He sighs and clunks his head back against the desk. ‘Do you know why I fought so hard for this place? Why I clung to my loophole? Why I couldn’t let myself care about what the will said or what Eulalie wanted? Do you honestly think I didn’t know that the decent thing would’ve been to drop it and accept she’d left the place to you?’
‘I don’t know,’ I say. I’ve never heard Jules talk like this before. Never once has he wavered in his right to be here.
‘I was suffocating at home and this was a lifeline I didn’t know I needed. That very first letter from Eulalie’s solicitor, the DNA test to prove who I was, the research I started doing into my family history… It was a lifebuoy thrown into the rising tide that was gradually sucking me under.’
‘The first thing you did was ask to sell.’
‘I didn’t know what to do. I didn’t know what it would be like. I didn’t know what you’d want to do. If we had sold, I’d have used the money to buy a place on one of the distant Scottish islands and get away. It just so happened that this was better than I could’ve dreamed.’
I believe him, I know that much. If there’s one thing I know about Jules, it’s that he loves the château and the gardens.
‘You had a DNA test?’ I ask, trying to think about something else.
He nods.
‘I didn’t know that.’ Now I think of it, I don’t know anything about what happened before we met in that solicitor’s office for the first time. ‘So you got a letter telling you about the will?’ It surprises me because I’d always assumed he was, I don’t know, chasing ambulances or something to see what he could get. ‘If Eulalie didn’t know you existed, how did the solicitor find you? Is it the solicitor’s job to check an entire family tree before reading the will?’
‘I don’t know.’
This suddenly makes even less sense than it did before. ‘I don’t understand. Why you? Your father is still alive, why does the inheritance go to you and not him? Did he get a letter too?’
‘No, it was just me. I mean, he’s not exactly in a condition to inherit a French château. I assumed the solicitor had realised he lives in a nursing home and guessed that, but it’s not really how it should pass through the family line.’
I suddenly get the same feeling I used to get when Eulalie would say her knee was giving her gip and send me to answer the door to whatever courier or delivery guy was knocking. It was a funny thing that only ever happened when it was a hot, single one. She had no problem answering the door until she’d chatted to them long enough to learn their life history and current relationship status, then she suddenly developed a bad knee whenever they knocked. I’d answer it and she’d call out from her armchair and ask him to come in and wait for a tip, which she always took a long while to find even though her purse was right at the top of her handbag, which was always right beside her chair.
Jules squeezes my hand. ‘What?’
‘She didn’t leave this place to me. She left it to both of us.’
He goes to say something but I cut him off. ‘What’s always bothered me is how the solicitor found you. If Eulalie didn’t know you existed, how did he? I always thought it was you trawling bloody obituaries or something, but it wasn’t, was it?’
‘No.’ He shakes his head slowly. ‘Are you saying you think she knew about me?’
‘I don’t know. I can’t see her knowing you existed and not wanting to meet you… Not unless she only found out towards the end. She knew she was dying for months. What if she didn’t think you’d want to meet a dying old aunt? What if she thought it would make things worse? What if she thought…’ I can’t believe I’m saying this. ‘What if she thought it was more important for me to meet you?’
‘I don’t understand.’
‘This whole thing has got Eulalie’s romantic storyline stamped all over it. I suddenly feel like I’m living in the novel she always wanted to write. Both of us turning up together, determined not to let the other one win, isolated out here with literally no one but each other… It feels like a set-up, like every time she would lose her purse while the hot, single delivery guy was waiting and then start talking loudly about how I had no plans for that weekend.’
‘There were a lot of parameters. How did she know we’d both be there at the same time? How did she know I didn’t have a shoot that week? How did she know you’d get time off work? How did she know we wouldn’t kill each other in the first twenty-four hours?’
‘I don’t know. This is what I’ve been struggling with the whole time. I don’t know any of this stuff and the only person who does is dead.’ I think about something else Jules said a few weeks ago, something I thought he was crazy for at the time. ‘Do you remember when we found those photographs and you said it felt like she was expecting us?’
He nods.
‘This sounds barmy but I think she trusted the building.’
He squeezes my hand and I appreciate him sitting there and listening like I’m not losing the plot. ‘It was pretty convenient, wasn’t it? I mean, I thought I’d never run into you with all the space we’ve got, and it just so happened that there was only one room with a working light bulb, one bedroom, one tap, one plug socket. It’s like in her stories when she used to say the house threw people together.’
He grins. ‘Well, you know my cynical take on that.’
‘Things fixed themselves when we started getting on. The generator, the plug sockets, the taps. You’ve said more than once that you hadn’t done anything to them, they just randomly started working. The lights in the other bedrooms didn’t come on until the exact moment I didn’t want you to sleep anywhere else. It forced us to spend time together because there was only one room to be in, and it didn’t give us the electricity back until we actually wanted to spend time together.’
‘There are plenty of logical explanations though. A loose connection that got wiggled back into place. Dodgy wiring. Wiring so old that it’s surely gained sentience by now and developed some kind of fault-fixing ability…’
‘I know it’s a stretch,’ I say. ‘And I don’t believe in magical bloody walls and happily ever afters, but some of the things that have happened since we came here are quite… coincidental.’
