The Au Pair

by Janey Fraser

  ‘Let me see how strong a swimmer you are,’ she suggested. ‘Then I’ll decide.’

  It was amazing to think how far they had come since she’d arrived! It had taken time and perseverance but now Lottie really did seem to trust her. Finally as they made their way towards Paula at the ticket office, Marie-France felt even more protective towards this little girl who had been through too much.

  Meanwhile, she had to keep her wits about her. This was a busy place. ‘HarryandAlfie, stay with me. Like Lottie.’

  Paula was frowning. ‘Where’s Jilly?’

  ‘She had an emergency,’ Marie-France began to explain but Paula’s face grew stern.

  ‘I should have known it. Toby’s dad couldn’t make it either. You’d think his dog could give birth on another day, wouldn’t you? Right. Here are your tickets and your identity badges. Marie-France, you’re in charge of these three. Antoinette and Heidi and the other au pairs have gone in to change. Shit. I forgot. You won’t be able to go into the Men’s, will you? Look, you boys. Go in on your own but meet us on the other side by the shallow end. Got it? Try and stick together, for pity’s sake. I’ll be in the Spectator’s Gallery.’

  So she was going to sit back while they did all the hard work? Paula would get on well with her mother! Maman had once, she recalled, taken her to an amusement centre in the holidays. But instead of playing with her, she’d distractedly pressed some euros into her palm and said, ‘See you in the bar later, chérie!’ When she’d got there, her mother had been gaily knocking back a glass of Beaujolais, smoking a cigarette and chatting up one of the waiters.

  ‘Hi! You made it!’ Heidi was waving gaily from the queue outside the Ladies Changing Room. ‘Come and join us!’

  Antoinette was there too, worse luck, wearing her Goth look: tight black leather jacket and leggings to match. She was eyeing up every skinny spotty youth around them.

  ‘Oy!’ snapped a large woman with bulges of fat over the top of her skirt waistband. ‘Get to the back of the queue like the rest of us. And put out that fag!’

  ‘Antoinette,’ growled Marie-France warningly. Scowling, the girl dropped the cigarette and deliberately ground it into the floor with her heel.

  ‘Bloody foreigners,’ hissed the woman.

  ‘See?’ Heidi hissed at Antoinette. ‘You give us all a bad name.’

  ‘Right, next group!’ called out the attendant and in they went.

  Lottie took ages to get changed and by the time she was ready, the others had all gone in. ‘Quick,’ Marie-France said, grabbing the little girl’s cold thin arm. ‘Watch out for the spray!’

  They laughed as the automatic jets in the wall by the footbowl switched on, spraying them both. Marie-France scoured the pool for the boys. Just as she’d thought, they hadn’t waited at all but were just about to go into that huge blue chute. It was part of a spaghetti-like complex. It was really hard to keep your eye on all the kids!

  ‘Marie-France, watch me swim!’ Lottie jumped into the deep end before she could stop her. ‘See. I don’t need my water wings, do I?’

  Clearly not. Just as the little girl wasn’t allergic to cheese after all! Sometimes parents really didn’t know best! She looked across the pool to the spectator’s gallery where someone was waving. It was Paula with her camera and what looked like a bottle of wine.

  Heidi nudged her. ‘Crazy, ja? She organises a swimming party when her husband is away working and she gets us to look after her guests. I’m so glad I don’t work for her. She and Antoinette deserve each other, don’t you think? By the way, have you seen her over there?’

  Incroyable! Antoinette was just idly chatting to a group of boys, stretching this way and that in her skimpy red bikini and totally ignoring the group of children she was in charge of. Looked as if it was down to her and the other girls. This was impossible! There was Harry whizzing out from the bottom of the chute and there was Alfie scampering into it – or was that the other way round?

  Marie-France’s heart quickened. Mon Dieu. Little Lottie had somehow raced off towards the enormous closed chute and was now disappearing into it. Rushing past a group of boys who were gazing at her own figure admiringly, she pushed them to one side in her bid to catch her.

  The noise was deafening! You couldn’t hear anything unless you were right close up to each other shouting in each other’s ear. Paula’s waving intensified. If she was that excited, she should be down here with them!

  She glanced up the entrance to the chute but couldn’t see anyone. ‘Lottie! Lottie! Come down. It’s too high for you.’

