Page 46 of Secrets Beneath a Riviera Sky
‘I think we still need it to look as good as we can make it,’ Francine said.
‘Fine, but please don’t expect me to come and help style it,’ Agnes said. ‘I’ll leave that to you. Theo and I will cook you dinner tonight. See you around eight o’clock. You can tell us all about your visit to Monaco and there’s something I need to talk to you about too.’
‘Talk to me now,’ Francine said.
‘No, it will keep until then. Is Jasmine home at the moment?’
‘Yes, but I know she’s going out soon.’
‘I’ll ring her and tell her we’d like her to come for dinner tonight as well. I hope she is free.’
‘Maman, what is going on?’
‘I just need to talk to you and tell you something exciting,’ and Agnes ended the call.
Agnes and Theo followed Theo’s usual morning routine, which Agnes had readily adopted as her own – breakfast and then an early-morning visit to the market, followed by coffee at their favourite cafe. Once home, they prepared the ingredients for dinner that evening together. Agnes glanced at Theo and gave him a small smile as they moved around each other in the kitchen instinctively, they knew each other so well. She knew deep down that Denice had been right when she’d said that they made a perfect couple. If only they had been allowed to be that couple in the past.
* * *
Up at Oscar’s, Francine and Edwin spent the morning ‘tarting up the place’ as Edwin called it. Zazz, out for the morning interviewing an English woman who was the chairperson of a Franco-British Society, promised to pick up some flowers from the market on the way home.
Edwin’s phone pinged with an incoming message as they sat down to a well-earned cup of coffee and a pain au raisin after they’d finished. ‘Ah,’ he said as he read it, before glancing up at Francine.
‘The e-mail you were waiting for?’ she said.
‘Yes, but still no definite date for the meeting I need to have. So a few days’ reprieve before I have to return home.’
‘I’m glad you don’t have to rush back,’ Francine said as the front door slammed. ‘It’s nice being down here together.’
‘Is she here yet?’ Zazz asked as she rushed in, clutching bunches of white roses and thrusting them in Francine’s direction. ‘I need to tidy my room before she gets here.’
‘Dad and I made your bed,’ Francine said as she filled two vases with water. ‘And we threw shoes and things into the cupboard out of sight, so it’s fine.’
‘Thanks.’
As Francine divided the roses between the two vases, there was a knock on the door.
‘I’ll put these in the sitting room while you answer the door,’ Zazz said.
Over the next hour and a half, Suzette measured every room, took lots of photographs and spoke lots of notes into her phone. After taking one final photograph of the courtyard she switched off her phone and turned to Francine and Edwin.
‘Right. All done. I’ll get back to the office and start the marketing. First time on the market in over fifty years, this house has got so much potential. I think, rather than put a definite price on it we’ll ask for offers in excess of two and a half million euros and it will be snapped up quickly. I know similar houses further along the rue have been turned into two apartments and one apartment sold just last week for a million euros.’
Closing the front door behind Suzette, Francine went back into the kitchen in a daze. ‘I can’t believe that figure she’s going to ask for offers in excess of, can you? So much money.’
* * *
Francine, Edwin and Zazz walked down together for dinner with Theo and Agnes that evening. After telling them about the estate agent’s visit and the decision to ask for offers on the house, Francine turned to Agnes.
‘So what is it you want to talk about, Maman?’ she asked.
‘A couple of things,’ Agnes said. ‘First, I need to tell you about the discovery of one of Oscar’s more dubious dealings. Theo and I took some papers he had found going through the files to the notaire to check for us.’ She took a deep breath. ‘Oscar cheated me of my inheritance from my parents by lying about me and forging my signature. It would appear it was that money he used to buy his boat. A boat he called “Agnes”.’
‘Oh Maman, he really was wickedly immoral in the way he treated you,’ Francine said.
‘But I will receive the money when the boat is sold,’ Agnes said with a smile. ‘Thanks to Theo.’
‘Let’s go through to the courtyard. Theo has aperitifs waiting out there.’ Agnes said. ‘I have some really exciting news for you. And we want to hear about your visit to Monaco as well.’