‘It could be just that – coincidence.’
‘I know. I’m sure it is. Me and you are just as cynical as each other, but Eulalie believed it. Maybe that’s enough.’
He sighs and clunks his head back again. ‘You have to stay, Wend. And it’s nothing to do with whatever’s in that letter. You have to stay because no matter how much of that is a batty old lady’s overly romantic mind, you loved that batty old lady and I would’ve loved to have known her, and whether this was a set-up or a twist of fate, we owe it to her to fight for the château, and I can’t do this without you, and—’
I kiss him. I kiss him like I’ve wanted to kiss him so badly for so long. His arms are around me, we’re practically on top of each other on the greeny-blue carpeted floor, his stubble scrapes in the most perfect way and my hand slides into his hair, pulling out his ponytail and scrunching my hand through it, holding him to me.
I forget we’re on the floor of the solicitor’s office until he clears his throat and we dive apart like teenagers caught necking behind the school cafeteria by the headmaster.
The man is blushing and snickering like a teenage boy reading his first dirty magazine as he goes back to sit behind his desk, and Jules scrambles to his feet and holds his hands out to help me up.
‘May I assume it’s safe to give you the letter, Miss Clayton?’
‘I have a feeling that if I tried to leave, the car would break down to stop me.’
‘In all fairness, if it was my car, it would be nothing to do with trying to leave,’ Jules adds, a childish grin on his face that makes him look young and carefree, a rare sight that I silently swear to myself I’ll see more of. He’s too young to look as old as he does sometimes. Until he starts jumping in pud
dles, anyway.
When the notaire hands me the envelope, I should probably take more care about opening Eulalie’s last words than I actually do.
The treasure is in the château’s most valuable asset.
PS: give my love to Julian. I think I would’ve liked him.
I burst into tears. She knew. I will never know why she didn’t tell me she had a great-nephew, how she found out or why she made no attempt to contact him. I can only guess, but I do know she wanted him here. I know she would’ve liked him and I don’t need a letter from beyond the grave to tell me that.
I hand it to Jules and slide my fingers in between his as he reads it, fighting the urge to hug him and wipe away the tears that form in his eyes too.
Jules swallows hard and hands the letter back to me. ‘Put in the application for a five-year extension,’ he says to the notaire. ‘We’ll pay it or we’ll die trying. It’s worth it.’
Chapter Thirty-One
‘Most valuable asset?’ I say to Jules as we drive back in his car. It’s cold enough that the roof should be up, and I find myself wondering how he doesn’t constantly get ill driving this thing in the winter. He must freeze.
He shakes his head. ‘Value is relative. I mean, the most valuable asset could be anything. Does she mean monetary value? Sentimental value? Personal value? You’d probably say its most valuable asset was the kitchen, I’d say the gardens, from what you’ve told me of Eulalie, she’d have said the library… Those paintings on the walls were done by her husband so they must be high in sentimental value, same with the photos… Or does she literally mean most valuable thing in there? Because some of those chandeliers look pretty expensive. It’s like the riddle never ends.’
I chew on the skin at the side of my thumbnail. ‘Eulalie was never one to put importance on money. She cared about people, not cash. There’s nothing in the château that’s particularly valuable. Extravagant and lavish maybe, but every little thing would’ve been bought because she liked it, not because it was worth anything.’
‘You’re the one who knew her, not me.’
He sighs, his loose hair flapping around in the breeze, and I reach over and tuck it back behind his ear and let my thumb trail down his sexy earlobe.
‘Mmm.’ He makes a noise between a grunt and a gurgle. ‘You probably shouldn’t do that when I’m driving.’
I giggle but I can’t help the feeling that we’re missing something obvious. ‘There’s no way that most valuable asset means the most expensive thing in the château. Eulalie didn’t care about material things. If she liked something, it didn’t matter if it came from a poundshop or the most expensive place in Britain.’
‘We could go round in this circle all day. Maybe we just have to trust that it’ll come to us when we least expect it. There must be a reason that final letter doesn’t say “it’s under the fourth book along on the third shelf of the library”. She didn’t want to tell us, she wanted us to know the château well enough to figure it out.’
‘Maybe in five years’ time, we’ll guess it.’
‘Well, now we’ve committed to the château, maybe we’ll get home and find a treasure chest on the doorstep. It does tend to give us things when we need them.’
‘Like the first riddle said it would,’ I say, only half joking.
I look over at him and he smiles back, and I feel a flush of love and happiness, his smile lighting up even the heaviest parts of me, but dread soon creeps back in.
‘Oh God, Jules, how am I going to manage without a job?’
‘Firstly, Kat’s already begged you for help doing the stall on a more permanent basis, and—’
‘That’s one, maybe two days a week, and only if she can keep her stall. It’s not going to earn enough to live on, particularly with this inheritance tax looming over us. We have to make repayments every month.’
‘Don’t worry about it,’ he says. ‘I firmly believe the château is set up to be self-sufficient.’
‘Is it going to pay us to live there? Is it going to go online and order boxes of PG Tips to be imported with its own credit card?’
