Page 47 of A French Adventure
Three quarters of an hour later, Natalie arrived. ‘Sorry I couldn’t get through to tell you I was on my way, the line was busy and then I was driving. Which, I have to say, was an experience! I thought the Italian drivers were bad enough, but the French appear to be as bad.’
‘It was your dad on the phone. He’s had a higher offer on the house, which I’ve told him to accept, but there’s a new problem. Sadie wants to live there. Anyway, let’s forget all that,’ and she pulled Natalie in for a hug. ‘It’s so good to see you.’
‘Tim sends his love,’ Natalie said. ‘He said he’d spoken to you?’
Vivienne nodded, remembering their conversation. ‘He, like you, is so cross with your dad – and cross with himself that he didn’t tell me his suspicions.’
For the next hour, they sat up on the terrace with a bottle of rosé, a basket of baguette chunks and a plate of charcuterie, catching up with everything and planning a few excursions.
‘I’d love you to meet Maxine and Olivia, so I thought I’d invite them for aperitifs one evening.’
‘Have you discovered anything about our French connection yet?’ Natalie asked eagerly.
‘Sadly no. Maxine took me out to Puget Theniers a couple of weeks ago and we think we’ve found a Pascal Rocher, but he was away on holiday.’ Vivienne jumped up. ‘I bought you some things while we were there. I’ll just run down and get them. They’re in my room.’
She handed Natalie the baking trays she’d bought a few minutes later.
‘There’s this wonderful old-fashioned hardware shop in the village that you’re going to love when we go. It’s about an hour and a half by car. I can always ask Maxine if she’s free, if you’d rather not drive.’
‘No, I’m happy to drive, as long it’s not along that bord de mer road,’ Natalie said. ‘I love these tins, thank you.’
‘Good. But whether we find Pascal Rocher or not, I intend to stop looking after this next visit. There’s too much else going on that I need to concentrate on. Oh, I nearly forgot,’ and she opened her phone to show Natalie the picture of the villa. ‘There’s a bigger one on the laptop, and some of the interior too. What do you think? I’m waiting to hear if my offer has been accepted.’
‘You’re buying this villa?’ Natalie looked at her mother. ‘I think I might have to move over here with you permanently. It looks out of this world.’
‘It needs a little TLC inside, but it’s picture-book perfect, isn’t it? I can’t wait to live there,’ Vivienne confessed.
32
After Maxine had hugged Leonie and handed her a tissue to help dry her tears, she’d left her to compose herself and to unpack the small suitcase she’d brought. ‘See you downstairs when you’re ready and we decide how we are to spend the day,’ she said.
Downstairs, she poured herself a glass of water and drank it standing in the kitchen doorway looking out over the garden. How on earth was she going to help this strangely mixed-up and vulnerable daughter of hers? There were lots of things they both had to learn about each other, but Leonie’s attitude was so matter-of-fact as she asked the questions, that it was rather upsetting.
Maxine would bet money on the fact that Leonie had never talked to anyone about her life, the problems she faced at home. And Maxine was convinced there had been problems, she knew how Daiva operated after all. Getting her to open up about them to her would be the first step to giving Leonie the help she needed and then Maxine could hopefully start to deal with it. Somehow she had to get her to tell her exactly how her life for the past thirty years had been. She knew so little about her. Theyboth had ghosts to lay. Maybe if she started to talk about her own life with Daiva, Leonie would open up about hers?
‘Your garden is beautiful,’ Leonie said, making Maxine jump. She’d been so deep in thought, she hadn’t heard her coming down the stairs.
‘Thank you. Pierre, my husband, did the hard work. It’s easy to maintain now.’ Maxine glanced at Leonie. ‘Shall we have another coffee – or tea – and decide how to spend the day?’
‘Tea please. Can we sit down by the pond? I like watching the fish.’
‘Why don’t you take a couple of chairs down there while I organise tea,’ Maxine said.
Leonie was sat looking at the fish gobbling up the food she’d thrown them from the tin Maxine kept nearby when Maxine took the teas down. ‘I hope you don’t mind me feeding them?’
‘I usually feed them in the evening, so we must be careful not to overfeed them tonight.’ Maxine handed Leonie her tea and sat down alongside her. ‘Do you remember anything of your early childhood apart from missing Anatole?’ She noticed Leonie’s body tense before she shook her head.
‘No.’
‘That’s a shame. Will you talk to me about your childhood with Daiva?’
‘Why? My childhood was over years ago, there’s little point in discussing it. The past is past, nothing will change what happened.’
‘True. But talking about things helps to rid the system of any lingering negativity,’ Maxine said quietly, realising that the conversation was going nowhere. ‘Have you been to Antibes before? Lots to explore then,’ she said when Leonie shook her head. ‘Shall I be your tour guide and show you around? We can have lunch in my favourite restaurant. And when we get back I have some things to show you.’
‘Thank you,’ Leonie said. ‘I’d like that.’
It was mid-afternoon when they returned to L’Abri from seeing the sights of Antibes and having lunch in the covered garden of The Auberge restaurant there. The temperature was in the high twenties by the time they settled themselves in the garden with glasses and a pitcher of iced water with slices from a lemon Maxine had cut from the tree in the garden, floating in it.
