Page 78 of The Bordeaux Book Club

Her eyes met Nathan’s as she spoke, saying yes and OK and waiting for Manon to wake Mathilde up. She leaned against the wall, too weak to stand.

‘What is it?’ Nathan asked as soon as she ended the call.

‘Scarlett’s not there,’ she said, simply. ‘Manon just woke Mathilde to ask about it. Apparently, Scarlett had said she was coming over when they spoke earlier. She just assumed that we were going to be bringing her.’

‘And she didn’t say anything when Scarlett didn’t arrive?’ Nathan said, incredulous.

‘I think she just called Scarlett, but didn’t get an answer, and assumed she’d changed her mind or couldn’t get a lift or whatever,’ Leah said.

‘Why didn’t she…’

‘Nathan, she’s fourteen. It probably wouldn’t have occurred to her to do anything else. How was she to know that Scarlett would walk over?’

Scarlett, too, was just a kid. Why had she begun to see her as such a monster?

‘When was this?’ Nathan said.

‘About two hours ago.’

‘But it’s…’

Leah looked at her watch. ‘Nathan, it’s almost midnight. And she’d have had to… I mean, it’s right across the city. It’s not safe!’

She thought then, suddenly, of the bang of the door that had happened when she and Grace were talking in the kitchen. She’d assumed it had been George, going into the garden. She hadn’t even considered it might have been Scarlett. But she’d not beenthinking at all really. She’d been too upset talking about… It was when she’d realised that Nathan might be…

‘Oh, God,’ she said.

‘What?’

‘It’s probably nothing,’ she said, ‘I don’t know. It’s just… I was talking to Grace in the kitchen earlier about… well, about us. You.’ She looked at him, anger put aside for now. ‘About you and Adeline. How I’m starting to get worried about… well, all of it, if I’m honest. That you’re not being truthful with me. With us.’

‘You think Scarlett heard?’

Leah shrugged. ‘I don’t know!’

‘For God’s sake,’ Nathan said, looking at her briefly with a flash of anger. ‘Couldn’t you have talked about it some other time?’

She felt anger bubble up. ‘So it’s my fault?’ she wanted to say. But it wasn’t the time. It could wait. ‘Ring her again,’ she said.

But Scarlett still didn’t answer.

‘Come on,’ Nathan said, turning towards the stairs.

‘Where? The police?’

‘The police won’t be interested. Not yet,’ he said. The ‘yet’ hung between them like a threat. ‘We’ll drive the route to Manon’s – all of the possible routes if we have to. And we’ll find her.’ He looked at Leah. ‘She’ll be OK, won’t she?’ he said, his eyes filled with need.

‘Of course she will,’ Leah said, determinedly. Because she had to be. She just had to.

32

Feeling exhausted, Grace emptied the contents of the pouch into Hector’s bowl and watched as the cat began to greedily devour the expensive cat food. ‘Now can I go to bed, your highness?’ she asked.

It was 12.15a.m., and the air had finally cooled. While she enjoyed the summer sun, her body always protested. Now she was approaching sixty, her body seemed to complain about everything – the cold, the heat, too little sleep, too much. It ached and sweated and clicked and refused to budge in ways that were entirely new and made her feel completely ancient.

But she’d refused to be beaten. She’d managed to find a yoga class to squeeze into her hectic schedule and was determined to – as she’d said to Leah – recover her youthful bendiness.

She thought of the other new entry in her diary. A drink with George. A date, of sorts. It had felt odd, the idea of dating someone. She wasn’t completely averse to the idea of having a partner, having a love life. It was just she’d spent a decade establishing her independence – making sure her life was full and rewarding. That she was strong enough not to need anyone. People called it brave, living alone, being alone, making a life ofself-reliance. ‘I could never do it,’ friends told her. ‘You’re just so confident, so amazing.’

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