Page 48 of A French Country Escape
Penny looked at her parents, stunned. ‘Okay. Lots to think about there. How about I commit to staying for the summer to help Mum with the catering and see how it works out? And I promise you I will seriously think about remaining here.’
‘Thanks,’ Peter said. ‘Before I forget, Grandad phoned earlier. He and Granny are planning a visit soon. Probably around 14 July. I’ve already told them you’ll still be here for that,’ and Peter gave her an unrepentant smile.
Penny laughed and shook her head at him. ‘Of course you have. I’ll see you both later.’
After leaving her parents in the orangery, Penny went to the key rack hidden in a cupboard in the château kitchen. Taking the large old-fashioned key markedLa Maison du Jardinier, she slipped it thoughtfully into her pocket. No time like the present to take a look.
It was a short walk down to the house and as Penny approached, she realised how secluded it was from the château. There was a well-established wisteria plant on the right-hand side of the house, its blossoms now faded and dropping, but there was no sign of an actual front garden. The lock on the heavy door clunked open and Penny turned the handle and pushed it inwards.
The wide hallway with its parquet flooring and the pale wooden staircase with its two small, rounded bottom stairs that started halfway down the hall gave a feeling of spaciousness. Penny walked down along the side of the staircase; she stepped into a large, high-ceilinged room on the left with French doors that opened onto a terrace. A fireplace with a marble surround was at one end of the room. The kitchen at the end of thehallway, although not as big as the one in the château, was three times the size of the kitchen in her flat. There was a large range-type cooker still in situ and Penny moved to take a closer look, because surely it wasn’t a vintage La Cornue stove… It was. In need of some tender loving care, but still a La Cornue.
Upstairs, as she wandered around, opening and closing bedroom doors, finding the antiquated bathroom with its claw-footed bath, she kept asking herself, ‘Could I live here?’ Standing on the landing, looking out over the view towards the village where she could just see the spire of the church, she nodded. Yes. She could live here. She could even see herself with children running in and out of the rooms. It would make a wonderful family home – and a good base for a catering business. She could run a cookery school from here alongside the job of cooking for the château guests.
She walked slowly back downstairs, deep in thought, and almost lost her footing when her mobile rang, shattering the peace of the house and making her jump. Emma.
‘Hi. How are you?’
‘I’m fine,’ Emma answered. ‘More to the point, how are you? No more trouble from Rory, I hope.’
‘No. My dad warning him off seems to have done the trick, thankfully. Thanks again for your help there. How’s business? Picking up as you hoped it would?’
‘Yes, which is why I’m ringing. Are you planning on coming back any time soon? I’ve been offered a big outside catering contract and wondered if you were going to be available? If you are, I’d like to offer you a different contract – more secure, more money, and one that would involve you in the business more. Like a junior partner. We’d have to get together to thrash the finer details out. You don’t have to give me your answer now but please think about it.’
Penny took a deep breath, remembering her thoughts and the excitement she’d felt just five minutes ago upstairs. Emma had been lovely to work for and by the sounds of it, the new contract would be one she’d have accepted without a moment’s hesitation only a few months ago. She took a deep breath.
‘Emma, I’m sorry but literally moments ago, I made the decision to stay in France. I’m going to work partly with my parents, but I’m also going to start my own catering business.’
‘That’s brilliant news. I’ve always thought you were too good to be working for other people, you’re more than capable of being your own boss. I wish you all the luck in the world. But I’m sad too that I won’t get to work with you again.’
‘Thank you. I’ll miss working with you too,’ Penny said. ‘Good luck with your new catering contract.’
After the call ended, she took one more look around the hallway before going out and locking the door behind her. One decision might have been made about her future, now she just had to get to grips with all the new questions it would inevitably raise.
36
Sasha parked in the village car park and got out of the van, locking it with the key fob. In the boulangerie, she bought a box of macaroons and carried them carefully down to Eliza’s cottage. After mulling things over for several days, she’d gone up that morning to ask Peter and Ingrid what they thought she should do about the box. Penny was there on her own and said her parents had gone to Rennes for the day – Ingrid to shop, while Peter went to the big library there to see some microfilm copies of northern France newspapers from the early twentieth century.
‘Not sure what he hopes to find, to be honest,’ Penny had said. ‘But searching for long-dead great-aunt Bernadette seems to keep him happy! They’re treating themselves to lunch there so won’t be home until late afternoon.’ The château phone had rung then. ‘I’d better answer it in case it’s someone wanting to book a room,’ and Sasha had quickly said goodbye and left.
Walking home, she’d come to the decision that the very least she should do was to tell Eliza about finding the box in the attic.
Now, knocking gently on the front door of Eliza’s cottage, she hoped she was doing the right thing.
Eliza opened the door and gave Sasha a welcoming smile. ‘How lovely to see you. Have you brought photos of the orangery all laid up for the wedding?’
‘I do have a few on my phone if you’d like to see them,’ Sasha said. ‘I bought you these by way of a thank you for making the curtains and serviettes.’
‘It was my pleasure. Come in and have a coffee.’
Over the next ten minutes, Sasha showed Eliza the photos of the orangery and her workshop.
‘That’s the middle bedroom, isn’t it?’ Eliza asked, peering at the screen. ‘My daughter Claudia never kept the room as tidy as that!’
‘I don’t suppose I will either, once I start to get commissions,’ Sasha said, laughing, before taking a deep breath. ‘I was putting some things up in the attic recently and I found this box.’ She held out the phone to Eliza. ‘It’s addressed to you but it’s never been opened.’ Mentally, Sasha crossed her fingers, hoping that Eliza would react in the same favourable way she had to the box of memorabilia from the stables.
Silently, Eliza glanced at the photo before looking up at Sasha. ‘I didn’t open it then and I don’t want to open it now. I didn’t need to know what was inside it fifty years ago, and I need that knowledge even less now. Times have changed. Thank you for telling me you found it. Please throw it away.’
‘Doesn’t the fact that it came from anotairesignify it might contain something important?’ Sasha protested gently.
