by Minna Howard
‘But understandable, so don’t beat yourself up about it, Flora. You both gave them a happy secure home life. That’s a great gift, and they’ll be back, you’ll see, perhaps put you both back in the nursery with grandchildren,’ Susie laughed. ‘One day I’ll be a great aunt, I suppose. I can’t see my sister doing the granny stuff.’
‘Me neither, but it will be fun seeing Alegria again,’ Flora said, wanting to move on from discussing her marriage. She hadn’t much liked Susie’s sister, Val, who put herself first in everything. ‘So, how is she?’
‘I haven’t seen Alegria for over a year and now she’s eighteen she’s technically an adult. But at least my sister pulled her finger out and got her a job in that Italian fashion house.’
‘Is she going to university in the autumn?’ Flora asked, remembering that Alegria always seemed to be having a difficult time at school.’
‘God, no, she’s only got GCSEs in Art and something else that’s not much use. Macramé? No something better than that. I can’t remember,’ she admitted with a laugh, ‘and no A levels, but if she starts at the bottom in some job, she’ll hopefully be earning when her friends leave university with huge debts.’ Susie smiled. ‘I’m glad she’s coming. She’s had a lousy childhood, poor little mouse. It will be great to see her again and to hear about her time working in Italy.’
10
Later in the evening everyone appeared on the lawn in the main garden for supper.
Didi and Tony had done everyone proud with a delicious fish cooked in herbs and wine with potatoes and salad and fresh strawberries and cream for pudding. The lights dotted around the garden and laced through the trees near the table came on throwing a soft glow over them as darkness fell.
As yet there had been no word from Alegria, but Susie, used to her niece’s spasmodic appearances in their life, seemed relaxed about it. ‘I think she was flying in from Rome. Her plane was probably delayed and it’s only just eight. I expect she’ll be here soon.’
Flora saw that Xavier was not there either. Perhaps he’d gone to collect his son and would be too late for supper. She scolded herself for being disappointed and a little miffed that he had not told her he wouldn’t be there.
To her relief, when they were in their room changing for supper, Hugo seemed slightly more cheerful after having spoken to their girls. ‘I’ve had a lovely chat with them,’ he said. ‘They’ve made some new friends and are settling in.’ He reached for his jacket.
‘Did they ring?’ she asked, wishing she’d been around to speak to them too.
‘No, I rang Ella, wanted to see how they were.’ He didn’t look at her, his voice slightly defiant, as if expecting her to tell him off for disturbing them.
‘But I thought…’ she tailed off. Better not to remind him that they’d said they would wait for the girls to call them first.
*
At supper Flora was sitting between Matt and Ben, Ben suddenly raised his glass, tapping the side of it with his spoon until there was silence. He said, ‘I vote we drink a toast to Flora, who bravely saved a kid’s life today.’
‘Nonsense,’ Flora laughed, rather embarrassed.
‘Well, you did. He was under water,’ Ben said. ‘He’s not a fish.’
Everyone laughed and drank to her, Hugo, who was sitting across the table to her, smiled and mouthed. ‘Well done, tell me about it later.’
Ben was a good companion. He asked her about herself and how she knew Susie and Matt. ‘I’ve known Matt since school days,’ he said. ‘We were best men at each other’s weddings, not that my marriage lasted,’ he grinned cheerfully, ‘but theirs is special, a meeting of two minds.’
‘I’m sorry about yours,’ she said. ‘How long were you married?’
‘Eight years, nothing dramatic. We just drifted apart. Josie wanted to go and live in Australia and I didn’t. She spent a lot of her childhood there. I think relationships have their own lifespan. Some lucky ones, like Susie and Matt’s, last for life, but Josie and I seemed to have more and more separate interests. We still keep in touch at Christmas. There were no ghastly rows.’ He shrugged. ‘We just wanted to go different ways.’
‘Did you have children?’ she asked him.
‘No, neither of us wanted them straight away. We might have done if we’d stayed together. I’ve nothing against them,’ Ben said quickly, ‘but our careers took off. We worked hard and then drifted apart.’
