by Karen Abbott
Etienne was in his element, directing the setting … testing it … resetting it. When he was satisfied, strong iron bands were bolted into place to make sure it was all held secure. Then the lengths off sailcloth were woven in and out of the long wooden ‘teeth’ of each sail, pulled tight and securely fastened into place.
A stout pole attached to a counterbalanced lever acted as a brake on the mechanism and everyone held their breath as Etienne commanded one of his team of helpers to release it.
They had all prayed for sufficient wind to be blowing. No-one wanted this first testing of the sails to be powered by electricity … and they weren’t disappointed. The linen sails were already full and straining to go and, accompanied by a loud cheer that must have been heard all over the island, the sails began to turn.
Dani was surprised to see tears streaming down Etienne’s face but, when she touched her own cheeks, they too were wet with tears. There was barely a dry eye between them as they all hugged each other or held hands and danced in circles.
Although it wasn’t the official opening ceremony, a number of people had gathered, Alex and Christian among them, and Dani found herself being swept off her feet and swung around by a grinning Alex, with Christian hanging onto her shorts and jumping up and down in excitement.
It seemed quite natural when Alex set her down onto her feet that he gathered her into his arms and kissed her soundly on her lips … and it took a few seconds before either of realised what he had done … and they sprang apart.
“I’m sorry!” Alex apologised immediately, looking appallingly contrite! “I got carried away by the excitement.”
Before Dani could respond, he turned to Christian and swept him up into the air.
“It was very exciting, wasn’t it, son!”
“Yes! Yes! Round and round they go! Whee!”
Dani was glad Alex’s attention had left her because she hadn’t been sorry at all that he had kissed her. Surprised, yes! Sorry? No! Her fingers tentatively touched her tingling lips, wondering if they looked as different as they felt.
She had been startled … and had only just begun to respond when Alex had leaped away from her. Had it been so distasteful to him that he couldn’t bear to prolong the kiss a second longer? He looked as if he already regretted his impulsive action!
Dani hastily glanced around. Had anyone noticed the short encounter? But no-one seemed to have done so, or, if they had, thought nothing of it. Lys and Xavier seemed as bright-eyed as she felt … but their kiss had been one of many, not a first, like hers had been—and likely to be the last, she reflected ruefully, watching Alex still cavorting with his son.
Huh! It had meant less than nothing to him! And he had apologised for it! What sort of kiss was that!
Chagrined to think how little the kiss had meant to Alex, Dani swung abruptly round and stalked over to the group of workmen, determined to act as if nothing of importance had taken place—which it hadn’t!
She missed Alex’s rueful expression as he watched her stalk away. He fingered his chin between his thumb and first finger for a moment or so, his thoughts unreadable.
“What’s the matter, Papa?” Christian asked, puzzled by his father’s silent contemplation.
Pulled back to reality, Alex smiled down at him.
“Nothing, son … except I think I just upset Dani.”
“You could kiss her better, like you do to me,” Christian suggested helpfully.
Alex laughed humourlessly.
“That might make it worse,” he commented wryly. “It might be best if we just slip away.”
And when Dani next looked round for them, they had gone.
Nobody else seemed to notice and Dani followed Etienne into the windmill. The romantic, lazy image of the windmill’s exterior was shattered immediately. The heavy pounding of the motion of the sails was almost unbearable and she felt like putting her hands over her ears to block out the sound. How on earth did the miller cope with its assault upon his ears and other senses all day long? Shaking her head in disbelief, she decided it must become nothing more than the background noise of city traffic.
The brake was eventually re-applied and everything re-checked to make sure nothing had worked loose with the rhythmic motion. When all was declared satisfactory, Etienne decided to put the first lot of grain through.
“Just to test the system,” he declared, as if anyone might suspect him of wanting to see the windmill in action for any other reason!
They had bought a wagonload of sacks of grain, all of highest quality.
“We’ll do all our baking from it,” Lys had insisted.
Madame Giraud had agreed.
“I might not bake as much as I used to,” she apologised, “but I’ll only buy your flour from now on.”
“I think you might be baking more than you realise, Madame Giraud,” Dani reminded her. “Once we’re up and running, we’re expecting people to buy snacks from us. We’ll have to go carefully to start with … estimate the demand, and all that, but I think that, eventually, we’ll be able to sell all that you can make.”
“There’ll be none more pleased than I, if that’s the case,” Madame Giraud replied, looking pleased. “People will soon remember how much better home-made bread and pastries taste.”
The official opening had been set for the Wednesday of the following week, a few days before the annual French August holidays began. Their painted signboards would be finished by then and displayed in appropriate places. “Reception’; ‘Ticket Office’; ‘Car Park’; “Refreshments’; and ‘Souvenirs’ … and the two largest, proclaiming ‘Le Moulin de Deu’, on the outer wall of the mill itself and over the car park entrance.
Dani ran off a large number of posters that they were going to place in local Tourist Offices, Supermarkets and wherever anyone would give them permission to post them.
The heading of Dani’s bright poster proclaimed it to be, ‘The official opening of the only working windmill on Ile D’Oleron’.
