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Chapter seven

Asking for help

But you can’t take a tent down when somebody’s still sleeping in it. And at nine o’clock the next morning nobody seemed to want to get up. Across the campsite, Grant was finishing his breakfast. He smiled and gave me a wave.

‘Morning, Tess,’ he said. ‘Sleeping in, are they? Oh dear! Let me know when you’re ready to leave, will you?’ And then he lay down on the ground and put his hat over his face.

I wanted to run over and knock his hat off his face, but I didn’t. I went into Ellen’s tent and gave her a shake.

‘Ellen!’ I said. ‘It’s time to get up!’

‘Mmm?’ she said sleepily. ‘What time is it?’

‘Nine o’clock,’ I told her, but Ellen had already gone back to sleep.

I left her to sleep a little longer and went to try David. I called his name, but he didn’t hear me, even when I put my head inside his tent. There was a lot of soft laughing coming from Sarah and James’s tent, so I didn’t like to go in there. Only Astrid was awake, and she looked as if she hadn’t slept all night.

‘I will get up in a moment, Tess,’ she said in her sad voice.

Astrid’s tent was close to where Grant was. As I came out of her tent I heard him say something from under his hat.

‘Pardon?’ I said, going closer. ‘What did you say?’

Just as Grant took his hat off his face, I fell over a stone on the ground. I ended up almost on top of him, and our faces were suddenly very close. Too close.

‘I asked if you needed any help,’ he said softly, and for some reason I couldn’t stop looking at his mouth. It was a very nice mouth. I’d always thought so, right from the first time we’d met. And suddenly I was remembering how it had looked when he’d kissed the French woman beside the bus.

‘Tess?’ he said.

‘Er. what?’ I said dreamily, looking into his brown eyes.

He smiled, and I suddenly felt he knew what was in my mind. ‘I asked if you needed any help to get everybody up,’ he said, still in that soft voice. ‘I was angry last night. We don’t have to do this.’

‘Do what?’ I asked stupidly. It was difficult to think about what he was saying.

‘This,’ he said. ‘This game. Let’s forget about last night. I’ll go back to being tour leader.’

I was mad, seriously mad. This was Grant Cooper. Grant Cooper, who enjoyed making my life as difficult as possible. Grant Cooper, who loved to make me look stupid. What was I doing looking at his mouth and thinking about kissing him?

‘No!’ I said, getting quickly to my feet. ‘It’s OK, thanks. I want to be tour leader.’

‘OK,’ Grant said. ‘But if you change your mind, you only have to tell me.’

‘No chance!’ I thought to myself. As I walked quickly back over to Ellen’s tent, I was sure I heard Grant laughing.

We finally left Les Pins de Montagne an hour and a half later than planned. It was dry, but the sky was full of dark clouds. It looked as if it would start to rain again soon. I don’t think I was the only one who wished we were travelling in the bus with the luggage.

We were a quiet group as we walked along; there was no laughing or telling jokes this morning. Most people were tired, and some had headaches from last night’s wine. The only person who seemed to be happy was Grant. He was out in front, singing a little song to himself as he walked.

I certainly didn’t feel like singing. We were going up another long hill, and my legs hurt. I was also remembering how I’d felt back at Les Pins de Montagne.

How was it possible to want to kiss somebody and to want to push them off the hill all at the same time? Because I had wanted to kiss Grant. But I was very pleased I hadn’t.

‘Excuse me, Tess.’ I realised David had come to speak to me.

I smiled at him. ‘Yes, David?’

He looked uncomfortable. ‘Well, it’s just. Are you sure we’re walking the right way? Only Grant told me we should go between those two mountains, and we seem to be going away from them.’

I stopped and looked across at the mountains he was talking about. Then I looked down at my map. Oh, no! David was right. We’d gone the wrong way several kilometres back. I’d been so busy thinking about Grant that I’d missed our turning.

‘Problem, Tess?’ Grant asked with a smile, coming back down the hill.

I tried to smile. ‘No,’ I said. At least, not really. We need to go back a little way. Sorry, everybody.’

Nobody said anything, but I knew they were a bit fed up. Especially David, who found going downhill difficult. Why hadn’t Grant said something at the time? He’d obviously known we’d gone wrong. The man was acting like a child, and it wasn’t fair to the group. We needed to talk.

I walked more quickly to catch up with Grant. ‘This is stupid,’ I told him when I got close enough to speak.

He turned to look at me. ‘What’s that, Tess?’ he said with a smile. Oh, how I hated that smile!

‘Why didn’t you tell me we’d gone wrong?’ I asked.

‘You didn’t ask me for help,’ Grant said, walking on. ‘You’re the tour leader; I didn’t like to tell you what to do. But as I said, if you do want help, you only have to ask.’ And with that he walked on more quickly. There was no way I could keep up.

But if I thought things were bad, worse was to come. When we were high up on a mountain with no trees near, it began to rain again, very hard.

We all had our raincoats with us that day, but the rain was falling so hard even they couldn’t keep us dry. It was time for lunch, but there was nowhere to stop, and it was difficult to see where we were going.

I wasn’t even completely sure where we were. I had a picture in my mind of us still being up on the mountain in the rain by the time night came. I knew I needed help to get everybody safely down.

Feeling a little sick, I walked up to Grant. ‘Can you help?’

‘What’s that?’ he said.

I’d spoken quietly because I hadn’t wanted anybody else to hear, but I knew Grant had heard me. He just wanted to enjoy hearing me say it again. But I had no choice. It didn’t matter how I felt; what mattered was that everybody in the group was safe.

‘I don’t think I can do this,’ I said. ‘I think we’re lost. I. I need your help.’

Grant looked at me. ‘Say please,’ he said.

I wanted to hit him. ‘Please,’ I said. ‘Please can you help?’ He smiled. ‘Of course I can,’ he said. ‘I told you. You only had to ask. It wasn’t so difficult, was it?’

It had been difficult, one of the most difficult things I’d ever had to do. But it was worth it. Within ten minutes we were eating our lunch under some trees which Grant knew about. For the rest of the afternoon we walked the right way up and down the hills with him at the front.

I walked at the back, happy to leave him to it. I didn’t even try to talk to anybody. I was busy with my thoughts, which were about my dreams of becoming a full-time artist. I had to do it. I had to.

I was a bad tour leader, and that was never going to change. I’d always be a bad tour leader. My father would just have to understand. I’d tell him as soon as we got back to Nice.