Maddy heard someone talking softly nearby. She opened her eyes and noticed the outline of a tall man bending over Bridget. The little dog seemed to like him, wagging her tail and licking his hand. Maddy smiled. Bridget could charm an army. The man moved closer to the pool, and she saw he had dark curly hair and a beard. He looked at her and smiled. She met his gaze and froze. Those eyes. It couldn’t be. Time suddenly stood still. She felt herself sink, water filling her nose and mouth before everything went black.
* * *
‘She’s coming to,’ a voice said.
Maddy coughed. She opened her eyes and discovered Leanne, her face white, holding her hand. Bridget whined and licked her face. Maddy took a rasping breath and pushed the dog off her. She felt sick, her head spun and her chest hurt. She blinked and tried to sit up, but that made the nausea worse, and she threw up over the tiles at the side of the pool.
‘Shit,’ she mumbled. ‘Sorry about that.’
Leanne mopped her face with a towel. ‘That’s good. You got all the water out.’
Maddy lay back against the folded towel someone had put under her head. ‘I’m cold,’ she mumbled and tried to get up. ‘I have to get dressed. What the hell happened? Did I drown in a pool? How stupid.’
‘I don’t know what happened,’ Leanne said. ‘I was on my way to have a swim, when I saw this guy lifting you out.’
Maddy stared at her. ‘What guy?’ Then it all came back. That face… those eyes. ‘It’s him,’ she said. She looked wildly around. ‘Where is he? Did I dream it?’
‘I’m here,’ a voice said.
And there he was. She hadn’t dreamt it. Rigid with shock, she stared at him, and suddenly everything receded: Leanne, Bridget, the cooing doves and the sound of the cicadas disappeared in a distant haze. All she saw was… Ludo.
‘C’est toi,’ she whispered. ‘Is it really you?’
‘It’s me,’ he said in English. He crouched beside her and put his arm around her wet shoulders. He looked at her face in silence for a moment. ‘But who are you? You look familiar, but I don’t seem to remember – have we met before?’
Maddy felt her heart constrict as if squeezed by a cold hand. She had looked forward to this moment for so long. She had expected shock, surprise, even joy. But not this. ‘What?’ she croaked. ‘You don’t… remember me?’ She tried to focus on his face, but it was too dark. ‘I’m Maddy. Madeleine,’ she whispered, her lips so stiff she was barely able to get the words out. ‘The Irish girl you met in Paris when we were both students.’
‘Madeleine?’ He frowned, then his face lit up. ‘Ah, oui. I remember now. La petite Irlandaise. Long time since we saw each other.’
‘More than twenty years.’ Maddy struggled to stand. ‘I have to get dressed. Can you wait? We have to talk. Please don’t disappear. Please don’t be a dream or some kind of hallucination.’
He laughed. ‘No, I won’t. I can’t. I run this little hotel. I’m the owner and manager and the chef, too.’
She stared at him. He hadn’t changed much except for the beard and the expression in his eyes – a look of pain and disillusionment. Life had clearly hit him hard at some stage. ‘You speak perfect English now. In the old days, you didn’t.’
He helped her up. ‘Much has happened in the past twenty years. We have a lot of catching up to do.’
‘We do.’
‘Go and get warm. Have a hot shower.’ Ludo put a towel around Maddy’s shoulders. ‘I’ll see you here beside the pool in a little while. I have half an hour before we serve dinner.’
‘Okay.’ Maddy walked away, her legs trembling, turning to look at him before she rounded the corner – to make sure he was still there, waiting for her.
* * *
‘Oh my God,’ Leanne whispered. ‘That man. Gorgeous. Old. But so hot!’ She was lounging on Maddy’s bed watching her get dressed. ‘What are you wearing?’
Maddy turned from the mirror. ‘What does one wear for a reunion with a man you haven’t seen for twenty years? A man you’ve never been able to forget?’ She twanged her bra strap. ‘A Victoria’s Secret underwear set? Maybe this time he’ll remember me.’
‘I can’t believe he didn’t remember you,’ Leanne said incredulously.
‘It’s true. He didn’t,’ Maddy replied in a small voice. She stopped and stared blankly into the mirror. ‘I can’t get over that. He had forgotten all about me and the weeks we spent together.’
