Dreaming of St-Tropez

by T A Williams

  ‘Mr Drugoi has come to say thank you.’

  Dmitri gave a half-bow and, to her surprise, Drugoi followed suit. Her surprise increased as Drugoi took a few steps towards her and, for the first time, spoke to her directly.

  ‘Miss Jessica Milton, I come say thank you for save my life.’

  His English wasn’t perfect by any means, but it was understandable. Jess glanced across at Pete, who was still smiling, before turning back to the oligarch.

  ‘I saved your life, Mr Drugoi? I don’t understand.’

  In fact, after watching the news on television, she felt pretty sure she knew exactly what he meant. Although his name hadn’t been mentioned, she had been increasingly convinced that he had to have been involved.

  ‘If you not speak Peter, my bodyguard, I maybe dead.’

  ‘All I did was to pass on what I had heard. I’m pleased if it helped.’

  ‘You save my life, Jessica Milton. Thank you.’

  He actually looked and sounded as if he meant it. To reinforce the message, he held out his hand. Although just twenty-four hours earlier, she would happily have throttled him, she took his hand and shook it.

  ‘Mr Drugoi wants you to have this, Miss Milton.’

  Jess turned towards Dmitri, who was holding out an envelope. Inside the envelope she found a banker’s draft for ten thousand euros. She stood there for a few moments, staring down at it in disbelief, before making up her mind. She replaced it in the envelope and handed it back again, ignoring the incomprehension on Dmitri’s face. She returned her attention to Drugoi.

  ‘I don’t want your money, Mr Drugoi. I did what I thought was right, that’s all. I’m glad it helped.’ She raised her eyes towards Pete. ‘Like I say, Pete, I’m glad it helped.’

  ‘Mr Drugoi’s right, you know, Jess. That information probably did save his life.’

  ‘Goodbye, Mr Drugoi.’

  Jess turned back and tapped on the gate. It opened immediately. With a little smile to Pete, Jess went back in and closed the gate behind her. She and Antoinette remained there, without saying a word, until they heard car doors close and the muted hum of the engine, followed by the crunch of gravel as the Rolls Royce did a three-point turn and headed back up the track. Only when the noise of the car had completely disappeared did Jess glance back out again to check that they had all gone. The coast was clear. The area outside the gate, and the track leading up the hill, were both empty, apart from a few wisps of dust still hanging in the air from the passage of the Rolls Royce.

  Jess straightened up and did her best to explain to Antoinette as they walked slowly back towards the house, starting with the events in London that had led to her dismissal, and then her conversation with Pete the previous night. Antoinette listened with rapt attention.

  ‘And he offered you ten thousand euros? I would have taken the money.’

  ‘Ten thousand would have come in very useful, I know, but it’s a question of principle. Drugoi and the like think everything revolves around money. I did what I did because I felt it was the right thing to do. Somehow, taking his handout would have demeaned my actions. I’m not sure if I’m making sense, but I’m much happier not having anything to do with his money.’

  Back at the guest house, she found Hope awake once more and in the kitchen making tea.

  ‘Want a cup?’

  Jess nodded, sat down, and recounted the events of the past few minutes. Unlike Antoinette, Hope immediately understood why she hadn’t taken the money and approved.

  ‘While I’d be the first to admit that you could probably do with the ten grand – not least as you’re currently unemployed – I reckon you did the right thing. Good for you, Jess.’

  She passed over a mug of tea and then handed Jess her phone.

  ‘I got a text message ten minutes ago. Check it out.’

  The message was from Max.

  Not sure if you’ve heard, but there’s been a bit of trouble. I’m okay. Call me. X. Max.

  Jess looked up.

  ‘So, did you call him?’

  Hope shook her head.

  ‘No, and I’m not going to. But I sent him a one word text – just Liar.’

  Jess nodded slowly. She could fully understand. She glanced at her watch and saw that it was half past six.

  ‘Brutus has had a walk and a swim in the sea. Why don’t we both go for a swim in the pool? It’s still very hot outside – and a lot more humid, too. I think they might be right about rain coming in tomorrow.’

