Secrets in the Snow

The silence of Chalet des Cimes during a midwinter blizzard possessed a reverent, sacred stillness that seemed to stop time itself. Outside the triple-glazed thermal glass, the snow fell in massive, silent flakes, muffling all sound from the valley below until the world was reduced to the crackle of burning birch logs and the steady, crystalline ticking of antique clocks. In the east wing's private atelier, Gemma spent hours watching…