“With that in mind, Dani,” Lys hesitantly began to say, “Would you mind if I left you in charge here tomorrow? I’ve been in contact with the proprietors of the nearest working windmill on the mainland at Marans, a few kilometres north of La Rochelle. Their mill is called ‘Beauregard’ and was originally founded in the early eighteen hundreds, so it’s about the same age as ours. It’s been open to the public for a couple of years and I thought it would be a great idea to go along and spend the day there before we open … to get the feel of things. D’you know what I mean?”
“Yes, that’s fine by me,” Dani agreed. “There’s nothing much happening here, anyway. If we get any visitors, I think I can manage to show them round now … and no doubt your grandfather will run the sails.”
A trickle of visitors presented themselves throughout the day and Dani reckoned it to be an easy way in to what they could expect it to be like once the main holiday month was under way.
The only blot to the day was when Alex called with his usual request for Dani to look after Christian for a few hours. She hadn’t seen him since the day the sails first went round and she regretted having to refuse Alex’s request.
As usual, the necessity was immediate and Alex had no time to spare to do anything other than look crest-fallen and then be over-apologetic for assuming her to be free.
“Never mind! I’ll have to think of something else!” he said over his shoulder as he turned back to his car.
“I’m really sorry!” Dani called after him, not wanting him to think she was simply being unhelpful. “Any other time!”
But she wasn’t sure he had heard her.
They weren’t over busy, but Dani knew she couldn’t have had Christian running about unsupervised. When the sails were turning, every care had to be taken not to allow anyone access to the area and they had barriers and ropes to cordon it off. Notices were all around, warning of the danger and reminding parents to supervise their children at all times. This was one of the things the auth
orities had stressed when they came to assess the place for safety.
Her inability to help and Alex’s swift departure niggled at her throughout the afternoon and as soon as Etienne decided it was time to close for the day, Dani quickly gathered together their day’s takings, made sure the bookwork was complete and left a note for Lys to say where she was going.
She then hauled out Lys’s bike and set off without delay towards Vertbois. It was already after seven o’clock and she fully expected Alex to be back or that Madame Toussaint would be seeing to Christian’s bath-time … but it was Brigitte who came to the door in answer to her knock.
“Oh, it’s you!” Brigitte said ungraciously. “M. Gallepe said you wouldn’t look after Christian for him … so he asked me instead. I said I would always try to oblige him, as long as he pays double after six o’clock.”
Brigitte had the telephone clamped between her ear and her shoulder as she spoke and the slender emery board that she held poised in her left hand showed that she was also in the process of filing her nails.
“I just came to see if Alex … M. Gallepe … had managed to make satisfactory arrangements,” Dani haltingly explained. “Since you’re here, I may as go.”
The sound of the television blaring away in the living-room gave an indication of where Christian was, even though Dani knew he was usually getting ready for bed by now. Still, it wasn’t for her to interfere in Alex’s domestic arrangements.
She half-turned to leave but was drawn back when Brigitte spoke again … not to her, Dani belatedly realised, but to whoever was on the other end of the telephone conversation.
“Yes, it’s that woman I told you about … the one who got me into trouble the other day at the park,” Brigitte spoke into the telephone. “What? Oh! Yes, why not! The kid never does as he’s told, anyway. I’ll tell her!” She stepped aside slightly, saying, “You’d better come in. My boyfriend says that since you’re here now, we may as well go out as planned … I’ll see you at the end of the lane in five minutes,” the latter being addressed to the telephone. She made kissing noises with her lips and stabbed at the ‘off’ button with a long-taloned finger.
“That was my boyfriend,” she added unnecessarily to Dani, thrusting the phone into her hand. It obviously wasn’t her own mobile she had been using. “I’m off, then. Don’t forget to tell m. Gallepe he owes me until eight o’clock—I don’t do part-hours. I’ll call tomorrow for my money … that is unless you’d like to pay me now? No? Please yourself. He’d pay you back; he never quibbles. He’s quite a softie, really!”
And with that carefree approbation of Alex’s character, Brigitte waltzed over the threshold, down the path and through the gate without a backward glance, whilst Dani was still drawing in her breath and gathering her wits together.
She was wondering what Alex would say on his return to find himself with a different child-minder, when Christian burst into the hallway and skidded to a standstill.
“Dani! I thought I heard your voice! Have you come to play with me? Where’s Brigitte gone?”
At least one member of the Gallepe household was pleased to see her, Dani reflected.
“She had to go out,” she said to Christian. “Now, isn’t it your bath-time and bed-time, young man?”
Christian giggled. “I’m not really a ‘young man’, am I?”
“That depends on how long it takes us to put your toys away and get your bath ready! Double-quick and you might get a story as well!”
“And can I watch a video? Brigitte said I could.”
“We’ll save that for another day, shall we?”
A rebellious look was about to take root on his face but Dani ignored it and swooped forward, growling like a teddy-bear.
“I’m coming to get you!”
With a squeal, Christian ran back into the living-room and a noisy ten-minutes saw all the toys put away and the bathwater running into the bath; twenty minutes play in soap-bubbles came to an end when she pulled the plug out and when Christian was wrapped in a large fluffy towel, Dani set out to search for his pyjamas.
