A French Affair

by Jennifer Bohnet

  ‘It’s complicated and not that easy to sell up,’ Fern said. ‘This place has been in the LeRoy family forever. When Laurent and I married, I sold my house in the UK and we used the capital to do up this place. We were in our forever home, where we were going to grow old together. And that’s the problem now. Under French inheritance laws, as Laurent’s widow, I can live here until I die, but in reality it is Fabian’s inheritance. It’s an arrangement which gives me a home but no access to capital. Or the ability to move,’ she added quietly. ‘Without an income, I can’t afford to even rent somewhere.’

  ‘Can Fabian buy you out? Or agree to sell it? Does he want to live here? Run the auberge?’

  ‘I think Fabian and his family will eventually live here. Whether they will run the place as an auberge, I don’t know. Fabian doesn’t have any money and couldn’t afford a mortgage large enough to pay me back. There have been a few hints about me closing the auberge and letting them move in with me.’ Fern shook her head. ‘As fond as I am of Fabian and his wife, that arrangement would be a disaster. Selling the place is out of the question, the extended family would be horrified at the thought. It’s such a large part of their heritage.’

  ‘Difficult,’ Belinda said. ‘I hadn’t realised French inheritance laws were so complex. Would you like to return to the UK?’

  Fern shrugged. ‘To be honest, I don’t know any more what I do want. I do know things have to change though. Bumping into Scott today has made me think a bit more about the future. Oh.’ She looked at Belinda. ‘I’ve realised who he reminded me of – Richard Gere.’

  ‘Shame you ran away from him then.’ Belinda smiled. ‘Dinner with a Richard Gere lookalike could have been your first step into a new life.’

  10

  The next week at the campsite sped past as Belinda got to grips with a mountain of things. One of the first things she did, unbeknown to Alain, was to save everything on the office computer to a memory stick and download it onto her laptop. That way, there were no arguments when Alain wanted to work on the computer. It also had the added benefit too that she could work from the comfort of her own room at the auberge of an evening before wandering downstairs to enjoy a nightcap with Fern.

  The amount of work that needed organising threatened to overwhelm her a few times, there was so much. Her to-do list was endless: organise five or six local women to clean the cabins, the café and the manager’s house; a team of men to pressure-wash the shower and toilet blocks before painting. Alain took over the job of organising the outdoor teams of workers, leaving Belinda to deal with the teams working inside. In addition, there was the website to bring up to date, pods for the glamping area to source, lots of new equipment to order, not to mention finding staff for the season.

  A routine established itself over the course of that week and the days continued to fly by. Every morning, she left the auberge just before eight o’clock, stopped in the village for a couple of croissants and a salad baguette for her lunch. Fern had lent her a cafetière and she’d stocked up on ground coffee from the village shop, instant coffee being one of her personal bêtes noires. By the time Alain strolled in at about ten past eight the coffee was ready. Over a quick coffee and croissant, they caught each other up on how things were progressing and what their individual plans were for the day. At midday Alain disappeared for lunch, leaving Belinda to eat her baguette and deal with her emails. The afternoons followed a similar pattern with them both concentrating on their allotted tasks. Belinda shut down her laptop around four thirty most days, said goodbye to Alain and made her way back to the auberge.

  Although there was so much to do, the campsite was definitely beginning to respond to all of the noisy cutting down, pruning back and mowing work that had happened over the last few days.

  One lunchtime after everyone including Alain had disappeared for an hour or two, Belinda decided to eat outside in the sunshine. The only noise she heard as she made her way along the path towards the river was the tweeting of various birds. Belinda recognised the call of a blackbird, pigeons cooing away in the tall pines and a chaffinch singing perched amongst the burgeoning branches of an oak tree before hearing a noise that stopped her in her tracks. The whrrr-tapping sound of a nearby woodpecker. A sound she hadn’t heard in years. A sound that took her right back to her childhood home, where it had been a noise that was taken for granted in the background of life.

