‘You know, like to test whether you’re her dad for real?’
‘I don’t know – I haven’t really thought about it yet. So you want to head back now to see if she’s back yet?’
‘Yeah, I suppose so.’
‘OK.’
There was a brief silence as they turned to retrace their steps. Then Ella spoke again. ‘Dad… please don’t be angry…’
Haydon frowned. As if there hadn’t been enough drama, apparently there was something even worse coming.
‘What?’ he asked, a note of new trepidation in his voice.
‘When I saw the truck coming at me I dropped my phone.’
Haydon blinked.
‘The screen smashed and now it doesn’t work,’ she continued, and as he looked at her he could see fresh tears in her eyes.
‘Oh my God!’ he cried, relief flooding through him as he pulled her into a hug. ‘If that’s the worst thing to come out of tonight then I’ll be very happy to buy you a hundred new phones!’
As soon as Haydon had left with Ella, Ashley’s veneer of strength finally cracked. As she collapsed, sobbing into her mother’s arms, Maurice tipped her chin up and smiled down at her.
‘Don’t worry – we will find Molly. All will be well and we will be partying again by the end of the night.’
‘It’s all such a mess – and it’s my fault!’
He shrugged. ‘It is only life. Sometimes it’s good and sometimes not so good, but you will always find a way through.’
One of the gendarmes spoke rapidly into his radio as Maurice began to organise another search party. Bastien’s uncle did a fair amount of what could have been swearing in his native language and Ashley was only glad that Bastien’s parents had been unable to make the trip down to Saint-Raphaël because she wouldn’t have wished the trauma she and Haydon had been through tonight on another parent.
Then her thoughts turned back to Haydon. He’d been reunited with Ella and, of course, she was happy about that, but she couldn’t help reflecting on the fact that Molly was still missing and he wasn’t here. Didn’t he care? Was this a huge signpost to what their future relationship – if there was even going to be one – would look like? She understood that it was hard for him to take in the news that Molly was his daughter but surely he must have been vaguely interested in where she was now? Would Ella always mean more to him? She supposed she could understand that too, but the fierce mother tiger inside her didn’t have to like it. Molly was their daughter and his firstborn, and that had to mean something. He’d said he was going to talk briefly to Ella, so why hadn’t he come back to help find Molly?
‘We will leave now to make the most of the last daylight,’ Maurice said, leaning in to kiss Sue.
Ashley stood up. ‘I’m ready when you are.’
‘Stay here,’ Maurice said. ‘You have been searching for hours and you are exhausted. We will find her, don’t fear.’
‘I can’t just sit here and wait.’
‘That’s exactly what you can do,’ Sue said. ‘Maurice is right – they all know the area better than us and they’ll get around much quicker…’
‘Without a hysterical mother?’ Ashley finished for her.
‘It wasn’t quite how I was going to put it. Besides, someone has to be here in case Molly comes back of her own accord.’
‘Aunt Violette will be here.’
‘It’s hardly fair to expect her to deal with it on her own if they do come back to find only her here, is it?’
‘I can’t just sit around and wait.’
‘You can because I say it’s right.’
‘I’m thirty-four, Mum.’
‘You’re also in a state. Please… arguing is only delaying everyone else’s departure and it’s getting darker by the minute. I’ll get you a cognac and we’ll do some phoning around while the others are out.’
Just as she was about to nod reluctant agreement, Haydon appeared at the kitchen door with Ella.
‘Still no sign of them?’ he asked.
‘Not yet. We’re going out for another look,’ Maurice said.
‘I’ll come with you,’ Haydon replied. He threw a pleading look at Ella and she nodded with a small smile.
‘Sure,’ she said. ‘Should I stay here?’ she added uncertainly.
‘You can sit with us if you like,’ Sue said. ‘I’m staying behind with Ashley and Madame Dupont in case they come back of their own accord.’
Without another word Ella took a seat. The policemen, who had been murmuring amongst themselves in between making calls, now stood up and took their leave while the rest of the search party headed for the door.