  Hope shook her head.

  ‘I’m not really in the mood, Jess, but you go. How does grilled chicken breast and salad sound for dinner? I’ll go and light the barbecue.’

  Jess changed into one of her new bikinis, wrapped a towel round herself, and went down to the pool. As she got there, she was delighted to find David in the water. His wheelchair was standing by the ladder at the deep end, so when she peeled off her towel, she put it down on a sunbed right beside the chair.

  ‘Hi, David.’

  ‘Hi, Jess.’

  She stood on the side for a moment, looking down at him, and then decided to try diving in. The impact of the water almost took her breath away, but as she floated to the surface, she stretched luxuriously, loving the relief from the increasingly sticky heat outside. She took a deep breath and then ducked down, swept her hair back out of her eyes and surfaced again, before swimming slowly across to where he was floating.

  ‘Want to hear the latest on the Helios business?’

  David nodded, so she told him, up to and including Drugoi’s offer of money. David looked impressed.

  ‘Good for you.’

  Jess waited for him to say more, but clearly he was once again feeling less than communicative. She felt a wave of disappointment after the positive signs she had noticed in him earlier on, but she was sensible enough to realise that the process of recovery for him was going to be slow and steady, rather than a lightning step change. She decided to give him some space.

  ‘Well, I think I’ll go for a swim then, David.’

  ‘Yes.’

  She swam lazily up and down the pool ten times and then rested on the bottom step in the shallow end, the cool water up to her shoulders, with just her head above water as she leant back and breathed in the scent of the flowers around the pool.

  At the other end, David had evidently decided he had done enough swimming. She saw him pull himself out of the water, up the stainless steel ladder beside his wheelchair. His strong arms made getting out of the pool look easy, but her heart went out to him when she saw the difficulty he then had to haul himself up into the chair. She was just wondering whether to offer to help when she saw him lunge for the arm of the chair, miss his target and pull the chair over on top of himself, leaving him floundering.

  Jess jumped to her feet and splashed out up the steps and around the pool to where he was lying. She crouched at his side, a compassionate expression on her face.

  ‘Hey, David, are you OK? You didn’t hurt yourself, did you? Here, let me give you a hand.’

  Then, to her dismay, he looked up at her from the stone slabs where he was still sprawled and snarled at her – an expression of such fury on his face, she physically shrank backwards and jumped to her feet, so as to get out of his way.

  ‘Leave me alone. I don’t need your help. All right?’

  ‘But I…’ Her voice tailed off helplessly.

  ‘You heard what I said. I can do it. I don’t need your help – I don’t need anybody’s help.’

  Beneath the anger Jess could see the full extent of his anguish laid bare, and it broke her heart. She stood, blankly, looking on, as he laboriously righted the wheelchair and even more laboriously hauled himself up into it. No sooner was he seated than he spun the chair round angrily, and set off back along the slabs at the side of the pool and up the path, disappearing behind the rosemary bushes without a backward glance.

  Behind him, he left Jess standing rooted to the spot, tears running down her
cheeks.

  Chapter 16

  The atmosphere in the house the next day was grim. After a broken night, Jess woke to find it raining outside. This time it wasn’t a torrential downpour, but a steady, miserable drizzle that occasionally increased to spells of harder rain. The ground was already soaked when she took Brutus out for his walk and even he seemed loathe to venture into the sea – doubtless feeling already quite wet enough. Looking back over her shoulder from the beach towards the hills, she found them masked by low cloud, and the grey surroundings further darkened her mood.

  Back at the house, Hope was still in bed, so Jess put the television on with the sound turned down while she rubbed Brutus as dry as possible with an old towel. Once she had finished, she threw it into the washing machine to remove the smell of wet dog. This didn’t, of course, remove the smell from Brutus himself, so she opened the door onto the courtyard as she boiled the kettle and sat down to drink her tea to the accompaniment of the sound of a steady stream of water overflowing from the blocked gutters above. The statue of the naked woman in the middle of the courtyard looked as if she had caught a bad cold, with regular drips running off the end of her nose.