  A picture of the old stone mas that had been home for so long floated, unbidden, into her mind as she walked. A simple two-storey building, it hadn’t been a prestigious place, shambolic described it better. A shelter built long ago by a Breton farmer to house various animals and his family. Down the years, it had been enlarged and converted in a haphazard manner, the cows moved into a separate shelter and their previous accommodation had become the kitchen of the house. Belinda smiled, remembering how her father had done the final conversion and turned the old milking parlour at the back of the house into her bedroom. She’d loved that room, with its view out over the countryside and the field shelter for Lucky.

  Lucky. That had been the hardest part of that awful day when her life had fallen apart. Knowing she was leaving the pony. Inconsolable, she’d cried for hours until her mother snapped at her. ‘For God’s sake, Belinda, shut up. I feel like crying too, but it won’t solve anything. Lucky will go to a good home. Your dad will make sure of that.’

  Belinda did stop crying eventually, but only because she didn’t have any tears left to spill. Years later, she’d realised her difficult relationship with her mother had started its downward spiral that day with her lack of empathy over leaving Lucky. It was a breach of the mother–daughter bond that had never completely healed. Jean’s refusal to allow Belinda to even mention, let alone contact, her father ensured the fracture remained. Belinda was convinced her mother’s barely audible last words, ‘I’m so sorry’ and the deathbed promise to ‘Go and lay the ghosts’ she’d been coerced into making had been her mother’s final plea for forgiveness.

  Belinda came out of her reverie with a start as BB gave a short sharp bark before racing off, heading for the cabin where Bernie lived. She hadn’t had a chance to question Alain about Bernie, they’d both been so busy. Perhaps this was her chance to get to know him. As she hurried to catch BB up, she saw a man weeding the small patch of garden that surrounded the cabin. The ginger cat was curled up fast asleep in the basket of the bicycle that was propped once again against the fence.

  ‘Bonjour,’ she said when she reached the man and held out her hand. ‘I’m Belinda Marshall. I was hoping to see Bernie.’

  The man patted BB before he straightened up and shook her hand.

  ‘Demat. Bernie.’ He prodded his chest with a finger.

  The two words caught Belinda by surprise. Not so much the word demat, which was the Breton word for hello and one of the few words she remembered in her very limited Breton vocabulary. The real surprise was the man himself. For some reason, she’d been expecting Bernie to be in his teens or early twenties maybe. This man had to be in his late thirties or even possibly early forties.

  ‘You’re Bernie?’ she said, looking at him. ‘Do you speak French or English?’

  He smiled and shook his head before saying something rapidly in Breton.

  Belinda frantically tried to remember the few words of Breton her grandmother had taught her so long ago. She knew a lot of the older generation still railed against the use of French and tried to stop what they regarded as their true language from dying out. She suspected Bernie had been force-fed the old language from an early age.

  She smiled at him and raised her hands in defeat. ‘Desolé.’ A conversation was obviously not an option. Not knowing what else to do or say, she waved her right hand in farewell before saying, ‘Bye-bye, à demain,’ trusting that he would know and understand the phrase, and calling BB to heel, Belinda walked on down the path.

  Five minutes later, sitting on the bench overlooking the river, she took a bite of her baguet
te and thought about Bernie. When Alain had told her Bernie’s father had thrown him out, she’d immediately thought of a troublesome teenager, not a full-grown man. Bernie gave her the impression of being a gentle soul who liked a simple life. The fact he only understood Breton though must be a problem for him. Not many people these days spoke the old language, so meeting people and making friends must be difficult. And what was she going to do about him living in the cabin? Having met the man, she felt sorry for him and disinclined to move him on, although that would be the sensible course of action. If he remained, would it upset people? What would holidaymakers think of him when he didn’t reply to them? She’d talk to Alain again about Bernie before she spoke to Nigel to explain the situation and ask what he wanted her to do.

  Belinda watched as a trio of ducks performed a fly-past before settling on the river. She sighed. It really was a beautiful spot. There was even a small sandy beach further along. It was easy to imagine families enjoying holidays on the campsite when it was fully operational again. If it wasn’t for the fact that it was in Brittany, she might even be tempted herself.