‘Bring her back,’ Ashley said.
Maurice gave her an encouraging smile. ‘Before night falls they’ll be here.’
Ashley nodded, though it wasn’t Maurice she’d been addressing. But Haydon didn’t say a word; he just kissed Ella on the head and told her not to worry, and then they were gone.
* * *
It didn’t matter how often Ashley tried Molly’s phone, it kept on ringing out. Ella tentatively offered the idea that perhaps Molly’s phone had somehow come to a sticky end, just as her own had, but nobody really thought this was the case. More likely Molly was stubbornly sticking to the notion that she somehow had responsibility for finding Ella herself. Ashley had texted her to say that Ella was back safe with them at Villa Marguerite and all she could do was hope that at some point Molly would check her phone and see the message.
Ella sat on the swing seat on the veranda now, staring out into the dusk. She’d been out there for twenty minutes as Ashley paced up and down the kitchen and Sue conversed with Aunt Violette in her best French about the events of the evening. Every so often Ashley would look out of the window to see Ella in exactly the same spot, silent and still. Looking out for the search party that contained her dad, Ashley supposed. She’d wanted to go and talk to her, but what was she supposed to say? There was this huge thing now, a barbed-wire fence between them full of snags and sharp edges. Did the news about Molly now make Ashley the enemy? If there was to be any kind of future between her and Haydon then she needed to get Ella on side, but any friendship with her seemed like a distant dream now.
Folding her arms, she turned back to Sue, who was reading a text from Maurice.
‘Any news?’ Ashley asked.
Sue looked up from her phone and shook her head. ‘God knows where they could have got to.’
‘I wish she’d just give it up and come back. She must know she can’t do much more now.’
‘Stubborn. Who does that remind you of?’
Ashley gave a wan smile, but a squeal from outside halted her reply, and both she and Sue raced to the window.
‘Thank God!’ Ashley cried as she bolted out to the garden.
Ella had beaten her to it and was now hugging a tearful Molly.
‘I couldn’t find you!’ Molly sniffed, while Bastien stood a foot or so away and ran a hand through his hair, looking relieved that the ordeal was over.
‘I’m sorry,’ Ella said, and now she was crying too.
Then Molly looked over her shoulder and Ella, realising why, relinquished her grip, turning to Bastien to continue her apologies while Ashley ran to Molly and pulled her close.
‘You can be so bloody infuriating!’ Ashley said, holding her tightly. ‘I told you not to go out when everyone else had it under control!’
‘I’m sorry, Mum.’
‘Fat lot of good sorry is. Tell it to the new grey hairs I’ve developed over the last few hours!’
‘I didn’t mean to.’
‘Oh yes you did. But it doesn’t matter – I’m just glad you’re back now.’
‘I’ll let Maurice know to send everyone back,’ Sue said from behind them.
‘Everyone’s out looking for you,’ Ashley said in answer to Molly’s silent question. ‘Well, almost everyone.’
Molly’s eyes widened.
‘Don’t look so terrified,’ A
shley said. ‘You could hardly expect us to sit around waiting for you. I just hope the police aren’t going to be too mad that we’ve wasted their time.’
‘The police?’ Molly’s face seemed to lose three shades.
‘What else were we going to do? Three teenagers missing and not the foggiest where to start looking…’
‘Sorry,’ Ella said again.
‘Where the hell were you for all this time?’ Ashley said to Molly.
‘We just walked around… We didn’t know where to look so we went everywhere.’
‘And I suppose you didn’t stop to consider that while you were just walking around everyone else was just walking around trying to find you?’
‘Sorry,’ Molly said.
‘Sorry,’ Ella repeated.
Ashley waved away the apologies. ‘Let’s not dwell on it now – none of us. What’s done is done and everyone is safe and sound again. Just as soon as your dad gets back I think we might need to talk. Is that OK with you two?’ she asked, looking at Molly and Ella in turn, who both nodded.