‘Maybe he lied?’ Leanne suggested. ‘Maybe he was so shocked he couldn’t admit he knew you?’
Maddy shook her head. ‘No. I think he told the truth.’ She felt a dart of anger. ‘But we’re here now, so I’ll jiggle his memory with the new me. What do you think?’
Leanne laughed raucously. ‘Yeah, why not? You still have a great figure, except for a little wobble here and there…’
‘Thanks for the vote of confidence.’
‘I was teasing you!’
‘I know.’ Maddy shivered. ‘I’m still cold. Or maybe it’s nerves. Could you give me a bit of space here? I’m trying to—’ She stopped. ‘Haven’t a clue what I’m trying to do. I can’t stop shaking. Can’t believe it’s happening.’ She rummaged in her suitcase and pulled out the summer dress she bought in the outlet store what seemed like several years earlier. ‘What about this?’
‘Very pretty.’
‘No.’ Maddy shoved the dress back in the case and shook out her white trousers. ‘I’ll just wear these and a navy T-shirt. I don’t want to look like I’m trying too hard, do I?’
‘I suppose not.’ Leanne got up and scooped Bridget into her arms. ‘I’ll mind the baby in my room. I want to change, too. See you on the dining terrace in half an hour. Can’t wait for the low-down on the reunion.’
Maddy looked at her pale face in the mirror after Leanne had left. ‘This is it,’ she said. ‘This is what I have been chasing all these years. The searching is over. I’ll hear the truth at last.’
* * *
Sitting on a sun lounger by the pool, Ludo was staring out at the view when Maddy approached. He didn’t hear her soft step on the tiles and she could look at him surreptitiously for a brief moment. There he was, waiting for her. Not the same Ludo she remembered, but maybe a part of that young man she had loved still remained? He looked the same from the distance of a few feet. Thinner perhaps, a little more hardened by life and whatever he had been through, but his general demeanour was the same. The dark, closely trimmed beard suited him. It gave him a bohemian air, like a hero from an old novel. She stopped for a moment to steady her nerves. Was this really happening? Or was it some kind of surreal dream?
He turned and their eyes met. ‘Madeleine.’ He rose and held out his hand. ‘Come, let’s sit on the bench over there and watch the lights come on in the valley.’
‘It’s so beautiful here,’ she said. His hand was warm and strong and the physical contact comforting.
They walked together to a bench at the edge of the terrace, where the view of the valley and the Luberon hills was even more spectacular, especially in the early evening light, when everything seemed wrapped in a soft blue glow and the sun had set but still coloured the few clouds a deep pink. Below them was the outline of the valley and the lights coming on in the houses and along the streets of the little villages. The scent of lavender was even stronger there, making Maddy take deep calming breaths. A single lantern over the bench cast a gentle glow over them.
They sat down. Ludo didn’t let go of her hand. ‘So we meet again,’ he said.
‘It seems like a dream. I’ve tried for so long to find you.’ She laughed softly. ‘You’ve hidden yourself well. I could find just about anyone by Googling or doing a Facebook search. But not you.’
‘I’ve been in places that don’t encourage an Internet profile. To put it mildly. I’ve been away for a long time, Maddy.’ His flawless English puzzled her, contrasting so much with the Ludo she remembered.
‘How come your English is so good these days?’ sh
e couldn’t help asking.
‘I spent a few years in England, Then America. That’s where the accident happened. A car crash that left me horribly injured and killed the girl I was with. After that, I shut myself away from the world. I’ve been on a hard journey most of my adult life. I only emerged a few months ago. It took a long time to heal the wounds.’
She stared at him, her heart aching at his story. ‘Wounds? You must tell me what you’ve been through.’
He squeezed her hand. ‘Yes. But first, I have to apologise for not recognising you. Now that I think about it, I remember the time with you as a very sweet interlude back then. That night in the château especially. It was beautiful, no?’
‘Yes,’ she whispered, tears welling up. He didn’t remember their promise to each other or that he had sworn he would follow her to Dublin. She had just been ‘a sweet interlude’ to be forgotten the next day. ‘I gave you my number. You were supposed to call me. I waited and waited. Then I tried to call the number you gave me, but it didn’t work.’
