The Au Pair

by Janey Fraser

  ‘I ’ave worries about my daughter,’ continued Marie-France’s mother. ‘Her texts. They are not very enormous.’

  The woman had a very strong French accent and it wasn’t easy to follow her broken English.

  ‘I miss my daughter and I need to know she is OK.’

  Ah! Now that was something Jilly could relate to. The thought of HarryandAlfie or even Nick – difficult as he was being at the moment – being away for nearly a year made her feel physically ill.

  ‘I do understand. I really do. I have children myself although they are younger. But I can assure you that Marie-France’s new family is very kind to her. I know them personally.’

  ‘Her new family?’ The alarm in the voice rose to a high pitch. ‘What happened to the old?’

  Whoops. Sounded like Marie-France’s mother hadn’t known she’d changed jobs. ‘There was a bit of a trouble over the burglary,’ she said carefully. ‘But please do not worry. Your daughter is now living with a very nice widower and his daughter.’

  There was a gasp at the other end. ‘Buggery? What is buggery?’

  ‘Burglary, actually. It’s when thieves get in and—’

  ‘Les voleurs?’

  Oh oh. Clearly Marie-France had kept that one quiet too and now she’d put her foot in it. ‘Unfortunately, someone broke in when she was babysitting and, well, they locked her and the children up in a room. But they got out and no one was hurt.’

  ‘This is terreeble! Why did you not tell me?’

  ‘Your daughter is eighteen, Madame Dubonne. She is an adult.’

  ‘I do not like this situation. I do not like it at all. And now my daughter is living with a window? I do not understand?’

  ‘No. He’s a widower. It means his wife is dead.’

  ‘So there is no other woman in the house?’

  ‘Well, no, but it’s not as bad as it sounds. Matthew Evans is a respectable man and he is very pleased with the way Marie-France is settling in.’

  She only hoped this was the truth. Even as she spoke, she had a vision of Marie-France making a play for Matthew Evans in the same way she seemed to have done to Phillip.

  ‘Well, I am not happy about it. I do not like it one leetle bit. You are a mother and you are running an agency pour les jeunes filles. You should tell me about this.’

  ‘I’m sorry,’ Jilly found herself saying but the furious Madame Dubonne had cut her off. Oh dear. In theory, she was under no obligation to update the parents on their daughters’ progress. But if the roles were reversed, wouldn’t she feel just as angry and worried as Marie-France’s mother had sounded just now?

  USEFUL TURKISH PHRASES

  Merhaba (Hello)

  Nasılısınız (How are you?)

  Hadi, dans edelim (Let’s go and dance!)

  Evet (Yes)

  Gule alerjim var (I’m allergic to roses)

  Hayır (No)

  Chapter 29

  WAS THIS A trick? Marie-France reread the text which had popped up on her phone. Plse cme to house 2 talk. Dawn.

  ‘Maybe she wants to put a knife in you, ja?’ suggested Heidi. They were sitting in the park at the time, after school, watching Lottie and Heidi’s Amy play on the swings. It was so nice to speak to someone who was fluent in French. Heidi could speak three languages; she was very bright. ‘The English, they are like that. They are rude about their men and then they get mad when someone else makes a pass at them.’

  Marie-France began to wish she hadn’t confided quite so much in Heidi, who wouldn’t stop asking her questions about ‘that good-looking Philippe’.

  ‘You have seen him recently, yes?’

  ‘No.’ Marie-France was aware of a sad note creeping into her voice. ‘He has not tried to make contact.’ She shrugged, trying to show she didn’t care. ‘I should not have listened to him when he told me to lie about the insurance.’

  Heidi shrugged. ‘Have you heard any more from the police?’

  Marie-France flicked her hand in the air as though she wasn’t bothered. ‘Nothing.’

  Heidi laughed. ‘Like I said, the English are weird. My family’s husband, he still walks around naked when his wife is out. But I pretend I do not notice now. By the way, have you seen this?’ She pulled out a piece of paper from her shoulder bag.

  This is a reminder that the whole school will be putting on a talent show next Tuesday. Please let us know what your child will be doing by tomorrow.

  ‘Reminder?’ Marie-France did a double-take. ‘I haven’t seen this note before.’

