Page 42 of Rendez-Vous in Cannes
‘Bye, Cindy, have a lovely birthday. Such a sweet little girl,’ Anna said before turning to Poppy. ‘How’s it going? It all looks very organised.’
‘I think we’ve got everything covered,’ Poppy said. ‘We’ll light the floating candles before everyone gets here and then the others during the evening as it gets darker, if that’s okay? And, of course, the solar lights will be on.’
‘Sounds perfect,’ Anna replied. ‘Leo suggests about quarter to nine for the official champagne toast. Everyone should be here by then and afterwards we can just party.’
‘Okay, Daisy and I will bring the champagne out then,’ Poppy said. ‘And now we’d all better think about getting ready.’
* * *
Anna, returning to the villa, saw Leo nervously pacing up and down on the terrace by the swimming pool, and she hurried to his side.
‘Has something happened? You look worried? Is Alison all right? Luke?’
‘There’s nothing wrong. I just need to talk to you again before the party. To ask you something,’ Leo said quietly, catching hold of her hand. ‘It’s just I’m no longer confident about how you’ll respond.’
Anna stilled and waited. She thought their talk earlier had cleared up lots of misconceptions, but she’d never seen Leo so unsure of himself.
‘Anna, my darling, I love you so much. I know I should really get down on bended knee to ask this, so forgive me that, but I’m hoping tonight will be more than a festival party. I’m hoping it will be remembered as the night you agreed to be my wife. Please say you’ll marry me?’
Although she’d been longing to hear Leo ask her that question for weeks now, she hadn’t expected him to choose this particular evening to voice it and Anna looked at him in wonder before answering quietly, ‘Oh Leo, I’m so sorry I’ve given you cause to doubt me – I love you too so much. There’s nothing I want more in the world than to marry you. So, yes, I’ll marry you.’ She hoped the radiant smile she gave him would convey exactly how happy she was at the thought of becoming Mrs Leo Hunter.
Leo took a small box out of his pocket; the ruby and diamond ring he slipped on her finger was a perfect fit and Anna gazed at it in wonder.
‘Thank you for such a beautiful ring,’ she said as Leo took her in his arms.
‘Beautiful, like my wife to be,’ he said, before sealing their engagement with a kiss.
24
The sun had set over the Esterel Mountains to the right of the villa as Daisy lit the floating candles and pushed them out on to the gently moving water of the swimming pool. Dan had phoned earlier to talk to Tom and Poppy and now Tom was tucked up in bed in the cottage with a new Dr Seuss book that Daisy had bought him.
The gentle strains of a Cole Porter song as the pianist began his warm-up medley were drifting around the garden, competing with the noise of the resident frogs.
Anna, standing with Leo’s arm around her shoulders and a glass of champagne in her hand, smiled happily. The pool with its floating candles looked so pretty and some of the solar lights in the villa garden were starting to glow. She knew Leo was looking forward to announcing their engagement later. She glanced at the ring on her hand. So beautiful. Despite the uncertainty shrouding her past, life at this moment was good and promising to get even better with Leo at her side permanently from now on. The future was what truly mattered, not the secrets of the past.
‘Oh, here come the first guests,’ she said. ‘Time to party.’
Daisy finished lighting the pool candles and made her way over to Poppy, who was standing by the drinks table handing out glasses of champagne.
‘Marcus has arrived,’ Daisy said. ‘With a friend. I’ll be back to help in a moment. Need to have a word,’ and she made her way over to Marcus as his blonde companion went to look at the buffet table. ‘What’s she doing here? Anna didn’t invite her.’
‘Everybody gatecrashes parties down here. You should have security checking tickets if you want to avoid unwanted guests.’
‘It’s not that sort of party,’ Daisy said. ‘Besides, you’re not a guest – you’re the official photographer.’
‘So, she’s my assistant.’ Marcus shrugged.
‘Go and take some photos then and make sure your “assistant” doesn’t get in the way,’ Daisy said. ‘I’m going to go and apologise to Anna about her uninvited guest.’
Several other people arrived at that moment and Daisy, seeing Anna busy making introductions, decided to leave her apology until later and made her way instead back over to Poppy, who was counting glasses on the drinks table.
‘I hope we don’t run out of glasses,’ Poppy said. ‘D’you think everyone is here yet?’
‘Anna said she expected about thirty-five, didn’t she?’ Daisy said, looking around and trying to do a rough head count. ‘So, yes, I think most people are here. Nat isn’t though. Hope he gets here before the food disappears.’ Daisy helped herself to a plate of appetisers from the buffet. ‘Seen any one famous yet?’ she asked, offering Poppy a smoked salmon blini. ‘Try one. I know the chef. They’re delicious.’
‘Thanks. No, I don’t recognise a single face. No, I lie,’ Poppy said. ‘The handsome man who’s just arrived with a blonde and another man looks very much like your Nat. Don’t know who the couple are though.’
Daisy turned to look down the driveway. ‘Poppy, how can you not recognise Verity Raymond? Cindy obviously told her what Anna said about her being welcome to come. The guy with her is Bernard. A big shot in the film world on the money side of things.’
