Escape to the French Farmhouse

by Jo Thomas

  ‘You wouldn’t rather see him yourself?’ he asks.

  My heart is saying, ‘Yes! I want to see Henri, and I want to go with you!’ But my mouth says, ‘No, of course you must go with Rhi! I have so much to do here.’ I point back towards the kitchen, thinking Rhi could probably do it, but I want to do it for Henri, to say thank you for everything he did for me. It would be so much more straightforward if I could have fallen in love with Henri than – I’m finally admitting it to myself – with a man I have told I’m not interested because I was too scared to follow my heart.

  I have to find a way to stop myself falling deeply in love with Fabien. And this is a good start.

  ‘Go with Rhi. Have fun!’ And then, ‘Or as much fun as you can have at a hospital.’ And then, ‘Give Henri my love, lots of love. Tell him everything here is fine. And,’ I swallow, ‘I’m looking forward to seeing him when he comes home.’

  Fabien nods slowly, as if imprinting the message on his memory. ‘I will,’ he says. ‘In the meantime, I’m going to ask JB to look after the brocante until I return.’

  ‘Oh, that’s an excellent idea!’ I say warmly. Why is this man just so blooming lovely?

  He nods, with a small smile, says he’ll be back when he’s seen Henri, then walks over to Stephanie and kisses her on each cheek, like he kissed me. He kisses Tomas, who is delighted to see his friend and hugs him. Then Fabien shakes JB’s hand and puts his other arm around his shoulders in a brotherly way. He’s asking him to mind the brocante, pointing. JB looks at Stephanie, who nods and shoos them away, laughing. My heart swells, as Fabien and JB walk up the cobbled street towards the main road and across to the brocante. Fabien still has his arm around JB. They see me and wave.

  Lou and Rhi are at Le Petit Mas. Rhi has a surprise for Alain, she told me last night, and will meet me at the riverside clearing this evening.

  After the lunchtime rush, Stephanie packs up the stall and becomes the waitress at the bistro. Tomas delivers bread to the tables and brings a smile to everyone’s face. Especially when he helps himself to a piece of bread before delivering the basket, or drops a piece on the floor and tries to return it to the basket. Stephanie intervenes to the customer’s amusement. Each plate goes out with a little sprig of lavender from the bunch I brought from home. A little nod to the old recipe book, which has lavender at the heart of every dish.

  Then coffees are served, after I’ve wrestled with the machine and finally worked it out with the help of a friendly customer. The place is filled with good wishes for Henri, and I can’t remember when I’ve ever felt so tired, so happy and so at home. After the washing-up has been done, Stephanie, Tomas and I sit down to eat together, in front of the window, with a small carafe of wine, and watch the world go by. Anyone looking at us would be forgiven for thinking we were a family finishing our day’s work and eating together. I feel so lucky to have come here, stayed and met these people. And I’m going to make sure I keep this bistro going until Henri is home and ready to take over. I feel blessed to be surrounded by such love. I know Mum would be very proud of what I did today. I could hear her as I cooked, right beside me, watching over me, guiding me, just like I did with Stephanie when she was learning to make the biscuits. I may never have children of my own but I feel as if I passed on the love in that kitchen, from Mum, to me, to Stephanie, who will pass it on to Tomas. That kitchen helped us all to find our way in life again.

  ‘Okay,’ I say, standing to clear away our plates, glasses, coffee cups and ice-cream bowls. My feet and back ache and I’m shattered, but our work isn’t done yet. ‘Let’s take this lot to the riverside clearing,’ I say.

  FORTY-TWO

  There seem to be even more people than yesterday waiting at the clearing and suddenly I’m nervous again.

  ‘Why are there more people?’ I ask Alain, who shakes my hand when I arrive.

  ‘They have heard about your cooking,’ he says, in English, and I realize it’s been a long time since he’s spoken it but he clearly feels ready to try. ‘They love Henri’s food. But they have heard that the lavender lady who makes the biscuits is cooking and word has spread down the river.’

  ‘And are all these people homeless?’ I ask.

  ‘Some are without any home, some live on boats or in vans. Everyone here is without a table to go home to at night. Most would if they could.’ There is sadness in his eyes.

  ‘Well, we’d better get them fed,’ I say. ‘I hope I have enough.’ I’m worried now. I thought Henri just brought the day’s leftovers here. At this rate, I’m going to have to cook more.