  ‘Nor me,’ sighed Heidi. ‘Maybe it went directly to our parents. I don’t know about yours but my host mother is as bad as the kids for not passing on notes. It goes straight to the bottom of her Lulu Guinesss handbag like that swimming party invitation from Antoinette’s family. Are you going to that too?’

  ‘Lottie mentioned a swimming party but I didn’t realise it was Antoinette’s kids. I can’t stand that girl.’

  ‘Nor me. She told Margit in class that her family wants her to bring some of us to help out. I think it’s a real cheek getting free help, but a whole lot of us are going so it could be fun. Not like this talent show.’ Her eyes rolled. ‘What’s Lottie going to do? Is she gifted at anything?’

  ‘She’s got a great imagination!’ Marie-France looked at the little girl, who had shot off from the swings to play hide and seek in the woody bit on the side of the park. She knew why. It was a game that Lottie played in the garden, convinced that her mother was hiding there. Poor thing.

  ‘My child, she has no talent.’ Heidi waved her hand dismissively in Amy’s direction. ‘All she is interested in is nicking my make-up and clothes. Says she wants to be the next Lady Gaga.’

  Marie-France smiled. She could remember doing the same with her mother’s things.

  ‘So what are you going to do about Dawn’s text?’ persisted Heidi.

  Marie-France shrugged. ‘Go and see her, I suppose. But if she thinks I’m apologising for something, she’s wrong. It’s her who should be apologising to me.’

  ‘Ja!’ Heidi nodded, whipping out her compact mirror and reapplying her lip gloss just as a rather good-looking man with his black Labrador walked past. ‘Quite right. You show them.’

  Marie-France waited until she and Lottie had made tea together: fish pie (with cheese in it for protein!) followed by chocolate tart.

  ‘Yummy!’ grinned Lottie, her mouth smeared with cream, and Matthew had smiled approvingly. He seemed to have got over that awful business with the police. Now as they chatted round the table it felt really natural. Rather nice, in fact.

  ‘Did you know that Lottie’s teacher is running a talent show?’ she asked.

  Matthew groaned. ‘Sorry. I forgot to mention it. It was in the class notes. Have you thought of anything you want to do, princess?’

  ‘Play the guitar!’ Her voice piped up assuredly and her little face shone, making Marie-France’s heart sink.

  ‘You can play a few chords but I don’t know if it’s enough for a talent show.’

  Lottie’s eyes filled with tears. ‘Please, please. Mummy would like it, wouldn’t she, Daddy? She loves dancing and music.’

  Loves? That is the present tense, isn’t it? Matthew threw a helpless look across the table at her and she could tell that he had noticed too. ‘We can do our best,’ said Marie-France, sounding bolder than she felt.

  Lottie was jumping up and down. ‘Can we practise this evening?’

  ‘Darling, it’s Marie-France’s evening off.’

  ‘I’m going out, I’m afraid.’ Her mouth went dry at the thought of the appointment she had arranged with Dawn. Would Phillip be there? Part of her hoped so, despite everything. She missed seeing him every day, just as she missed Thierry. Was it possible to be attracted to two men at the same time?

  ‘Please. Please. Pretty please!’

  A vision of her mother not having time for her, thanks to Maurice, came into Marie-France’s head. ‘OK. Just a quick lesson.’ />
  ‘That’s fantastic.’ Matthew gave her a grateful smile. ‘I’ll clear the dishes while you two go and strum your stuff.’

  By the time she’d pedalled madly up to Dawn’s, she was nearly half an hour late. Ringing the bell at the security gate, she fully expected a mouthful of abuse. Instead, there was a subdued voice inviting her to make her way down the drive. Prends garde, she told herself. A quiet Dawn was, in her experience, far more dangerous than a noisy one.

  To her surprise, Dawn opened the door herself instead of the housekeeper. Her face was pale and devoid of make-up. She was even thinner than usual and her hip bones protruded through her white designer jeans. She also had a glass of red wine in her hand and, from her slurred voice, Marie-France suspected it wasn’t her first that evening. ‘Come in.’

  Shocked, Marie-France stared around. Every room on the ground floor was piled high with packing cases. ‘You are moving?’