Martha now said something to him and he turned to answer her, leaving Flora alone for a moment while Matt talked to Didi on his other side. Would she and Hugo still be together if they had not had children so soon? she wondered. They’d both always wanted them, but in truth they probably would have preferred to wait a couple of years. They could have got to know each other really well, had plenty of time and energy to make love, hung about together before having to settle down. If they had had more time together, just being the two of them, would they be such strangers now without them?
‘So what’s Xavier up to?’ There was a sudden lull in the conversation, so everyone heard Hugo’s question. Flora strained to hear the answer while pretending not to.
‘Oh, he went out with some people he met at the beach,’ Sylvia said. ‘His son is coming tomorrow, so he said it was his last night of freedom.’ She laughed. ‘Didn’t you see him chatting up that beauty at the beach?’
‘I did. Trust Xavier, lucky fellow,’ Ben said, good naturedly.
Flora forced a laugh though she felt unreasonably jealous. They had only known each other that one summer, long gone. It had been exciting to see him again and her body was yearning for love, but it was twenty years too late.
They heard a car stopping outside the gate. Her heart lifted. Xavier was back and it was barely nine o’ clock. He might even want dinner.
Although they were in the garden at the back, all the doors were open and through the window of the main big room that ran from the back to the front of the villa, they saw a woman walking across the lawn, towing a bright yellow suitcase behind her.
With a shock, Flora realised that it must be Alegria – not the dumpy, shy girl she remembered, but a lovely, poised young woman, slender with blonde hair falling to her shoulders.
‘Hi everyone, don’t let me stop you eating but I hope there’s some supper for me. I’m starving.’
11
After a second’s hesitation Susie got up and hugged her niece. Matt took out his wallet.
‘So good to see you Alegria. You’re in luck. Xavier is having supper out, so you can eat his share. What do you owe the taxi?’
‘Nothing, I’ve paid,’ Alegria said, with a touch of pride. ‘I’ve been working, remember.’
‘Of course, well done,’ Matt said rather awkwardly, shoving his wallet back into his pocket. ‘Well, good to see you. You know Hugo and Flora and this is Didi and her partner, Tony.’
‘Hugo,’ Alegria said, going over to hug him. Flora saw how his eyes lingered on her, holding her a little too long, as if he wished she was one of his daughters. Alegria turned to her. ‘Flora, great to see you, are the girls here?’
‘No, they are at university in the US.’
‘Wow, both of them?’ Alegria said. ‘They were always clever, not like me who failed everything, couldn’t stand exams,’ she said cheerfully.
Flora was amazed by the change in Alegria. What had happened? If she’d been told that poor little Alegria, pushed from parents, to aunt, to yet another boarding school, could have turned out so confident and glamorous, she’d never have believed it.
She saw Hugo staring at Alegria incredulously, while the others plied her with questions.
‘I was in Rome, working for a top designer,’ she said between mouthfuls. ‘Mum got me the job, to get me out of the way, as usual.’ She smiled, though Flora saw the sudden dart of pain in her eyes. ‘I’m hopeless at exams, so she thought I’d better go straight into work.
‘I’m glad now because I can do what I like, and can find other jobs
in London, or possibly Paris, or Rome again. I love earning money, being independent at last.’ she finished.
‘Don’t we all?’ Martha said. ‘Good on you, Alegria. I don’t think university is for everyone.’
Watching him, Flora saw Hugo wince at Martha’s remark. He darted a pained look in her direction, and she knew he felt hurt at Martha’s remark as if it somehow belittled their daughters’ success at getting into their university.
After supper, Susie and Flora helped Alegria settle in to the little summerhouse in the garden. There was a shower and loo by the pool, so she had everything she needed.
‘Hope there are no weirdo’s creeping in from the road at night,’ Alegria said to Susie, as they came back to join the others sitting out under the stars.
‘Course not, you used to sleep here as a child, don’t you remember?’ Susie smiled at her. ‘It’s all quiet here, no one comes this way at night.’