Which, after all that had happened that night, would be fine – as long as Haydon was in the mood to talk. Ashley couldn’t be sure of anything where he was concerned.
Chapter 21
By the time the search party arrived back at Madame Dupont’s house every member of it knew about Ashley and Haydon and their secret. Nobody said so, but Ashley could see it in the way they looked at her and in the way everyone carefully avoided any sort of conversation that might bring it out into the open for general discussion. It was obvious, really, that somebody would have asked what the hell was going on and Maurice or Haydon would have had to put them straight.
So on their return there were words of relief and words of reprimand for the teens and even talk of restarting the celebrations that had gone so badly awry, but no words on the girl who stood before them now and who knew for the first time in her life who her father was. Or the other girl who stood before them, suddenly robbed of the privileges of being an only daughter and faced with a new, uncertain relationship with the father she’d wrongly thought she’d known completely. And certainly no words on Ashley, who had expected judgement at the very least but was served with none. Throughout her stay with Madame Dupont she had experienced nothing but kindness and tonight, despite the drama and revelations, that didn’t change. It was a relief, but if it had been any different she could have borne it knowing that Haydon was OK with her. But she didn’t think he was. The fact was she still didn’t know where she stood, despite him calling them all together to talk in a secluded corner of the garden as festivities got underway again elsewhere.
Lanterns swung in a gentle breeze from the trees that they sat beneath, flickering shadows dancing on the lawns and the strains of music as the little band struck up again reaching their ears. Whenever she recalled this moment in a future that she couldn’t yet see, Ashley would always remember the sweet smell of the grass, layered with lavender and rosemary and wildflowers from Violette’s unruly gardens. The breeze would rise and fall, bringing the fragrances to meet her senses in waves. Right now, as Molly and Ella fired questions at the adults, which they did their best to answer as honestly and delicately as they could, Ashley couldn’t think of the scents of an evening garden at all, only of how on earth they were ever going to move on from this day.
Haydon would pause at every new question directed at him and he would glance at Ashley, as if trying to telegraph what his answer was going to be in the hope of her approval. But of course, she couldn’t know for sure what he was going to say – she could only trust that he’d make it the right thing. The girls nodded in the appropriate places. Sometimes they were quiet, and sometimes they talked over one another, words tumbling out as quickly as the thoughts that formed them. There were so many questions, sometimes just the same ones asked in different ways, but they amounted to one huge fear that all four of them were, in their own way, trying to articulate. What did the future hold for them now that they were a family?
Haydon was giving nothing away, his attention wholly dedicated to his daughters, who each wanted and needed his approval, to know that they were each as important as the other. If Ashley had been a more selfish woman she would have wanted this bit to be over so she could talk to him alone and find out what the future held for them as a couple, but that wouldn’t be right or fair. Their priority had to be the girls, but it was increasingly hard to remember that when all she could do was look at him and desperately wish for a sign that his feelings towards her hadn’t changed in light of all that had happened.
‘Is it weird?’ Molly asked. ‘That I sort of knew?’
‘Really?’ Ashley raised her eyebrows and exchanged a glance with Haydon.
‘I didn’t know, of course. But when Bastien told me I sort of wasn’t really surprised.’
‘Why?’ Haydon asked.
‘Just the way Mum looked at you sometimes. And all that whispering between her and my grandma in the garden away from everyone. And the fact that grandma always looked like someone had shoved a wedge of lemon in her mouth whenever she saw you.’
Haydon let out a low chuckle. ‘She did that, but I’m not surprised, all things considered.’
‘If she hadn’t given the game away would you have told me?’ Molly asked, directing a frank gaze at Ashley that made her want to squirm.
‘I wanted to from the start but… the time never seemed right.’
‘So you were going to tell me?’
‘Of course I was.’
Ashley glanced away to find Haydon looking at her in the same way. Was he thinking that too? Was he wondering if she had ever planned to tell him? And if he was, did that mean he couldn’t trust her now?