  Her words echoed eerily, the way sounds do when a place is empty of furniture. Dawn nodded. ‘We have to. Phillip has cleaned me out.’

  ‘I do not understand.’

  Dawn gestured that she should follow her through to the conservatory. ‘Please, in here. I need to talk to you before the children finish their computer game.’ Her eyes wavered. ‘I have to apologise to you.’

  This had to be a trick! Dawn never apologised to anyone.

  ‘Why?’

  ‘Phillip has treated both of us very badly. He has confessed everything now to the police. We were losing money, you see. Or rather he was losing my money. He’s a gambler as well as a cheater. So when he realised how things bad were, he arranged for the house to be done over…’

  ‘Done over?’

  ‘Burgled. That’s why he made us go out that night instead of having people round. He got one of his shady mates to pretend to break in and take things like the new gold clock in the hall which he hadn’t even paid for in full. Then he claimed on the insurance. Except that it went wrong because you let them in without a struggle…’

  ‘I think he is someone else.’

  Dawn waved her hand in dismissal. ‘The point is that because you let them in without putting up a fight, it means the insurance claim might be invalid. That’s why he asked you to lie.’ She smiled sadly. ‘I almost feel sorry for him. Crazy, isn’t it?’ She looked at Marie-France as though seeking confirmation. ‘I suppose it’s because part of me is still in love with him just as you were.’

  Marie-France felt herself going red. ‘I do not love your husband.’

  Dawn’s thin pencilled eyebrows rose as though to disagree.

  ‘I might…’ Marie-France began slowly ‘… admire him but that is nothing. He try to kiss me. Not the other way round.’

  Dawn smiled sadly. ‘Just what the others used to say.’

  ‘What others?’

  ‘All our previous au pairs fell for Phillip and a lot of women around here, too.’ Dawn sighed. ‘Not surprising, is it? He has a way of making you feel really special; as though you are the only girl worth looking at. I left my second marriage for him, you know. How stupid was that? But I wasn’t the first. That poor woman Sally who died young – whose kid you’re looking after now – she was crazy about him although he’d never have left me. He had too much to lose.’

  ‘Lottie’s mother had an affair with Phillip?’ Marie-France was stunned.

  ‘They knew each other through the gym. One day, I came back early from a retreat and caught them upstairs. She begged me not to say anything.’ Dawn’s eyes narrowed. ‘Of course I was going to. But then she got ill and I couldn’t do it to her husband. Whatever everyone thinks of me, I do have some heart.’

  Marie-France’s head was reeling. How could little Lottie’s mother have betrayed her family like that? ‘So that is why you have affair yourself,’ she said coldly. ‘To get back at Phillip.’

  Dawn’s eyes narrowed. ‘What are you talking about, you silly girl?’

  “I see you! I see you snogging that man with no hair.’

  Dawn burst out laughing. ‘Yogi? He’s my spiritual adviser. He’s helping me to meditate my way through this. If it wasn’t for him, I don’t know how I’d cope. Tell me, Marie-France.’ Dawn laid a hand on her arm; she could smell wine. ‘Do you know what it is like to be poor. Really poor?’

  She nodded. ‘Certainly. My mother and I, we are not well off.’

  ‘Pah! I’m not talking about money. We had plenty of that. I’m talking about love. My parents didn’t love me because I wasn’t a boy. They didn’t bother with me. Never made me do my homework or go to school if I didn’t fancy it. So even at my age, my own kids are better readers than me. That’s right! Embarrassing, isn’t it? So I decided that if someone fell in love with me, I would not love them back in case they hurt me.’

  Her voice dropped. ‘That’s why my first two marriages broke up and that’s why I haven’t been able to show my feelings to the children.’ Her eyes filled with tears. ‘I couldn’t cope if they rejected me too.’

  Suddenly Marie-France began to feel terribly sorry for this messed-up woman. She was only spilling her soul because she’d hit such a low point. She was drunk too, if she wasn’t mistaken. Drunk and tearful just like Maman used to be.

  ‘Do you know what you must do, madame?’

  Dawn was looking at her as though she was really listening for a change.