  Had she already come out the other end? Marie-France scanned the sea of bodies bobbing up and down in the water. No wonder the lifeguards sitting on either side of the pool in their chairs were concentrating so hard on the water. It was like being at a tennis match but – she realised now – far more dangerous. An uneasy feeling crept into her chest. Maybe she shouldn’t have been so blasé about allowing Lottie to go in without water wings. The little girl would build up speed going down the tunnel and she’d hit the water with terrible force like that child just now. It didn’t look safe!

  ‘You going up or not?’ It was the woman who had objected to her joining the queue behind Heidi.

  Marie-France eyed the steps in front of her warily. She’d always been a strong swimmer. But being enclosed in a tunnel was different. It was one of the few things that terrified her. Once, she and Thierry had been visiting some ancient caves not far from home. Never before had she felt so frightened; so hemmed in. Sweat had trickled down her back and she’d been unable to breathe. ‘It’s OK,’ Thierry had reassured her. ‘I’ll take you back.’

  Right now, she was getting the same feeling but there was no Thierry to hold her hand. Yet Lottie still hadn’t come down the chute. She had to go up to find her! She owed it to Matthew and to Lottie. And, she thought with a lump in her throat, to Sally too.

  ‘I’m going,’ she snapped at the woman behind her. ‘Lottie? Where are you?’

  Her voice sang out hollowly. Behind her, people were shoving each other in the queue, desperate to get to the top. Up and up she went. Mon Dieu it was high. She could hear the sound of crying now. A high-pitched whine that set her nerves on edge. Up and up. Round a corner and … ah there she was!

  ‘Marie-France!’ Lottie was standing behind someone sitting at the top. ‘Immy won’t move. She’s stuck.’

  Immy? What was she doing here. Surely she was too young?

  Marie-France knelt down beside the little girl whose face was blotchy from crying. ‘I’m scared. I can’t move.’

  ‘Not you again,’ snarled the woman behind her. ‘You’re causing a pile-up. There’ll be an accident if you don’t shift it.’

  There was a strange thudding noise in Marie-France’s ears as the blue walls of the tunnel seemed to be closing in on her. She felt faint. Sick. Immy began to cry again. The drumming in her ears reverberated so she didn’t know if it was the sobbing she could hear or the general screams of the swimming pool.

  ‘I said MOVE IT,’ roared the woman. ‘I’m being pushed from behind and so are my kids.’

  Desperately, Marie-France forced herself to kneel down and take Immy on her knee. ‘Don’t leave me behind,’ whimpered Lottie in her ear. ‘I don’t want to go down there on my own. I want you to take me on your knee too.’

  ‘There isn’t room, ma chérie.’ It was true. Immy was like a plump little chicken. There was no way she could carry both of them.

  ‘I can’t move,’ wailed Immy. ‘And I need a wee wee.’

  ‘I’m scared,’ whimpered Lottie.

  ‘MARIE-FRANCE. MARIE-FRANCE!’

  She was hallucinating now. Imagining that Thierry was here, just as he had been in those caves. But wait a minute! There was a stir behind her. Someone was trying to climb up to rescue them. A lifeguard perhaps? Either way, the crowd behind was reluctantly parting as a tall, lithe skinny youth in boxers raced up the stairs towards them. Disbelievingly, she took in the so
ft brown eyes and flop of hair over that right eye along with the silver St Christopher round his neck that she had given him last Christmas.

  ‘Thierry,’ she gasped as he took her in his arms. Mon Dieu! She’d forgotten how his touch could make her melt.

  ‘Thierry,’ she repeated. ‘Is it you? Or am I dreaming?’

  ‘For God’s sake,’ snarled the woman. ‘If you don’t move, I swear I’ll push you myself.’

  ‘I’ve got something to tell you.’ His eyes searched her face. ‘About your father.’

  ‘FOR CRYING OUT LOUD,’ roared the large woman behind them. ‘It’s not EastEnders by the sea, you know.’

  ‘Pardon, madame.’ He flashed her a smile which melted most women and, miraculously, appeared to have a similar effect on this one. ‘I apologise for holding you in.’