  Pulling a small piece of ham out of the baguette, she gave it to BB before finishing the rest and getting to her feet. ‘Cup of coffee back at the office for me, water for you, and then it’s work again.’

  There was no sign of Bernie as they walked back past the cabin and the bike had gone too.

  Once she’d made her coffee, Belinda sat down and emailed Nigel and Molly with an update of the progress so far and querying the delivery for the new equipment Nigel was sending over from England. She also asked whether a decision had been made about running or leasing out the café. There was a lot of work to be done to get it up to the necessary hygiene requirements, but some of the expense of buying new catering equipment could be passed on to a tenant if they leased it out.

  Around mid-afternoon she went across to the manager’s house to see how the team she’d organised to clean it were getting on. They’d started on the bedrooms and the bathroom that morning and everything upstairs was sparkling. Now they were working their magic downstairs. The sitting room and the small sunroom looked far more inviting than when she’d first seen it. In the kitchen, the loose covers from the small settee were whirling around in the washing machine, whilst the vigorous use of steel wool on the oven was getting rid of seasons of grease.

  Thanking everyone for their hard work, Belinda returned to the office, deep in thought. A few more days and she’d be able to leave the auberge and move into the house. Leaving Fern and the auberge would be a real wrench though. The two of them had become firm friends and Belinda worried about leaving her alone. The campsite house would be basic accommodation, nowhere near as comfortable as the auberge, but living on site had always been the intention. At least there was a usable bathroom and the kitchen was adequate for her needs. Belinda sighed. She’d talk to Fern tonight about moving out and also insist that they went out for lunch one Sunday, her treat. Maybe they could meet up at least once a week while she was in France.

  Alain was in the office when she pushed open the door, staring intently at the computer and muttering under his breath. Belinda hesitated, before moving to his side. Relations between them had been less strained recently but she was still wary of upsetting him and opening herself up to more rude comments.

  ‘Problem?’ she asked.

  ‘For me, not you,’ Alain answered, closing the email programme he had open on the screen. ‘I ’ave to deal with something this weekend in the UK. I’ll see you Monday morning peut-être.’ He picked up his jacket from the chair, looked at her, went to say something, changed his mind and walked out.

  Belinda stared after him. What the hell? He couldn’t just walk away with no explanation, even if it was a personal matter. Maybe she could have helped, if only he’d told her. Belinda took a deep breath. Over the past week or two she’d realised that Alain Salvin didn’t confide in people or ask for help. But it was that ‘perhaps’ at the end of his last sentence that stayed in her mind and worried her.

  Back at the auberge that evening while they ate dinner, Belinda told Fern she’d be moving out – probably at the end of the next week.

  ‘The cleaners have worked really hard on the manager’s house and I always intended to live on site as soon as possible. Just waiting for the bedding and other stuff from Nigel to arrive.’

  Fern’s face fell. ‘I’m going to miss you.’

  ‘Not half as much as I’m going to miss you and your delicious food,’ Belinda said. ‘I’m only up the road, a nice afternoon walk for Lady. Once I’m settled in, I’ll make you cheese on toast one evening.’ She finished the last mouthful of rich chocolate mousse that Fern had made and replaced her spoon. ‘That was delicious.’ She glanced at Fern, who was still looking downcast. ‘Cheer up. The tourists will be arriving soon and you’ll be buzzing. I’ve got Sunday off and thought we could go out for lunch? My treat. You’ll know the best place to go. Book a table and we’ll be ladies who lunch, okay?’ Belinda smiled when Fern nodded her agreement. If only there was something tangible she could do to help ease the lingering grief in her friend’s life.

  11

  Belinda and Fern loaded the two dogs into Fern’s car mid-morning on Sunday in preparation for a walk alongside the river that was close to the restaurant where Fern had booked a table. Fern had insisted on driving, saying it was easier as she knew the roads.

  ‘My car has got satnav, you know,’ Belinda teased her.

