‘I think you know.’ Philip smiled at both girls. ‘Sorry to interrupt your cosy little chat, but this,’ he pointed to Ed. ‘well, I was going to say gentleman, but he is no gentleman in my books. He and I need a few minutes alone if you don’t mind me taking him from you, girls?’
‘Take him for as long as you like,’ Jess said, turning away.
Ed shrugged. ‘What the hell is wrong with you all tonight?’ He stood up and giving Izzy one last confused look, followed Philip down into the galley.
‘Shall we go and have a listen?’ Jess asked.
‘No thanks,’ Izzy said. She’d had enough of snooping to last her a lifetime. ‘Catherine and Ed might enjoy all this intrigue, but I don’t like playing games. I was stupid to think he might be different, but maybe they’re more similar than I’d assumed.’
‘More involved too, going by what we saw earlier.’ Jess sneered. ‘Rotten shit.’
After a restless night’s sleep, Izzy woke Jess at 7 a.m. so that they could wash and dress, ready for docking. ‘We can find breakfast in the town,’ she suggested.
They disembarked quietly and wandered around Le Lavandou for about an hour, window-shopping. The town was gorgeous, with colourful flowers and palm trees along the promenade and a white-sand beach along from the quay.
‘Gran came to the Côte d'Azur in the fifties,’ Jess said as they licked ice-creams. ‘She said it was a place I should be sure to visit.’
Izzy looked out at the deep blue sea nearby. ‘She was right and I’ll bet this area didn’t look too different back then either.’
Unsure which café to choose, they settled on the first one they came to which advertised free Wi-Fi.
A waiter came over and asked them what they would like, so Jess and Izzy ordered croissants and coffees and set about checking if anyone had replied to their advert for bookings. ‘Nope, nothing,’ Izzy said miserably when she saw that the only messages on their website were a couple about Christmas parties and one query about a wedding for the following summer.
Jess sighed heavily. ‘It’s all my fault. We’re going to end up having spent years building up a business for nothing.’
‘Shut up, Jess,’ Izzy said, sick of hearing her friend blaming herself for something they could do nothing about. ‘Something will turn up, we just have to be patient.’ She logged into her email and straight away saw at least nine or ten messages from Alex or her mum, and several from unknown addresses. ‘Oh, hell.’
‘What’s the matter?’
Izzy sighed nervously and told Jess about the emails as she clicked the first one open. ‘I hope everything’s OK at home.’
The waiter placed their croissants and coffees down on the table. They thanked him and Izzy began opening each message. Three emails in and her heart was pounding.
‘Girls,’ Ed was calling from the street. He held up his hand. ‘It’s OK, I’m not stopping. I know you’re spending the day by yourselves. But I brought some of these for the others on the boat and thought you might want some too.’
‘What are they?’ Jess asked, taking the brown bag and opening it. ‘We already have croissants here.’ She pointed to their plates.
‘So I see.’
Izzy was still focused on her phone.
‘What is it?’ Ed asked, sitting down opposite her and placing the bag on the table.
‘Iz?’ Jess tore off a bit of her pastry and popped it in her mouth. ‘What’s the matter, hun?’
‘There’s been a fire at the Encore Hotel in Jersey and they’re desperate to relocate a wedding party by next weekend.’
‘Isn’t that the hotel run by that actress and her singer husband? Used to be called “The Bombshell”?’ Jess asked. ‘I loved her in those horror movie re-runs.’
Izzy shook her head. ‘No, her mum was the Jersey Bombshell, but she was in those horror movies. She’s a friend of my mum’s. They saw each other in the market yesterday and she told Mum all about the wedding disaster. Mum apparently said that Lapins de Lune will be able to find another location and set up a marquee with all the trimmings.’ She bit the skin around the edge of her thumb trying to work out exactly how she was supposed to do this from the south of France.
‘That’s great news, isn’t it?’ Ed said. ‘And it’s next weekend?’
Her heart sank. This was the news she’d dreamt of receiving, but if they accepted this opportunity, and they really had no choice but to do it, then she would have to cut short this trip. She looked up at Ed. Maybe that might be a good idea though after what she’d seen yesterday. To stay on the boat with the thought of clandestine meetings between Ed and Catherine wasn’t something she relished. ‘Next weekend.’