  As she sipped her tea, Jess suddenly saw a familiar scene flicker onto the screen. It was St-Tropez harbour and, judging from the rain, it was live footage. She pushed the kitchen door closed and turned the volume up a bit. Her French comprehension was improving, but she couldn’t follow much of the commentary, but what she did see was that the police cordon had been removed and life appeared to have returned to normal on the quayside. Of Max, there was no sign, but she didn’t blame him. After all the fuss and bother the previous day, he was no doubt keeping his head down. The reporter had just handed back to the studio when the kitchen door opened.

  ‘Hi, Jess, is that fresh tea?’

  ‘Hi, Hope. Yes it is. Did you manage to get some sleep?’

  Hope shook her head. ‘Not a terrific amount, to be honest. The mind’s a funny thing, isn’t it? Why can’t my brain just accept that I don’t want anything more to do with that lying bastard? Instead, I seem to have done nothing but think about him all night long.’

  Jess did her best to suppress the memory of David’s outburst that had been troubling her all night and concentrated on her friend’s problems.

  ‘The fact is, Hope, your brain belongs to you and it’s you thinking all these things. Maybe you’re not over him as much as you imagine. Let’s face it – you were head over heels in love with him until less than twenty-four hours ago. You can’t just switch that stuff off, you know.’

  Hope nodded disconsolately as she poured herself some tea.

  ‘Has Brutus had his breakfast?’

  Jess shook her head. ‘Not yet. We’ve just come in.’

  She watched Hope dig out a handful of biscuits for the dog and refill his water bowl. As she did so, Jess had time to reflect on what she had just said to Hope and how it applied, equally, to her.

  David’s aggressive outburst had hurt her deeply, although the pragmatic part of her brain knew she shouldn’t really blame him for it, or take offence. She tried – as she had been doing for some days now – to picture herself in his shoes, suddenly transformed from active, self-confident, alpha male to a cripple who couldn’t even manage to climb into a chair. She could imagine only too well how he felt, but it didn’t stop his words from hurting.

  Hope sat down on the other side of the table – with the dog happily crunching his biscuits at her feet – and took a mouthful of tea. After a minute or two of complete silence, apart from the low background babble of the TV news which had now moved on to the previous day’s football scores, Hope looked across at Jess.

  ‘What about you? Any more thoughts on David?’

  ‘Thoughts? Loads of them, but they haven’t got me anywhere apart from a bit weary. I suppose I’m coming round to thinking that maybe the best thing to do might be what you said yesterday. When the month is up – and that’s less than a week away – maybe we should think about going back home. I can come back in two months’ time to pick up the car and the dog in time for Mrs Dupont’s return from her cruise.’

  As she spoke, Jess felt the same internal struggle that had kept her awake for hours that night. Yes, she still felt attracted to David, but pretty clearly he wasn’t in a fit state to reciprocate, even if he did find her attractive. What was the point in flogging a dead horse? Maybe being apart was the best solution – at least for her.

  ‘Did you get a reply to your text to Max?’

  ‘Loads – one after another. I switched my phone off after a bit.’

  ‘So, what was he saying?’

  Hope wiped her bleary eyes. ‘Just the same thing over and over again, really. You know – he hadn’t wanted to hurt me. He was just being a stupid prat. He loves me, he wants me. You know… the usual crap.’

  ‘He said he loved you?’

  ‘Over and over again.’

  ‘Wow.’ Jess was truly surprised. ‘Hope… do you maybe think you should at least sit down and talk to him?’

  Hope shook her head. ‘And give him the satisfaction of seeing me crying my eyes out over him? I’ve got a damn sight more pride than that.’

  Jess decided not to press the point – at least not for the moment. Instead, she went back to her room, showered and changed, and then settled down to finish the plans for George. By eleven she reckoned she had got things pretty much as she wanted them, so she went over to the villa to show him. As she did so, she noticed that David’s car was missing and she had a hard time analysing how this made her feel. On the one hand, there was a feeling of relief that she wouldn’t have to face a potentially embarrassing confrontation, but along with this was the memory of the bleak expression in his eyes that had reached deep inside her.