“They’ll be in the cupboard on the landing,” Christian told her. “That one, over there. No, not that one! The next one.”
Dani had already pulled open the first cupboard door and was about to shut it again when her eyes settled upon something extraordinary hanging in the cupboard. Disbelievingly, she reached into the cupboard and unhooked the hanger … and pulled out an adult-sized clown costume, exactly the same as the ones worn by the clowns at the Carnival and the robbers in the Bank raid! A curly orange wig dangled from the hook at the top.
Now, what would Alex Gallepe be doing with a clown outfit in his house?
Behind her, Christian giggled.
“Papa is sometimes a clown!” he grinned. “He was in the Carnival the day you found me.”
“Was he indeed?”
She remembered Christian saying, ‘I can see Papa’, during the Bank raid. Her eyes narrowed thoughtfully.
“And did you see him at any other time?”
Christian frowned. “I’m not sure. I thought I did … but Papa said he didn’t fire a gun. Only bad men fire guns, don’t they? Papa isn’t a bad man.”
“Of course, he’s not,” Dani instinctively agreed quickly … but the sight of the clown outfit gave her doubts.
“We’ll put this away and keep Papa’s secret, shall we?” she said, more light-heartedly than she felt. Was it an innocent clown outfit … even with its distinctive orange wig? Lots of people dressed up as clowns for children’s parties and such, didn’t they? Not all that many, her reason contradicted. … Well, some did!
“Was Papa a clown at your birthday party?” she asked lightly.
Christian wrinkled his face. “I don’t think so … but maybe at my next one?” he added brightly. “I do like clowns … at least, I did … until the bad clowns fired guns. Not all clowns have guns, do they?”
“No, of course not! At least, they sometimes have toy guns that shoot out a flag that says, ‘Bang!’ on it … but they’re not real. Just like they pretend to throw a bucket of water over someone … and it turns out to be lots of bits of silver paper!”
“And custard pies! What are they?”
“Shaving foam, I think … or soft meringue. You’d like that! You’d be able to lick it off!”
She tousled his hair fondly. “I think I saw one of your story books was about a clown … ‘The Youngest Clown In The Circus’, isn’t it? Let’s get you into your pyjamas and I’ll read it to you whilst you drink your milk.”
The diversion seemed to take Christian’s mind off his worries about bad clowns and after listening to the story twice, he willingly settled down to sleep. Dani wished she could settle as easily. She didn’t want to make a fool of herself by asking Alex outright about the clown outfit … neither did she want to put him into a position of having to lie about it to her, though why she should be quite so sensitive about his feelings, she didn’t know! And how was she going to react to him face-to-face when he returned?
She was spared that necessity, at least.
A knock on the door heralded a visit from Madame Toussaint, who was clearly expecting to see Brigitte open the door. In face of her confusion, Dani hurriedly explained who she was and the reason for her being there in Brigitte’s place.
“She is a thoroughly unreliable girl!” Madame Toussaint commented with tight lips. “I don’t know why monsieur Gallepe continues to employ her!”
“Maybe he has no choice?” Dani suggested mildly.
“What that man needs is a wife … and a mother for his son!” Madame Toussaint declared, her eyes seeming to be weighing up Dani as a possible applicant.
Dani could only smile and remain silent. The post had its attractions but she wasn’t sure that they outweighed the disadvantages.
Remembering the purpose of her call, Madame Toussaint drew her thoughts together.
“Monsieur Gallepe has telephoned to say he will be very la
te and he has asked me to take over here. Of course, he thought Brigitte would be here, not you, so if you think he would prefer you to stay, mademoiselle …?”
She left the rest of her sentence hanging in the air but Dani saw it as a way out of facing Alex with the discovery of the clown’s outfit still fresh in her mind and decided to take advantage of it. Besides, it was still light enough to ride her bike along the country lanes … and she was sure that someone of madame Toussaint’s generation would think it unseemly for an unmarried young lady to sleep in the house of an attractive unattached man!
“Thank you, madame. It’s very kind of you. Christian is fast asleep, so there is no problem of him being upset by the change.”
And Dani cycled back to the windmill with her thoughts in turmoil. What exactly was she getting mixed up with? And, fond as she was becoming of Christian, would she be foolish to continue to be associated with his father?
Chapter 7
On her return to the windmill cottage, Dani discovered that Lys had already been home, read her note and gone to Le Château to meet Xavier.
Dani was relieved to realise that she had the rest of the evening to herself. It would give her time to sort out her fluctuating thoughts before having to try to act as if nothing untoward had happened … and she and Lys were such close friends that it could be difficult to maintain any deception!
She checked over the layout and wording of the leaflets she had designed and ran off one of each for Lys to verify the following day and then she went to her bedroom. It was only half-past ten but she still felt weighed down by the events of the latter part of the day. She felt it a bit cowardly retiring to her bedroom before Lys came home ... but was honest enough to admit to herself that she had to sort things out in her own mind first, before she would be ready to talk about what had happened with anybody else, even someone as close to her as Lys.