‘That’s pretty short notice,’ he said.
‘Well obviously,’ Jess said.
‘Where will you hold the reception?’
‘That’s the problem,’ Izzy said, not wishing to be so blatantly rude as Jess. ‘I’ve no idea. There won’t be any available hotels or places able to hold something like this, not mid-summer.’
They were silent for a few moments. Ed cleared his throat. ‘Timing is always a sod, isn’t it?’
‘Yup,’ she said wondering if he’d realized what she and Jess might have seen. She read the email to him. ‘How does she expect me to find a location this close to the wedding? We’ve only got a tiny patch of lawn at the back of Jess’s cottage and Mum’s garden certainly isn’t big enough.’
‘But you can do everything else that’s needed?’ he asked, rubbing his unshaven chin,
‘Of course, that’s no problem. It would just be hard work setting it all up, but we’re not afraid of hard work.’
‘She says you’ve got to let her know within twenty-four hours, otherwise Francesca from the hotel will ask around and go with whoever can accept the work first.’
It wasn’t long. Izzy racked her brain to think of suitable locations, or friends with large enough gardens who wouldn’t mind strangers tramping over their lawn for an afternoon and evening.
‘When was the email sent?’ Ed asked.
Horror shot through Izzy; she could already be too late to accept the business. She scanned the emails and checked the date and time. ‘Yesterday lunchtime, damn it.’
He frowned. ‘We’re an hour ahead of Jersey time, so that gives you about two hours to come up with something.’
Izzy did her best to be positive at all times, but even she knew that to find a location back home in two meagre hours, when she wasn’t there herself, was almost impossible. ‘I’ll email Mum, so they know I’ve seen it, and ask them to go back to Francesca and say I’m trying to sort something.’
She typed frantically, pleading with her mother to try and get more time for her and Jess to work things out. She didn’t want to end her trip so early, but the thought of pulling this off excited her. ‘I really didn’t expect something to come up, not at this late stage.’
‘We don’t have any choice, though,’ Jess said, looking very relieved. ‘But where are we going to hold the reception? We don’t have anywhere we can use, do we?’
Izzy cringed. ‘Not really.’ She took a sip of her coffee, trying to quell the rising panic that they might miss this unexpected opportunity. ‘We really have to pull this off, Jess.’
‘Maybe I can help you?’ Ed said thoughtfully.
‘How?’ She gave it some thought. ‘The only problem I have is finding a suitable location. It has to be pretty with a large lawn area for the marquee and hopefully a decent amount of parking nearby.’
He frowned thoughtfully. ‘I could ask my godfather to let you use the manor grounds?’
‘Catherine’s dad?’ She glared at him as she said the girl’s name, unable to help picturing Catherine’s hands fumbling with his shorts.
‘If you’d rather not, I understand, but I think she owes you girls, don’t you?’
She did, but Izzy suspected he didn’t realize quite how much they felt Catherine owed them. Explanations for her nastiness would ha
ve been one thing. She pushed away the thought of him and Catherine and what might have been between them. This was about the business, and that was about Jess as much as her.
‘If she’s willing to help us, that would be wonderful.’ She motioned for Ed to take a seat and he sat down in the vacant chair next to her and began drafting a message.
‘Izzy,’ Jess snapped. ‘Think about what you’re saying.’
Izzy stared at her. ‘I know exactly what I’m saying, Jess.’
Ed shook his head. ‘What is going on with you two?’
‘Nothing that concerns you,’ Izzy said. ‘If you can contact the Seigneur and ask him, I’ll let Mum and Alex know we can take on this job.’
Ed studied her for a few seconds. ‘Fine,’ he said, sitting down and immediately emailing his godfather, while Izzy went to order another round of coffees for them both as they waited for a reply.
‘I’m sorry you have to cut your trip short,’ he said pressing send, sounding, Izzy thought, as if he truly meant it.
‘We didn’t think we’d have to go home so soon.’ Home, she hadn’t thought how they’d get back yet. She chewed her lower lip. ‘Bugger, I’m going to need to book our trip home.’
