Page 27 of Rendez-Vous in Cannes
Watching Leo light the candles on the table and adjust the chairs, Anna felt a wave of love wash over her. She was so lucky to have met Leo.
Picking up their smoked salmon starters, she took them outside and placed them on the table. Standing there with the candles and the solar garden lights flickering into life and the occasional bat flitting through the twilight, Anna took a deep breath, looked at Leo, and said softly, ‘I need to talk to you.’
Moving to her side, Leo took her in his arms. ‘I want to talk to you too, but ladies first,’ and he looked at her expectantly.
Anna was quiet for several seconds before saying quietly, ‘You’re the first person in nearly forty years I’ve ever told what I’m about to tell you.’ She took a deep breath before looking at Leo and continuing, ‘The truth is, when I was seventeen, I had Philippe Cambone’s baby. Then I was made to give him away. Unfortunately, my late parents turn out to be the villains in all this. I keep telling myself it was a different era, but even that doesn’t excuse their behaviour.’
Leo leant forward and gently wiped away the tears that were starting to fall down Anna’s cheeks.
‘Oh, my darling, that must have been so hard for you.’
Anna nodded, unable to speak as she tried to stem the tears.
‘I’d sort of guessed there was more to your relationship with Philippe than you’d told me,’ Leo said. ‘But you having a baby and having to give it up didn’t cross my mind.’ He pulled her close and held her tight for several seconds before she spoke again.
‘When my parents realised “my condition”, all hell broke loose. I told my parents that Philippe loved me and we’d get married. They didn’t believe me. Said that he’d had his fun and wouldn’t want to pay the price. They also called me names and said I was a disgrace to them. When I didn’t receive a reply from Philippe to my letter telling him I was pregnant, I believed he’d changed his mind about me. That he didn’t love me like he said. That he had no interest in the baby or being a father. I waited and waited, hoping to hear from him, but nothing. My parents had been proved right.’ She bit her lip. ‘So I gave in and did what they told me. I wish I could challenge them about their actions now. I should have suspected at the time that they were behind Philippe’s rejection of me. Only he didn’t reject me. They refused to let him contact me.’ Anna sighed. ‘I’d like to think that they were acting in the belief they were doing the right thing for me at the time, but sadly, I think they were just plain mean and vindictive.’
‘The swinging sixties didn’t embrace everyone, did they?’ Leo said.
‘Certainly not my parents, or me really, in the end. I was bundled off to a home for wayward girls and told if I kept the baby I was never to darken their doors again,’ Anna said. ‘Seems unbelievable now in the twenty-first century, doesn’t it?’ She shook her head. ‘Bernard told me today that not only did Philippe reply to my letter, but he came to the UK to find me and take care of me.’ Anna gulped. ‘My parents sent him away and never told me.’ Anna paused, her voice trembling. ‘Anyway, when Jean-Philippe – that’s what I called my son – was twenty-four hours old, I had to say goodbye and hand him over for adoption.’ Anna bit her lip at the memory of that moment. ‘I’ve had no contact with him from that day to this. I had hoped when the adoption privacy laws changed a few years ago, he would try get in touch, but…’ she shrugged her shoulders despondently. ‘I guess he’s happy without me in his life, the mother who gave him away.’
‘I’m sure that’s not true. I’m sure Jean-Philippe would want to know both his parents if he traced you. ‘ Leo shook his head. ‘I can’t believe you both worked in the film industry for so many years and that you and Philippe didn’t bump into each other. That all this hasn’t come out before.’
Anna shrugged. ‘Bernard said the same. It’s such a vast industry and I made sure I was in a totally different section of it. Besides, Philippe worked mostly in the States and I took a conscious decision to stay this side of the Atlantic.’ She glanced at Leo. ‘I did follow his career for years. In the beginning, I couldn’t help myself. I had to know what he was doing. The year he won his Oscar, I cheered for him. I even went to a lecture he gave one year at the Film Institute in London, just to be close to him. It was torture and I never did it again.’
Anna was silent for a moment, remembering the afternoon that could have changed her life if only she’d had the courage to approach Philippe and say hello. The determination to speak to him, to demand answers, that had accompanied her on the journey and into the room had vanished the moment he’d walked onto the podium to begin his lecture.
Being in the same room as him, albeit with a couple of hundred other people, had been both wonderful, and unbearable. However he felt about her, she’d known without a doubt that she still loved him. The thought of him rejecting her again, only this time to her face, was too much to bear. Instead, she’d drank in the sight of him, the sound of his voice, his remembered mannerisms, before taking one last look and slipping quietly out of the room after he finished his lecture. Thankfully there hadn’t been time for him to notice and maybe recognise her.
Anna’s body trembled as she let out a distraught sigh. A silent Leo handed her a handkerchief and she wiped her cheeks with it before twisting it into knots as she looked at him, her eyes glistening with tears.
‘There’s something else that Bernard told me too. A week or so ago, Philippe received a letter from someone asking to meet him during the festival as they believe they are related. Philippe had agreed to a meeting but no firm date was arranged. The Cambones are worried now there may be an unexpected, unwanted claim against Philippe’s estate. Or even a smear campaign.’ Anna bit her lip as she looked at Leo. ‘Do you think this person who wanted to meet him could be my son?’
‘Oh, Anna, my darling, anything is possible, but don’t get your hopes up too high. Did Bernard give you a name or anything? Indicate what the relationship was? Who’d written the letter?’
‘No. I left before I could ask him any questions,’ Anna said. ‘To think I’d almost come to terms with the fact that I would never see Philippe again or meet my son,’ Anna said. ‘But now, suddenly, I’ve got hope that maybe my son is here in Cannes…’ her voice trailed away.
Leo sighed as he gently stroked her hand. ‘Don’t raise your hopes too high for Jean-Philippe, my darling,’ he said quietly. ‘Yes, it could be Philippe’s child seeking to establish his roots, but it doesn’t necessarily mean that it will be your child. Philippe could have had a relationship with anybody during the last forty years.’
‘I know, I know,’ Anna said, before whispering, ‘But wouldn’t it be wonderful if it was my Jean-Philippe after all these years?’
She wouldn’t think about the other, awful, possibility that even if it were her son, he might hold the fact that she’d given him away as a baby against her and refuse to acknowledge her as his mother. If that happened, she would simply have to find a way to deal with it.
It was only later as they prepared for bed that she realised Leo hadn’t said what he wanted to talk about.
‘I’m sorry I forgot – what was it you wanted to talk about.’
‘No worries. It’ll keep for a few more days,’ Leo said.
15
After a restless night, Anna woke on Sunday morning to the sound of rain splattering against the windows. Quickly, she pushed the covers back and swung her legs out of bed. This was the South of France, it shouldn’t be raining, especially not today, with the premiere ofFuture Promisestonight. The one thing she didn’t need was a walk up the red carpet in the rain.
The smell of coffee was wafting upstairs and she could hear Leo in the kitchen whistling happily. Shrugging herself into her silk dressing gown, Anna made her way downstairs.
Leo turned as she entered the kitchen. ‘Good morning, my darling. Coffee?’
‘Please. I can’t believe it’s raining,’ Anna said.