  ‘Up,’ Marie-France wanted to say. ‘Holding you up.’ But Thierry was now looking around, taking in the situation at a glance. She felt a bolt of relief. After all, Thierry was a volunteer lifeguard at the pool in the town near their home. If anyone could get them out of this mess, it was him.

  ‘You take the little one and I’ll take the bigger child,’ he ordered.

  ‘But I can’t. I don’t like—’

  ‘Tunnels. I know. Sit down there, in front of me.’ He splayed his legs on either side of her and lifted Lottie on to his lap behind her back. They made a tight unit of four. Ugh! She could feel a horrible damp warmth seep through, suggesting that Immy hadn’t been able to hang on any more.

  ‘OK, everyone,’ announced Thierry. ‘We’re off!’

  They spun down and down, round and round. The screams were so loud that they hurt her ears but she wasn’t sure if they were hers or the kids’. With a terrific splash, they shot out of the bottom of the shute like peas coming out of a pod. Down. Down. Under the water, she thought she caught a glimpse of Lottie’s red swimming costume. Up again! Yes! Gasping as she emerged out of the water, she could see – Mon Dieu! – Paula floundering in the deep end, sinking down to the bottom. She must have seen Immy shoot out and jumped into the pool after her.

  ‘I can’t swim!’ the woman was screaming. ‘I can’t swim!’

  Merde! There was one of the lifeguards shooting through the water towards Paula. The other had already scooped out little Immy and was making his way with her to the side of the pool where Antoinette was standing, waving her arms and no doubt claiming that Immy had just run off and that none of this was her fault.

  Thierry was nowhere to be seen. Had he been a figment of her imagination?

  Lottie? Mon Dieu. Lottie! Heart thudding, Marie-France flicked her wet hair away from her eyes and, urgently treading water, scanned the pool. Merde. Mother of God.

  Where was little Lottie?

  JILLY’S AU PAIR AGENCY: GUIDELINES FOR FAMILIES

  Make sure the au pair knows where the first-aid box is. If she has not got a first-aid qualification, try to explain basic safety procedures.

  Chapter 33

  MATTHEW WASN’T HAVING the best of days. For a start, he couldn’t stop worrying about Marie-France driving Lottie to that party. They’d had a few dry runs together and she’d seemed all right: steady and watchful when it came to other traffic. But you never knew.

  That wasn’t all, either. Ever since the talent show last week, he had had an uneasy heavy feeing at the pit of his stomach about Karen and Christina.

  The first had sent him a card with a little red robin on the front. Inside, was a message in flowery writing. I had such a wonderful time with you. Thank you for including me in your little family. There had been a small kiss afterwards which had made his skin crawl.

  He hadn’t included her in his little family, as she’d put it. He’d simply felt sorry for the woman and now she’d misinterpreted that spontaneous hug he had so stupidly given her.

  To make it worse, it appeared as though she had emailed several other people about it. Elaine, who worked in accounts, had made a point of mentioning it when she’d come up to give him some forms about his impending departure. ‘I hear you took Karen out the other day.’ Her eyes glittered with curiosity. ‘That was really kind of you. She said she had a lovely time.’

  ‘I didn’t take her out,’ he shot back. ‘I invited her to something at my daughter’s school because she’s been doing some babysitting for me.’

  ‘Ah.’ Elaine breathed in almost audibly. ‘How sweet! It’s really nice that you’re able to help each other like that.’

  She might as well have added the phrase ‘two lonely hearts together’. It isn’t like that, he wanted to say, but to deny it would simply have added fuel to the fire. Besides, they wouldn’t have believed him. It was so easy to get the wrong idea just as Christina must have done.

  Just as he’d done too. When Sally was meant to have been at the gym, she was really with that horrible swarthy grease bag. ‘You didn’t do it for her in that department.’ Wasn’t that what Phillip had said before Matthew had socked him one?

  Was that true? He had thought that his wife’s reluctance to talk to him in bed, let alone do anything else, was because they were both exhausted. Neither of them had found it easy to have a small baby without any family help. But he’d never thought that she was having an affair.

  ‘How could you have been so stupid as to risk it all, Sally,’ he muttered under his breath as he sat at his desk now, poring over some plans for a supermarket car park. ‘And how could you have done it with a man like that?’

  ‘Hi, Matthew!’ Belinda, who was James’s new PA, swept in with another file. ‘I heard you saw Karen last week! That was so sweet of you to take her out to dinner.’

