Page 4 of Secrets Beneath a Riviera Sky
Buying a coffee from the small wooden cafe hut in the park, Zazz sat on a nearby bench and thought about her future. The new life she planned to kick-start this summer was one which she’d discussed with nobody, including her mother and father. Or even her boyfriend, Rufus. On her own she’d weighed up the pros and the cons, done her due diligence as her dad would have urged her to do, saved some money – enough to live on for nine months – and decided the time was right to go for it. If it was a gigantic mistake she was young enough to pick up the pieces of her life and begin again. But she was confident it would work out well.
The day she’d told Iris, her flatmate, that she was moving out in a couple of weeks, was also the day she’d handed in her notice at the small digital publishing company in Bath where she’d worked for the last year. Marcus, her immediate boss, had initially tried to persuade her to stay but had ended up wishing her good luck and telling her to stay in touch.
Yesterday had been her last day in work and Iris’s new flatmate was moving in on Monday. Thankfully, as the furnished flat belonged to Iris there was only her personal stuff to pack into a large suitcase. Her immediate needs, including her laptop, passport, phone went into a rucksack. So, in theory, everything had slotted into place for her to begin her new life. She’d go home as she’d planned, spend some time with her parents and granny, Agnes, and tell the three of them all about her plans for the future, reassure them that yes, she did know what she was doing. And then simply go sometime next week.
Before then she had to talk to Rufus and tell him her plans, plans she’d deliberately kept from him too for several reasons. The main one being she had no idea how he would react to their current relationship becoming even more sporadic than it had been for the past nine months or so – ever since she’d decided to become a social media influencer. She’d been so busy trying to build up all her social media platforms, Instagram, Bluesky, her lifestyle blog and now her YouTube channel, ready for all of them to contribute to her earnings in her new life, that she’d cancelled several dates with him.
Zazz watched as a couple of magpies on the path in front of her squabbled and fought noisily over a crust of bread until one beak yanked it away from the other beak and it broke into two pieces. Triumphant, one bird flew away with its prize to a nearby oak tree.
Why did she feel so unsettled? Grandfather Oscar’s unexpected demise would merely serve to disrupt things initially but, as sad as she found it, it was unlikely to have any real impact on her own life after so many years of being kept at arm’s length. Impossible now to become closer to a grandfather she’d been kept away from but easier in many ways to accept his death because of the lack of personal memories.
5
Francine, still upset at the way Zazz had hung up on her, was grateful to Edwin when he suggested the three of them went down to their favourite riverside local restaurant for a meal that evening.
Sitting there sipping a glass of chardonnay, waiting for their meals and watching the activity on the river through the restaurant’s huge picture window, Francine thought about how much their lives had changed in the last fourteen months or so. Edwin’s redundancy had been the catalyst for them selling the house in Bath and, at Agnes’s suggestion, joining her in the large Victorian terraced house in Dartmouth that she’d run as a busy guest house for years and where Francine had spent the majority of her childhood.
‘I rattle around in it now I have virtually closed and only have the occasional guest from the old days,’ Agnes had said. ‘There is plenty of room for us all to live separate lives together.’ She hadn’t mentioned she’d welcome the company but Francine had quickly realised that was an important underlying part of the offer. Agnes was lonely.
The suggestion had been totally unexpected and would undoubtedly solve a major problem for them, but Francine had hesitated at first. Being Agnes’s only child Francine had always known that her family home in Dartmouth would eventually pass to her. She and Edwin had even tentatively talked about moving down to be closer to Agnes as she grew older and even retiring there one day in the distant future but redundancy was not retirement. There was still at least a decade of working to get through before that happened.
Francine and Edwin debated for some time about Agnes’s suggestion. Would accepting the offer be the right thing for them both in the long term? Edwin and Agnes had always got on but few men were likely to relish the thought of living with their mother-in-law. Edwin had simply shrugged when Francine had asked him how he felt about it.
‘I don’t see it being a problem. Like Agnes said, the house is plenty big enough for the three of us, it’s a real family-sized house, so there’s also room for Zazz if she decides to come with us, although I suspect she’ll want to stay in Bath.’ So the decision had been made. Sell up and move in with Agnes.
