by Susan Lewis
His large eyes rounded as he nodded.
Hardly able to wait to hug him again, she was out of the car as soon as Frank stopped, and was just lifting him from his car seat when Susannah and Neve erupted out of the house, followed by Michael and an extremely striking young girl, who had to be Ellie.
‘Oh my God,’ Neve cried as soon as she saw Jean-Luc. ‘He’s absolutely gorgeous. Bonjour mon petit,’ she said, holding out a hand to shake his. ‘Je m’appelle Neve, et tu es tres beau.’
Jean-Luc looked uncertainly at Pats, then buried his face in her neck.
‘Don’t worry, he won’t take long to break out of it,’ Pats assured Neve, and hugging her with her free arm, she treated her to a hearty kiss on the cheek. ‘This place is awesome, isn’t it?’ she muttered.
‘Wait till you see inside,’ Neve muttered back, then turning to Michael and Ellie she said, ‘El, this is my godmother, Pats, who I’ve told you all about. Pats, this is Ellie. She’s my absolute best friend. Actually, we’re more like sisters – and maybe we would be if Mum and Michael could get their act together,’ she added under her breath.
‘I think he heard,’ Pats told her as Michael’s eyes started to shine. ‘Hi,’ she said, embracing him. ‘And Ellie, you’re not only beautiful, chérie, you’re stunning, and you also have impeccable taste in best friends.’
Though Ellie blushed slightly, she was clearly thrilled with the compliment, and hardly even hesitated when Pats enveloped her in a hug. ‘This is Frank,’ she told her, as he came round the car with Susannah. ‘And this here is Jean-Luc,’ she added, as he peeped up to get another look at what was going on.
‘Est-ce que tu peux nager, Jean-Luc?’ Ellie asked kindly.
‘There’s a swimming pool here?’ Patsy said, looking as though she were about to swoon.
Laughing, Susannah nodded. ‘But come on, I’m sure you all want to freshen up before the party, and Lola’s dying to see you. She’s round the other side on the terrace with Binkie, too hot to move.’
‘You mean too squiffy,’ Neve corrected. Then, squeezing Patsy’s arm as they started towards the house, ‘It’s so wonderful that you’re here,’ she said, excitedly. ‘Ellie and I have this thing that we’re going to tell Mum and Michael about later. It’s like the best idea, and I really think everyone’s going to love it.’
‘I can hardly wait,’ Patsy said, glancing at Susannah, who simply shrugged as though to say she had no idea what it could be.
Pats was about to tell Neve that she had some news for her too, but realised she couldn’t until she’d run it past Susannah first.
‘You are right not to say anything yet,’ Frank told her, when they were in the guest-wing sitting room – which was in addition to the guest-wing library, guest-wing TV room and two guest-wing bedrooms – ‘because I ’ave ’ad another thought that per’aps we should discuss. It might change things a little. It is un peu wild, but where would we be without wild?’
‘I can’t imagine,’ Patsy laughed, looking up from Jean-Luc’s little suitcase, where she was rummaging for trunks. Jean-Luc himself had chosen to stay on the terrace with Neve and Ellie who were jointly doting on him, and feeding him all kinds of treats he probably wasn’t allowed, but he was on holiday, so it wouldn’t hurt just this once.
‘This is right off the top of my ’ead,’ Frank said, skidding a palm off his shiny pate, ‘but seeing those two girls together just now give me an idea. Maybe, and I stress maybe, they can both be nominated as the face for the teenage range. Ellie is how you say, trés foncée?’
‘Dark complexion?’ Pats provided.
‘Oui. And Neve is very blonde, so per’aps it is a way to promote all the different colours of the range and maybe we can call it Nevelle, or Nevelly, or something like that. Or nothing like that. Anyway, what do you say, en principe?’
Patsy was regarding him incredulously. En principe it was completely mad, and would change the dynamic of everything they’d already set in motion, but he obviously knew that and it didn’t seem to be fazing him at all. Dropping the clothes she was holding, she went to put her arms around him. ‘What I say is that you’re a genius,’ she murmured, with her lips touching his.
‘This I know,’ he replied with a bat of his eyelashes.