  ‘Some people have no money, some a little money,’ says Alain. ‘It’s not cheap to feed all these people. Perhaps …’ he says thoughtfully ‘… perhaps an honesty box, where people pay what they can afford for their meal.’

  ‘That’s an excellent idea!’ I say.

  ‘But no one must be turned away because they can’t afford to pay anything,’ says Stephanie.

  ‘Exactly so!’ I agree. ‘We ask people for what they can afford, but no one will be turned away if they have nothing.’

  Just then, I see Rhi and Lou coming down the riverbank, carrying a plastic bowl and bags, waving and smiling. Stephanie opens up the little makeshift kitchen and gets the food on the hob. She puts cutlery into cups and sets them on a table. Then she finds an old biscuit tin, opens it and writes a sign encouraging people to pay what they can. But if you can’t afford to, no problem: everyone eats.

  ‘Wow! It’s busy tonight!’ says Rhi, beaming.

  ‘Apparently word has got around about my cooking.’ I blush.

  ‘That’s fantastic!’ says Lou.

  ‘Well, if we can afford to keep it up. We’re asking for contributions. An honesty tin. People pay what they can afford.’

  Stephanie turns on the fairy lights and the little clearing looks enchanting. Not a hang-out for the homeless, but with the lovely furniture Fabien has put there, the lights, the happy atmosphere as people meet and greet each other, the dogs pottering around, it really does look like an art installation. Someone lights a fire in an old bin, adding to the warmth of the gathering.

  ‘How was Henri?’

  ‘Doing well. On the mend,’ Rhi says. ‘Fabien will be here to tell you more. But I think Henri should be home soon.’

  I walk back to the hut with Rhi and Lou.

  ‘What have you got there?’ I ask, indicating their bags.

  ‘Well …’ Rhi seems to lose her bottle, then recovers herself ‘… I thought that, what with me being a hairdresser, and always carrying my scissors …’ she tails off.

  I gaze at her.

  ‘I thought,’ she says, suddenly shy, ‘that Alain might like a bit of a trim and a tidy-up.’

  ‘That’s a lovely idea!’ I say. ‘I’ll ask him.’

  ‘And she has me on nails!’ says Lou, looking terrified and appalled at the same time, clutching her bag of implements.

  ‘Thank you!’ I say to them both.

  I go over and speak to Alain quietly, just in case he’d like to decline the offer, but instead, he is very pleased and I beckon Rhi over, followed by a hesitant Lou. She shakes Alain’s hand and I leave them together. Then I go back to the kitchen to help Stephanie. JB turns up to take over Tomas from Stephanie, and is shortly followed by a smiling Fabien, who joins Rhi and Lou, Rhi cutting Alain’s hair and Lou soaking his hands in a bowl of warm water, then placing them in her lap and rubbing them with a towel.

  It’s almost a party atmosphere. I’m so pleased that everyone has been fed, and the tin is heavy with coins and notes. Fabien finds us and gives us a can of beer each.

  ‘To Henri,’ he says, as we touch glasses.

  ‘To Henri!’ we echo, as do many others.

  ‘Well, really! This is too much!’

  Cora is standing there, furious. ‘I shall speak to the mayor! This has to be stopped!’

  Alain stands up, his hair cut short, his long beard gone, his hands and nails clean. ‘Why, Madam
e? Because you say so? Because we don’t fit into your vision of France? We belong here as much as you do. And if you want a fight on your hands, you will get one!’

  Cora stares at me as if I should be standing up for her, not encouraging the riverside-clearing population. Then she stalks away.

  Lou looks as if she might pass out with pride at the transformation of a man whose hands she baulked at cleaning but has now tended carefully, helping him find the man he clearly is.

  FORTY-THREE

  The next day is much the same. Stephanie gets up and bakes the desserts for the bistro and I walk along the riverbank, passing the clearing, which is deserted now. I have no idea where all the people came from or where they go at night. But at least they slept on full stomachs, wherever they were. And the honesty box covered our costs and some. I must start paying Stephanie, now she’s doing all the work on the stall. It doesn’t seem fair not to.

  Fabien and Rhi visit Henri again that day, and I throw myself into cooking, returning to the pages of the old recipe book for inspiration. Stephanie joins me just before lunch service.

