Page 37 of Summer on the French Riviera
Pushing her chair back and standing, Elodie stretched her arms up and rolled her shoulders. Time for a swim.
One of the things she adored about having a pool in the garden was the fact that she could jump in and swim whenever she felt like it. Since moving in, swimming under the light of the moon had become an occasional delightful treat. Not the thrashing front crawl she did during the daytime, but a leisurely breaststroke for a few lengths, before turning onto her back and floating. It never failed to relax her and tonight she needed that calming effect to help get her thoughts in order.
There was no sign of either Harriet or Gabby as she dropped her towel on the terrace and walked down the steps into the shallow end of the pool. She swam three lengths slowly, deliberately, before turning onto her back and floating. She looked at the moon high in the sky, noticed the lack of visible stars because of the light pollution, heard the faint hum of distant traffic and the noise of the pool pump gently moving the water against the sides of the pool.
Elodie closed her eyes briefly, bliss. No thoughts of Jack Ellicott pushing their way into her consciousness.
‘Elodie.’
She opened her eyes to find Gabby standing on the terrace watching her. ‘Hi.’
‘I’m making a hot chocolate. Care to join me when you’re ready?’
‘Thanks, that would be great. A couple more lengths and I’ll get out.’
Five minutes later, wrapped in her towel, Gabby handed her a mug of hot chocolate and Elodie took a sip. ‘Delicious. Thank you for this.’
Gabby gave a nonchalant shrug. ‘You’re welcome.’ She took a sip of her own drink.
‘Gabby?’ Elodie hesitated. ‘Has Harriet told you what she told me this afternoon about my father?’
‘Yes, a little. His name and the fact that he is American and that…’
‘And that he wants to meet me,’ Elodie interrupted.
Gabby nodded. ‘How do you feel about that?’ she asked quietly.
‘Nervous for all sorts of reasons. Life has already changed so much in the last year – first with Harriet showing up and then us all moving here and now a father I never truly expected to meet arrives on the scene. I’m not sure how I’ll cope with suddenly having two parents, having had none for so long. Will he like me? Will I like him? Does he plan on staying around? Will he and Harriet get together again? Does he want to play a belated game of happy families?’ Elodie gave a huge sigh. ‘A large part of me wants desperately to meet him, to complete the missing piece of me and to know where I came from, but I just think it’s going to cause a massive disruption to all our lives. Unless of course he just says hi and disappears back to America, never to be heard from again. He could simply want to meet me, acknowledge my presence with some sort of conciliatory gesture and leave again, having absolved his guilty conscience over getting Harriet pregnant. And he’s the only one who would benefit from behaving like that. If that’s what he plans, there’s no real point to meeting him.’
Gabby drank some hot chocolate and sat quietly for a moment. ‘What I’m about to say are just my thoughts as I haven’t met Jack either. I think he probably does feel guilty, but not for the reason you suggest. The guilt comes from unintentionally letting you, his daughter, down. The way he went about finding and contacting Harriet once he heard that she’d had a daughter soon after he returned to America speaks volumes to me about the man and his integrity. He wants to put things right by acknowledging that you are his daughter and being in your life.’
‘You honestly think that?’
Gabby nodded. ‘I do. Of course things will change, but I think they will be good changes.’
‘So basically you think I should meet him?’ Elodie said quietly.
‘I think it would be the grown-up thing for you to do, yes, but it’s your decision.’
29
The next day, Gabby walked down to the brocante to see Colette. Both Colette and Lianna were at the desk when she arrived and were pleased to see her.
‘Can you take a break? I could really do with talking to you,’ Gabby said.
Within minutes, the two of them were in Colette’s kitchen, the coffee was brewing and Colette looked at Gabby expectantly.
‘I took a look in Maman’s jewellery box and I found this.’ She held out her right hand with the eternity ring on her fourth finger.
‘Wow, that’s a beauty,’ Colette said.
‘There was a provenance with it authenticating it as genuine 1920s.’ Gabby looked at Colette. ‘You told me about Hervé visiting you, do you have any idea of how he could afford something like this? I mean, this isn’t something he could pick up at avide-grenierboot sale, is it?’
Colette poured them both a coffee and sat down. ‘I honestly don’t know the truth, but I can hazard a guess. You know he was always buying and selling things. Not just at vide-greniers but antique fairs and the like. He gained quite a reputation for knowing what was good and what was worth buying. He enjoyed tracking things down too. The last time I saw him, though, he wanted to know whether I’d sell or buy his boat from him.’
‘Boat? How long had he had a boat? I never knew him to be remotely interested in owning one or wanting to go fishing – I’m presuming that’s what he used it for?’
‘Amongst other things,’ Colette said. ‘Of course I had to say no about the boat, just not my thing. It was a semi-rigid inflatable – a RIB – quite sturdy and speedy. People hired him to take them out to the Iles des Lérins rather than take the regular ferry boats. A more exciting journey, bouncing across the waves.’ Colette smiled as she noticed Gabby’s wide-eyed stare.
