*Chapter 18*

Durndle

 
 
“Where’ve you guys been?” Mand demanded when we met up with them by the entrance to the Kursaal.

“Nowhere really.”

“We thought you’d be back ages ago.” Daz noted.

They were at least still talking to each other.

“So what’ve you guys been up to?” Claire enquired with a smirk.

“Nothing.” Mand quickly replied.

“We should get back.” Laura mentioned.

“Oh shit! It’s nearly half past ten.” Sal wailed.
 
 

It might not be that far but it still took us another fifteen minutes to get back to the hotel and any ideas we might’ve had of slipping inside unnoticed were dashed when we spotted Caro and Steve standing guard in reception.

“We were getting ready to send out a search party.” Steve informed us.

“We didn’t mean to be so late,” Laura offered, ”the time just went.”

“Dare we ask where you were that caused such a time vortex?”

“Huh?” Sal managed.

“We were with the German girls, at their hotel.” Claire supplied.

“Get yourselves inside then,” Caro suggested, “breakfast at eight.”

Phew, no real censure, I thought we were in for it.

“Drew? A moment please.” Caro requested.

Bum!

“Er sure, night, guys.”

“Night, Drew.” Mand replied.

“See youse up there, man.” Josh added.

Steve followed the others inside leaving just Caroline and myself outside.

“So what’s up?”

“I gave your Dad your—um, chest supports.”

“Thanks.”

“Everything okay?”

“I guess.”

“You’re in a good position for tomorrow.”

“I suppose, I guess it’s mine to lose.”

“Let’s hope not, your dad told us about your latest ‘modelling’ assignment.” She hinted.

“I’m not in trouble am I?”

“No, Dave cleared it but you are giving us a few firsts on this trip; life’s certainly never dull when you’re around, Miss Bond.”

“Um…”

“Go on, scoot – give ‘em hell out there tomorrow, eh?”

“I’ll try.”
 
 

I left Caro outside, some excuse about checking on our little fleet of vehicles, and went inside.

“Fraulein?”

Hmm

“Hallo? fraulein?”

I glanced round, no one else here, I shrugged.

“Fraulein Bondt?”

Sugar, I turned around and spotted the source of the voice, a chap stood behind the reception counter. How does he know my name?

“Er yeah?”

“There is a delivery for you, a moment please.”

“Okay.”

Delivery? I’ve not ordered anything and like if I had why would it come here? The concierge returned a moment later with something covered with one of those bag things you get from the dry cleaners.

“Here we are, miss.”

“Er this can’t be mine, I’ve not ordered anything.”

“You are with the rad team?”

“Yes.”

“For you alright, here, the label – Drew Bond, Team GB, C/o Hotel Crystal.”

“Well I guess that’s me alright, do you know who left it?”

“Sorry, I only came on duty at ten,” he shrugged.

“Okay, thanks.”

“Good night”

“Er nite.”

I took charge of the bag and headed up the stairs to our room.

 
 
“What took you, man?” Josh enquired as he let me in.

“Caro wanted a word then I got caught in reception with this.”

“Sending youse laundry out?”

“Be daft, no idea what it is.”

“You could look?” he suggested.

“Why didn’t I think of that?” I replied flatly.

I laid the bag on my bed and unzipped it, “What the…”

“What is it, man?”

I moved to one side so he could see, there in all its glory was the outfit I wore earlier for the photo shoot.

“A dress, man?”

“Looks like it to me.” There was an envelope pinned to the bodice addressed to ‘Drew’.

“Who’s it from then?”

“Gis a sec.”

I opened the brief and pulled out the note inside, dropping something on the floor.

Dear Drew,
Thanks for helping out at such short notice today, Georg got some great shots and you were quite a hit with the horn blowers! I’ll send the pictures on but in the meantime we’d like you to have the Kleid and earrings – the colour suits you so well and we won’t use them again.
Good luck with your race
Heidi.

“These dropped out, so what’s the crack like?” Josh pressed handing me the dropped earrings.

“I remember now, I’d forgotten with everything the last few days, it’s a present for Jules, ordered it in Luzern.” Well I’m not gonna admit the truth – he might know about Gaby but he doesn’t know everything.

“Nice colour.”

“It was cheap.” Well I don’t suppose it was but he won’t know that.

“Ah shoulda got something for Tali, like.” He mused.

“I don’t think she’s that into dresses.” Think Tali, think skater gurl rather than princess!

“Still.”

Maybe I really ought to get Jules something?

 
 

So remind me,” Jamie started, “just why are we going out this morning, aren’t we riding far enough later?”

“Get the legs loose.” Mark opined.

“We did have a fairly easy day of it yesterday.” I noted.

At least today was looking better than last night, it rained again after we got back but this morning it’s clear blue skies with just a few wispy bits of cloud up around the mountain peaks. The girls and Caro left a few minutes ago, we’re waiting for Dad to come round with Steve and the Merc.

Beep, beep!

“That’s us.” Josh noted, pushing off to join the road.

We took the same road that the stage took two days ago to exit Interlaken, without the pressure of competition we could appreciate it a bit more.

“What d’ya reckon, Mark, ‘nuther stage?” Daz suggested.

“Be nice.” He allowed.

“Got to get to the finish first.” Geth pointed out as we crossed over the autobahn before dropping into Wilderswil.

“Let’s hope no one gets too clever, like.” Josh mentioned.

“So, boss, what’s the plan?” Mark queried.

Boss, that’s me on the road. I know what I’d do if it was a one day race, attack after an hour, hope to break the rest then team [or time?] trial to the finish. But this isn’t all about just me, yeah I’ve got the yellow but we need to protect the spots too, hold on to the team classification and yeah, the stage would be nice, too. The stage is a little bit like Saturday – no real climbs, like Saturday the one intermediate sprint doubles as the KOM for the day too.

“We need to make the selection fairly early, let the others do the work.”

“So ye’ll be wanting us to attack?” Jamie queried.

“Bit of a suicide mission, the success rate isn’t high.” Mark supplied.

“I wasn’t meaning for you to go.”

“So how do I get the stage then?” he started to get a bit irate.

We were through the village now and starting on the climb through the gorge.

“If we can get two or three away without the other contenders it’ll give us two shots – if they stay away the mountains and time bonuses get mopped up and there’s a shot at the finish. If there’s a reaction we still take care of the first but with luck we still get a go at the finale and have extra shots at it.”

“So who goes like?” Josh enquired.

“Everyone except me and Mark.”

“Woo-eee!” Darren let out, “some gamble.”

“We’ll be wide open.” Mark noted.

“Maybe less than you think, the Germans and Belgians will help out I think, I was talking to Roni last night, she’s keen to have a go today so Mand will follow which will boost the escape group, the others will run interference in the bunch which is to our mutual benefit.”

“There’s a lot of ifs there.” Geth observed.

“When isn’t there?” I replied with a grin. “So?”

“Last day, do or die.” Daz stated, “I’m in.”

“Aye, coont me in.” Jamie agreed.

“Geth?”

“Like Daz said, nothing to lose.”

“Mark?”

“I’d prefer a better shot at the finale but what you say has some merit, okay, count me in.”

Josh gave me a nod, now we just need to put it into action.

© Maddy Bell 10.02.14