Page 45 of One Summer in Monte Carlo
‘I’m going to do my best,’ Nanette answered. ‘It all depends. I may end up bringing the twins with me.’
Patsy gave her sister a quizzical look.
‘We think – no, we know, Mathieu and Zac are both embroiled in something illegal,’ Nanette said. ‘Whether it’s the same unlawful scheme or two different ones, we haven’t yet been able to work out. As for Zac. Can you believe he’s told the crew onPole Positionthat I’m going to be working for him again?’
‘I thought you were going to tell him no a second time and make sure he got the message! Honestly, Nanette, anyone would think you were considering it.’
Nanette sighed. ’I couldn’t have been more definite when I said no to him, but he doesn’t listen to me – or doesn’t want to hear what I’m saying. Now Mathieu says it would help him if I did agree to do some work for Zac.’ Nanette shrugged helplessly. ‘I really, really don’t want anything to do with Zac, but I know how worried JC is about Mathieu, so I was thinking…’ she glanced at her sister cautiously. ‘It might help if I did agree to do some – temporarily of course.’ Her gut instinct was still screaming at her not to trust Zac one iota but if working for him for a few hours was the only way to find out what was going on, then maybe she should do it.
‘Don’t you dare,’ Patsy said.
‘JC is against it too, even to help Mathieu.’
‘Listen to the two of us then. Does Vanessa know about your worries over Mathieu?’
Nanette shook her head. ‘No. She’s too far away to do anything and I don’t want to worry her unless I have to. Hopefully things will have sorted themselves out by the time she and Ralph return.’
‘Even if they haven’t, you are not to get involved,’ Patsy said firmly.
Nanette, remembering Patsy’s condition, decided it would be prudent not to tell her just how involved she already was because of Jean-Claude. She glanced across at her sister. ‘There’s another thing. I’m starting to remember things that happened before the accident.’
‘That’s good,’ Patsy said. ‘Isn’t it?’
‘Yes, it’s good that my memory is beginning to function again, but some of the things I’m remembering contradict the truth. Or things that I believed to be true.’
Patsy looked at her anxiously. ’You’re not having nightmares again?’
‘No.’ Nanette shook her head. ‘But what if these memories are false? Not returning memories at all. What if subconsciously I’m biased and trying to make myself believe a lie?’ She fell silent for a moment before looking at Patsy and saying quietly. ‘What if…’ She paused, biting her lip before saying, ‘What if I was not the cause of the accident?’
30
Vanessa wiped her sleeve across her face in the forlorn hope of mopping up some of the perspiration that was making her skin itch. Her hair under the hat was wet and sweat was beginning to drip down her neck. It was three hours now since they’d said goodbye to the villagers and Luigi, their guide, had led them into the jungle to begin their long trek back to civilisation.
The last forty-eight hours had been hard. Not only was their stay in the village coming to an end with Ralph unable to complete his film the way he wanted, it had seemed the friendships they’d forged with the villagers were about to be torn apart by some superstition.
Summoned to the village council, they’d apprehensively followed Angela to the main hut the evening of what should have been their last night in the village. As far as Vanessa could see, every villager, from the smallest newborn baby to the oldest native, was waiting for them, grim-faced. The hunters had returned early from a food foraging expedition and were grouped around the head shaman, still clutching their spears, staring intently at Vanessa and Ralph.
Vanessa had shivered. Did they really believe she and Ralph had put the ‘evil eye’ on their gold? Memories of a terrifying visit as a young girl to an exhibition of cannibalism and shrunken heads in the British Museum in London suddenly sprang unbidden into her mind. Did these natives know that those practices had been outlawed? Did they practise other, even more macabre, rituals?
Swallowing hard to stop the bile in her throat rising, Vanessa had looked fearfully at the natives she’d treated as friends for several weeks. There was a stranger, his skin glistening with sweat, his spears and machete strapped in place on his back, talking and gesturing with the head shaman. Vanessa had glanced at him curiously.
‘He’s one of the native runners who keep all the villages in touch. Apparently, he’s brought some urgent news,’ Ralph had told her, after a quick consultation with Angela.
Luigi, who with Nick the cameraman, was acting as interpreter, had moved forward and listened intently to what the man was saying. Vanessa clutched at Ralph’s hand nervously as silence descended in the hut and the head shaman turned and beckoned them forward.
‘We have news that ouraviamento, Takyanov the outsider, has been detained. His word has been broken. It is not you who have cast the evil eye.’ He had paused. ‘We are free to trade with you.’
Vanessa had felt her whole body shudder in relief. Then the phrase ‘free to trade with you’ had registered in her brain and she looked at Nick and Luigi in horror. The villagers had clearly misunderstood what she was offering to do.
‘Nick, Luigi, before this goes any further, you must make them understand the Fruits of the Forest cooperative would be their responsibility. I’m not buying their produce, only helping them to get organised to make and to sell it.’
Once she was convinced that the villagers, and the head shaman in particular, understood exactly what she was proposing, Vanessa had felt the tension leave her and she quickly began to outline again all the things the villagers would need to do to get the cooperative up and running.
‘I just wish we weren’t leaving tomorrow,’ she had said. ‘There’s so much to explain and put into action.’
‘We can stay one more day if you like,’ Ralph had offered. ‘No longer though, Nick and Harry have work commitments to get back for.’
Vanessa and Ralph had worked into the small hours trying to sort out a basic businesslike plan of campaign to get the cooperative off the ground. In the morning, they had held their own village council meeting to tell the head shaman and the villagers the things they needed to do.