  ‘I’m going to pay you for these shifts,’ I say, and pull out an envelope from my bag. ‘I know Henri would want that. And now the stall is starting to make some money, I can pay you for that too. It isn’t much but it’s something.’

  ‘No, no.’ She shakes her head emphatically. ‘You do enough for me,’ she says. ‘This is my way of saying thank you. To Henri and to you.’ She pushes the envelope away. ‘Please. There’s nothing I need. You offered me food and accommodation in return for work. JB is working for Fabien now. We have enough. Maybe in time …’

  The very mention of his name makes my heart flip over and back again. ‘No, I insist!’ I push it towards her again. ‘Something for you and Tomas, for the future.’

  ‘No, I insist,’ she says. ‘Buy more lavender plants.’ She pushes it back towards me. ‘For the future.’ She wraps her small hand over mine, closing the envelope into my palm. ‘Maybe in time, I’ll need a coat for Tomas, some shoes …’

  ‘Of course!’ I say. ‘Please, take the money.’

  ‘Maybe in time,’ she says again. ‘Buy plants first.’

  ‘Then I’ll take you and Tomas shopping. JB too! We’ll make a day of it. New clothes for us all and lunch!’

  We giggle.

  ‘But this week we’ll invest in more plants for the farm, so that it continues to give us a home and a business,’ I say. ‘But if you need anything for you and Tomas, just tell me.’

  At lunchtime, we’re full. People have heard about the ‘lavender restaurant’ and want to try the local product. I even overhear them talking about how lavender was a herb used in cooking, like any other, but mostly now in toiletries. There’s even a journalist wanting to write about lavender and its resurgence in the kitchens of Provence.

  After service, with aching feet and backs, we lay the table in the window to eat, Stephanie, Tomas and me. As we’re collecting the cutlery, JB arrives, with Fabien. And no matter how shattered I feel, suddenly every nerve ending is alive.

  ‘Del,’ he says, and my nerves fray as I wonder if it’s news about Henri. Fabien kisses me on each cheek.

  ‘How’s Henri?’ I say, distracting myself from the smell of his aftershave, which sends my hormones into a frenzy.

  ‘He’s sitting up and talking, and the doctors say he’ll be home soon. But he must take it easy.’

  ‘Oh, that’s brilliant news!’ I fling my arms around him and hug him tightly. Too tightly and too enthusiastically.

  Tomas laughs and claps and, embarrassed, I release Fabien from my tight embrace, which seemed to enfold everything I care about right now. Stephanie and JB laugh too. JB is a man of few words, but he has the most beautiful smile, which we’ve seen more and more over the past few weeks.

  ‘You’re happy, then?’ Fabien says.

  ‘Very happy,’ I reply. And then I do the most natural thing in the world. ‘Come on, let’s all eat. Stephanie, bring some wine. Fabien, you’ll stay?’ Then I falter. ‘If there’s nowhere else you have to be?’ And suddenly JB and Stephanie look at each other, as if holding their breath. ‘Rhi too!’ I say quickly. ‘Lou is … Lou seems to have gone to meet Alain. He’s going to show her the riverside and its plants.’ I look at my text messages.

  ‘I didn’t know Lou was into plants,’ says Stephanie.

  ‘Neither did I!’ We all laugh.

  ‘And Rhi?’ I’m looking round for her.

  ‘Rhi,’ says Fabien, ‘can’t join us.’

  ‘Oh, that’s a shame. I’ll save her some,’ I say quickly. ‘Why?’

  ‘She’s stayed with Henri to keep him company,’ he says steadily, holding my gaze. ‘It seems they have a lot in common – running small businesses, kids who have left home …’

  ‘Oh!’ My eyebrows shoot up. Rhi and Henri: I’m slowly processing the information. ‘Right. Well, I understand if you …’ What am I saying and why am I saying it? I look at him and I’m trying to say, ‘It was the most wonderful kiss I’ve ever had!’ But maybe it was just another kiss to him. For a moment we’re tongue-tied. The words just don’t come.

  ‘It’s lemon and lavender chicken,’ I say, and it smells delicious, ‘followed by honey and lavender shortbread with ice cream.’