Even though Francine had been happy at the thought of ‘going home’ she was sad to leave Bath and the home she had loved. They’d been so lucky to find the ‘Old Vicarage’ twenty-five years ago long before the developers had started pulling down neighbouring houses with their large gardens and building two, if not three, houses on the plots. Surrounded now by a new small ‘desirable’ housing estate, the house with its classic Victorian design and large garden was something of a rarity in the neighbourhood. Something they found to be in their favour when they decided to sell up.
Edwin’s redundancy package was generous after twenty years with the company but the thought of an uncertain income loomed large in her thoughts for weeks, months. At fifty-five Edwin was at the wrong end of the employment scale and was determined to work for himself this time. Although a well-respected graphic designer with lots of contacts in the industry, would any of them want to take him on as a freelancer? She, personally, as a copy editor and proofreader, could live and work anywhere in the county. But to have both of them relying on erratic freelance incomes would be a worry.
Now, fourteen months later everything had settled down. In many ways the twenty-five years that Francine had lived elsewhere had faded away as she settled back into the small town life she had grown-up with. Several of her old school friends who had married local men and still lived locally welcomed her back and soon she and Edwin’s social lives were as busy as they’d ever been. Edwin had picked up several freelance design jobs, become a volunteer at the museum and was generally living a happier, stress-free life. Francine’s money worries stilled once the money from the sale of the Bath house was safely in the bank along with the redundancy monies.
Francine’s own work had continued uninterrupted, and she was as busy as she’d ever been. The manuscript currently on her desk in her office at the top of the house needed to be finished and returned by the day after tomorrow and she still had fifty pages to go before she could do a final read through. She’d prioritise it tomorrow, finish it and send it back so she’d be ready to go to France immediately if it was confirmed her and Agnes’s presence was necessary. Ironically the book was one expanding on the joys of living on the River Dart in Devon, the very river she’d grown up alongside and was currently sitting by.
Always a busy port, these days it boasted two or three marinas and its deep safe harbour was popular with private yacht owners.
The jolly tune of ‘I Do Like to Be Beside to Seaside’ unexpectedly burst forth from Agnes’s handbag making Francine shake her head and laugh as Agnes answered it.
‘Salut, Theo. You have news?’
The waitress arrived with their meals at that moment and Francine missed hearing the beginning of her mother’s conversation but she didn’t miss the fleeting expression of concern that crossed her face. Two minutes later, as Agnes finished the call, Francine glanced across at her and waited while her mother took a sip of her wine.
‘The notaire has cancelled Theo’s meeting with him tomorrow and re-arranged it for the end of next week.’
‘Did he give Theo a reason?’
‘He has an unexpected court case to attend for one of his clients and next week is the first available time he can fit Theo in. He did apologise but said as the Agistini case is a non-urgent family one he hoped the delay would not inconvenience Theo too much. Theo said he had no option but to agree.’ Agnes took another sip of her wine before giving Francine a serious look.
‘But the notaire has also requested that you, me and Jasmine too, are at that meeting because of a complication he has found concerning the will.’
‘The three of us need to go to France?’ Francine said, puzzled. ‘Why on earth would that be necessary? I can understand you and me, but Zazz too?’
‘Theo, he thinks Jasmine is probably mentioned in the will,’ Agnes shrugged. ‘He said the notaire wouldn’t discuss it over the phone but assured him it was a normal French inheritance complication. He simply wants to make sure everyone understands the implications of everything.’
‘How do you feel, Maman, about returning to France after all this time?’
Agnes bit her lip. ‘It will be easier knowing that Oscar is not going to make his presence felt, that’s certain but,’ she shrugged. ‘I can’t begin to think what it will be like to be honest, although hopefully it will finally draw a veil over the past for me, so there could be something good in that respect.’
‘Goingen famillewill help too, I think,’ Francine said. ‘I’ll phone Zazz when we get home. She did say she’d arrange some time off when she thought there would be a funeral to attend, so I’m sure it won’t be a problem for her.’