‘It won’t fly,’ she told him, ‘but what was it that American guy said, nothing can ever happen without an idea? Or something like that. Actually, I think it was without a dream, but hell, who cares? Everything’s worth a shot, so why not your insane …’ She had to break off as a lingering wave of nausea swept over her. ‘Oh, God, I’m sorry,’ she said weakly, resting her head on his shoulder. ‘It’ll pass in a minute.’
‘I’m sure it will, but I know, chérie, that it is all a part of your plan to make sure you are the one to drive back, not the crazy Frenchman.’
She managed a smile as she said, ‘How come I’m so transparent to you, when I’m such a mystery to myself?’
Chapter Thirty-Two
AS SOON AS they were all gathered on the water-garden terrace with glasses in their hands and the evening sun turning everything golden around them, Michael called for quiet and proposed a toast to welcome the guests. ‘Please treat the place as your own,’ he told them warmly. ‘The girls will show you where everything is, such as the pool, tennis courts and stables, and I think you’ve already met Sheila, my housekeeper, whose every wish will be your command, and no, I don’t have that round the wrong way.’
As everyone laughed, Patsy tilted her glass to the fluffy-haired Sheila and received an impish wink in return.
‘So now it’s only left for me to say drink up, help yourselves to food and may your stay with us be as memorable – in a good way – as we’re all hoping for.’
As Susannah sipped her champagne, her eyes were on his, watching him and the way he was watching her. Though she could feel the current of a silent communication running between them, she couldn’t be sure what he was saying, only knew that it had been like this for weeks, and still she hadn’t summoned the courage to take it any further. She wasn’t entirely sure she ever would, since he’d made no move to, either.
‘You have to take the initiative,’ Lola kept telling her. ‘I can’t see why he’d have a problem with that.’
‘He’s a man who knows his own mind,’ Susannah argued. ‘If he wants something, he goes out to get it. I’m here, we see each other all the time, and he’s doing nothing, so I’d say that speaks for itself. Besides, Neve is my priority, and I really don’t want to go rushing into anything again.’
‘Pffft,’ was Lola’s usual reply, an expressive little sound that she was making right now as Sheila failed to refill her glass up to the brim.
Aware of Michael coming to stand beside her, Susannah continued to smile at the way everyone was becoming involved in Jean-Luc’s cute attempts to speak English. He was doing so well for someone so young, and not only with the language, because he didn’t appear in the least bit tired after travelling all the way from Paris. In fact, he was decidedly lively, and apparently not at all daunted by being the centre of attention.
‘Shall we go inside for a moment?’ Michael said quietly.
Trying to ignore the jolt in her heart, since he was almost certainly intending to report back about Alan, she kept hold of her glass and followed him through the kitchen into the conservatory, where the overhead fans were rotating at speed, and the first crimson rays of sunset were bathing the plants in a vivid fiery light.
After opening the outside door to let in more air, he said, ‘Helen Cunningham has not dropped the charges. The trial is still scheduled to go ahead in October. So nothing’s changed.’
Feeling even more relief than she’d expected, she sounded slightly shaky as she said, ‘Thank you for going to the trouble of finding out. I wish I knew how he got my number. Maybe I should change it again.’
‘It’s probably not a bad idea,’ he agreed. Then, after sipping his champagne, ‘Actually, that’s not all.’
She became very still, hoping against hope that whatever else there was, it wouldn’t be bad.
He smiled, as though to relax her. ‘I’ve instructed the lawyers to write to your husband again, assuring him that Neve is perfectly safe here, so he doesn’t have to worry about what he’s reading in the press. It might be a good idea for you to speak to him yourself, though. Or Neve, if she feels up to it.’
‘I will,’ Susannah promised, horribly aware of how small-time, and probably sordid, her life must seem to someone like him whose own existence was so far removed from the world of junkies, money-grubbers and worst-imaginable offenders. Knowing she’d brought it to his doorstep was making her feel more ashamed than ever. ‘If I offer him some rent from the house, I’m sure he’ll stop making a fuss and go away,’ she said, knowing her humiliation was showing in the colour of her cheeks. ‘I’m not sure about Neve,’ she went on awkwardly, ‘but I’ll put it to her.’ She took a sip of champagne to bolster herself, then forced a smile.