‘Would you like me to book something for you?’
She shook her head. He’d done enough. She didn’t want to be beholden to him for anything else. ‘No, it’s fine thanks. I can do it.’
She contacted her brother to ask him just that. It didn’t matter that they hadn’t yet received a reply from Ed’s godfather; she would find somewhere to hold this wedding reception, somehow. The most important thing now was to get home. Her message sent, she looked back up at him. He hadn’t had to help them out like this, she thought.
‘Thanks for your help, Ed, it’s good of you, especially as we’re bailing on everyone so early.’
He stared at his phone and then looked at her. ‘I’d still like to see you when we’re both back in Jersey, if that’s OK.’
She liked him, very much, but she wasn’t about to spend time with a man who was so casual when it came to the opposite sex. ‘I don’t think so,’ she said.
He reached out and took her hand in his. ‘What have I done to upset you, Iz?’ He glanced over her shoulder then focused his attention back to her. ‘I know something’s happened, but I can’t think what.’
She shrugged and went to pull her hand from his, but he squeezed it lightly before letting it go. His eyes widened. She could see that he’d realized what must have happened. ‘Shit, you saw Catherine and me in the cabin yesterday, didn’t you? How?’
‘Bloody right we did,’ Jess said arriving back at the table and sitting down. ‘We thought you were a decent bloke, Edouard de Lys, but you’re nothing more than a cheap shit.’
‘Jess, that’s enough,’ Izzy said shocked at her friend’s outburst. ‘To be fair, we shouldn’t have been looking in the first place.’ She turned to Ed. ‘But you’re right, we did see you two together.’
He looked angry then hurt. ‘What exactly did you think you saw?’ His phone buzzed, but he ignored it.
‘Aren’t you going to check your phone?’ Izzy asked, frustrated by the turn in the conversation.
‘Yes, when you’ve answered my question.’
Irritated that he was forcing her to reply to him, she said, ‘We saw her kiss you, and …’
‘And what?’
‘She undid your shorts.’
‘Yes,’ Jess said, sitting down opposite him. ‘And don’t deny it because we saw you helping her get them off.’
He closed his eyes and rubbed his face wearily with his hands. ‘You must have stopped looking at that point, I presume?’
‘Yes, I think we’d seen enough, don’t you?’ Izzy was mortified for having to admit she’d been spying and furious with him for bringing back the memory so vividly.
He turned to her, resting his arm on the back of her chair. ‘If you’d have looked a few seconds longer you would have seen me take hold of her hands and push them away.’
‘So you’re trying to tell us now,’ Jess said, her voice low and threatening. ‘Don’t listen to him, Iz.’
‘I can make my own mind up, thanks, Jess,’ she said before focusing her attention to him. ‘Well?’
‘I promise you nothing happened.’
‘Ha,’ Jess glared at him. ‘You would say that though, wouldn’t you?’
He looked at both of them, resting his gaze on Izzy. ‘I admit she came into my cabin and tried to kiss me.’
‘She did bloody kiss you, we saw it,’ Jess said, tearing at her croissant.
‘Yes, she did,’ he conceded. ‘But Izzy, if you’d kept watching you would have seen that when she went to undo my trousers I stopped her.’
Was that what he was doing when he lowered his hands to cover Catherine’s, Izzy wondered. She wished she’d kept looking.
‘We had a row, then I came straight up on deck to join you both, remember?’
‘Bollocks,’ Jess said. ‘You didn’t come up for a while. We all know what can happen in that time, don’t we?’
‘That’s a matter of opinion,’ he snapped. Softening his gaze, he looked at Izzy appealing for her to believe him. ‘I promise you nothing happened. Catherine and I are history, we have been for years. Though to be honest it never was a great romance, just some teenage fumbling.’
‘Fumbling?’ Jess sneered. He ignored her comment.
‘I’ve answered your question. Now can you look at your phone?’ Izzy said, desperate to reply to her mum. ‘Maybe it was your godfather.’
‘You do believe me, Izzy?’
She nodded, not wishing to continue the conversation and desperate to discover what his godfather had said.
