Page 64 of Summer at the Château
‘I was going to go upstairs and get some writing done before dinner. Won’t it wait until tomorrow morning?’
‘What I’ve got to say won’t take long. Come on.’
Realising that Gwen was determined, Pixie followed her into the sitting room.
The evening sun had already passed the windows but the room still held some warmth from its rays and Gwen sat on the settee to the side of the huge fireplace and patted the seat beside her.
‘What’s this all about, Mum?’
‘This afternoon you have learnt that Augustus was the love of my life, but for circumstances beyond our control we were parted and never married like we’d planned to.’
‘Brigitte told me Augustus contracting polio was the cause of your break-up. I’m so sorry.’
‘It was more a severing apart rather than a simple break-up. I left France and returned to England heartbroken. For the next couple of years, I lived in hope that somehow he would come to find me. I wrote to him a couple of times with my address just in case.’ Gwen paused. ‘It was a long time before he completely recovered and nearly five years before he was fit enough to get on with his life again independently. That was when his mother told him she’d tried to stop his father destroying some letters from England, but he’d burnt them anyway.’
‘Why?’
‘Such a silly reason. He didn’t want his son marrying an English girl and moving away. It was my parents who would have had to deal with me moving to France.’ Gwen sighed. ‘By the time I was twenty-two, it was the sixties, the era of hippies, flower power and free love. I hadn’t heard from Augustus, so in an effort to get over him, I threw myself into everything that was on offer. Not that I slept around, I found it difficult shaking off the dictum that your grandmother had instilled in me – nice girls don’t, but I did drift into a relationship with Colin Fabien, your father. Falling pregnant with you and your brother was bad enough in the eyes of the world and your grandparents, but when I turned down Colin’s offer to marry me, to make an honest woman of me, nobody understood.’
Gwen paused. ‘We did move in together and I did adopt the name Mrs Fabien for a time to convince the neighbours we were legally married. It worked until Colin got drunk one night and started shouting the odds in the local pub. He could be quite volatile when drunk. Things went rapidly downhill after that and he just took off one day when you were three and I haven’t heard from him since.’ Gwen looked at Pixie with tears in her eyes. ‘The only man I’ve ever loved enough to want to marry is Augustus. He is my soulmate.’
‘That’s quite a secret to have lived with for sixty years,’ Pixie said quietly. ‘I don’t remember Colin ever being in our lives and I’m sorry I’ve never asked you more about your early life, simply accepting you as my mum and forgetting that you had a life before you had me and Gus.’
‘That is the one thing I would never change, having you two.’
Pixie smiled. ‘You’ve been a wonderful mother to us both,’ and she reached out and squeezed her mother’s hand.
‘Now back to the present,’ Gwen said, a determined note in her voice. ‘I know we can’t ever make up for lost time, but both Augustus and I want to have the pleasure of each other’s company for the rest of our lives – however long that turns out to be. So when we get back to Devon at the end of September, I intend to organise the estate agents and everything else like we planned, but I’m not coming to live with you in the château. I’m going to live in Roscoff with Augustus. I hope when you move over permanently, we can come and stay here with you from time to time.’
‘Mum I want you to be happy, but are you sure about this? It’s such a quick decision. You only met up again today. Augustus is a lovely man, but he obviously has health problems, you’ll more than likely end up as his carer. That wheelchair in the hall isn’t an ornament.’
Gwen turned to look at her. ‘Yes, I do realise there is every likelihood of that happening, but if our lives had panned out the way we planned, I would have been at his side through everything. The least I can do is to be there now. And that is what I intend to do.’
Pixie took a deep breath and stood up, holding out her hand to Gwen and pulling her up. Once she was on her feet, Pixie enveloped her in a tight hug.
‘If that is what you want to do, I’m not going to try and stop you. You looked so happy this afternoon, standing at Augustus’s side. You, of all people, deserve to be happy.’
* * *
There was a mood of quiet contentment out on the terrace as everyone met up for dinner that evening. Gwen was excited, telling Brigitte and William the plans she and Augustus had talked about that afternoon. Brigitte, for her part, wasn’t in the least bit surprised and gave Gwen a hug.
‘I’m so happy for you both. Augustus is a good man who deserved better from our parents, God rest their souls.’
Justine walked across from the cottage carrying a gift bag, with Ferdie running alongside her with Trouble. When Pixie had stopped handing nibbles around, Justine gave Ferdie the bag, took hold of Trouble’s lead, and instructed Ferdie to do and say what she had told him earlier. Everybody watched as he marched over to Pixie and thrust the bag out to her.
‘Mummy said I was to give this to you because you wanted a picture of me on my birthday. There is one of me and Frank too. Mummy says you’ll be very happy to receive them because you loved Frank and you love me and you’re going to be my grandma. Thank you,’ and Ferdie gave a little bow and ran back to Justine. ‘Did I do that right, Mummy?’
‘Perfect.’ Justine beamed.
‘Can I have some crisps now?’
‘Help yourself, but don’t be greedy.’
‘Justine, these are beautiful. Thank you so much for both of them, but the one of Ferdie with Frank is extra special,’ Pixie said, standing there with the two photos in the silver frames that Justine had found in an antique shop.
‘I thought we could take one of you and Ferdie too, sometime this summer,’ Justine suggested.
‘And maybe we can get Charlie to take one of the three of us?’ Pixie looked at Justine hopefully.