  Had everyone got the wrong idea? ‘We actually went to something at my daughter’s school,’ he retorted sharply.

  Belinda raised her beautifully shaped arching eyebrows. ‘Whatever! Anyway, when you see her again, perhaps you could give her this.’ She put a bag in front of him. ‘It’s some of her personal stuff from her desk. We thought she might need it if she’s not coming back for a while.’

  ‘But I’m not going round to see her,’ he began and then stopped. What was it Christina had said before. ‘You need to set boundaries clearly.’ He had to deliver these plans to the council planning department after lunch and that would take him past Karen. Maybe the bag would give him an excuse to put things straight.

  This time he’d make it very clear, Matthew told himself, pulling into the car park by the flats. Explain that he valued her friendship but that …

  Oh God. She was waiting for him at the door, wearing another of those too-clingy wrap-around dresses that revealed almost every curve. Desperately he tried to look somewhere else. The sling, for example, on her right arm.

  ‘Thank you so much for coming, Matthew!’ She glanced at the bag he was carrying. ‘How kind! You shouldn’t have brought me anything. You spoil me!’

  ‘Not at all,’ replied Matthew awkwardly as he followed her into her little flat and took in, with a sinking breath, the fruit cake on the trolley and the blue and pink floral china cups and saucers.

  ‘It took me a while to get them ready,’ she gushed. ‘It takes so long to do anything one-handed! And I’m afraid I’ve only got long-life because I’m out of the real sort until my neighbour comes round. But I thought—’

  He cut in. ‘Karen, I’m here to bring you your things from work, as I said. But I also wanted to explain something. The other day, when I brought you back from Lottie’s concert, I’m afraid my emotions got the better of me.’

  To his horror, she took his hand with her good one. Her eyes were sparkling with tears but they didn’t look like the sad variety. ‘Please, Matthew. You don’t have to apologise. I feel the same way. I really do. It’s not being unfaithful to your wife. I am sure she would want you to be happy. My brother’s wife found someone a year after he died and—’

  ‘No.’ He heard his voice rise. ‘That’s just it, Karen. I don’t feel anything for you. I’m sorry but I just felt … we
ll … worried about you being here on your own.’

  She moved backwards in her chair. ‘But you kissed me!’

  ‘No, you kissed me. I just gave you a hug and I didn’t mean to do that. I was upset.’

  God, he felt like a heel to watch her cow-like eyes fill with tears of hurt. ‘It was all so emotional after the concert. I had wanted Sally to be there and—’

  ‘I thought you cared for me!’ Little red spots were beginning to appear on her cheeks.

  ‘I do but not in that way,’ he said helplessly.

  She bit her lip. ‘I see.’

  Matthew’s hands were sweating profusely. ‘I don’t want you to get the wrong idea or anyone else for that matter. Some of the girls at work … well, they seem to think that there’s something going on between us.’

  The spots on her cheeks grew brighter and she said nothing.

  Matthew stood up. The sooner he could escape from here, the better. ‘Of course, if you need something, just give me a ring. Shopping or that sort of thing,’ he added hastily in case there should be any more misunderstandings.

  She turned away in her chair. ‘Please go, Matthew. I feel so embarrassed.’

  ‘Don’t be.’ He reached out for her hand but she pushed him away.

  ‘See what I mean? You’re too kind for your own good, Matthew. You’re nice to everyone and then other people misinterpret it. You ought to be careful with that au pair of yours. I hope she’s not getting the wrong idea about you as well.’

  Marie-France? His mind shot back to the other evening when they had cleared up the kitchen together after Lottie had gone to bed. It hadn’t been her working time but she had insisted on helping. On one occasion – oh God – their hands had accidentally brushed when he had opened a kitchen cupboard and she had put something in. They’d both said sorry, the way you do when these things happen, and then he hadn’t thought any more about it.

  As he saw himself out of Karen’s little flat, he felt stupid. Perhaps, out of courtesy, he had been too familiar. Well, now it would be different. He wouldn’t call Christina after all in case she got the wrong idea too. But what exactly, he asked himself as he walked down a corridor of blue doors, wondering which one was Christina’s, was the wrong idea? It was all so confusing.