It was almost midnight when everyone turned in for bed. Flora said to Hugo, ‘Who’d have believed there’d be such a transformation in Alegria? We… well certainly Susie, was worried that after she’d left school, she’d career around out of control, but she’s turned into such a confident, lovely woman.’
She was sitting on the bed undoing her sandals. She looked up at Hugo, who was half undressed and silent, hanging up his jacket with exaggerated care.
‘Well, say something. Weren’t you surprised to see how she’s turned out?’ She heard the slight edge of irritation to her voice, but couldn’t he talk, have a conversation with her as they used to before their girls left home?
‘I am surprised,’ he said wearily. ‘She had a dreadful time, not really belonging anywhere, going to boarding school after boarding school and yet…’ His voice tailed off. He avoided her gaze and went into the shower room and closed the door behind him.
She knew what he couldn’t bring himself to say. They had given up their lives for their girls, going without so they could pay for nice holidays, creating a home full of love and support. Their girls had done well and on graduating from Pennsylvania University they would have a huge range of career choices. While poor, unfortunate Alegria, with her difficult childhood and so hopeless at school, was now, at eighteen, standing on her own feet, earning money, determined to make a mark in the fashion world.
A painful thought nudged her. Had she and Hugo done too much for their girls at the expense of their marriage? Perhaps their daughters had felt suffocated by their love and were thankful to escape.
A last thought later pushed into her mind as she slipped into a troubled sleep. It was long past midnight and Xavier had not returned to the villa. The image of him talking to that beautiful woman on the beach loomed up to taunt her. But a sterner internal voice chastised her. He was free, an adult. Where he spent the night and with whom was nothing to do with her at all.
12
Xavier slept badly. He’d stayed out too late and drunk and eaten too much and he had a headache. It had been a good evening with delicious food and wine and congenial people, the last chance he’d have for some time to spend an evening out before Laurie arrived.
He got up gingerly and went and stood under a cold shower, shocking his body into life. He loved his son but although he’d moved to London to be closer to him, he didn’t see him enough. He’d been looking forward to the three weeks they would spend together, just the two of them, later in September. But now that Darcy’s father had been taken ill, she must go to Spain to be with him.
He’d always liked his father-in-law, Mike; it was Darcy’s mother, Naomi, he couldn’t stand. Mike and Naomi had divorced long before he met Darcy and he often wondered how they had got together in the first place. Naomi was a terrible snob, not that, as far as he knew, she had any reason to be. She certainly thought her daughter should have married into the aristocracy, perhaps even the royal family, not to a man from a normal family and half French.
Darcy was not at all like that; she was fun, warm like her father, whom she adored. He’d retired and gone to live full time in Spain with Caitlin, his long-time lover. He must be quite ill for Darcy to have to leave the expensive house her mother had rented in Cornwall.
Somehow, even with their adored son, things hadn’t worked out between him and Darcy. True, he was away often on business, and Darcy hated being alone, especially in the evenings and weekends when she wasn’t working. She loved Laurie and was a good mother, but they also had a nanny during the week leaving Darcy free to go out, when one thing would lead to another, namely other men’s beds. She still loved him, she said, and he loved her, but not enough for them to live together, even for the sake of their son.
He looked at his watch. It was barely seven o’clock, it was hot in his room and he decided to have a swim in the pool to clear his head. The light was soft and clear. He put his towel on the low wall which encircled the pool area and dived into the sparkling, turquoise water and swam vigorously up to the end. He paused there for a moment before turning back and saw a young woman, her hair all mussed up and her face heavy with sleep, coming out of the summerhouse.
‘You woke me up,’ she grumbled half-heartedly.
‘Sorry… I didn’t know… of course you must be Alegria.’ He’d helped Susie set up her bed in the summerhouse. ‘Sorry if I disturbed you, I forgot you might be here. What time did you arrive?’
‘Supper time.’ She frowned at him. ‘I know you, but I can’t remember your name, sorry.’ She threw him a smile, her eyes appraising him.
