Chapter 20: All the Keys

Verena's POV

"Not the lounge," I said. "The wax room."

Nobody argued.

It was past one in the morning, and the whole house was awake.

Four men followed me down the back stairs in their socks, and I turned the light on in the long low workshop under the ski school.

The benches ran along the walls, smooth and dark from forty years of wax.

The air smelled of paraffin and cold iron.

Tobias shut the door.

"Tomorrow at noon," I said, "I stand on a stage and the valley hears my voice."

"Verena," Felix began.

"I'm not scared of that anymore. I'm scared of losing the lodge, and I'm scared of losing you, and I'd like to settle one of them tonight."

I looked at Felix.

"You wrote the offer to buy me out. Can you write something else?"

He pushed his glasses up, and this time he was not lying.

"I already did," he said. "Three nights ago. I put it in my desk and I didn't dare show you."

He took a folded sheet from his pocket.

It was one page, in his small clear hand.

The four of them gave their votes into mine, and whatever I said, the lodge would do.

"It isn't legal until a notary sees it," Felix said. "But it's true tonight."

"I don't want your votes," I said. "I want you to say yes and no to my face, every time."

"You'll have that," said Tobias.

"And every time, I decide."

"You'll decide."

"Then give it here."

I took the pencil from behind Felix's ear and signed the foot of the sheet.

One by one they signed under me.

Then Tobias took the key ring from his belt and laid a heavy iron key on the wax bench.

"The front door," he said.

Jonas put down the key to the ski school.

Stefan, the key to the cellar and the till.

Felix, the key to the office and the books.

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