He picked up his phone and checked, nodding. ‘It is. He agrees that Catherine owes you two and has said you can hold the reception at the manor on Saturday.’
Izzy clasped her hands together and beamed at Jess.
‘Brilliant,’ she said to Ed. ‘Please thank him for us and say I’ll pop round as soon as I can to make any arrangements.’
He typed his message and pressed send. ‘I’m relieved everything is going to work itself out for Lapins de Lune; you two deserve to make your business a success.’
Izzy nodded. ‘Thanks for coming to our rescue with the manor gardens, we really appreciate it.’
‘I’m glad to be of some use. I just wish we weren’t parting on bad terms and that you’d believe me about yesterday’s incident.’
Izzy felt the same way, but it couldn’t be helped. She had enough on her hands making this business work.
‘I’m sorry too, Ed. Maybe you are telling the truth, but whatever really went on between you and Catherine isn’t any of my business. Life is going to be really hectic when I get back, so I probably couldn’t make any definite plans anyway.’ She quickly sent a message to her mum and brother telling them that everything was sorted.
Ed stood up to go, picking up their bill.
‘No need to do that,’ Jess said. ‘We can pay for ourselves.’
He placed it back down on the table. ‘I’ll leave you both to enjoy your day then. Have fun.’
They watched him go. ‘I really liked him,’ Izzy admitted miserably as she watched the broad-shouldered blond man walking away.
‘I wonder how soon Alex can get those flights for us?’ Jess asked impatiently. ‘I don’t want to have to deal with any lengthy goodbyes from Roman. I can’t imagine he’ll be as accommodating as Ed when he hears that we’re leaving so soon.’
Izzy didn’t have to wait long for Alex to contact her. There were no flights available at this short notice, but Alex had booked tickets for the ferry from St Malo for the next day, and they needed to leave as soon as possible if they were to get there on time.
‘How will we get there by tomorrow lunchtime?’
Izzy typed a search into her phone. ‘It says we need to get to Le Lavandou gare, then take a train to Toulon, then Chevaleret, wher
ever that is, then one from there to Montparnasse in Paris and then to Rennes and on to St Malo.’ She sighed.
‘Why does it have to be so complicated?’ Jess asked frowning.
‘Because we need to get home as soon as possible, so have to take the earliest connections.’ She checked the details again. ‘It’s going to take us, without the waits in between the trains about, um,’ she calculated the travelling time, ‘about eight and a half hours, and the one from Le Lavandou only goes twice a day, so we need to get back to the boat, pack, and hurry to the station.’
Jess groaned and finished her coffee. ‘Better move it then, hadn’t we?’
They hurried back to the yacht and broke the news to Nicolle and Xavier, who were the only ones on board.
‘That is sad,’ Xavier said, giving both girls a bear hug. ‘Maybe you will be able to come and stay with us at the château sometime?’
‘Maybe,’ Jess said, her eyes filled with unshed tears. ‘We can’t even stay on the boat tonight because we’ve got to get to the station now.’
Despite her feelings towards Ed, she was sorry not to be able to see him one last time before leaving. ‘We need to get going as soon as possible to make our connection home,’ she said, zipping up her rucksack and hoping she hadn’t forgotten anything in her rush to get ready.
‘Roman will be very disappointed you haven’t wished him au revoir.’
Jess sniffed. ‘I know. Please let him know that I would have liked to see him again, but it can’t be helped, I’m afraid.’
Izzy picked up her rucksack and put it over one shoulder. ‘We’ve had a great time getting to know you all, though,’ she said. ‘Thank you so much for asking us to come along.’
‘It has been a pleasure. Mais Edouard, he will be very sad you have left us, I think.’
Izzy smiled. ‘He knows why we’re going, so it won’t be such a surprise for him. He understands.’
They hugged Nicolle, who also seemed genuinely sad that they were cutting their trip short, and then disembarked.
‘I’m glad Catherine wasn’t there to smirk,’ Jess said as they rushed along the pavement. ‘I might have lost all resolve and finally slapped her smug face. Mind you, we could have wiped it off her face if we’d told her that her dad saved our business.’
The Jersey Scene series box set Page 75
