Page 32 of The Mission

“I’m fine. So I stayed then? Sorry.”

Rurik was clearly amused. “I don’t think you were supposed to go to sleep until Arlo had had his wicked way with you. Want some breakfast?”

“I better get back to the hotel. I suppose there’s a vague possibility they might be worried. I don’t think anyone saw me yesterday evening. Please tell Arlo I’ll call him.”

“I will.”

“Thank you.”

Conrad was relieved to escape before anyone else got up. He wanted to clean his teeth before he came anywhere near Arlo.Ugh.As he made his way back to the chalet, he realised he was going to have to buy gifts that afternoon. If all the shops hadn’t been shut, he’d have done it now. When he sent a message to Arlo asking what time he wanted to meet up to ski, he noted that he’d had no other calls. Mark and a few others knew his number so had he been seen last night? Had anyone thought to check whether his equipment was in the boot room? If they had, they’d have known he’d got down off the mountain.

The bedroom was empty and Conrad showered, then went down for breakfast. Most of the group were in there, though not Mark or Ernesto. Conrad collected his food from the buffet and went to sit with the others.

“Good morning,” Conrad said and everyone greeted him back.

No one looked worried or shocked to see him.

“I thought you must have gone out for breakfast,” David said. “I didn’t hear you come in or go out this morning.”

“That was quite a fall yesterday,” Simon said from higher up the table. “I’m amazed you managed to get back up so quickly.”

Conrad shook his head. “I didn’t.”

“But Mark caught up with us before we reached the bottom of the slope.” David frowned.

“He didn’t wait for me to get to the top.”

Thatdidget a reaction.

“Well, that’s not on,” one of the clients said. “Are you okay?”

Thank you.“I’m fine.”

Part of Conrad wanted to hang around until Mark appeared to see if anyone said anything to him, but he knew Mark would just lie his way out of any questions. There was no point falling into an argument. One person’s word against another’s, and Conrad could guess who they’d believe.

As he made his way upstairs, he had a call from Arlo.

“That was the couch, not my bed,” Arlo said indignantly. “You were too heavy to move and no one would help me.”

“I think I fell unconscious, not asleep. I’d have been no use for anything.”

“I am a well-known necromancer with an impressive raising-the-dead sucking speed.”

Conrad let out a choked laugh just as Mark was coming out of his room. Not with Ernesto. Mark smirked as he walked past.

“I need to do some shopping,” Arlo said.

“Me too.”

“You want to do it together? We could have a rest from skiing today and do something different this afternoon.”

“That sounds good.”Nothing too energetic.

“I’ll plan something for later. We’ll meet outside Schroll on the main street at ten. The Rolex shop. We’re not going in. We’re just going to ogle and drool.”

“Okay.” Conrad smiled.

He cleaned his teeth again. He was too early to meet Arlo, but he wanted to see if he could find a present for him before they met up.

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