  ‘I’d love to join you, thank you, if you don’t mind it being just me.’ Of course I don’t! In fact, my heart and stomach are doing cartwheels, with streamers and hula-hoops. I beam, as do JB and Stephanie. There’s an air of conspiracy between them, and once again I find myself blushing and heading to the kitchen to dish up and hide my rosy cheeks. Wine is poured, a cut baguette is put into a checked-cloth-covered basket, and I pass around plates of lemony chicken with small roasted potatoes. Gratifyingly, Tomas picks up his spoon and tucks straight in.

  ‘To Henri,’ I say, raising a glass.

  ‘To Henri,’ they all say.

  ‘Cheers!’ says Tomas, clashing his plastic mug into the glasses.

  I’m not sure anything could ruin my happy mood.

  After our late lunch, we walk with the pots of food and plates of biscuits to the riverside clearing, Fabien insisting on coming to help. JB goes back to the brocante to put away all the goods outside and close, promising to bring the keys to Fabien at the clearing. We walk from the bistro up the street towards the river, and as we do, my eyes are constantly drawn to Fabien’s to find his are drawn to mine, like bees to the lavender, attracted to the flowers, needing each other to exist.

  I have a strange sense of excitement, a shiver running up and down my spine, as if something is about to happen. Something unexpected.

  We turn the corner to the riverside clearing. It’s busier than ever before. There’s a buzz in the air and I’m not sure what’s going on. And then I see it. My happiness evaporates, like a popped balloon.

  FORTY-FOUR

  Three yellow vests across the riverside path prevent us from getting to the hut as we stand holding the big pans.

  ‘Cora.’ I sigh.

  ‘And there’s more of us to come,’ she says, lifting her chin and pulling her oversized, fluorescent yellow vest around her.

  I narrow my eyes at her. ‘What do you want, Cora?’ Just when things were beginning to work out well.

  ‘All of this, we want it to stop!’ she says, gesticulating at the busy riverside clearing. ‘This area was created for the townspeople. Not as a homeless hang-out!’

  ‘These people have as much right to be here as you or me, Cora. Maybe more. It is their town, after all. Now, please, let us pass,’ I say.

  She lifts her head higher in defiance. ‘When we bought our place, my husband and I, we spent a lot of money. We were investing in the town, bringing prosperity.’

  ‘Cora, from what I’ve seen, you hardly bring prosperity. You don’t shop locally, always going to the supermarket, and you don’t support the local restaurants because you always go to the “pub”.’

  ‘Well!’ She puffs out her
lips. ‘I can see you’re ingratiating yourself with the locals.’ She looks at Fabien. ‘Just because we’re not getting into bed with them.’

  ‘Madame! Enough!’ says Fabien, and Alain comes to stand behind Cora.

  ‘I’m just saying.’ She points at Stephanie. ‘You know how these homeless types can be. I’ve told you! A leopard can’t change its spots, however you dress it up.’

  Fury is bubbling inside me. A fury I haven’t felt before. And indignation on Stephanie’s behalf.

  ‘I said enough!’ says Fabien.

  And then: ‘Let them pass.’ Cora turns and does a double-take at the sight of the smart, neatly presented man that Alain has become.

  ‘This lot are bringing down the neighbourhood,’ says Cora. ‘We’re known for homelessness, these days, in this town. No one will want to buy our houses. Prices will tumble.’

  ‘Be thankful you have a house,’ Alain practically growls.

  ‘Yes, not everyone is as lucky as you. But with people like Del helping them, they might just get a second chance,’ says Stephanie, sagging under the weight of the pan she’s carrying and the bread.

  ‘Now, let them pass,’ says Alain.

  ‘This place is for everyone,’ says Cora, waving her banner. ‘It’s for the residents.’

  I have a light-bulb moment. ‘It was you, wasn’t it, Cora,’ I say, ‘who threw the beautiful blue settee into the river?’

  She sniffs. ‘I have no idea what you’re talking about.’

  I can tell she’s lying. It was her, all right. Her and her cronies. But I have no way of proving it, of course.

  ‘Well, I suggest you let us pass. There are hungry people here waiting to eat and I wouldn’t stand in their way if I were you,’ I say. ‘You know how these “homeless types” can be.’

  She looks around nervously as Alain is joined by some of the other men. ‘Precisely why they shouldn’t be encouraged. But I’m not here for trouble,’ she says, when clearly she is, and starts to shuffle aside. ‘I’m here to protest, and protest I will,’ she says, waving her banner.