  She went round to the kitchen door and found Antoinette hard at it, preparing lunch.

  ‘Bonjour, Jess. Sleep well?’

  ‘Fine, thanks.’ Jess was determined not to show weakness. ‘Is George available?’

  ‘Yes, he’s in the lounge. Go on through and I’ll bring you some coffee.’

  Jess went through and found George sitting by the window, reading a book. From in here the view was even more depressing than from down on the beach. It was almost impossible to make out the far side of the bay and there wasn’t a living soul to be seen anywhere. Fortunately, when George looked up and saw her, he gave her a cheery smile that was in distinct contrast to the weather outside.

  ‘Whenever I get a day like this I keep telling myself how badly the gardens and the fields need the rain. Have you and Brutus been for a swim this morning?’

  Jess mustered an answering smile. ‘No, unless you count getting soaked going for a walk.’

  ‘Come and sit down, my dear.’

  ‘David gone out?’

  George nodded his head. ‘He must have got up very early. His car was already gone when I got up. I’m not sure where he’s gone on a day like today.’

  This didn’t sound very good to Jess, but she did her best to hide her concern.

  ‘I’ve drawn up some plans for you to see. Have you got time?’

  George beamed. ‘Absolutely.’

  Jess opened her laptop and together they went through the alterations she was proposing. George declared himself very happy with everything and thanked her profusely. Finally she emailed him a copy of the plans for David to print out when he got back.

  ‘That’s terrific, Jess. Thank you so much. Now, how much do I owe you for all your work?’

  ‘Nothing at all, George. Of course not. After all the hospitality we’ve had from you, it’s the least I could do.’

  ‘Now, that’s not fair. Well, if you won’t let me pay you, I’ll have to see if I can come up with some other way of saying thank you.’

  ‘Absolutely no need, George. Really.’

  ‘I got the quote from Antoinette’s husband for the electrics. It all looks fine and, even better, he reckons he could start as early a
s the middle of July – in two or three weeks’ time, he said. Oh, yes, and he says he can easily work round us, so there’s no urgent need to move out.’

  ‘Very good news. And what about the bathrooms, the building work and tiling and so on? Does he know other tradesmen?’

  ‘Yes, indeed. He said he’ll speak to his cousin, the plumber, and to a close friend of his who’s supposed to be a really good builder.’

  ‘Excellent. If they all know each other it’ll make things a lot easier on site.’

  ‘So, Jess, would you be able to keep an eye on things once the work continues? You will still be here, won’t you? David and I would really like you to stay on here, you know.’

  Jess had been dreading this. She thought desperately for a few moments before taking refuge in Hope’s current troubles.

  ‘Erm, I hope so, George. It’s just that Hope’s having a tough time at the moment after finding out that her boyfriend lied to her about being the owner of the yacht he works on. Hopefully she’ll pull herself together, but at the moment she’s talking about going home.’

  ‘Poor thing.’ George shook his head. ‘It’s like I said – you’ve got to watch the sailor boys. Do try and persuade her not to go. But, anyway, if she really does decide to leave, you could stay on, couldn’t you? Please.’

  ‘Let’s give it a few days and see how she feels later in the week. Maybe she’ll change her mind.’

  ‘I do hope so. I’d dearly like you to stay on, Jess – not for the building work, for the pleasure of your company – and I know David feels the same way.’

  ‘You do?’

  ‘Of course. We’d both miss you a lot.’

  As Jess walked back across to the guest house, she turned George’s words over in her head and wondered just how his son really felt. She was crossing the parking area when she heard the unmistakable sound of gravel crunching beneath car tyres and the long bonnet of David’s lovely old Jaguar appeared. For a moment the coward in her toyed with the idea of scuttling off into the walled garden and back to the guest house, but then she stiffened her back and stopped to say hello. Although the drizzle had almost stopped, here under the big pine tree large heavy drops of water were falling all round and she felt a good few of them land on her. Even so, she stood her ground.