Page 37 of Summer at the Château
‘The twentieth of July, would you believe? Right at the beginning of the summer holidays. That is some pizza oven. I’ve never seen one quite so big or complicated before.’
‘It’s a bit OTT really and I definitely didn’t think about how I would get it put together before buying it,’ Pixie confessed. ‘If Charlie hadn’t arrived when he did,’ she shook her head. ‘Let’s just hope it cooks a good pizza. We’ll try out the barbecue another time.’
Ten minutes later when they’d all had a slice of the first pizza and the next two were cooking, the unspoken verdict was that the oven did indeed cook a good pizza. As Charlie cut up the second pizza and gave Ferdie another slice, Pixie looked at Justine and took a deep breath. If she wanted to talk to Justine tonight in private, now would be a good time.
‘Would you like to see what the builders have done to the top floor?’ she asked.
‘Yes, I’d like that. It’s such a great space,’ Justine’s voice faltered a little.
‘Come on then, while Ferdie is occupied.’ Pixie stood up. ‘I’m taking Justine up to see the new room. Back in a tick.’ She saw a concerned look flash across Gwen’s face and gave her a brief smile, trying to convey everything was good.
As they walked up the main staircase side by side, Pixie glanced at Justine. ‘We didn’t get off to the best of starts, did we? I owe you another apology for that. I reacted badly to your presence here. It was such a huge shock, to be honest, and coupled with the fact that Frank had neglected to tell me about finally owning the château…’ her voice trailed away.
‘I can understand that,’ Justine said. ‘I kept urging Frank to talk to you sooner rather than later, but he kept saying he couldn’t find the right moment. He finally decided he’d tell you everything when he brought you here after the work had been done for your new writing room and he could show it to you.’ She bit her lip. ‘Which proved to be too late in all respects. Like I said, sooner would have been much better.’
They walked along the corridor of the first floor in silence. As they passed open bedroom doors and before they started to climb the final flight of stairs, Justine said. ‘The bedrooms look very welcoming.’
‘Thank you.’
Opening the door of her writing room, Pixie stepped aside to let Justine enter first. A few seconds passed before Justine spoke.
‘What a wonderful room. Just how Frank described to me how he wanted it for you.’
‘Frank discussed the conversion with you?’ Pixie asked, wondering why he would have done that.
‘Yes. He was so excited about organising it when he met Jerome. Spent ages up here with him explaining what he wanted.’
Pixie twisted Frank’s ring around on her finger. ‘I found his ring up here in the fireplace. He told me he’d lost it but said he didn’t know where.’
‘He was so upset when he lost that ring,’ Justine shook her head before giving a deep sigh. ‘I’m sure it would have been easier all round if only he’d been honest from the start. I’d sort of hoped that that was what would happen when I moved into the cottage.’
Pixie held her breath, waiting for her to continue. Was Justine referring to the fact that Frank hadn’t told her about the viager scheme finishing, or something else? Was she about to confide in her? Finally tell her the truth about her relationship with Frank?
But all Justine added was, ‘I do miss him. Ferdie does too. Talking of Ferdie, I’d better get back down to him before he wonders where I’ve got to.’
Pixie resisted the urge to say Charlie and Gwen would be entertaining him, just tell me what you were to Frank, but she wasn’t brave enough right then to push for the truth. Their fragile friendship needed to be stronger before she took that risk because once she knew the truth it couldn’t help but change things. And whether that would be for better or worse, she had no way of knowing.
As they reached the ground floor, Justine turned to Pixie. ‘It’s such a shame you are selling and I’m not saying that selfishly wishing you weren’t, but I think Frank would have liked you to stay, expected even, come what may. You and the château suit each other.’
Justine walked away as Pixie stared after her. Justine was the second person to tell her she suited the place. Well, whatever they might mean by that, staying wasn’t an option. Frank’s double life made that an impossible choice.
* * *
Two hours later, back at the cottage, Ferdie was tucked up in bed, fast asleep, and Justine was sitting on the settee with a glass of wine and a slice of cold pizza, courtesy of Charlie, on the table in front of her. Once she’d admitted to liking pizza cold, he’d insisted on her taking a large slice because she was leaving the party early.
Sitting there drinking her wine, Justine thought about the evening. Ferdie had been well behaved and she sensed the three adults liked him. Ferdie himself had been captivated by Charlie and had followed him around devotedly. Gwen had been her usual friendly self and obviously happy to have her grandson staying. Pixie had definitely thawed towards her, although there was still a certain reservation about her. Justine sensed that the Pixie she’d been with tonight, gentle, nice and happy, was the true one, not the abrasive one she’d apologised for being earlier. Frank had been right wanting to protect and not hurt her, but the full truth, if it ever became known, would still be a painful cross to bear.
At one point, Justine had sat there, smiling to herself as she listened to the banter between the three of them. Banter that had its roots in a family history that showed how close they all were. Banter that Frank, as Pixie’s husband, would have been familiar enough to join in with, whereas she was an outsider.
For the most part it had been a good evening, except for the briefest of moments when a memory of another evening spent sitting on the terrace showed up in her mind. Not long after she’d moved into the cottage, Frank had arrived for an overnight visit and they’d sat together under the starry night sky, with Ferdie asleep in his stroller alongside them. It was one of several evenings when she tried and failed to persuade Frank to tell Pixie about them.
‘The timing’s all wrong,’ something he was to say on several occasions in the future, not knowing that the right time was never going to arrive for him.
Perhaps now, given the circumstances, it was a good thing that at the end of the summer she and Pixie would go their separate ways – she with the secret still intact and Pixie in blissful ignorance.
25
The next day, Pixie and Gwen made sure everything in the château was as it should be, while Charlie, having cleaned the pizza oven and swept the terrace, took over the kitchen and began prepping food for both lunch and dinner. By the time Sarah phoned to warn them of their imminent arrival, ‘Just approaching the village,’ everything was ready.