‘No, it had changed. My uncle became ill and leased the place to—’
‘I know that now.’ She pulled her hand out of his grip, not because she didn’t want his touch but because it distracted her. What a fool she had been to pine for him all this time. ‘What happened?’ she asked. ‘Why didn’t you get in touch?’
He shrugged. ‘I did call. But all I got was a voice telling me the number didn’t exist. Your handwriting on that piece of paper was difficult to make out. I tried a few times and then I gave up. In any case, I thought you might have forgotten all about me by then.’
‘I didn’t forget, Ludo.’
‘That’s sweet.’
‘But why did you?’ Maddy asked in a bare whisper. ‘What happened? Did you meet someone else?’
He shrugged. ‘No. Yes. I don’t really remember. My student days were full of parties and girls.’
‘So, I was only one of many?’ Maddy asked, bitterness washing over her. So that was it. He had been with so many girls he couldn’t remember them all, least of all a little mouse from Dublin.
‘I’m sure I thought you were very special. But I was young and not ready to settle down. Maybe, if we had met again a year or two later, things would have been different. It was the wrong time, I think.’
‘Possibly,’ Maddy said. ‘My life changed very quickly after I returned from Paris. I was told my mother had been diagnosed with cancer.’
‘How terrible for you.’
‘It was an awful shock.’ Tears welled up as she remembered that heart-breaking time.
‘I did go to Dublin the following year,’ he continued. ‘In November. I was with a couple of friends for a pub-crawl weekend. I thought of looking you up, but…’ He shrugged. ‘You had probably moved anyway.’
Maddy put her hand to her hot cheek. She couldn’t believe he had been in Ireland, and she hadn’t known. ‘Oh, God. Yes, we did. My mother died, you see. And I was living in student quarters in Dublin. My dad moved closer to his office and got a little house on the north side. He still lives there.’
Ludo’s eyes were full of compassion. ‘I see. I’m so sorry about your mother. That must have been a terrible blow.’
‘Yes.’ Maddy looked out over the dark valley. ‘It’s still so hard. That kind of grief never leaves you.’
‘No.’
He touched her hair, and as he moved, she was aware of his scent that had once been so familiar. ‘Life is strange,’ he declared. ‘Little things can send you on a different path to the one you thought you’d follow. I was so sure I knew exactly where I was going and then –something happened that catapulted me into a kind of hell I’ve just managed to get out of.’
Maddy was startled by the pain in his voice. ‘Do you want to tell me about it?’
‘There’s not enough time this evening. Maybe later. But in a nutshell, it was about addiction. I started taking painkillers after the accident, which led to more drugs, and then I fell into a downward spiral. I couldn’t stop. But I eventually got help and slowly managed to get clean. But an addict is always an addict, even if you never touch the stuff again. I’m a different person to that young man you met twenty years ago, Maddy.’ He turned to look at her with his sad brown eyes. ‘But what about your life? Has it been – good?’
Maddy sighed. ‘Some of it, yes. But not all of it.’ She met his eyes. ‘A small part of me has always loved you, Ludo. But I had to push it aside. Other people came into my life. My husband, my children. But now my kids have grown up and my husband, well, that’s another story.’
‘Of course.’ He looked at her for a long time. ‘How strange that you remember me so well, and for me, you’re just a hazy image of a pretty young girl. I’m sorry. This must be hard for you.’
Maddy blinked away tears and tried to swallow the lump in her throat. How could she explain how she had carried the memory of their brief romance in her heart all these years? ‘I can’t pretend I’m not disappointed,’ she said, trying to keep the emotion out of her voice. She dug in the pocket of her trousers. ‘I have something here, in my wallet, you might like to see.’ She pulled the photo from behind the flap in the wallet and handed it to him.
He looked at the picture of the two of them in the photo booth and laughed. ‘I had the same photo. Mine is the one where we kissed. I’m ashamed to say I couldn’t remember who you were. A girl I kissed once, who was very sweet to me, that’s all.’
