Page 41 of A French Inheritance
‘Surprisingly well,’ Maeve said. ‘Much better than I ever expected it. How’s life in France?’
‘Busy, busy,’ and Briony gave her friend a potted version of her life since she’d arrived back, the plans she had for a brocante and the fact she now had a dog. ‘Gerry delivered all of our things today. I’m just having a bite to eat before tackling a few boxes and taking Meg for a walk. Hopefully meeting up with Elliot and his dog Luna, the two dogs play together really well.’
‘Stop. Who is Elliot?’
‘The good friend who found me Meg. He’s a vet and lives here on his brother’s farm. He’s helped me a lot since I moved into the cottage.’
‘Single? Handsome?’
‘Yes to both of those but he, like me, is recently divorced and neither of us are looking for a relationship at the moment, so like I said, a good friend. How are the girls?’ Briony asked before Maeve could ask more probing questions. Thankfully Maeve took the hint and the conversation moved on to other things.
The call ended five minutes later with Briony promising to keep in touch more and reminding Maeve that she had an invitation to visit whenever she wanted to. Thoughtfully Briony finished her wine and took her dirty dishes back into the kitchen. Time to make a start on unpacking her old life and starting to merge it into her new life here in France.
31
That evening after unpacking a couple of her boxes with clothes in and filling the wardrobe in her bedroom, Briony set off with Meg to walk to the lake, hoping that this evening Elliot and Luna would be there. It was over a week now since the two dogs had had a good play together.
There was no sign of anyone as they reached the lake and for once Meg was happy to stay at her side on the lead as a disappointed Briony sat on the bench. Briony closed her eyes and let her thoughts drift. Thoughts of how much her life had changed for the better recently. Thoughts of how grateful she was to Granny Giselle. Thoughts of how happy she was now she was no longer married to Marcus. Thoughts of Elliot. Thoughts of how much she missed seeing him. Thoughts about looking Robyn up on the internet kept coming into her mind, but she pushed them away. It felt sneaky and somewhat underhand to Google Elliot’s past. After all, she’d never talked to him about her own past or the major effect Marcus had had on her life. Briony cut that particular thought off. She would not go there.
Perhaps if she opened up more, Elliot would respond in kind. She’d hazard a guess though that if it was searchable on Google, then his problems had been played out in the public eye, whilst her own had been suffered in private. Not even her mum knew the whole truth about their divorce.
A voice gently broke into her thoughts. ‘Give you a penny for your thoughts? Or are you asleep?’
Briony opened her eyes, startled. ‘No, I wasn’t asleep, just miles away. I didn’t hear you coming and Meg didn’t warn me either. How are you? Meg’s missed Luna recently.’ Easier to say Meg missed Luna than to admit she had missed him.
‘Julian and one of the other vets have both been off ill, so it’s been full on at the clinic,’ Elliot said, sighing as he sat down on the bench beside her. With Luna off the lead, Meg was frantic to be free too, so Briony unclipped her and the two dogs dashed for the lake. ‘Luna’s missed her walks down here with Meg too. I’ve had to walk her in the park near the practice. I hope your thoughts before I disturbed you were happy ones,’ Elliot said.
Briony nodded. ‘They were mostly. These days my barbarous thoughts about my ex-husband are getting less and less thankfully. I haven’t yet reached the stage of being able to forgive him, though, and probably never will. To do that I have to accept the fact that I’m probably never going to have the children I’ve always wanted because of his lies and actions.’ She took a deep breath. ‘Sorry, more information than you need about me and my darkest thoughts. Let’s talk about something else.’
‘Sometimes barbarous thoughts about one’s ex partner are totally acceptable,’ Elliot said quietly. ‘I’ve often thought murderous thoughts about Robyn. Still do occasionally – more often than is healthy, if I’m honest.’ There was a short pause before he continued. ‘So, how are the plans for the brocante coming along?’
‘Slowly. I’ve taken some stock up to the unit and once Mum is back I’m planning on working out a layout and starting to display stuff. Mum’s good at that kind of thing, so between the two of us we’ll soon have it ready.’
‘When do you plan to open? Will you make a bit of a fanfare about it?’
‘I was originally thinking about the first week in May, but I’ve changed my mind. I’d rather get Easter out of the way. Late May or early June in time for the summer season would be better. Gives me a little more time to organise the correct visa and also to find some stock that hasn’t come out of the cottage. As for a fanfare, I’ll have to think about that. Maybe an advertorial in theNice Matin.’
‘Don’t forget if you need a helping hand you only have to ask,’ Elliot said.
‘Thank you, but you’re busy enough with the practice by the sound of it.’
‘Never too busy to help a friend when I’m around.’ Elliot gave her a smile as he stood up. ‘Come on, I’ll walk you and Meg back.’
As they walked, Briony silently admonished herself for telling Elliot she had barbarous thoughts about Marcus. Still, he had responded with an understanding comment. Maybe another day he would confide in her about his problems with Robyn.
32
The Thursday morning before the Easter weekend Briony made her way up to the farmhouse to spend a couple of hours doing admin in Lucy’s office. Not only did Lucy want everything to be as perfect as possible for the holidaymakers in the gîtes, she also lived in fear of double-booking one of them. Briony, now in charge of the bookings diary and the spreadsheets she’d created, double-checked and assured her everything was correct for the weekend.
Afterwards, they both went to look over all three gîtes. As they strolled across the farmyard afterwards, Lucy told Briony to take the afternoon off. ‘But I’ll see you Saturday morning for a final check and to put the welcome baskets out, as well as to help me greet the guests. In theory, guests will arrive at different times, but in practice I expect there to be some overlap.’
‘It’s going to be fine,’ Briony said.
‘Last season with only the one gîte was easy,’ Lucy said. ‘Now it’s three it seems much harder to organise. Maybe I should suggest Adam doesn’t renovate any more cottages. Three gîtes is more than enough to run.’
‘I think when we’ve got two or three changeover days done, we’ll have a routine and it will all be plain sailing,’ Briony said.
‘I hope you are right,’ Lucy said. ‘Before I forget, would you and your mum like to come up for dinner tomorrow evening and meet Debs and Hannah?’