  ‘You must tell your children what you have told me. No, they are not too young. They might understand. But at the moment, they are afraid of you. It is not a good thing to be scared of your own mother.’

  Dawn put up her hand. ‘Shh. They are coming.’

  ‘Mary-Frunch, Mary-Frunch!’ Little Tatty Arna threw herself into her arms. ‘We’ve missed you.’

  Dawn’s face had reverted back to the pinched expression she usually wore.

  ‘Me too.’ Tom held out his guitar. ‘Mum bought me this cos I broke the last one when I threw it at the wall but I can’t play it without you. Can you give me lessons?’

  ‘Maybe one day,’ said Marie-France gently. ‘But I’m afraid I need to go now.’

  ‘Please,’ begged Tom. ‘I promise I’ll be good. There’s nothing else I can do and I don’t want to be the odd one out in the talent show at school.’

  Odd one out! How well Marie-France could remember that horrible feeling! Hadn’t she been the odd one out at school because she hadn’t had a father?

  ‘Let me think about it,’ she promised. ‘I have an idea but I need to check with someone first.’

  Meanwhile, little Tatty Arna was tugging her sleeve. ‘Will you come and see us in our new home? We’ve got to move somewhere smaller – to a house that’s only got five bedrooms.’ She made a face. ‘Mum says she doesn’t know how we’re going to manage.’

  Five bedrooms? Hah! Dawn’s plea that she was being ‘cleaned out’ wasn’t exactly accurate then. Marie-France knelt down and took Tatty Arna’s hand in hers. ‘You have your mum and you have your brother. You are very lucky, I think.’

  Dawn nodded. ‘Thank you.’ She bit her lip. ‘I don’t suppose you would consider coming back to us, would you?’

  ‘Sorry.’ Marie-France shook her head. ‘I have another family now.’

  A family, she almost added, who really appreciated her. In fact, she couldn’t wait to get back now to poor little Lottie whose mother had behaved so badly. Poor, poor, unsuspecting Matthew.

  ‘Just one more thing. Someone rang for you the other day. Said his name was Terry.’

  Her heart leaped! ‘Do you mean Thierry?’

  She’d been hoping he might ring her mobile but there hadn’t been anything. Not even a missed call.

  ‘I don’t know.’ Dawn seemed snappy now as though keen to be rid of her. ‘Sounded French. Certainly couldn’t speak much English. Still, if it’s important, he’ll call again, won’t he? Pity we won’t be here now we’re moving.’

  USEFUL FRENCH/ENGLISH PHRASES

  Je ne veux pas travailler (I do not want t
o work)

  J’aime ton mari (I fancy your husband)

  Tes enfants sont terribles (Your kids are awful)

  J’ai perdu le chien (I have lost the dog)

  For homework, translate the following from English into French:

  I have borrowed your credit card

  Someone rang but I did not take a message

  I am three weeks late

  Extract from Easy English for Challenging Au Pairs

  Chapter 30

  MATTHEW FELT AS though he was going to choke with pride. Just look at the two of them, heads bent over the guitar! Marie-France was showing his daughter how to pluck various strings (‘See? This one is A, chérie!’) and as he picked out the strain of ‘Lavender’s Blue’, he found himself wishing with all his heart that Sally was here to see this.

  In the long months after her death, he had convinced himself that they could have got over his wife’s stupid affair. It had been, as she had told him, a ‘one-night thing with someone who meant nothing’.

  ‘I had too much to drink,’ she’d explained. ‘I’m sorry, Matthew. So very very sorry.’

  But instead, he’d yelled at her. Accused her of being a slut and every other word under the sun. Told her that he’d fight for custody every inch of the way. Refused to sleep in the same bed as her and then – this was the worst bit – ignored her when she went very pale over the next few weeks and said she didn’t feel well.

  ‘Go to the doctor then,’ he’d snapped. ‘And get yourself checked out in case you’ve picked something up from that lover of yours.’

  And that’s when they’d diagnosed something far worse: a rare, fast-growing cancer for which there was, at that stage, little hope. Now, infidelity seemed far less of an obstacle than death.

  ‘That sounds amazing,’ he said as they finished, giving a little mock bow. ‘Your mother would have been so proud of you.’