  It was when they’d been driving away from the village for ten minutes that a sense of déjà vu flooded Belinda’s body and she shivered with the intensity of it. She recognised the direction they were travelling in. A direction she’d deliberately avoided ever since she’d arrived. Why oh why hadn’t she asked Fern where they were going so that she could have mentally prepared herself for the journey. Although, even if she had known, she wouldn’t have anticipated the route.

  Fern was steering the car down quiet country roads. Roads Belinda had travelled many times in the past. Roads she’d never expected to drive along again. As the car tyres swished over roads still damp in places from an early-morning shower, unwanted memories were surfacing in her mind. Haphazard recollections: the school bus; Amelie, her best friend; a cottage; Lucky spooking at a tractor. Belinda squeezed her eyes to shut out the passing scenery in an effort to stop the memories coming, and wished the journey over. In that moment, it came to her in an intuitive flash what Fern was doing.

  ‘You’re avoiding the N164, aren’t you?’ Belinda said quietly, opening her eyes and glancing across at her friend.

  ‘Yep. Can’t drive on it. Always go the scenic route these days.’ Fern’s over-bright voice masked the grief that lay behind the decision.

  ‘Fair enough,’ Belinda said. She’d rather put up with a few of her own unwanted memories than have an unhappy Fern drive on the busy dual carriageway when she was still feeling so raw. Belinda knew only too well that while life itself could change in a heartbreaking instant, the collective tsunami of the events it triggered in that nanosecond of time lingered for years. Seemingly forever in some cases.

  The rest of the journey continued in silence as Belinda resolutely dismissed her memories and thought about the campsite while Fern concentrated on driving.

  Five minutes later, Fern parked alongside the river and Belinda smothered a sigh of relief as they got out of the car.

  ‘That’s the restaurant we’re having lunch in,’ Fern said, pointing to a complex on the other side of the river, approached by a bridge. ‘Come on, let’s walk the dogs and build up an appetite.’

  With both dogs on leads, happily showing them the way, the two of them strolled along. Other people were out and about, enjoying the spring-like morning and several polite ‘Bonjours’ were exchanged as they passed. Fishermen were setting up their rods and little encampments of seats, picnic boxes and fishing nets at various points along the river.

  ‘I wonder if fishermen used to co
me to the campsite? We have the fishing rights on the river for about a kilometre,’ Belinda said, watching as one man showed a small boy how to cast his line. ‘Do you think fishing holidays would prove popular?’

  ‘Years ago, Alain’s parents used to organise an annual fishing festival. Laurent went the last year it was held. About thirty men and their families turned up for the weekend.’

  ‘I must talk to Alain about it,’ Belinda said. They continued to walk in companionable silence until it was time to return to the car.

  Thirty minutes later, they were driving over the bridge and parking in the restaurant car park.

  ‘The dogs will be okay in the car?’ Belinda asked.

  ‘This place is dog-friendly. They’ll have a drink and then lay under our table. At least Lady will.’ Fern looked at Belinda.

  ‘BB will too,’ Belinda hastened to assure her, but crossed her fingers as she spoke. Lady was far better behaved than BB.

  ‘Mrs LeRoy and Lady, how lovely to see you both again and to meet your friends,’ the receptionist greeted them as they entered. They were shown straight to their table by a window overlooking the river and, thankfully, BB followed Lady’s lead and obediently lay down under the table.

  Belinda smothered a laugh as she looked around. ‘Nearly every table has a dog under it.’

  Fern smiled. ‘It’s good business. So many people walk the river path every day with their dog and stop off here for a coffee or lunch, they’d be silly to ban dogs. Besides, the French have never had a problem allowing dogs into their cafés and restaurants. I remember when I first came over, people used to put them in their supermarché trolley and push them around whilst they did their shopping. Brussels put a stop to that a few years back.’

  Belinda smiled, a memory of going shopping with her mum and seeing just that in the nearest supermarché to home coming to mind. At the time it hadn’t seemed strange, just a normal thing to do.