‘That’s better,’ he told her softly.
She looked up into his eyes.
His gaze was intense and knowing and making her heart beat faster.
Lifting his glass, he said, ‘So, Pats is here at last. I know how much you’ve been looking forward to seeing her. It’s a pity you couldn’t get more time off, but the rest of us will do our best to keep them entertained.’
‘She won’t want you to go to any trouble,’ Susannah assured him, ‘and at least I’ll be here for the first week.’ Then, feeling self-conscious and oddly at a loss, she found herself bringing up a subject she’d intended to leave until tomorrow. ‘I’m not sure what you’re going to make of this,’ she said, ‘I have to admit, I’m quite flummoxed by it myself, but I was talking to Pats before the party and, well … She and Frank would like to know what we think of the girls being put forward as possible faces for a new range of cosmetics designed for teens.’
He blinked in confusion and frowned. ‘You mean, like …’ He was searching for a word. ‘Models?’ he said, clearly unable to come up with a more agreeable term, at least as far as he was concerned.
‘I suppose like that, yes,’ she answered, hiding a smile. ‘If we’re not opposed to it, they’d like to take some photographs while they’re here to show to the Bryce board when they get back to Paris.’
Still obviously thrown, he took a breath and blew it out slowly.
Realising he was trying to find a polite way of saying no, she decided to speak up for the cause, guardedly, in spite of her own reservations. ‘You’ll need to discuss it with Rita, of course,’ she said, ‘and we’ll want to know a lot more about what it entails before we can give the go-ahead, such as whether they’d be required to take time off school. If they are, personally, I don’t think I can agree to it.’
‘Me neither,’ he said, evidently glad to be offered at least one objection.
‘This is every young girl’s dream,’ she reminded him gently, ‘and if you don’t mind me saying so, you’re starting to look a little curmudgeonly.’
He immediately laughed. ‘OK, let’s keep it to ourselves for now,’ he said, ‘because I’m sure once the star babes get hold of it there’ll be no turning it down.’
‘To be frank, I’m not sure we can anyway. Think about it, how’s your conscience going to cope with knowing you’ve prevented your daughter having a chance at a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity of fame and fortune?’
He looked defeated. ‘Put like that, not at all well,’ he admitted.
She started to smile.
Meeting her eyes, he was on the verge of saying more, when the door swung open and Neve burst in, all puffed up ready to speak. Coming to an abrupt halt as she suddenly realised she was spoiling her own plans, she quickly backed out again, saying, ‘Sorry, ignore me. I didn’t happen. Gone. Bye.’
As the door closed Susannah turned back to Michael, amused and embarrassed. ‘I apologise for my daughter,’ she said. ‘I’m not quite sure what that was about … Anyway, you were about to say?’
‘I only wish I had the chance,’ he replied, ‘because I do believe my own daughter is about to … Yes, here she is,’ and once again the door swung open, this time with Ellie surging in its wake.
‘Dad, I’m really, really sorry,’ she began with feeling, ‘but Neve and I have an announcement we have to make, and it won’t work if you and Susannah aren’t there.’
‘Can’t it wait?’ Michael asked reasonably.
‘No, it can’t. We’ve been building up to this, and we rehearsed it so’s we’d say it right at the start of the party, then you go and disappear … Don’t look at me like that!’
‘Like what?’ he laughed.
‘Like that.’
Susannah glanced up him, but saw only innocence where a moment ago there had been a terrible scowl.
‘OK, let’s get it over with,’ Michael sighed, ‘or I can see we’ll never have any peace.’
‘Yes!’ Ellie cheered, and spun round to go out again.
Once they were back on the terrace, Michael obediently followed Ellie’s instructions by refilling everyone’s glasses and standing next to Susannah as Neve linked an arm through Ellie’s, and waited for everyone to be quiet.
‘What’s going on?’ Binkie grunted from her deckchair, only half awake.
‘I’ll tell you tomorrow,’ Lola whispered.
