Page 1 of A French Inheritance
1
FIVE YEARS AGO
Elliot Belgrave stood in the middle of the farmyard that apparently formed the heart of his older brother’s newest business venture in the countryside behind Cannes in the South of France and shook his head.
‘Adam, you can’t be serious about turning this into a desirable expensive property complex,’ he said before turning to look again at the various buildings that were littered around.
He assumed they had all been outbuildings of the original fifty-hectare farm, but now they were basically ruins. Some had roofs, some were open to the elements. Windows were broken, doors missing and broken terracotta roof tiles were strewn everywhere. All were covered in foliage, mainly ivy, making it impossible to judge how bad a condition they were truly in. The stable block situated a little way from the main complex looked to be in a similarly distressed condition. The old farmhouse itself, standing at the head of the farm driveway overlooking the desolation, had survived the last two decades in a better condition. Its roof was still intact and all its doors and windows were in place unbroken but with only flakes left of the olive green paint that had once covered the doors, window frames and shutters.
Elliot turned to his sister-in-law. ‘Lucy, I know it’s too late, you’ve already bought the farm, but can’t you talk him out of this madcap scheme? Put the place back on the market? I know he’s an experienced builder and good at it, but he’s never tackled a project as big as this before.’
Lucy smiled and shook her head. ‘I tried. Believe me, I tried. But in the end I agree with Adam. To rescue this sad place, to bring it to life again would be a good thing to do. So together this is what we will do.’ She pointed at the farmhouse. ‘The house itself had been lived in until about a year ago when the old couple who owned the estate died. Parts of it date from the early eighteen hundreds, but thankfully it isn’t listed and Adam has promised me we’ll do the essentials in there first – update the kitchen, put a modern bathroom in, and sort out a bedroom for us and one the girls can use when they visit, to make life easier before we start to rebuild everything else. In the meantime, we are camping out in two of the rooms. I’ve put you in what will be the girls’ room on a camp bed.’
‘How do the girls feel about this place? Have they seen it yet?’
‘They’ve seen the estate agent’s brochure so know there’s a lot of work to do, but they haven’t visited yet,’ Lucy said. ‘I think, like me, they’ve simply accepted it as Adam’s midlife crisis project.’ She smiled at Elliot.
‘Is that how you feel about it?’ he asked quietly.
‘No, for me it’s more empty-nest syndrome and something for us to tackle together. Besides, who doesn’t like the thought of living on the French Riviera?’
‘Can you afford to do it though? It’s going to cost a hell of a lot of euros.’
Adam sighed. ‘Come on, bro, give me some credit for planning stuff and making sure there’s enough money in the pot. As well as these buildings, there are three or four more cottages spread throughout the land. The plan is to have at least a couple of them renovated within the first three years and rent them out and then that will slowly finance the rest of the project. If the worst happens and money becomes too tight, we can sell them on individually. Re-establishing the vineyard, renovating and renting some of these outbuildings to local artisans’ – he gestured at the ruins clustered around the driveway where they were standing – ‘is also in the plan to bring an income in.’
‘Establishing apépinièreis in the plans too,’ Lucy added. ‘People like buying trees, shrubs and down here decorative olive trees for their villas.’
‘We’ve also got a secret project in the pipeline which we can’t talk about yet – something that’s quite new in the South of France.’ Adam smiled and tapped the side of his nose.
‘So secret you can’t tell me?’ Elliot asked.
‘You’ll be the first to know when it’s sorted, I promise. Be a couple of years before we can do that, I suspect.’
‘And we’re going to do YouTube videos showcasing how we’re doing things,’ Lucy interrupted. ‘If we can get enough people interested in following our progress week by week, that will bring in some money.’
‘You make it sound so feasible, so easy, but…’ Elliot shook his head again.
Adam put his arm around his wife’s shoulders. ‘You know how much we both love this part of France and want to live here and now seems to be the right moment to do something like this. The girls are off living their own lives now they’ve finished uni. Neither of us want to spend the rest of our lives regretting not stepping out of our comfort zone and doing something different.’
‘But you could lose everything.’ Elliot said.
‘But we could end up with something so much more. Think of this place as our pension fund. Fifteen years down the line and this complex will be worth a lot more than it is today.’
‘And it could just as easily be totally worthless and you’ve lumbered yourself with a huge debt. Let’s face it, most of these buildings look like they are ready to crash down to the ground.’ Elliot waved his arm at the ruins. ‘I’m sorry if I sound pessimistic here. I’m just trying to be realistic – you’re taking such a huge gamble.’
Adam gave his brother an exasperated look. ‘I get that it’s not something you and Robyn would ever consider, but Lucy and I will make it work. We’re a good team. So if you could find it in your heart to wish us well even though you do not share our passion for the place or see our vision, that would be good. If I could persuade you to pick up a hammer and knock down a few walls whilst you’re here, that would be even better.’
Elliot smothered a sigh. The phrase ‘we’re a good team’ had cut through his thoughts. Married for twenty-five years, Adam and Lucy had a great marriage. Whereas he and Robyn… Elliot gave himself a mental shake, now was not the time to allow his thoughts to run wild down that particular route, before smiling at Adam and Lucy.
‘Okay, I’ll push all my worries over this place to one side and wish you both good luck – or should I saybonne chance? I’ll even come and give you a hand when I can. Starting now. Where’s that hammer?’
Elliot didn’t add that he’d welcome the chance to vent his anger and frustration on something. It might help him to become calmer before he talked to them and asked their advice about the state of his marriage, which he planned to do over a glass of wine later.
2
PRESENT DAY
The incongruity of two major life events happening on the same day didn’t immediately register with Briony. When an American company had taken over Raise Your Hand Auctions a few weeks ago and serious talk about redundancies had become a coffee-break topic, she’d had something else on her mind. Her impending divorce. She’d sat through the necessary legal meetings with the new bosses, looked at the redundancy figure she was entitled to, put the date of her final day at work in the diary and tried to think hopefully about the future which would begin once her divorce was finalised. Who would have guessed that her decree absolute would have landed in her life on the same day as her final day at work?