He laughs. ‘No, but we’ll manage. I’ll sell my house in Glasgow. It’s not worth much but it’ll be a buffer to live on for a while. You and Kat work well together. I know she doesn’t want to lose you because she told Theo and he told me. What he actually said was she doesn’t want to lose your geese, but I think he just got a bit muddled.’
‘He does seem to have a thing for getting muddled with poultry.’ I feel myself smiling again and have to stop. ‘I haven’t even given my landlord notice to quit. And how am I going to phone my boss in the morning and tell him I’m just not coming back, ever?’
He’s quiet for a moment. ‘One step at a time. Just like you’ve dealt with cleaning each room in the château.’
‘Why are you so calm about all of this?’
He glances over at me and smiles. ‘Because, for the first time in my life, I feel like I’m doing what I’m supposed to be doing.’
‘Yeah,’ I admit, trying to absorb some of his calmness. ‘I know that feeling.’
‘And I just think that anything we have to do, uncomfortable phone calls, taking risks, getting bitten by snakes and swallowing a mouthful of twenty-year-old drainwater trying to clear the pipes… it’s worth it.’
‘You swallowed twenty-year-old drainwater?’
He laughs. ‘Don’t remind me. Nearly choked to death.’
I can’t stop myself smiling. If Jules can get bitten by a snake and clear out blocked drainpipes, I’m sure I can get through an awkward phone call to my landlord and telling my boss where to shove it. I let his conviction settle over me and calm the screaming in my head. People like me don’t take risks like this, and maybe that’s exactly where my life has been going wrong up until now. I’ve been so convinced that the only person I can trust is myself, it’s stopped me doing anything that involves challenging that, and it nearly ruined everything with Jules. And I do trust him, and I definitely trust Eulalie. She wanted me here and she wanted him here. Maybe there’s a reason for that.
It feels like home as we pull into the driveway. Jules deliberately drives slowly down the airport runway in our front garden, taking it all in, the greenery and the first hints of the leaves turning brown on some of the trees, the ramshackle outbuildings that can be done up, the acres of land stretched out before us, land we can use to support ourselves.
‘A happily ever after,’ I say suddenly. ‘That’s what Eulalie would’ve said was its greatest asset. She called it that for a reason.’
‘Maybe, but I can’t see how a happily ever after can be a tangible thing that will make tax payments, can you?’
I sigh in frustration. Eulalie didn’t like to make things simple.
The September sun glints on the five rows of windows as we pull into the courtyard, making it look like the château is winking at us. ‘No treasure chest on the doorstep then.’
‘I’d be disappointed if there was.’ He turns off the engine and gets out, walking round to the front of the car and sitting against the bonnet. He pats the space beside him and I go and sit there too, tucking my head into Jules’s shoulder when he drops an arm around me and pulls me into his side.
Neither of us speaks. We don’t need to. Just sitting there with his arm around me, looking up at the place that will be our home for at least the next few years, with the sun warming our backs… it’s enough.
He kisses my forehead and rests his head there and I breathe him in, letting a hand wander up and tangle in his hair, holding him close.
‘What if we lose it in five years?’ I whisper.
‘Then we’ll have had five years here that we wouldn’t otherwise have had.’
‘What if the roof falls off next time it rains?’
‘Then we’ll fix it.’ He glances back at the car. ‘I’m adept at dealing with roofless things.’
I can’t help smiling.
>
‘Want to know a secret?’ He moves, bending down so his mouth is next to my ear, until he can pull my hair aside and whisper. ‘You were the best thing about this place.’
‘Jules…’
‘No, hear me out.’ He moves again, resting his chin on my head and tucking my face back into his neck. He squeezes me tighter and I wrap both arms around him. I wish I knew how Eulalie knew he’d be my perfect match.
‘When I’m with you, I don’t care what I look like, I don’t care if my car is a disaster, it doesn’t matter that my father’s an old drunk who’s slowly killing himself, it’s okay that there are still photos of me up on the walls in gyms. Nothing in the past matters now. Only us, here and now.’ He kisses my forehead. ‘So please stop worrying, because I don’t believe Eulalie sent us out here to fail, and if we do lose the place in five years’ time, then it’s just a place. We won’t have lost the most important part.’
He squeezes me again and I can’t remember how I ever hated him. If I smiled any wider, I think my face would split in two.
He turns my face to him and brushes his fingers through my hair, pushing it over my shoulders. He lowers his lips to mine in slow motion and I’m not sure if time is really moving that slowly or if it just feels like it is. I feel a spark when our mouths touch. I’ve never felt a spark before, and I let myself get swept away in him, the first proper kiss, the way I’ve wanted to kiss him for much longer than I should have. His smell all around me, his strong arms encasing me, holding me steady, his mouth soft and hard at the same time, chasing away my doubts. Trusting Jules will never be a mistake. Trusting Eulalie will never be a mistake either. I lose myself in his kiss, both my hands wrapped in his hair, letting him push away everything that came before. This is a new start for both of us.
And he’s the best kisser ever.
He suddenly pulls back with a jolt. ‘Its most valuable asset is its name!’
The Chateau of Happily-Ever-Afters Page 30