‘OK,’ Neve began, starting to go up and down on her toes, ‘this is our announcement. Well, actually, it’s more of a suggestion really, but it’s really cool and I know you’re going to love it, Mum, because it’s the answer to everything, and I mean everything. Well, almost everything … Anyway, I hope you’ll love it, because I really do.’ She took a quick breath and said, ‘I’ve been thinking about this, and I was wondering if, in September, instead of going back to my old school I could go to Lady Jane’s, with Ellie.’ She pressed her lips together in an anxious smile and looked at her mother pleadingly.
Susannah only blinked.
Neve continued to watch her, hopefully, encouragingly.
Still at a loss, Susannah turned to Michael, whose expression told her that this was the first he’d heard of the scheme, too. However, Lola, she noticed, was beaming happily and nodding, making it clear she was fully aware of the plan and heartily approved.
‘But it’s a boarding school,’ Susannah finally managed, with a meaningful glare at Lola.
‘Yes, but I’d be coming home at weekends,’ Neve told her, ‘so it wouldn’t really be any different to before, except you won’t have to worry about who’s picking me up, or dropping me off, or where I’m staying each night, because I’ll be at school.’
Susannah could hardly refute that, but was still confounded as she looked at Patsy.
‘Sounds a pretty good solution to me,’ Pats told her.
‘It is,’ Neve insisted. ‘It’s only about twenty miles from here, so you could even come and pick me up in the G Wiz without running out of power. Well, it might be a bit far, but Ellie gets the train, so I can always come with her, except when she goes to her mum’s, because she has to go in another direction then. Anyway, I think it’s a really good idea and it’s what I want to do, so …’
‘Neve, hang on, hang on,’ Susannah interrupted. ‘We need to discuss this in private …’
‘Why?’ Neve cried, starting to redden with frustration.
‘You know very well why.’
‘No, I don’t.’
‘OK, then I’ll say it now. You seem to be assuming that we’ll still be at the Long House after the summer, but this is only temporary. We’ll be going back to …’ She looked down as Michael put a hand on her arm.
‘Personally, I think it’s worth considering,’ he declared, ‘but before anyone starts getting carried away, it might be a good idea to find out if there’s a place available.’
‘We already know that there is,’ Ellie jumped in. ‘Gemma Gibson left at the end of last term, so …’
‘And t
he place might already be taken,’ he interrupted. ‘No, listen,’ he said, as she made to go on, ‘I’ve already told you that in principle it’s worth considering, but Susannah obviously needs some time to get used to it, and …’
‘We can definitely afford the fees now, Mum,’ Neve told her plaintively.
Susannah started to answer, but suddenly found herself wanting to laugh. ‘OK, let’s do as Michael says and take one step at a time,’ she said. ‘Right now, I think we need to ask Pats if she’s feeling all right. You’ve gone very pale,’ she told her, as everyone turned to look at Pats.
‘Oh, I’m fine,’ Pats assured her. Then, ‘Actually, on second thoughts …’
Frank took away her glass, saying, ‘I think maybe you need …’ He whispered in her ear and she nodded.
‘Need what?’ Susannah prompted.
‘If you will excuse us, ladies and gentlemen,’ Frank said, slipping an arm round Pats, and a moment later they were hurrying in through the kitchen.
Neve’s eyes were wide as she looked at Susannah.
Susannah laughed and threw out her hands.
‘Où il va, Papa?’ Jean-Luc asked Neve.
‘Oh, sweetie,’ she said, scooping him up. ‘He’s just popped inside. He’ll be back any minute.’
His big eyes filled with worry.
‘Say it in French,’ Susannah reminded her, and putting down her glass she went off to find out what was going on.
‘She is in the bathroom at the end,’ Frank told her, as she came upon him in the hall. ‘And please take care, because she is kicking the bookette.’
‘She’s what?’ Susannah laughed, knowing he couldn’t mean how it had sounded.
‘This is the right expression, non, when someone vomit?’
‘No,’ she told him, highly amused. ‘I’ll go and see how she is.’
Finding the bathroom door unlocked, Susannah let herself in and closed it behind her.
‘Frank, I swear I’m going to brain you if you offer me …’