She’d turned into a beauty, he thought, and a confident one. He had a vague memory of a small, pale girl hanging round Susie and Matt’s house in Cambridge during school holidays.
‘Xavier Faraday,’ he said. ‘I met you a few times at your aunt’s house.’
‘Of course.’ She sashayed over and sat on the low wall beside his espadrilles and towel; the sunbeds were not yet out. ‘I met so many people, kind people who looked after me instead of my useless parents, but now I’m eighteen, thank God, and can do what I like.’ Her expression challenged him.
‘I suppose you can,’ he said, getting out of the pool with rivulets of water running down his body. He picked up his towel and wrapped it round himself. ‘So, how long are you staying here?’ He sat down further along the wall and faced her, amazed at the change in her.
She shrugged. ‘Haven’t thought. I’ve been working flat out in Rome in a fashion house, but I think I’d like to have a go at the photography side too. Susie could help me. You know how great her pictures are.’
‘Sounds good,’ he said, relieved to see Susie and Martha coming out of the villa towards them.
‘Morning, hope you slept well, Alegria,’ Susie said.
‘I did. I was woken up by Xavier swimming… but no…’ she laughed as he started to apologise. ‘I don’t mind, it’s good to be up.’
Sylvia appeared with a mug of coffee, saying that she and Martha were off to the market, as it was their turn to cater for them all today.
‘It must be Ben’s and my turn soon,’ Xavier said. ‘Perhaps tomorrow?’
‘There’s a list in the kitchen, check there,’ Susie said. ‘When are you going to collect Laurie?’
He glanced at his watch. ‘I must leave in an hour,’ he said, feeling a twinge of disquiet. He hoped his son was all right flying alone, with his mother gone, her mind perhaps distracted by concern for her beloved father.
He’d flown alone himself, from the UK to France with Chantal, his then eight year old sister, at the age of six, so Laurie, at almost seven, should be fine, though with his parents’ split he seemed young for his age and this was his first time travelling alone, nor did he have a sister as a travel companion. He imagined Darcy putting him in the charge of a stewardess, slightly panicky, her feelings fuelled by her concern for her father.
Seeing how confident Alegria had turned out after her dysfunctional upbringing gave Xavier hope for Laurie, but then Susie and Matt had done so much over the years to give her
a stable home.
Susie, who’d gone back inside, now appeared with a tray of mugs and a pot of coffee and Alegria jumped up to get some.
‘Do you want a cup, Xavier?’ She smiled coquettishly at him.
‘Thank you, just black.’ He didn’t look at her. In his mind she was still a teenage girl and he wanted to avoid the possibility of her flirting with him.
Susie sat down on the wall beside him, asking what time Laurie’s flight got in. Didi, Tony and Ben soon joined them in the garden. Tony pulled out the sunbeds and chairs so they could sit down. Martha, who’d gone down the lane to the boulangerie, appeared with newly baked croissants and Sylvia brought out a basket of fresh fruit from the villa.
Xavier ate breakfast still wrapped in his towel, half waiting for Flora to join them though it was still early. She did not appear and he found himself wondering if she and Hugo were making love. It was a time he liked for lovemaking, first thing in the morning, but he knew he must not torture himself with such thoughts. Flora was married and her life with Hugo was none of his business. He turned his thoughts back to Laurie and got up to go to his room to change before leaving for the airport to fetch his son.
He arrived at the airport with time to spare, anxious now, having not seen his son for two months.
He studied the board. The times of flights flickered up and down and there was Laurie’s from London, just landed. He waited by the exit as people started to come out, holidaymakers weighed down with luggage, some already dressed for the beach. It amazed him how some of the British – mostly men – dressed in a hot country. Ancient shorts, vest like tops and often a silly hat, raucous and loud as they hit the bars after burning beetroot red in the sun. It was strange because these same men probably dressed well back home.
Then there he was, his son, walking beside an airline attendant. He seemed so small, nervous, his eyes searching the crowd waiting in Arrivals. He appeared fearful, as if afraid his father would not be there. Xavier experienced a pang of terror, imagining his son’s panic if he’d been late.