‘One of many,’ she replied, her voice cold, feeling a sudden dislike for what he really was – a flirt – one of those typical Frenchmen Leanne had described. She had been so sure he wasn’t one of them.
He shrugged and laughed. ‘Yes. I suppose. I didn’t take love seriously then.’
‘But now you do?’
His gaze drifted to her mouth. He touched it lightly with the tips of his fingers. ‘Ma Madeleine,’ he mumbled. Maddy pulled back but he kissed her lightly on the mouth.
His lips were soft but the kiss left her confused. She had waited for this since the day they parted over twenty years ago. It felt so sweet. But did he mean anything by it? It was hard to tell.
‘So much to say, so many things to discuss, to find out.’ He got up. ‘But I have to go and cook dinner. We have only eight tables, but they’re always full. Are you dining here tonight?’
‘Yes, but if you prefer…’
‘No, it’s okay. I want to cook for you. Maybe I can make up for my bad memory.’
‘You don’t have to. Not your fault I’m so forgettable.’
He looked at her and smiled. ‘That’s not true. I was stupid and arrogant then. You will find I have changed, hopefully for the better. We have a lot of things to talk about. But maybe not tonight? You had a long drive and it might be late when I finish.’
‘Tomorrow morning?’ Maddy asked.
‘We do yoga here at seven. Maybe you’d like to join us?’
‘I’ll be here.’
‘Perfect.’ He kissed her on both cheeks. ‘A demain.’ His step was light as he walked away. She stayed on the bench for a while, looking out over the dark valley and the stars glinting in the velvet sky. This was it. The end of the long journey that had started ever since they said goodbye all those years ago. They would meet again; he had promised her then. She had believed him, never guessing for a moment he hadn’t meant it or that it would take so long to find out.
Chapter Twenty-Four
‘How did it go?’ Leanne whispered, peeping at Maddy over the menu.
‘Fine,’ Maddy mumbled, pretending to scan the array of dishes on offer.
‘Come on, tell me.’
Maddy lifted her gaze and looked at Leanne. ‘Please. Not right now. I’m a little overwhelmed by all this. Could we just enjoy dinner?’
‘How could I? I’ve been on the edge of my seat since you left to talk to your long-lost lover.’
‘Keep your voice down.’ Maddy looked around the terrace, where the guests chatted softly to each other
in the dim light from the candles and lanterns. ‘Strange,’ she continued. ‘There are very few couples. Most of the people here seem to be single or in groups.’
‘That’s because this is not really a hotel,’ Leanne replied. ‘It’s some kind of healing and yoga centre for people recovering from stress and mental disorders.’
Maddy stared at Leanne. ‘How do you know?’
‘Dad told me. He managed to find your man—’
‘You mean Ludo?’
Leanne nodded. ‘Yeah. But he calls himself Max now.’
Maddy blinked. ‘Max?’
‘Max Ludovic.’
‘Your dad found this out?’
‘He wanted to help. You’d given him a lot of clues, he said,’ Leanne announced. ‘So Dad started to look around the Internet but found nothing. He knows Gordes quite well, so he called some people he knew in the area, and they said this was the place. It appears this Max guy – or Ludo – spent a long time in the abbey down there in the valley. And then, a couple of years ago, he left and bought this villa with money he inherited from his uncle. He and his partner – a woman called Céline – opened the hotel and restaurant only last year. It’s brand new but going like a bomb. Celebrities queue up to stay here after rehab because it’s so simple and relatively unknown. They had’ – Leanne looked around and lowered her voice – ‘Kate whatshername here only last week.’
‘Amazing. I had no idea.’ Maddy tried to take it all in: Ludo being in this horrific accident, suffering from addiction and spending years at a monastery. Then opening a secluded spa hotel for the rich and famous recovering from addictions and nervous breakdowns. And all this time she had been bringing up two children and teaching French to teenage girls in a Dublin suburb. ‘What a great bloodhound your dad is.’
Leanne beamed. ‘Isn’t he?’
‘It wasn’t a compliment,’ Maddy said, anger rising in her chest. ‘He seems to like poking into other people’s business. Is that what he does for fun?’
The Road Trip_A feel-good romantic comedy that will make you laugh out loud! Page 17