‘It was just difficult,’ Ashley continued. ‘With everything else going on. I was always going to tell you both… And I would have talked to you afterwards, Ella,’ she added, seeing that Ella’s gaze had gone to the floor. It wasn’t difficult to see that this was just another way in which Ella felt left out, as if she was surplus to her dad’s new life. ‘To make sure you were OK with it.’ She paused. ‘Are you OK with it?’
Ella shrugged. ‘I guess.’ She looked at Molly, who smiled.
‘I’ve got a sister. That’s so weird.’
‘I know,’ Ella replied, a small smile of her own now breaking free.
Haydon was about to reply when his phone bleeped. He frowned as he read the message.
‘Your mum,’ he said, glancing up at Ella. ‘I’d better phone her or she’ll be on the next flight out here.’
As he got up Ashley opened her mouth to speak. She wanted to ask him if that was the end of their talk. She wanted to ask him whether he had words for her, what his thoughts were, what he wanted for them, because in the whole time they’d been discussing this with Molly and Ella he hadn’t mentioned their relationship once. But her courage failed her again, and she let him go without a word.
* * *
In the end the party took over. Maurice came to fetch the girls to join in again and insisted that Ashley return to the celebrations rather than sitting alone waiting for Haydon to finish what might turn out to be a lengthy phone call. Aware that she’d already put a significant dent in any goodwill her hostess and the other guests might have had towards her by managing to pretty much single-handedly set off the chain of events that had almost ruined the party, she realised that the best thing she could do now was to go back to the celebration, explain and apologise.
It promised to be awkward but was far from it. The attitude of earlier as they’d all returned from searching for Molly and Bastien, the collective, unconscious decision not to judge, was still in evidence and it took Ashley by surprise. She’d expected some disapproval, some raised eyebrows or whispering behind hands, but every single person she spoke to had nothing but genuine pleasure at how things had turned out. It was a miracle, some said, and a marvel, others decided, that a father and daughter should be reunited after all these years when
it had once looked so hopeless, and that Ashley and Haydon should rediscover their long-lost love. She wasn’t quite sure about that last bit, but she smiled and gracefully accepted the good wishes and wondered where Haydon had got to every time she had a spare moment to check her watch. By now he’d been gone for over an hour and surely he couldn’t still be talking to his ex-wife?
Frequently her gaze went to Ella and Molly, who seemed to be getting fussed over at every opportunity by any guest who could get their hands on them. After all the drama, they both seemed to be dealing with things well – even giggling together at times – and neither seemed too concerned that their dad was now missing instead. There was real hope that they would one day become as close as sisters who’d grown up together, of that Ashley was certain. At least it was one thing to feel positive about.
When she could stand it no more, she sent a quick text to him.
Are you OK? I’m worried.
Nothing. Not that she expected a lightning-fast response, but as she stared at the phone, willing him to reply, she couldn’t help but be disappointed that he wasn’t, perhaps, waiting for her to send him a message.
Seeking out her mum and finding her washing dishes with Nanette, the pair of them chatting and laughing as they did their best to keep Aunt Violette’s house as orderly as possible, Ashley beckoned her over.
‘Haydon hasn’t come back yet,’ she said quietly.
‘He’s gone out?’ Sue asked, frowning.
‘He went to phone Ella’s mum.’
‘But that was ages ago.’
‘Exactly. I’m worried he’s freaking out somewhere.’
Sue looked as if she was about to deliver some scathing comment, but then her features softened again.
‘Shall I ask Maurice to do a little recce to see if he can find him? He’s getting a lot of practice at that these days so he ought to be an expert,’ she added with a wry smile.
Ashley shook her head. ‘Just keep an eye on the girls for me? I’m going to have a walk around outside, see if I can find him. He’s probably just gone somewhere for an hour by himself and that’s fine – I know exactly how he feels – but I want to make sure he’s OK.’
The Summer Getaway_A feel-good romance novel perfect for holiday reading Page 27
