, did you? You’re loving this. I made a mistake, OK? Are you happy with that?’

‘No, I’m not happy. I’m bloody starving.’ What the hell was he playing at?

‘OK, OK. Let’s just sort this, shall we?’ Paul stood up and walked over to Tristan. ‘Can I see the map? Maybe I can help?’

Tristan looked uncertain for a moment, still desperately battling to keep control. But in the end, he relented. ‘We need to head back up the way we just came, past the lake. That’s where we veered off track. Then we round that small peak, and we’ll be on the proper path again.’ He shrugged. ‘Then it’s just a winding route down to the Refuge. I’m thinking less than an hour—’

‘Less than an hour? How many hours are we already out by, Tristan? I thought we were meant to be back at the hotel drinking champagne in the hot tub by four. It’s three now, and we’re—’

‘Ginny, will you shut the hell up about the damn hot tub? We’re on an adventure now. Deal with it.’

Ginny raised an eyebrow at Paul’s outburst. She was about to answer back, but decided she quite liked seeing Paul wound up like this. It was exciting. Maybe it was an adventure. She was regretting being childish about the trainers though. Of course she’d known that they weren’t really suitable. She’d gotten away with it so far, but from what Tristan had said at breakfast, there were a few trickier parts towards the end. Hopefully she’d be fine.

Paul pulled Cat to her feet. She looked a bit brighter since having the energy gel and a few sweets. Less shaky, but still a bit pale. Oh shit, Ginny thought, I hope she hasn’t got a bug or something. She could do without that getting spread between the four of them. She had a new set of recipes to start on Monday and a huge Waitrose delivery arriving. Last thing she wanted was to be feeling ill.

The four of them made it back the way they’d come, then found the turn where Tristan had led them a merry dance. He was right, it was plain sailing after that, if a bit sore on the quads as they began their long, steep descent. Ginny stayed at the back, happy not to have to talk to anyone for a while. Tristan took pole position, his control regained. Ginny watched Paul and Cat as they followed close behind him. They were talking too quietly for her to hear, but they were engrossed in conversation about something. Paul occasionally took hold of Cat’s elbow, making a big show of helping her – although she seemed much better now and frequently shrugged him off, like she didn’t want him touching her at all.

Ginny recalled her earlier doubts about Cat’s near miss, but she pushed them away. Cat had always been more subtle when she wanted attention. She wasn’t one for theatrics. That was Ginny’s department, and she was good at it. In fact, she had a nice little show planned for later, well rehearsed and ready to go live. Even Cat being ill wasn’t going to spoil it. There was something she intended to say, and she was looking forward to the reaction.

By the time they reached the restaurant, Ginny was humming a little tune. She wasn’t sure why, but Survivor’s ‘Eye of the Tiger’ had popped into her head and was setting the scene very nicely indeed.





Nine

SATURDAY AFTERNOON

Even though it had been in her line of sight as they descended, seeing the restaurant up close was like discovering an oasis in the desert. Cat stopped in front of the wooden building and took a deep breath, letting it out slowly. The relief was palpable. She looked down at her hands. They’d stopped shaking, but she knew she needed something to eat and drink, and a proper rest before they carried on. She had no idea why she’d suddenly felt so strange up the mountain, but she was thankful for Ginny’s quick action. Maybe she wasn’t so useless after all. Cat vowed to try and be less hard on her – at least for the rest of the day. She wanted to go with the flow, be more like her sister, but there was a knot in her stomach today that she couldn’t quite shift. She tried to put herself in Ginny’s shoes – think about how she would react if she was facing the issues that Cat was right now – and she knew that Ginny would be ruthless. Despite her sister’s ditzy little games, when she was unhappy about something, she made sure that everyone knew about it.